Majority leader DeLay helps religious right defend America's 'Christian Heritage'

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) is helping a controversial Religious Right group raise money to defeat a so-called "war on Christianity" in America and preserve the nation's alleged "Christian heritage."

DeLay has endorsed a campaign by the Rev. Lou Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), which claims in a recent fund-raising letter that it will raise $12.6 million to "stop the all-out assault on Christians being waged by our government, by America's educational institutions, by the media and throughout popular culture."

The TVC appeal, which is currently circulating nationwide, includes a onepage endorsement letter from DeLay lauding Sheldon and the group's work. In the letter, DeLay calls Sheldon "a dear friend" and implores recipients to send money to the TVC.

"For the last 40 years, the antiChristian Left in America has waged a sustained attack against faith in God, traditional moral norms, the rule of law and the traditional marriage-based family," writes DeLay. He asserts "the antiChristian Left considers TVC its #1 enemy in the great civil war of values raging in America today."

Continues the DeLay letter, "TVC is fighting in the halls of Congress to roll back this 40-year assault on America's Christian heritage and the traditional moral values that made America great."

DeLay's missive accompanies an eight-page letter from Sheldon that makes a number of extraordinary charges, including the claim that Christianity is under attack in the United States and that "Christianity will be completely erased as a significant influence in American life if Christians fail to take immediate emergency action."

Elsewhere, TVC pleads for funds to stop the "`legal and culture war' being waged against Christians and Christianity."

TVC was founded and is headed by Sheldon, a controversial California minister who has a long track record of making unsubstantiated charges about religion in American public life and culture. For many years, Sheldon has been best known for shrill attacks on gays, public education and church-state separation.

"Sheldon's claims are, to put it bluntly, simply ludicrous," said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. "The United States is one of the most religious nations in the world. The so-called `war against Christianity' is a total fabrication for fund-raising purposes."

Lynn deplored the DeLay-Sheldon alliance, remarking, "Rep. DeLay holds an important position in Congress. He should not be helping Sheldon raise one dime. I call on DeLay to publicly cut his ties to this organization."

Lynn called Sheldon's recent fundraising appeal a "catalog of lies." Among other things, the letter:

* Asserts that Americans United and the ACLU have filed lawsuits and lobbied to have tax exemption denied for houses of worship. In fact, no such legal actions have been filed, nor has any lobbying on this issue occurred.

* Claims that students have been suspended from public schools for saying grace over lunches and that Bibles have been removed from school libraries. It gives no specific details of when and where these incidents occurred, putting them in the realm of Religious Right "urban legends."

* Asserts that a federal court struck down Ohio's use of the motto "With God, all things are possible." It fails to mention that a higher court overturned the ruling.

Lynn noted that Sheldon, in the TVC missive, claims he wants to raise $12.6 million to fund a "legal strike force," lobby Congress, train "Christian teachers" in public schools, run radio and TV advertisements and attack companies that promote "anti-Christian bias and bigotry in the media with their advertising dollars."

Lynn pointed out that TVC's budget has never been more than a few million dollars and that the group clearly has no intention of doing any of these things.

"I've never read more falsehoods crammed into one letter," remarked Lynn. "No member of Congress should endorse an organization that must resort to lies, distortions and fear-mongering to raise funds."

Last year, DeLay came under fire for criticizing Texas A&M and Baylor universities while addressing a Religious Right group in Texas. More recently, he was criticized for using shrill rhetoric in a fund-raising appeal on behalf of an anti-union organization.

Lynn said the House majority leader apparently failed to learn any lessons from these incidents.