Pat's partisan ploy

Church & State, Nov 1999 by Boston, Rob

TV Preacher Robertson Has Given His Blessing

To GOP Presidential Front Runner George W Bush, But Will His

Increasingly Troubled Christian Coalition Flock Say Amen?

As far as TV preacher Pat Robertson is concerned, pastors who reject political activity in their churches aren't just wrong, they're following the advice of a Nazi. 'The idea that churches should stay

out of politics comes from Hitler;' Robertson told members and supporters of his Christian Coalition Oct. I in Washington, D.C. "Hitler said the same thing: 'You must prepare people for Heaven. Leave the government to me.' I want to send word to the politicians. We're not going to leave the government to them:'

Asserting that the Christian Coalition is "expanding" and that chapter growth is "exploding," Robertson rejected recent claims that his group is on the ropes. "The Christian Coalition is going to be bigger and more powerful than ever," he vowed. "The Christian Coalition at the beginning of the new millennium has come to the kingdom for a time such as this."

Elsewhere in his kickoff address to the organization's 1999 "Road to Victory" Conference, Robertson said defiantly, "We are back! If we aren't in the field in this coming election, the Republicans are going to lose. I don't think there's any question about it. We will be the margin of victory in the key races:'

Robertson, top Coalition leaders and thousands of group members met in the nation's capital Oct. 1-2 for the organization's 10th annual conference. On the surface, Robertson and his lieutenants worked hard to project the image of a powerful, well oiled political machine with a far-reaching grassroots presence.

By some measures, they were successful. Clearly, top Republicans still view the Coalition as a powerhouse and dare not slight the organization. Over the two-day event, attendees heard speeches by every serious GOP presidential contender except U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who claimed to have had a scheduling conflict, and Pat Buchanan, who is mulling a third-party bid.

But reality kept poking through Robertson's Potemkin Village, and a look below the carefully constructed fagade revealed an organization in considerable turmoil. The turnout this year was down sharply. The past few "Road to Victory" events have attracted 4,000 or more attendees and booked the Washington Hilton Hotel solid. This year, the hotel had enough spare rooms to host two other major events at the same time, and the Coalition's official estimate of 3,500 attendees seemed exaggerated. It looked more like 2,000 to 2,500 at its peak (including a considerable number of teenagers who were bused in from local Christian schools and an international delegation of several dozen people.)

During the main sessions, entire wings of the ballroom sat empty. Some speakers drew sparse crowds at best. By the time Randy Tate, the former CC executive director turned chief Washington lobbyist, spoke at 9:30 p.m. on Friday, the ballroom crowd had dwindled to fewer than 400,

In state caucus and "breakout" sessions that took place on Saturday afternoon, Coalition leaders and activists grumbled about limited resources, low pay and laid-off staff. At one session on political organizing, a man demanded to know when New York was going to get a Coalition director.

During the Pennsylvania caucus, a CC staffer said bluntly, "We're trying to get new life and vitality in the organization" and added that the state affiliate had laid off its entire five-person staff in Harrisburg, leaving it with one part-time employee who had just scraped up enough money to buy a computer. The speaker said the Pennsylvania chapter had tried to work with chapters in Maryland and West Virginia but that both had collapsed.

At the Michigan caucus, several attendees complained that nothing was happening since the state chapter fell apart due to internal divisions. Similar complaints were heard in the Louisiana meeting.

Key presidential primary states also appear poorly organized. During the Iowa gathering, CC chapter head lone Dilley spent about half of the time leading attendees in prayer for a successful reorganization and complaining that ousted Iowa CC leader Bobbie Gobel had commandeered the chapter's resources. A joint caucus was held for New Hampshire and Vermont, but literally no one showed up.

Even South Carolina, once considered a Coalition powerhouse, appears to be in trouble. Lyons Williams, a Mount Pleasant Coalition supporter, told the St. Petersburg Times, "There's not really a Christian Coalition going on now, to speak of."

Robertson has stated publicly that he wants to rejuvenate the Coalition in five key states that President George Bush failed to carry in 1992-New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois. Robertson hopes to use the Coalition to bring these states back into the Republican column in 2000, but in most of them the Coalition appears to be in disarray with chapters that are next to non-existent or in a rebuilding phase.

The number of active state Christian Coalition affiliates nationwide remains in dispute, but it may be as low as the single digits. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Oct. I that the group has strong chapters in fewer than 10 states. Coalition officials refused to confirm the figure, nor would they comment on the Inquirer's report that the organization is "at least $2.5 million in the red" and that IRS filings show that Coalition revenues "fell 34 percent between 1996 and 1997:'