c. 1999 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Larry Miller is a true-blue supporter of the Christian Coalition who co-chairs the organization’s Polk County, Iowa, chapter. He makes no effort to hide his concern over what’s happened to the religious right’s premier political powerhouse.”I’d say the coalition has plateaued, hopefully no worse,”the 36-year-old data processing worker said.”We’ve been hurt by what’s happened, no doubt about it.” His own chapter of”a couple of dozen”activists has not been meeting regularly and”we’re not getting younger people in,”he said.”It’s a real lull for us.” Miller’s appraisal of the coalition’s current condition reflects the 10-year-old group’s widely publicized recent problems: the loss of its long legal fight to gain tax-exempt status, high-level staff turnovers and dismissals, allegations of falsified membership figures and mounting financial difficulties, including a sharp drop in donations received and a reported deficit that tops $2 million.

Taken together, they would seem to paint a picture of an organization in terminal decline. On that point, however, Miller takes exception.”The Christian Coalition still merits the attention it gets. It’s still the biggest Christian conservative group around. Don’t count us out just yet,”he said during a break at the group’s annual two-day”Road to Victory”convention, which ended here Saturday (Oct. 2).

Miller might well have been reciting the convention’s official mantra. From rank-and-filers such as Miller on up to coalition founder and president Pat Robertson, the standard refrain was that no matter how bloodied the coalition may be, it will revive _ big time, they insisted.”There’s a rejuvenation of the coalition all over the nation,”said Robertson, the religious broadcaster and 1988 Republican presidential hopeful. Without the support of Christian conservatives, he added, Republicans cannot win in 2000.

Coalition staff turnovers _ including the loss in January of former president Donald Hodel _ were part of the”normal cycle”affecting”any organization that has to do with politics,”Robertson insisted. Fund-raising may be off, but”we’ll have the money to do the job,”he said, including circulation in 2000 of millions of the coalition’s trademark voter guides.

This year’s convention attendance of about 3,500 may have been down from last year,”but it’s a record for an off-year (no presidential or major congressional election),”added Randy Tate, Washington lobbying chief for the coalition, headquartered in Chesapeake, Va.

The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and an unrelenting coalition critic, conceded that in the short run, at least, the organization’s survival seems assured.”The Christian Coalition is still the 800-pound gorilla that’s in the room called the religious right,”he said.”The success of the religious right is still measured by the success of the Christian Coalition.” One measure of this continued success is the coalition’s ability to attract top-tier Republican officeholders and wannabes to its Road to Victory conventions, as was the case again this year. Democrats were nowhere in sight although President Clinton and others in his party were the targets of ongoing attacks despite the coalition’s continued insistence it is nonpartisan.

With the 2000 presidential race under way, a bevy of Republican aspirants took turns at the convention telling preacher jokes, family Bible stories and emphasizing their own Christian backgrounds in an effort to garner support.

Other than Pat Buchanan, who has threatened to leave the GOP for the Reform Party, and Arizona Sen. John McCain, who declined to appear, every Republican hopeful was on hand.

Robertson, however, made no bones about his choice for the Republican party’s nomination, leaving the other candidates in the uncomfortable position of having been dismissed by the coalition’s top gun before even making their pitch.

Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Robertson said,”would be a very acceptable candidate.”Despite that, Robertson said he would not officially endorse any one candidate during the Republican primary season.

Coalition critics say Robertson’s cozying up to Bush now could well cause even more problems for the group because of the candidate’s stand on abortion, which is perceived as more moderate than that of most coalition members.

The coalition gained much of its prominence on the strength of its staunch opposition to abortion. But Lynn said Robertson is willing to overlook Bush’s stated unwillingness to make opposition to abortion a litmus test for appointing federal judges because the coalition leader is more concerned with backing a winner. Bush is the front-runner at this stage of the Republican presidential race on the basis of fund-raising and polling results.

William Martin, a Rice University professor who has long paid close attention to both the coalition and the religious right, said Robertson’s support for Bush may be viewed as consistent with at least one aspect of the religious right, which he said accounts for a sixth of the electorate.

Religious right voters, he said at a Washington forum ahead of the Road to Victory convention,”are not so interested in backing lost causes. They tend to get most involved in races that they can make a difference.” This pragmatism, he said, has become more pronounced over the years as the religious right, for all its seeming strength, has failed to achieve the national political goals it holds most dear, including a complete abortion ban. Even under President Reagan _ whose tenure religious conservatives tend to recall with undisguised longing _ the movement gained little more than a series of White House photo ops, Martin said.

At the convention, Robertson responded to his critics by saying it is important to get a Republican elected president because a Republican is more likely than a Democrat to appoint federal judges who do oppose abortion. The next president is likely to have the opportunity to appoint at least three Supreme Court justices because of expected retirements.

Pushing Bush on the abortion issue now, said Robertson, would force him to the right and cause him to lose the votes of some moderate Republicans.

That stand appeared to be shared by many at the convention.

Steve Winehall of Arlington, Va., attending his second coalition convention, said he”likes Bush because he seems the most electable”of the Republican presidential candidates.

Donna Welty of Galesburg, Ill., attending for a third time, also favored Bush, in large measure because her first choice, ultraconservative Gary Bauer,”doesn’t have a chance of getting elected.” (OPTIONAL TRIM _ STORY MAY END HERE)

One convention speaker who did not share the enthusiasm for Bush was former professional football star Reggie White, an ordained minister. White said he supports Bauer because of his”defense of the family”and”consistent … commitment to the sanctity of life.” Regardless of who Robertson endorses for president, Cal Thomas, one-time spokesman for Jerry Falwell’s defunct Moral Majority, the religious right’s first major political action group, believes most religious conservatives will make their own decision about who to support for president in 2000.

Thomas, who co-authored a recent book claiming that political involvement inevitably leads to religious compromise, said the influence of the Christian Coalition and other groups on the religious right is overstated _ in part because the organizations work hard to maintain a perception of great influence.”We make a mistake in the press thinking the ones with the megaphones are the real leaders,”he said.

DEA END RIFKIN