Religious Right

Although it is still early, the current crop of candidates running for next year’s Republican nomination for president are almost all treating the Religious Right as their first and most important constituency. And that goes beyond the familiar names of right-wing leaders the press likes to call “kingmakers” – such as Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and Jerry Falwell. At this stage, candidates are vying for the attentions of even lesser known radical activists.

This week, four candidates made the pilgrimage to Orlando, Florida for the National Religious Broadcasters convention. Sen. John McCain, who has been working overtime to reach across bridges he burned in 2000, and former Gov. Mitt Romney, who has been struggling to regain the Right’s favor after revelations of past moderation, both held private meetings with far-right activists, and it appears the meetings bore fruit.

Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, who recently organized a protest when House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (a Catholic) attended a Mass to remember the children of Darfur, said McCain “helped himself in that room tremendously today.” The National Right to Life Committee issued a statement from their exhibit booth at the convention to note their approval on McCain’s recent about-face on Roe v. Wade. And Rev. Rob Schenck, head of the National Clergy Council and Faith and Action (with his twin brother Paul), bragged about his face time with the candidates and how pleased he was with their performances:

I was able to get a read of these two men away from the cameras, the reporters and rah-rah audiences. These were honest, candid dialogues on critically important aspects of Governor Romney's and Senator McCain's personal and political principles. We got a pretty good assessment of where they are on the key issues for traditional Christians and particularly for Evangelicals. I was impressed by both, but especially Mitt Romney.

Schenck – who once walked out on a Billy Graham crusade after the famous evangelist was introduced by Bill Clinton and who implied that only Christians who are “moral failures” care about peace and justice -- cited the same narrow platform as he did in a warning to presidential hopefuls almost a year ago: abortion, gay marriage, and “the public acknowledgement of God.”

Schenck and Mahoney have worked together on a number of creative projects such as organizing a protest (featuring another presidential candidate, Sam Brownback) over the mythical “War on Christmas” and “consecrating” the seats in the Senate hearing room with oil prior to Sam Alito’s confirmation hearing. The pair also attacked “Purpose-Driven Life” author and megachurch pastor Rick Warren for inviting Barack Obama to participate in a global AIDS conference. “Having Senator Barack Obama speak on issues of social justice is like having a segregationist speak on civil rights,” said Mahoney. More recently, Schenck’s National Clergy Council expanded its religious test of Obama with an “examination and debate focused on his faith. Sadly, we will find Mr. Obama's Christianity woefully deficient.”

So far, no indication that Romney or McCain are at all bothered by their new-found friends’ attacks on the faith of their political opponents.

Christian author, organizer, and Religious Right critic Jim Wallis took to the pages of Time Magazine last week to boldly declare that “The Religious Right's Era Is Over.” According to Wallis:  

In the churches, a combination of deeper compassion and better theology has moved many pastors and congregations away from the partisan politics of the Religious Right … Evangelicals — especially the new generation of pastors and young people — are deserting the Religious Right in droves … [M]any Republicans have had it with the Religious Right … The era of the Religious Right is now past, and it's up to all of us to create a new day.

It’s good news that most Americans – and most Christians -- do not share the political priorities of Religious Right leaders, and religious voters shifted away from GOP candidates in significant numbers in 2006.  But the fact that every GOP presidential candidate is in the process of openly supplicating to Religious Right powerbrokers like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and James Dobson is a sign that it’s probably premature to declare complete victory over a group that remains a core constituency of the Republican Party.

We’ve noted that trend in the past (see, for example, here, here, here, or here). Here are some examples from just the past week:

Washington Post - McCain, Romney Vying for Support Of Conservatives

New York Times - Giuliani Shifts Abortion Speech Gently to Right

Associated Press - McCain Courting Christian Conservatives

MSNBC - The Preacher Primary: GOP Leaders Battle for Support from the Three Kingmakers

Just today, the AP reported that four Republican candidates – John McCain, Mitt Romney, Sam Brownback and Duncan Hunter – all recently traveled to Florida to woo religious broadcasters at their annual convention.  

History shows that Religious Right political leaders don’t just slink away after defeat.  Some of them are holding a Restore America Conference later this week in Oregon, for which they have some blustery big plans:

Evangelical Christians are the largest voting block in America.  The future course of America depends upon them mobilizing 19 million that are eligible, but not even registered to vote.   In 2006, 22 million did not vote, but that is about to change.  The 2nd Annual Restore America Conference, February 23rd and 24th, just outside of Portland, Oregon is gearing up to educate and mobilize 1000 Christian leaders to encourage their constituents to vote and win!

And in early March, a collection of right-wing luminaries will head to Ft. Lauderdale for D. James Kennedy’s annual “Reclaiming America for Christ” conference which will provide "Christians deep within the trenches with a welcome respite from the battle and fuel to carry on" as they receive "training in Christian grassroots action and methods to mobilize churches on moral issue."

Focus on the Family has been a key player in the passage of constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage in a number of states, but when it came to its home state of Colorado, the group (and its affiliate, Focus on the Family Action) pulled out all the stops, spending over $900,000 last year to oppose a domestic partnership initiative and pass a separate amendment banning gay marriage. Most of the money went through two groups that Focus helped to create, Coloradans for Marriage and Colorado Family Action.

Now, after the defeat of the partnerships initiative and the passage of the marriage ban, at least one of the front groups is trying to establish a permanent presence in the state as a satellite “family policy council.”

Now Colorado Family Action is getting money from other sources, said President and CEO Jim Pfaff, but he wouldn’t identify them. Organizers have formed the Colorado Family Institute, a related nonprofit that’s one of 37 state Family Policy Councils allied with Focus on the Family.

Pfaff, a former staffer at Focus, outlined an agenda that spans the familiar touchstones of the Religious Right: “protecting life from conception until natural death, protecting religious liberty, working to point out examples of judicial activism and help define the proper role of the courts, and upholding the principle that parents are the primary educators of their children.” It remains to be seen whether the group will have much of a half-life beyond the high-profile fight against domestic partnerships and the substantial financial support from Focus on the Family that went with it.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) worked closely with the Religious Right over the last few years leading up to his re-election in November. He appeared at “Patriot Pastor” rallies organized by the Texas Restoration Project and held the ceremonial signing of a ban on same-sex marriage at a church, surrounded by Rod Parsley, Tony Perkins, and Texas Restoration Project leader Laurence White, who promised to register 300,000 voters. Today, however, the Religious Right is not happy with their man in Austin.

Following a recommendation by the Centers for Disease Control, a number of states have implemented or are considering vaccinating girls attending public school against HPV, a virus that causes 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. While vaccinations against measles, mumps, and tetanus are not controversial, the Religious Right sees HPV differently: It is sexually transmitted. The Family Research Council’s Bridget Maher warned that young women may see vaccination “as a licence to engage in premarital sex,” and former Focus on the Family advisor Reginald Finger said that marketing the vaccine “would undermine the abstinence-only message.”

So when Perry signed an order requiring incoming sixth-grade girls to get vaccinated, many on the Right reacted immediately. A spokesman for Concerned Women for America called it “outrageous assault on girls and their parents” that “forces little girls to be shot with a sex virus vaccine.” Texas Eagle Forum’s Cathie Adams declared, “He's replacing parents' rights with state's rights.” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins wrote that Perry “usurped the rights of parents and the legislature” and warned that “political actions have consequences.”

And Rick Scarborough, an early organizer of the kind of “Patriot Pastor” network that aided Perry’s re-election – and of whom Perry has said that “One hundred years from now” people will say “the great revival of the early 21st Century” began “with people like Rick Scarborough” – is now calling Perry an “erstwhile friend,” warning that “At time when increasing numbers of pastors and conservative Christians are becoming politically active in Texas, this unfortunate move by an erstwhile friend is a serious setback.” Meanwhile, activists are pushing the anti-vaccine message out to the same groups that Perry’s religious-right campaigning worked to mobilize in 2005-6.

Perry so far has stood firm, saying that “Providing the HPV vaccine doesn’t promote sexual promiscuity any more than providing the Hepatitis B vaccine promotes drug use.” And in fact, while right-wing groups mobilize their grassroots to oppose the vaccine, closer examination reveals that they have a difficult time denying its potential to save lives. Going against the public-health theory that mass vaccinations can eradicate the disease, groups like FRC and Focus on the Family take the position that the vaccine should be available but not mandatory, formulating the issue in terms of “parents’ rights.” “[M]oms and dads should make the decision about their kids' health without state coercion,” writes Perkins. And even if it is optional, as in Texas, it should be “opt-in” rather than “opt-out,” according to Perkins.

But the Religious Right’s strong reaction against “forc[ing] little girls to be shot with a sex virus vaccine” leaves little room in the debate for details about which form parents have to fill out to preserve so-called “parents’ rights.” Instead, the Right’s abstinence-only refrain makes it sound like Texas is requiring girls to carry condoms, as one right-wing group put it. The emphasis on abstinence to the point of excluding other information is already dangerous policy when it comes to sex ed, but it’s doubly so when it comes at the direct cost of passing up a life-saving cure – especially when many on the Right acknowledge that abstinence might not be enough. Vaccination would protect not only the 94 percent of women who have sex before marriage, but also those who “practice[] abstinence and fidelity” yet “could be exposed to HPV through sexual assault or marriage to an infected partner,” as FRC’s Sprigg admitted.

It seems as if the various candidates hoping to capture the GOP’s presidential nomination in 2008 are all but tripping over one another as they seek to win over the party’s right-wing base.

For weeks, Gov. Mitt Romney has been not-so-quietly making inroads with the Right, seemingly positioning for a showdown with Sen. Sam Brownback over which candidate can best represent the right-wing agenda as the campaign heats up.   

Adding to the mix is Sen, John McCain, who had been persona non grata for the Religious Right since 2000 when he blasted the Bush campaign for “pandering to the outer reaches of American politics” and labeled Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell “agents of intolerance.”

McCain has since made up with Falwell and has even made overtures to James Dobson, after Dobson said he would not support him.  In fact, McCain’s attempt to ingratiate himself to the GOP’s base has progressed to the point where he is openly bragging about it:

Sen. John McCain said Monday that he has tried to mend fences with conservative evangelicals in Texas and elsewhere as he seeks the Republican nomination for president.

"I'm very pleased with the relationship I have with many Christian conservatives, and I think many of them would consider me favorably," Mr. McCain said Tuesday during a Dallas visit.

The Arizona Republican told The Dallas Morning News that he has "established a very good relationship" with the Rev. Jerry Falwell and has reached out to Richard Land, a one-time Criswell College professor who heads the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

In Texas, Mr. McCain said, he has met with San Antonio evangelist John Hagee to express a shared "commitment to the state of Israel."

During the 2000 presidential race, Mr. McCain criticized Christian conservative leaders, costing him key support among one of the GOP's most reliable voter groups. This time, he is taking care to cultivate support among Christian conservatives as he seeks the Republican nomination.

"They are a very important part of our party," said Mr. McCain. He added, "There are other parts of our party that are important as well."

This is exactly the opposite of what McCain said when he ran for president seven years ago:

I recognize and celebrate that our country is founded upon Judeo- Christian values, and I have pledged my life to defend America and all her values, the values that have made us the noblest experiment in history. But political intolerance by any political party is neither a Judeo-Christian nor an American value. The political tactics of division and slander are not our values, they are corrupting influences on religion and politics, and those who practice them in the name of religion or in the name of the Republican Party or in the name of America shame our faith, our party and our country.

But in addition to the obvious hypocrisy of all of this, it should be asked just what Sen. McCain is doing meeting with John Hagee?”   

Kansas Republicans have selected Kris Kobach, a law professor and anti-immigrant activist allied with the Religious Right, to be their state party chairman, widening the gap between GOP moderates and the Right that has already led some to leave the party and run as Democrats, including the current lieutenant governor and attorney general.

Kobach first made headlines shortly after September 11, 2001, when he played a leading role defining immigration policy under Attorney General John Ashcroft; Kobach was instrumental in implementing a mass registration and questioning of “enemy aliens” (as the World War II-era law put it) – predominantly legal immigrants and visitors from Muslim countries. He moved back to the Kansas City suburbs in 2003 to run for Congress, while at the same time launching lawsuits in Kansas and California against laws granting in-state college tuition to undocumented immigrants who live in the state, attended U.S. high schools, and are pursuing citizenship.

During his unsuccessful congressional campaign, he came under fire from his own party for extreme rhetoric during the GOP primary, and was criticized for special appearances as a “constitutional expert” in churches in the midst of campaigning, such as at several “pastors’ policy briefings” with Jerry Falwell in the weeks leading up to the general election.

Since then, Kobach has continued his campaign against in-state college tuition for immigrants and against the federal DREAM Act. He also took part in a handful of immigration hearings last year held by House Republicans who were pushing their draconian enforcement bill. Most recently, he joined the legal defense of local anti-immigrant ordinances in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and Valley Park, Missouri.