c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The Christian Coalition, the leading advocacy group of the religious right, Thursday (Jan. 30) unveiled an ambitious agenda for the new 105th Congress, featuring a legislative package intended to combat poverty and crime while getting minorities and Democrats to work with it.

The package includes proposals for a $500 per person tax credit for charitable giving, economic empowerment zones to stimulate inner-city neighborhoods, government scholarships to cover full private school costs for poor students, allowing government funding for faith-based anti-addiction programs, and providing financial bonuses to states that reduce juvenile and gang-related crime.

It also includes a coalition pledge to raise up to $10 million by the year 2000 to assist 1,000 African-American and Latino churches to minister to”at-risk youth.” Overall, the plan represents a sharp departure from the coalition’s past emphasis on anti-abortion, anti-homosexual, anti-welfare, anti-tax and balanced-budget measures _ not to mention its deep involvement in Republican Party politics.

Speaking at a packed news conference, Ralph Reed, the coalition’s executive director, said The Samaritan Project _ as the new initiative is called _ would augment and not replace his organization’s past concerns, which will continue to include an effort to expand religious expression in public schools and a ban on a controversial late-term abortion procedure called”partial-birth abortions”by opponents.

But having worked in support of last year’s successful effort by congressional Republicans to limit welfare, Reed said conservative evangelicals are obliged to now work together with minority groups to alleviate crime and poverty.”… We can no longer blame the liberals for the carnage that is our inner cities,”he said.”For too long, our movement has been predominantly _ frankly almost exclusively _ a white, evangelical, Republican movement with a political center of gravity centered in the cloistered safety of the suburbs.” The coalition’s plan, Reed said, was neither liberal nor conservative, Republican nor Democratic. Rather, he said, it”is a compassionate, faith-based agenda to combat poverty and restore hope”that involves both government and the church.”We disagree with those liberals on the left who believe that government is always the answer and we disagree with those libertarians on the right who believe the government is always the problem,”he said.

However, coalition critics remain unconvinced by Reed’s new agenda.

The Rev. Henry J. Lyons, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, the nation’s largest black Baptist denomination, said he was”highly suspect of whatever this is. Is it Greeks bearing gifts?”Why now with what seems to be a serious olive branch laden with gifts? Given their past record, I don’t see (the coalition) being taken with credibility on this by African-American church leaders.” Other critics responded to Reed more harshly.

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a church-state watchdog group, called the coalition’s plan a”scam”intended to”shift large amounts of public money to religious institutions.” Reed, Lynn added,”remains a stalking horse for TV preacher Pat Robertson (who created the Christian Coalition and) who’s real goal is a Christianized America.” The Rev. Albert Pennybacker, president of the Interfaith Alliance, a group of liberal and moderate religious leaders organized to oppose the religious right, called the coalition plan”nothing more than a politically packed strategy aimed at softening the Christian Coalition’s image, while doing little to address the real issues affecting poor and working families in this country.” Reed _ noting that the coalition has raised about $750,000 to rebuild black churches destroyed in the recent wave of church fires _ denied having an ulterior motive.”The pro-family and religious conservative movement has gone through a transformation on the question of race and reaching out to the truly disadvantaged,”he said.

At his news conference, a half-dozen African-American and Latino religious leaders were on hand to praise Reed and his plan.”It’s a positive step, a major step in the right direction,”said the Rev. Gary Ellis, a black Pentecostal minister from Clarksville, Tenn.”I also want what Martin Luther King wanted, a day when the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners sit down together.” Michael Naranjo, a Latino evangelical pastor and anti-drug program administrator from Espanola, N.M., called the coalition’s proposals”perfect”and said”we should be working together as one people.” The Rev. Lawrence F. Haygood, a black evangelical from Tuskegee, Ala., praised the proposals as a joining of”the social gospel with the gospel of personal salvation.”Reed, he said, should be considered a leader by African-Americans.

Reed gave no overall figure for what his proposals would cost government. Neither did he suggest where the money should come, although he did say the coalition would continue to press for a balanced budget amendment and overall tax relief.”I’m going to leave it to the budget and tax writing committees (of Congress) to determine,”he said.

MJP END RIFKIN