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The Top 10 Power Brokers of the Religious Right |
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by Rob Boston AlterNet Entered into the database on Friday, July 07th, 2006 @ 12:00:43 MST |
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Who they are, what they want, and why these American ayatollahs must
be stopped. The United States is home to dozens of Religious Right groups. Many have small
budgets and focus on state and local issues; the most powerful organizations
conduct nationwide operations, command multi-million-dollar bank accounts and
attract millions of followers. They have disproportionate clout in the halls
of Congress, the White House and the courts, and they wield enormous influence
within the political system. What follows is a list of the nation’s Top Ten Religious Right groups,
as determined by publicly available financial data and political prominence.
Additional information describes the organizations’ leaders, funding and
activities. 1. Christian Broadcasting Network Founder, CEO and Director: The Rev. Pat Robertson 2004 Revenue: $186,482,060 Location: Virginia Beach, Va. Web site: www.cbn.com Overview: The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) airs Robertson’s
“700 Club,” an incendiary daily mix of Pentecostal faith-healing,
lifestyle advice and far-right politics. He calls church-state separation a
“lie of the left” and thinks Christians like him should lead the
world. With his withdrawal from the Christian Coalition in 2001, Robertson uses
CBN as his primary political soapbox. The show, which according to Nielsen Media
Research has 830,000 daily viewers, opens with a “newscast” that
parrots Robertson’s views, often followed by commentary from the televangelist
himself. Top leaders of the conservative movement regularly pontificate on the
program, and Republican members of Congress appear to tout legislative goals. Robertson, 76, has a history of controversy. His 1991 book The New World Order
was based on a host of anti-Semitic sources, although Robertson has always been
pro-Israel for end-times theological reasons. The same book opines that former
presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush may have been unwitting dupes for
Lucifer. On his TV show, Robertson once charged that Methodists, Presbyterians
and Episcopalians represent “the spirit of the Antichrist.” In a
Sept. 13, 2001, diatribe, he asserted that the terrorist attacks on America
happened because of the Supreme Court’s rulings in favor of church-state
separation. In the ensuing controversy, Robertson shifted the blame to Jerry
Falwell, who had been on the show with him. Over the years, the failed presidential candidate has often dallied with brutal
dictators. He celebrated Guatemala’s Pentecostal strongman Efrain Rios
Montt, lauded Frederick Chiluba of Zambia as a model for American politicians,
hunted for gold with Liberia’s Charles Taylor and did business with Mobutu
Sese Seko of Zaire. (He was caught using relief airplanes owned by his charity,
Operation Blessing, to ferry diamond-mining equipment in and out of Zaire.) Despite all of this, Robertson retains a close relationship with the Republican
Party establishment. Operation Blessing has received $1.5 million in taxpayer
funding through the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
CBN is Robertson’s flagship tax-exempt operation. He also founded and
runs the American Center for Law and Justice, a Religious Right legal group
(see below); Operation Blessing and Regent University, a school offering degrees
in law, business, journalism, theology and other disciplines. Added up, Robertson-related
groups brought in $461,475,115 in tax-free donations in 2004. Robertson Quote: “The fact that [the courts] are trying
to ignore this country’s religious heritage is just horrible. They are
taking our religion away from us under the guise of separation of church and
state. There was never any intention that our government would be separate from
God Almighty. Never, never, never in the history of this land did the founders
of this country or those who came after them think that was the case.”
(“700 Club,” July 19, 2005) 2. Focus on the Family Founder and chairman: Dr. James C. Dobson 2005 Revenue: $137,848,520 Location: Colorado Springs, Colo. Web site: www.family.org Overview: Although sometimes mistakenly identified as a minister,
James Dobson is a child psychologist who founded Focus on the Family in 1977.
Dobson, 70, rose to national prominence after the release of his first book,
Dare to Discipline, a controversial volume that lauded corporal punishment for
children at a time when many child-rearing experts were recommending against
it. He came to the attention of aides to President Ronald Reagan and during
the 1980s served on various White House commissions, including a 1985-86 stint
on Attorney General Edwin Meese’s Commission on Pornography. From modest origins, FOF has expanded into a huge ministry with a worldwide
presence. Dobson’s radio broadcasts are heard daily by an estimated five
million Americans. According to its Web site, “Focus on the Family has…become
an international organization with more than 74 different ministries requiring
nearly 1,300 employees” with a “daily broadcast heard on over 6,000
facilities worldwide.” FOF produces 10 magazines that are mailed to 2.3
million people and responds to as many as 55,000 letters per week. The ministry
also produces various DVDs, books, pamphlets and other materials. It has political
affiliates in 32 states that lobby and monitor state legislation. A product of the strict Church of the Nazarene, Dobson is a hardcore fundamentalist
who refers to church-state separation as the “phantom” clause in
the Constitution. He frequently lambastes gays, legal abortion and the teaching
of evolution in public schools. FOF sponsors controversial “Love Won Out”
conferences run by an “ex-gay” ministry that seeks to convert homosexuals
into fundamentalist Christian heterosexuals. Although he poses as an avuncular family counselor, Dobson and his empire
spread Religious Right propaganda and extreme rhetoric. In a 1996 radio
address, he attacked the concept of tolerance, calling it “kind of a watchword
of those who reject the concepts of right and wrong….It’s kind of
a desensitization to evil of all varieties.” Two years before that, an
FOF magazine attacked the Girl Scouts for being agents of “humanism and
radical feminism.” More recently, Dobson lashed out at a pro-tolerance video produced for public
schools that featured popular cartoon characters, among them SpongeBob SquarePants,
because the group that produced it put a “tolerance pledge” on its
Web site that included gays. Dobson has promoted right-wing politics for a long time, but in 2004 he took
the step of forming a more overtly political arm, Focus on the Family Action,
and began personally endorsing candidates for public office. According to information
on the FOF Action Web site, the group collected just under $25 million in 2005. Figures such as these give Dobson major political clout. He regularly threatens
Republicans with retaliation if they do not do his bidding and claims credit
for knocking U.S. Sen. Tom Dashle (D-S.D.) out of the Senate in 2004. Dobson
also issues regular threats to other Democratic senators representing “red
states.” In June of 2004, during a visit to Colorado Springs to speak
at the U.S. Air Force Academy, President George W. Bush took time out for a
private half-hour meeting with Dobson. Dobson Quote: “Do we as Christians need to be liked
so badly that we choose to remain silent in response to the killing of babies,
the spreading of homosexual propaganda to our children, the distribution of
condoms and immoral advice to our teenagers, and the undermining of marriage
as an institution? Would Jesus have ignored these wicked activities?... No,
I am convinced that he would be the first to condemn sin in high places, and
I doubt if he would have minced words in making the point.”(Christianity
Today, June 19, 1995) 3. Coral Ridge Ministries Founder and President: The Rev. D. James Kennedy 2005 Revenue: $39,253,882 Location: Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Web site: www.coralridge.org Overview: D. James Kennedy, a former dance instructor who
was converted to fundamentalist Christianity after hearing a sermon on the radio,
founded Coral Ridge Ministries in 1974. Kennedy, pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian
Church (PCA), is now seen on about 600 U.S. television stations on Sunday mornings.
His “Coral Ridge Hour” mixes fundamentalism with strident attacks
on public education, gays, evolution, legal abortion, “secular humanism”
and other Religious Right targets. Kennedy, 75, has a strong presence on radio as well through “Truths that
Transform,” a daily half-hour commentary heard on 744 stations. In addition,
he has authored several books that promote far-right views. Kennedy is a big promoter of the “Christian nation” view of American
history. Every year, his Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, hosts a major
Religious Right conference in Fort Lauderdale. The event attracts a mix of activists
and politicians. In 2006, Arkansas Gov. (and 2008 presidential hopeful) Mike
Huckabee spoke. In 1995, Kennedy decided he wanted a presence in Washington and opened the
Center for Christian Statesmanship. The Center hosts regular events for Capitol
Hill staffers to instruct them in the proper “biblical worldview”
and works closely with far-right GOP lawmakers. Kennedy Quote: “This is our land. This is our world.
This is our heritage, and with God’s help, we shall reclaim this nation
for Jesus Christ. And no power on earth can stop us.” (Character &
Destiny: A Nation in Search of its Soul, 1997) 4. Alliance Defense Fund President, CEO and General Counsel: Alan Sears 2004 Revenue: $17,921,146 Location: Scottsdale, Ariz. Web site: www.alliancedefensefund.org Overview: The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) was founded in 1993
by a coalition of 30 Religious Right leaders, among them James Dobson, D. James
Kennedy, Donald Wildmon and the late Marlin Maddoux and Bill Bright. The original
idea was to create a funding pool that would subsidize the Religious Right’s
courtroom activity, and as its Web site proclaims, “reclaim the legal
system for Jesus Christ.” ADF head Alan Sears served under Reagan-era
Attorney General Edwin Meese, leading the Meese Commission on Pornography. While the ADF still supports lawsuits spearheaded by other groups, it has begun
directly litigating in court as well. The organization also sends intimidating
letters to government officials and public schools, containing thinly veiled
threats to sue unless ADF demands are met. Last year, the group launched a campaign
to derail the alleged “war on Christmas” and bragged that it had
800 attorneys standing by. (In the end, only one lawsuit was filed.) Some ADF cases are filed merely to generate publicity. In 2005, the ADF sued
a public school in California on behalf of a teacher who claimed he had been
ordered to stop using the Declaration of Independence in class because of its
reference to the “Creator.” The ADF arranged for intense media coverage
of the case but quietly dropped the suit once it became obvious the teacher’s
claims were not true. Aside from threatening public schools, the ADF also diverts a lot of money
into opposing same-sex marriage and what it calls the “radical homosexual
agenda.” It also opposes legal abortion and supports cases filed by employees
seeking the right to proselytize on the job. The ADF sponsors regular training for lawyers under its National Litigation
Academy. In exchange for free instruction, “each attorney pledges 450
hours of pro-bono time to the Body of Christ,” says the ADF Web site.
More than 900 lawyers have reportedly participated. The group also sponsors
Blackstone Legal Fellowships where law students “receive intensive training
in Christian worldview principles and how they apply to the study and interpretation
of law.” Sears holds extreme views. He was the first Religious Right figure to assert
that the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants might be gay and has criticized
the 1959 comedy film “Some Like It Hot” for promoting cross-dressing. Sears Quote: “One by one, more and more bricks that
make up the artificial ‘wall of separation’ between church and state
are being removed and Christians are once again being allowed to exercise their
constitutional right to equal access to public facilities and funding.”
(January 2004 e-mail alert) 5. American Family Association Founder and Chairman: The Rev. Donald Wildmon 2005 Revenue: $17,595,352 Location: Tupelo, Miss. Web site: www.afa.net Overview: Donald Wildmon, a Methodist minister, founded the
American Family Association in 1977. Its original name was the National Federation
for Decency. His goal, Wildmon boldly stated, was to rid the television airwaves
of “anti-family” programming, mainly through boycotts and threats
of boycotts of companies that advertised on shows Wildmon dislikes. The AFA has since branched out, engaging in typical Religious Right activities
like attacking gays and bashing evolution. It now includes a lucrative radio
empire with 176 affiliates in 34 states, a fundamentalist Christian news service
and a legal group called the Center for Law and Policy. In 2000, Wildmon launched
a nationwide campaign to urge states to pass laws mandating the display of “In
God We Trust” posters in public schools. Wildmon, 68, has flirted with anti-Semitism, suggesting that Jews control the
entertainment industry. The AFA’s Journal has also reprinted articles
from The Spotlight, an anti-Semitic newspaper. In December, Wildmon said evangelicals
may stop supporting Israel if Jewish leaders don’t stop criticizing the
Religious Right. Wildmon Quote: “Anti-prayer/Anti-Christian groups –
like the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State –
have teamed up with liberal judges on the U.S. Supreme Court and are stripping
away our religious freedom.” (Fall 2000 fund-raising letter) 6. American Center for Law and Justice Founder and President: The Rev. Pat Robertson Chief Counsel: Jay Sekulow 2005 Revenue: $14,485,514 Location: Virginia Beach, Va., and Washington, D.C. Web site: www.aclj.org Overview: The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) was
founded by TV preacher Pat Robertson in 1990, originally as a joint project
of Robertson’s Christian Coalition and Regent University. Closely modeled
on its nemesis, the American Civil Liberties Union – the organization
whose name it mimics – the ACLJ was among the first Religious Right legal
groups in the nation. Headed by Jay Sekulow, a Jewish convert to evangelical
Christianity, the group seeks to roll back Supreme Court rulings upholding church-state
separation, abortion rights and gay rights. Although it claims to be non-partisan, the ACLJ works closely with far-right
Republicans in Congress and even tried to intervene in Bush v. Gore, the Supreme
Court case that awarded the 2000 election to George W. Bush. Sekulow has a close
relationship with Bush, and several media accounts have reported that he is
among a small group that helps select and promote Bush federal court nominees,
including appointments to the Supreme Court. Sekulow, 49, hosts a television show, “ACLJ This Week,” that airs
on several Christian cable networks. (His son Logan hosts a Christian variety
program as well.) In November, Legal Times reported on a series of shady financial deals involving
Sekulow. His salary at the ACLJ, for example, exceeds $600,000 per year and
he is listed as an independent contractor so the figure does not have to appear
on financial disclosure forms. Sekulow maintains control of a separate legal
group, Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism, with annual revenues of $14 million,
that also solicits donations. He often hires family members to help run his
various operations, and the groups he works for have leased or purchased three
homes for him. Sekulow Quote: “The fact is the phrase ‘separation
of church and state’ is not found in the U.S. Constitution, the framework
of our freedom…. Too often, the ‘separation of church and state’
phrase is allowed to take the place of our actual constitutional provisions.”
(Ministry Magazine, Fall 2004) 7. Family Research Council Founder: James C. Dobson President and CEO: Tony Perkins 2005 Revenue: $9,958,115 Location: Washington, D.C. Web site: www.frc.org Overview: The Family Research Council (FRC) was founded by
religious broadcaster James C. Dobson in 1983 to give his views a presence in
the nation’s capital. For many years, the group was merely an arm of Focus
on the Family. In 1992, Dobson severed the official ties, although he says they
remain “spiritually one.” Gary Bauer, a former Reagan administration official, ran FRC for several years.
The group’s current president is Tony Perkins, a 43-year-old former Louisiana
state legislator and anti-abortion activist. The FRC focuses on culture war
issues such as abortion, gay rights and end-of-life care. Recently, it has led
the Religious Right effort to attack the federal courts and strip judges of
their ability to hear church-state cases, sponsoring a series of anti-court
rallies called “Justice Sunday.” Headquartered in a 10-year-old building on the edge of D.C.’s Chinatown,
FRC has become the leading Religious Right group in the nation’s capital
and enjoys a close relationship with the GOP leadership. In March of 2005, Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist and then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay spoke at
an FRC briefing. DeLay made controversial remarks about Terri Schiavo, a Florida
woman in a persistent vegetative state. (Americans United released a tape of
the remarks to the media.) Perkins Quote: “The [Supreme] Court has become increasingly
hostile to Christianity. It represents more of a threat to representative government
than any other force – more than budget deficits, more than terrorism.”
(“Confronting the Judicial War on Faith” conference, March 7, 2005) 8. Jerry Falwell Ministries Founder and Director: The Rev. Jerry Falwell 2005 Revenue: $8,950,480 Location: Lynchburg, Va. Web site: www.falwell.com Overview: Jerry Falwell is perhaps the best-known Religious
Right leader in America today, if only due to his long service to the cause.
His Moral Majority is long gone, but Falwell remains on the scene and continues
to attack church-state separation through several vehicles. Falwell’s empire includes his congregation, the 20,000-member Thomas
Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg; Liberty University; “The Old Time Gospel
Hour” television program; the Liberty Alliance and a legal group headed
by Mat Staver called Liberty Counsel. Although no longer in his prime, Falwell
continues to be a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel and regularly cranks
out fund-raising mail touching on all the standard Religious Right themes. Falwell, 72, has a long track record of intolerant and bizarre pronouncements.
His newspaper labeled the children’s show character Tinky Winky a stalking
horse for the gay-rights movement in 1999. He has asserted that the Antichrist
is alive today and is Jewish. Two days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,
Falwell appeared on Pat Robertson’s “700 Club” and opined
that God had lifted his protection and allowed “the enemies of America
to give us probably what we deserve.” The comments sparked nationwide
revulsion. Despite all of this, Falwell continues to be embraced by leaders of the Republican
Party and makes regular media appearances. Falwell Quote: “Separation of Church and State has long
been the battle cry of civil libertarians wishing to purge our glorious Christian
heritage from our nation’s history. Of course, the term never once appears
in our Constitution and is a modern fabrication of discrimination.” (“Falwell
Fax,” April 10, 1998) 9. Concerned Women for America Founders: Tim and Beverly LaHaye 2005 Revenue: $8,484,108 Location: Washington, D.C. Web site: www.cwfa.org Overview: Formed in 1979 by Beverly and Tim LaHaye, Concerned
Women for America brings “biblical principles into all levels of public
policy.” It was originally intended to counter feminism, including opposing
ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. When that issue died with the failure
of the amendment, CWA focused on opposing communism. Since the collapse of the
Soviet Union, the group has dealt mainly with culture war issues such as abortion,
gay rights, sex education and alleged “secular humanism” in public
schools, pornography and opposition to church-state separation. The group adds
a heavy dose of United Nations-bashing to the list. It claims 500,000 members,
although the figure is probably exaggerated. CWA regularly brings volunteer lobbyists to Capitol Hill under an effort called
“Project 535.” As the group Web site puts it, “These ladies
fearlessly speak with the member or his staff to discuss a particular piece
of pro-family legislation.” Despite its name, men hold some leadership positions at CWA. Mike Mears is
executive director of CWA’s political action committee. Bob Knight heads
the group’s Culture & Family Institute. Wendy Wright, 43, serves as
president. Now in semi-retirement, the LaHayes, now both 80, are less heavily
involved with day-to-day operations. Tim LaHaye has a long history of involvement in far-right politics. He lectured
on behalf of the John Birch Society throughout the 1960s and ‘70s and
later helped found the Council for National Policy. More recently, he is known
to most Americans as the coauthor of the best-selling Left Behind novels. These
apocalyptic potboilers have made LaHaye a very wealthy man. Tim LaHaye Quote: “America’s public education
is purposely designed to eradicate Jesus from the scene and replace Him with
the likes of John Dewey, Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Wundt, Friedrich Nietzsche,
Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, and many more.” (Mind Siege: The Battle for
Truth in the New Millennium, 2001) 10. Traditional Values Coalition Founder and Chairman: The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon 2005 Revenue: $6,389,448 Location: Anaheim, Calif. and Washington, D.C. Web site: www.traditionalvalues.org Overview: The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon founded the Traditional
Values Coalition (TVC) in 1980 primarily to work on issues in California. The
group later branched out, establishing a Washington beachhead. The D.C. office
is run by Sheldon’s daughter, Andrea Lafferty. The organization is a 501(c)(4)
group, which means donations to it are not tax deductible. However, it maintains
a fully tax deductible arm called the TVC Education and Legal Institute. (Sheldon
also runs a small political action committee that in 2006 gave all of its money
to Republican candidates in California.) Sheldon, 72, claims to represent 43,000 churches, but critics dispute that
figure. In the world of the Religious Right, the Presbyterian minister has a
reputation as something of a money-grubbing huckster. He has been criticized
for acting as a front for gambling interests on at least two occasions. An aide
to disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff once called Sheldon “Lucky
Louie” in an e-mail when the two worked together on a lobbying project
on behalf of the legalized gambling industry. Sheldon’s rhetoric is shrill, even by Religious Right standards, and
he makes no efforts to moderate his extreme goals. His daughter is equally florid,
once claiming in a 1999 fund-raising letter that she had confronted a “witch”
who had sown a “spirit of confusion” over the Senate. For many years, Sheldon carved out a niche for TVC by engaging in unrelenting
gay bashing. When other Religious Right groups began moving in on this turf
in the 1990s, Sheldon diversified, ramping up his assaults on church-state separation,
public education and the federal judiciary. None of this has hurt TVC’s standing in Washington. After Bush’s
re-election in 2004, Sheldon held a “Christian” inaugural event
that drew White House strategist Karl Rove, Republican National Committee
Chairman Ken Mehlman and others. Sheldon Quote: “A dangerous Marxist/Leftist/Homosexual/Islamic
coalition has formed – and we’d better be willing to fight it with
everything in our power. These people are playing for keeps. Their hero, Mao
Tse Tung, is estimated to have murdered upwards of 60 million people during
his reign of terror in China. Do we think we can escape such persecution if
we refuse to fight for what is right?” (“The War on Christianity,”
column, TVC Web site, Dec. 13, 2005) Lauren Smith, Americans
United communications assistant, provided research for this article. _____________________________ Read from Looking Glass News Quotes
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