Reed planned to recruit 'pro-family' forces to help Enron, memo says

Church & State, Mar 2002

P E 0 P L E & E V E N T S

Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed promised to mobilize religious groups and "pro-family" activists around the issue of electricity deregulation to help the Enron Corp., The Washington Post reported last month.

Reed, now an Atlanta-based political consultant, received $380,000 to help the Houston-based energy company spread its message on Capitol Hill and build grass-- roots support for energy deregulation. In a seven-page memo obtained by The Post, Reed outlined his plan for helping Enron and explained how he would exploit his ties to conservative religious leaders to spread the group's business goals.

Reed noted that his Century Strategies has a history of activating the "minority community" and the "faith community" to achieve clients' goals. He also mentioned that he had used right-wing talk radio to spread messages to "faith-based activists."

Enron's recent collapse and filing for bankruptcy attracted national headlines. The firm had urged its employees to invest their retirement accounts in company stock. When Enron collapsed, those accounts were wiped out. Enron executives, many of whom saw the collapse coming and dumped their company stock, have enjoyed close relationships with President George W. Bush and influential lawmakers in both parties.

Reed's involvement with the firm apparently came via Karl Rove, a Bush strategist who recommended that Enron give Reed a high-dollar consulting contract in September of 1997. At the time, Reed was being courted by other Republicans considering a run for president, and Rove wanted to find a way to keep Reed loyal to the Bush camp, The New York Times reported.

Anonymous Republican officials told The Times that Rove wanted to keep Reed involved in the Bush campaign but at the same time keep his profile low, since Reed is known for his ties to the Religious Right, an association Bush wanted to avoid.

"It was basically accepted that Enron took care of Ralph," one source told the paper. "It's a smart way to cut campaign costs and tie people up."

Rove denied that he arranged for Reed to get the Enron contract to keep him under wraps, telling The Times, "I'm a big fan of Ralph's, so I'm constantly saying positive things."

After the deal was struck, Reed worked for Enron sporadically from late 1997 until the company's collapse. Now head of the Republican Party of Georgia, Reed refused to talk to The Post about his work for Enron.

In other news about the Religious Right:

* Americans United has protested an ongoing financial relationship between Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore and TV preacher D. James Kennedy. Last month Kennedy announced that he would raise $200,000 to pay for Moore's legal defense in a case filed by Americans United and the Alabama ACLU. The two civil liberties groups are suing Moore, asserting that his display of a two-ton Ten Commandments monument in the Alabama Supreme Court building violates churchstate separation.

Kennedy, a Florida-based televangelist, recently announced that he will also host a summer cruise to Alaska featuring Moore, who will speak on "America's Christian heritage." Prices for the cruise start at $1,200.

Although Moore is best known for his Ten Commandments crusade, he recently captured national headlines for calling homosexuality "abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature, and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature's God upon which this Nation and our laws are predicated."

In the ruling, Moore joined a unanimous court in awarding custody of three teenagers to their father, rebuffing an attempt by the mother, who lives in California and is gay, to become the custodial parent. Moore wrote that the father, whom the mother accused of abuse, should retain custody.

Writing separately in a concurring opinion, Moore quoted several Bible passages to support his view and asserted that homosexuality is a violation of "Natural law," a concept he defined as "the law of nature and of nature's God as understood by men through reason, but aided by direct revelation found in the Holy Scriptures."

Moore also wrote, "The common law adopted in this State and upon which our laws are premised likewise declares homosexuality to be detestable and an abominable sin. Homosexual conduct by its very nature is immoral, and its consequences are inherently destructive to the natural order of society. Any person who engages in such conduct is presumptively unfit to have custody of minor children under the established laws of this State."

Perhaps most alarmingly, Moore implied that the government should have the right to imprison or execute gays, writing, "The State carries the power of the sword, that is, the power to prohibit conduct with physical penalties, such as confinement and even execution. It must use that power to prevent the subversion of children toward this lifestyle, to not encourage a criminal lifestyle." (In Re: D.H. v. H.H.)

* U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) has blasted President John F. Kennedy's famous 1960 endorsement of church-- state separation, saying that Kennedy's vow not to take orders from the Roman Catholic hierarchy has caused "much harm in America."