Quayle Urges Churchgoers to ‘Come Out of the Closet’ : Politics: The former vice president defends conservative Christians and reflects on his spat with Murphy Brown during 2 appearances in Lancaster.

Former Vice President Dan Quayle told more than 2,000 churchgoers Sunday that they must “come out of the closet” to publicly proclaim the importance of religion and family values despite what he termed widespread “bigotry” against conservative Christians.

Speaking at a $100-a-person breakfast and later at a church dedication ceremony, Quayle also thanked President Clinton for recently saying that Quayle was right in the family values debate he ignited when he criticized the television character Murphy Brown during the 1992 presidential campaign.

Although Quayle said he was in Lancaster to talk about religion rather than politics, he expressed interest in a presidential bid two years from now, saying he plans to “start looking hard at ‘96” after this year’s midterm congressional elections.

Quayle, 46, a favorite of the religious right, used the “come out of the closet” remark in both his breakfast and church speeches. But he offered no explanation of why he chose a phrase typically associated with homosexuals publicly proclaiming their sexual orientation. Religious conservatives and gays have frequently been at odds politically.

“We need to come out of the closet and speak up for family values like responsibility, integrity, hard work, fidelity and compassion,” Quayle said at the church. And although he said unnamed critics try to silence Christians, he urged his audience to “never retreat.”

He also complained that fundamentalist Christians, who he said “are taught to be tolerant of others,” are often the object of others’ intolerance. “Today, the only acceptable form of bigotry in our society is bigotry against conservative Christians,” Quayle said.

“The gatekeepers of our culture almost to an individual are antagonistic. And they have successfully characterized conservative Christians as right-wing fanatics, even terrorists and bombers,” he added, apparently alluding to recent attacks on abortion clinics and doctors.

Quayle spoke initially for about 13 minutes at a $100-a-person breakfast that drew a capacity crowd of nearly 400. He then gave a 20-minute talk at 10:30 a.m. dedication ceremonies for the Lancaster Baptist Church’s new $3.3-million facility.

Pastor Paul Chappell said he wrote to Quayle several months ago asking him to attend the dedication. Former state GOP chairman Frank Visco said he and Lancaster Councilman George Runner organized the breakfast to help the church pay Quayle’s speaking fee. Church officials would not disclose the amount they paid him.

Quayle, a strong abortion opponent who told churchgoers that “religion is the basis for my life,” drew rousing applause from predominantly conservative and Republican Antelope Valley residents at both events. Quayle was last in the Antelope Valley for a Republican Party fund-raiser in June, 1990.

Quayle attracted a small protest outside his breakfast speech by five abortion-rights activists, all members of the National Organization for Women, including four members of the group’s San Fernando Valley chapter who drove more than 40 miles to picket the event.

“We came up to say Dan Quayle’s exclusionary family values are not the ones people are seeking,” said Tricia Oeser, vice president of the NOW chapter. Other protesters said NOW members have and will continue to appear at Quayle’s public events across the country, mainly over the abortion issue.

In a much-mocked 1992 speech, Quayle accused popular situation-comedy character Murphy Brown, played by Candice Bergen, of glamorizing single motherhood. Critics responded by saying that Quayle favored only narrow fundamentalist values. But on Sunday, Quayle professed “the greatest admiration for single mothers” and respects “all of our values.”

Referring to Clinton’s recent remarks on family values, Quayle said at the breakfast: “He has now read the speech and he agrees with it. Well, I’m glad he does agree with it. Because we were right then and we’re right today to say that values and family values do matter.”

During an interview after the breakfast, Quayle discussed his presidential prospects. “I keep saying, ‘Let’s get through 1994 and build that grass-roots organization, get everybody together, and then we’ll turn the page on the ’94 elections and start looking hard at ’96.’ ”

Since leaving office last January, Quayle and his wife, Marilyn, have returned to his home state of Indiana. He has received a $1-million advance on a book due out in May about his four years in the White House. On Sunday, he said it will include chapters on “how to lose an election” and “Murphy and me.”

These days, “I do my own driving. Go to the grocery store, get a lot of looks, ‘Oh, there he is,’ ” Quayle said in a self-mocking laugh. “I find the further you’re away from when I was serving as vice president, the less certain people are of who you really are.”