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Dressing up the right
by John King
AP Political Writer
(AP) — Jerry Falwell’s most recent fund
raising letter is a throwback to his Moral Majority’s
heyday, an emotional call for Christians to battle
President Clinton and “his pro-homosexual ad
ministration." But is Falwell’s stick-to-basics ap
proach the correct course for the Christian right
movement at this time of transition?
That question is the subject of a polite but
significant debate among activists trying to chart
the future of a movement that has lost its access to
the White House but found growing influence in
local politics. This year, fighting the “gay agenda”
is a major Christian right target, the subject of
lobbying efforts in Washington and in more than
a dozen states. Some religious conservative leaders
believe such efforts are not enough to help the
movement improve its image and expand its politi
cal base.
“The pro-family movement has limited its
effectiveness by concentrating disproportionately
on issues such as abortion and homosexuality,”
Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed
wrote recently in the conservative Heritage
Foundation’s Policy Review.
“These are vital moral issues and must remain
an important part of our message. To win at the
ballot box and in the court of public opinion,
however, the pro-family movement must speak to
the concerns of average voters in the areas of taxes,
crime, government waste, health care and financial
security.”
Reed also is trying for the first time to recruit
constituencies that traditionally have been wary of
religious conservatives, such as minorities and
members of the larger, mainstream denomina
tional churches that have been reluctant to mix
religion and politics. This nascent effort has pro
voked an internal debate among religious conser
vative leaders over whether the cost of broader
acceptance — some flexibility on abortion, for
example — is worth the price.
Reed acknowledges the risk that religious
conservatives will be reluctant to support a politi
cal movement that diversifies from its cultural
base. But in his view, a broader focus will attract
members of mote traditional Protestant denomi
nations, Catholics and conservative Jews, as well as
blacks, Hispanics and Asian-Americans. Catholics
now constitute about 10 percent of the coalition’s
membership and racial minorities 5 percent —
The Vouinteer and Non profit Voice of the Cat &
figures Reed hopes to double through a new out
reach program that includes printing 1994 voter
guides in English, Spanish and Asian languages
and distributing them in churches not now associ
ated with the Christian right.
His 1994 election agenda includes targeting
20 congressional districts with at least 20 percent
minority voters and running more ads in black
radio markets, mostly in Southern states.
“I’m not trying to get 50 percent of the minor
ity vote,” Reed said in a recent interview. “But if 1
can peel off 20 to 30 percent of that vote, I can
change the country.”
Reed’s model is, strangely enough, the femi
nist movement, which realized in the 1970s that
focusing too much on the Equal Rights Amend
ment drive had undercut its appeal. By adding
comparable pay and other issues to their agenda,
“feminists gave their movement a more main
stream appeal,” Reed said. “I think we have to do
the same thing.”
Some critics believe Reed’s approach is a
rhetorical ruse to answer charges the religious right
is intolerant and obsessed with cultural issues. But
they don’t underestimate Reed’s political skills. “It
speaks to his desire to broaden the base by tapping
into the anti-tax, anti-govemment themes of Ross
Perot types,” said Matt Freeman, research director
for the liberal People for the American Way. Some
(AP) — The Colorado Springs man who
helped author the state’s anti-gay rights law is
selling an “action kit," a $49.95 how-to guide for
mountingsuchcampaigns. Tony Marco, co-founder
of Colorado for Family Values and self-described
architect of Amendment 2, announced the start of
a national direct-mail and advertising campaign
this week. (Marco had left the CFV late in 1992
over religious differences.)
Letters will be sent to people on mailing lists
compiled by Legacy Communications, a conserva
tive direct-mail marketing firm based in Franklin,
Tenn., Marco said. Legacy has published other
paperback books about the struggle against gay
rights and a history-critique of Planned Parent
hood, Marco said. The letters will introduce an
“action kit" that includes a white paper written by
Marco called “Special Class Protections for Gays: A
Question of Orientation and Consequences.”
religious conservatives also are wary of Reed’s
approach. They worry that it is a first step on a path
of compromise that will cost the movement its
soul. Some anti-abortion leaders are angered at
Christian Coalition and other groups that have
backed Republican candidates who support abor
tion rights. In several states, including Georgia and
Pennsylvania, for example, the Christian Coalition
helped candidates who favored some abortion
rights.
Angered by the policies of Presiderit Clinton,
and emboldened by Colorado’s passage of an anti-gay
rights initiative last year, the Christian right is taking
the fight against “the homosexual agenda” into a
dozen states with an eye on putting Colorado-style
initiatives on 1994 ballots in states such as Arizona,
California, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Washington
and Oregon. Placing such an emphasis on the homo
sexuality initiatives could frustrate attempts to give
the movement a softer, more mairistream image. But
Reed is determined to make the effort. Recently, Reed
simultaneously spent $250,000 of coalition money
on ads supporting the Hyde Amendment banning
federal funding of most abortions and an additional
$150,000 on a more secular issue — opposition to
Clinton’s economic package.
“I’m not saying that we should drop the social
and moral issues,” he said. “But the entire agenda is
strengthened if you balance it with other issues.”T
It outlines the “special rights” and “protecled-
class status" arguments that persuaded Colorado
voters to adopt Amendment 2 in November, and
includes arguments against gays in the military.
Also included in the kit: a book called “Legis
lating Immorality” by Dr. George Grant; a two-
hour videotaped interview of Marco by Grant; and
a limited subscription to The Lambda Report, a
newsletter published by The Report, the conserva
tive church-based California group that produced
a controversial videotape called “The Gay Agenda."
Marco also plans to have his white paper
available by computer network, he said.
Robert Bray, director of the National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force’s Fight the Right office, said
Marco’s action kit “is to grassroots America what
snake oil is to traveling salesmen.” The task force,
he said, has assembled a similar kit for groups
interested in fighting Colorado-style initiatives^
Lesbian Community
Anti-gay rights’action kit’
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