NEWS STORY: Christian Coalition inflates membership data, adversary claims

c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS)-How big is the Christian Coalition, the conservative public-policy advocacy group that has become a major player in the nation’s political arena? The Coalition, founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, claims 1.8 million”members and supporters,”up from 1.7 million at the time of its national Road to Victory conference in […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)-How big is the Christian Coalition, the conservative public-policy advocacy group that has become a major player in the nation’s political arena?

The Coalition, founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, claims 1.8 million”members and supporters,”up from 1.7 million at the time of its national Road to Victory conference in Washington in September.


But one of the group’s chief adversaries, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, counting differently, said this week the 1.8 million tally is”deliberately deceptive.”The Coalition is much smaller, with only 300,000″members,”and that number is dwindling, Americans United asserted.

Mike Russell, the Coalition’s spokesman, defended his group’s figures and called the charge by Americans United”ludicrous.” Americans United, a Washington-based group that promotes strict separation of church and state, has long opposed the Coalition on such issues as school prayer and the proper role of religion in public life. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, acknowledged the Coalition’s prominence on the U.S. political scene but said the group has exaggerated its strength to boost its influence.”Nobody is saying they don’t have clout,”Lynn said.”But they want every reporter and politician to believe that they can count on 1.8 million members, and that is deliberately deceptive. It calls into question many other claims about the level of their support.” Most, but not all, Christian Coalition literature speaks of”members and supporters”rather than just”members.”However, a recent mailing by the Catholic Alliance, a division of the Coalition, referred to the group’s”1.7 million members.” Lynn based his accusation on figures the Coalition filed with the U.S. Postal Service detailing the circulation of its magazine, the Christian American.

According to the filing, the magazine had a paid circulation of 310,296 in September 1995, down from a reported 353,703 in September 1994. The magazine is sent to those who contribute $15 a year or more to the Christian Coalition.

But Russell said the Coalition’s data on members and supporters go far beyond the magazine circulation figures.”We have a data base of 1.8 million people,”he said, describing how the group counts members.”That includes an active donor list of those who have contributed (money) over the last three or four months, those who have contributed (money) in the last year, and an activist file.” The active donor list contains between 400,000 and 500,000 names, Russell said.

The non-contributing activist file includes those who have lobbied on behalf of the Christian Coalition, passed out its voting guide, or otherwise assisted the group without making a financial contribution. The activist file also includes those who have attended a Coalition function, such as a seminar or conference.

Russell said the data base did not include mailing lists bought or rented from other groups that might be used in direct-mail solicitations.”It is wrong to take the postal figures”on the American Christian as the sole measure of membership, Russell said, because the magazine is offered as a”premium”to active donors.

Lynn, however, said Russell’s explanation was not credible.”There is no way to join the Coalition as a `supporter,'”Lynn asserted.”If you’re not willing to support them with $15 or more a year, you’re not much of a member or supporter,”he said.”Anybody can have a `data base.'” Pointing to the Coalition’s decline in reported paid circulation along with the group’s claimed increase in members and supporters, Lynn said:”We’re talking about a base that has declined at the financial support level. They’re gaining people (in the data base) who don’t want to be members.”I attended the Christian Coalition meeting in September,”Lynn said.”And I’m neither a donor nor a supporter.” Lynn, whose own organization claims 50,000 members, said he is willing to grant the Coalition as many as 600,000 members on the basis that the Christian American magazine likely goes to many families in which both husband and wife are Coalition supporters.”The same is true with us,”Lynn said of his group’s publication, Church & State.”But their description of themselves as being 1.8 million strong is an intentional effort to deceive.” John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron (Ohio) and an expert on the Religious Right, said the spat over numbers is of marginal importance.”Even if they only had 300,000 members, they’d still be very influential,”he said.”There is in every organization a difference between hard-core and peripheral members.” Still, Green said of the Coalition,”to the extent that they’re using the big numbers to impress, then Americans United’s criticism makes sense.”


MJP END ANDERSON

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