Conservative Christian Groups at Odds

As the presidential campaign season heats up, the two biggest players in conservative Christian politics--the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family--appear increasingly at odds.

Both profess unyielding commitment to the “pro-family” cause, for which abortion remains the marquee issue. But public differences over how best to achieve the religious right’s goals are growing as the GOP’s San Diego convention nears.

The Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family have come to represent the movement’s two faces--the first pragmatic and willing to make short-term political compromises, the latter determined to stand on principle, whatever the political cost.

Focus on the Family leader James Dobson “is the kind of guy who would rather go down to defeat rather than compromise,” said Rob Boston, who keeps tabs on conservative Christian groups for the advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State in Washington.

The Christian Coalition’s Ralph Reed is the opposite, Boston said. “He can’t see losing the chance to get a Republican into the White House because of a fine point of principle.”

Founded in 1989 by religious broadcaster and erstwhile presidential hopeful Pat Robertson, the Christian Coalition has emerged as the religious right’s most able political operation. Robertson remains the organization’s strategist, while Reed, its 35-year-old executive director, runs the day-to-day operation.

The two men--with offices just one highway exit apart in Virginia’s Tidewater region--speak to each other daily.

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Claiming about 1.8 million members and supporters, the Christian Coalition has been credited with engineering Bob Dole’s key South Carolina GOP primary victory, which all but guaranteed him the nomination he will formally receive in San Diego the week of Aug. 12.

“The Christian Coalition is about building a grass-roots organization of political activists who know how to work within the party system and get people elected,” said John C. Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. “The strategy is to mobilize enough voters so that the candidates have to come to them.”

Dobson’s Focus on the Family operates in a less direct political manner, preferring to concentrate on policy rather than particular candidates. The organization has, however, established a more partisan Washington offshoot, the now-independent Family Research Council run by Gary Bauer.

Founded by Dobson in 1977, Focus on the Family has a mailing list of 2.2 million names. Dobson, who has a background in psychology and child development, uses radio as his primary vehicle for spreading a daily message of Christian-centered advice designed to strengthen family relationships and build opposition to pornography and abortion. He is heard on more than 2,900 stations across the United States, according to his office.

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‘Dobson understands that winning an election doesn’t guarantee policy results,” Green said. “He prefers to hold someone’s feet to the fire as long as possible to eventually get as close to the desired policy change as possible.”

The first big difference between the two camps this political season surfaced last fall, when retired Gen. Colin L. Powell’s entry into the Republican fray appeared a possibility and his personal popularity made him a strong candidate for the party’s presidential nomination.

Despite Powell’s support for abortion rights, Reed reportedly backed the former war hero. That prompted Dobson to send Reed a confidential letter, soon made public, alleging that the Christian Coalition leader was more interested in gaining political power than adhering to the antiabortion principle.

Since then, two issues have fueled the ongoing abortion debate--and both have served to underscore the differences between the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family.

One is the tussle over whether “tolerance language”--acknowledging conflicting views about abortion among Republicans--should be inserted in the GOP’s platform on abortion, which calls for a constitutional amendment banning most abortions. The second is whether Dole will choose a running mate who is staunchly antiabortion.

Given the importance of conservative Christians to the Republican Party--they represent about one-third of the GOP’s core base of support--the issues have broad implications for Dole and the presidential election.

Dobson has said that should Dole fail to satisfy the antiabortion bloc, conservative Christians may well stay home in November or shift their support to some third-party candidate. And any attempt to tamper with the antiabortion plank would be perceived by conservatives as weakening it, he said.

But Reed hinted in his latest book, “Active Faith: How Christians Are Changing the Soul of American Politics” (Free Press), that he is willing to entertain changes in the antiabortion platform.

And he recently played a behind-the-scenes role in crafting the so-called tolerance language--saying something to the effect that Republicans have differing opinions on abortion--that party leaders hope to insert into the platform to ease the discomfort of GOP moderates who favor abortion rights.

Dole entered the fray this month, when he said that opposition to abortion would not be a litmus test in his selection of a running mate.

Reed responded diplomatically, saying that in the end he was sure the GOP standard-bearer would pick a “conservative, pro-life and pro-family” vice president candidate.

But Dobson’s reaction was unyielding. “Every time Bob Dole says he has no litmus test for a running mate, he insults millions of pro-life voters who resent him trivializing an issue about which they care passionately,” Dobson said. “If he has no litmus test for a vice president, then he’ll probably have none for a Supreme Court appointment or a secretary of Health and Human Services.

“Why does this man insist on alienating the conservative base of the Republican Party? It could cost him dearly.”

Green, the Bliss Institute director, believes that the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family will eventually end their tactical squabbling and pull together for Dole once the GOP convention is over and the presidential campaign begins its sprint to the wire.

But if they don’t, he added, it could mean trouble for a Dole campaign that needs strong conservative Christian support to win the election.

“If they’re going to disagree, now is the time to do it and get it over with,” Green said. “But if the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family are still disagreeing in September, that’s very bad news for Bob Dole.”