A 'contract with the family.' - includes related information on the Contract with the American Family

Christian Century, May 24, 1995

AFTER EMBRACING the Republicans' Contract with America, the Christian Coalition unveiled a contract of its own on Capitol Hill May 17--the "Contract with the American Family." The ten-point plan calls for a constitutional amendment to allow religious expression in schools and other public places; elimination of the federal Department of Education and transfer of most of its money to local school boards; tuition tax credits; and limits on late-term abortions. "This is not a Christian agenda. It is

not a Republican agenda. It is not a special-interest agenda," declared Ralph Reed, executive director of the 1.6-million-member coalition. "It is a pro-family agenda, and it is supported by the vast majority of American people, Republican and Democrat, Christian and jew, Protestant and Catholic, black and white."

Reed introduced the 39-page plan with representatives of some of the coalition's 50 state chapters standing behind him. Their numbers underscored the growth of the organization, which began with the remnants of coalition founder and religious broadcaster Pat Robertson's failed 1988 presidential campaign.

Reed maintained that this new contract is not an ultimatum. "I want to make it clear these are the ten suggestions, not the Ten Commandments, he said. "Our purpose is not to legislate family values. It is to ensure that Washington values families." The proposals were welcomed by such Republican luminaries as Senator Phil Gramm (R., Tex.), who is seeking the GOP presidential nomination, and House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R., Ga.). "What we have is a ten-point program that is broad-based, and I think when the American people look at it, they're going to be for it," Gramm said.

Gingrich, whom Reed introduced as "a good friend of ours and of the American family," acknowledged the coalition's help in creating the Republican sweep of Congress in November. "Here are some key values that matter the most to most Americans," Gingrich said. "We are committed to keeping our faith with the people who helped with the Contract with America."

While some members of Congress lined up to support Reed and his coalition, other legislators spoke out against it. Pat Schroeder (D., Colo.), for example, called it "a sharp political grab for power." Some organizations were also ready to criticize. "The Contract with the American Family is more accurately called `A Contract with Some of America's Families,'" declared the American Jewish Congress. "Prayer in the schools, vouchers, restricting abortions--these are not even Band-Aids, not even a beginning response, to the crisis that confronts American families."

The coalition's contract could eventually lead to demands for an "officially Christian America," warned Barry Lynn, executive director of Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "It's a sad day in American politics when a TV preacher's political front group dictates the agenda for the U.S. Congress," Lynn told a news conference attended by representatives of more than a dozen religious groups opposing key elements of the contract. "The real contract with American families is the Constitution, and we don't need to amend it or do an end-run around it."

Reed met with Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole immediately after announcing the coalition's contract. But he distanced the contract from the 1996 presidential campaign. "We are not specifically seeking the endorsement of presidential candidates," Reed said. He also rejected criticism that the coalition's proposed Religious Equality Amendment constitutes an attempt to overturn the Supreme Court ruling declaring organized prayer unconstitutional in public schools. The coalition wants to replace the three-part "Lemon test," used since 1973 to determine whether activities violate the constitutional ban on establishing religion. "We think it has been used to marginalize the expression of faith in the public square," argued Reed.

His organization doesn't claim to speak for "every Christian, every jew or any other person of faith," Reed said, but rather for those with religious experience who have conservative values. He said he does not equate the contract's provisions with scripture. "We don't believe that any child of any faith ... should be required to say a prayer in which they do not believe. We do believe ... that a child does not shed their right to the First Amendment guarantee of free speech when their shadow crosses the threshold of a schoolhouse."

Some observers have questioned whether the coalition is sincere in its apparent moderation. The contract unveiled by Reed--the product of careful attention to polling statistics and focus-group analysis--asks for no more than limits on abortion. It says nothing about gay and lesbian rights, a matter of heated; condemnatory rhetoric among the coalition's Religious Right constituents. For Pat Robertson, the coalition's mentor, founder and president, and for his supporters, a Christian social agenda has meant a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion; reversal of the 1962 and 1963 Supreme Court decisions banning state-sponsored prayer and Bible reading in the public schools; blocking the feminist and homosexual rights "agenda"; outlawing pornography; and restoring "Judeo-Christian" values to the center of American culture.