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Politically Incorrect: The Emerging Faith Factor in Public Life. - book reviews

National Review, Dec 5, 1994 by James Hitchcock

FEW POLITICAL movements have been prematurely counted out as often as the "religious Right," most of the predictions of whose demise are wishful thinking on the part of supposedly objective analysts. A conference sponsored by the Ethics and Public Policy Center--whose proceedings constitute Disciples and Democracy, edited by Michael Cromartie--predicted a hearty future for the movement. However, a book by Ralph Reed, perhaps the most prominent figure on the religious Right, gives one reason to wonder.

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Highlights of the Cromartie volume include a paper by a consortium of political scientists carefully analyzing the 1992 election returns. The group concludes that on balance the abortion issue, and the religious Right generally, helped George Bush, even though many Evangelicals stayed home on election day. Fred Barnes offers a sensible and trenchant account of media attitudes toward the movement and suggests hopefully that at least some reporters now realize they have been unfair. George Weigel, the EPPC's president, makes his own balanced assessment, in particular warning the movement not to lose its soul in the political thicket. Each paper is followed by several comments, most from people sympathetic to the movement, a few from people classifiable as skeptics.

The first paper in the volume is by Mr. Reed, director of the Christian Coalition, a political organization established by Pat Robertson. Mr. Reed's own book is an expanded version of that paper. Ironically, his paper is the only one in the collection that causes me misgivings, although not for the reasons that perhaps might be expected, such as the charge that the movement is fanatical and inept.

By now, conservative Christians have learned the obvious lessons about public image and about the need to present their message in ways that might persuade non-believers. Indeed, they have become so conscious of those obligations that Mr. Weigel can aptly warn that "civility is the last refuge of the moral coward."

Mr. Reed sets out to show that the religious Right has been treated shabbily in the media, indeed that it is far more sinned against than sinning; to demonstrate that its positions are wholly in harmony with mainstream American society; to urge on his fellows the obligation to seek allies outside their ranks; and to indicate the directions in which the movement should now go. In my judgment he is successful in all but the last.

As the political scientist James C. Green points out in Disciples and Democracy, the religious Right is indispensable to the Republican Party, but in itself is not sufficient to guarantee Republican victories. In part Mr. Reed seeks to resolve that dilemma by showing the movement how to form broader coalitions. Thus he readily proposes as integral elements in its agenda issues ranging from the line-item veto and a balanced-budget amendment to lower taxes and term limits, showing that each of these causes has broad citizen support.

But, as Mr. Weigel and others point out in the EPPC symposium, it is difficult to find explicit religious warrant for the conservative (or liberal) position on any of those issues. There may be excellent secular reasons for supporting all of them, but what makes them Christian?

Abortion has been the single most effective issue in galvanizing the religiously conservative into political action. Yet Mr. Reed's solution to the problem of abortion is a return to states' rights. When one critic (at the EPPC symposium) points out that this would merely give each state the right to enact Roe v. Wade, Mr. Reed's only response is to say he abhors that court decision, which is no answer at all. He goes on to argue that every state should have the right to outlaw abortion--except in cases of rape, incest, and when the life of the mother is endangered. But any sophisticated student of the issue knows that such legislated exceptions could be used to reduce the force of all restrictions, perhaps to the point of meaninglessness. And why does Mr. Reed implicitly deny to any state the right to outlaw abortion completely?

He also, in an oddly triumphant mood, points out that exit polls in 1992 seemed to show that self-described "born-again" Christians did not rate abortion high among their priorities, and he dismisses impressions to the contrary as merely a "stereotype." But if true, such polls suggest a massive moral and educational failure on the part of the churches, not something to justify complacent acquiescence by the Christian Coalition.

But there may be method in this seeming madness. Mr. Green and his colleagues show the crucial importance of the Perot vote in defeating George Bush in 1992. Since Perot voters tend to be economic conservatives who are nonetheless as liberal on the social issues as are die-hard Democrats, it would be unnatural if Republican strategists were not even now salivating over those votes and wondering how to corral them without losing the Evangelicals. Perhaps Mr. Reed's version of the religious Right seeks to present a winning formula to attract just those voters: reaffirming the characteristically religious issues but subordinating them to economic issues in the hope that many Perot supporters will choose to overlook the specifically Christian elements in the Coalition.

Politically Incorrect: The Emerging Faith Factor in Public Life. - book reviews

National Review, Dec 5, 1994 by James Hitchcock

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