Group to Monitor the Religious Right

A religious group has organized in Colorado to counter political messages from the so-called religious right.

The Rev. Michael Carrier, a Presbyterian minister, said the Christian, Jewish and Muslim founders of the state’s Interfaith Alliance aim to monitor and counter groups “who use religion as a weapon to push an extreme partisan agenda.”

The group, patterned after the national Interfaith Alliance, has no money, no office and no staff. But organizers say that it will monitor the activities of such organizations as the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family and will speak out against church roles in politics.

“The religious right groups speak as if they have the only religious point of view,” Carrier said. “But they don’t speak for the vast majority of Coloradans.”

Rabbi Steven Foster of Temple Emanuel, one of Denver’s largest synagogues, says members of the religious right “have a litmus test for candidates, they ignore the separation of church and state, and I fear we will wind up with a conservative Legislature and governor if there are no checks.”

Vera Mae Griffin, a Christian Coalition representative, said the alliance is overreacting. Paul Jessen of Colorado for Family Values defended the use of churches to spread conservative messages.

“We want our people to be properly informed,” he said, “and the mainstream media don’t print our point of view.”

He said putting voter guides in churches helps conservative Christians “pick candidates with our values. It’s not illegal for us to take stands.”