Hijacked Faith

In an event that recently crept under the radar screen, Reverend Joel Hunter stepped down as president-elect of the Christian Coalition. According to Rev. Hunter, he volunteered his resignation, but according to the chair of the Coalition Board, his resignation was called for. The significance of this event is not the decision itself, but the reasons behind it. Hunter saw the Coalition as moving beyond its traditional role of messengers who, in the name of Christianity, have done nothing but polarize Americans by putting partisan politics above a strict adherence to the faith they espouse.

Hunter envisioned a movement that could broaden its agenda beyond abortion and same sex marriage, possibly to such issues as poverty and the environment. But his positions on global warming, increasing the minimum wage and opposing the death penalty left the Coalition running for cover. “These are issues that Jesus would want us to care about," says Hunter. "My position is, unless we are caring as much for the vulnerable outside the womb as inside the womb, we're not carrying out the full message of Jesus."

Hunter believes a large number of conservative Christians are driven away from right-wing organizations like the Coalition because their energies are too narrowly focused on “moral issues.” He also believes the Coalition has lost touch with its constituents because, instead of a focus on grass-roots organizing, their focus is solely on Washington-based advocacy.

"I saw an opportunity to really broaden the conversation and broaden the constituency... I think the board just got scared. When we really got down to it, they said: 'This just isn't for us. It won't speak to our base, so we just can't go there.'" The Coalition claims that he was acting too fast without consulting his superiors, but Hunter says the Coalition's board had already signed off on this approach, only to later get cold feet. The back and forth continues...

It’s just the latest in a long line of missteps by the Coalition, which was founded 17 years ago by Pat Robertson (author of the following quotes and an advocate of dropping a nuclear bomb of the State Department, assassinating Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and bringing righteousness back to our country so the atheists, liberals and homosexuals won’t bring about another 9/11).

"Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It is the same thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians. Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history."

"Many of those people involved with Adolph Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals--the two things seem to go together."

"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."

"I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that's the way it is, period."

"The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians."

"The strategy against the American radical left should be the same as General Douglas MacArthur employed against the Japanese in the Pacific... bypass their strongholds, then surround them, isolate them bombard them, then blast the individuals out of their power bunkers with hand-to-hand combat. The battle for Iwo Jima was not pleasant, but our troops won it. The battle to regain the soul of America won't be pleasant either, but we will win it."

The Coalition quickly became the chief lobbying group and voter organizer for the religious right but since Robertson’s resignation five years ago, it has struggled with creditors, defections by state affiliates and a dwindling presence in Washington. In the mid-1990s, its budget topped $25 million. Today, it is more than $2 million in debt. And yet they continue on their crusade with no regard for the lessons of the past. “Conservative Christians need to be more ambidextrous than just 'right' or 'left' oriented,” says Rev. Hunter. “I'm really over this whole polarization thing." I think the American people would agree.