Religious Leaders Assail Tactics of Right-Wing Fundamentalists

A new coalition of religious leaders announced plans Thursday to counteract the political clout of the Christian Coalition and other conservative religious groups.

Organizers of the Interfaith Alliance denounced the tactics of right-wing fundamentalist groups as well as recent broad-brush attacks on evangelical conservatives by Democrats, saying that both groups engage in “demonization” of advocates of different political positions.

The group, which characterizes itself as nonpartisan and ecumenical, was formed just weeks after Clinton Administration officials and Democratic Party leaders condemned religious conservatives for engineering a “stealth takeover” of the GOP.

Among the new alliance’s members are religious leaders from Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and other faiths.

On issues ranging from abortion to homosexual rights, the members may disagree, but each opposes invoking “God to assert the moral superiority of one people over another,” said Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ.

The group’s leaders said evangelical right-wingers threaten American traditions of religious liberty by claiming to be the only representatives of true Christian values.

By using religion at once as a weapon and a shield, conservatives fragment the nation’s families with “spiritual intimidation,” said Dr. Herbert D. Valentine, a Presbyterian minister and the alliance’s chairman.

“Religious extremism is being used as a weapon to attack politicians, to censor classroom textbooks, to cut back school breakfast programs, to promote discrimination and to mislead voters,” Valentine said. “The message of the radical right is that there is only one way to think and live to be a good Christian.”

The new group said it hopes to raise $4 million this year but will not endorse candidates or take positions on social issues. Instead, it plans to register voters, distribute voter guides describing how office-seekers stand on different issues and become a “national clearinghouse” for grass-roots organizations dedicated to religious freedom.