c. 2000 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The Rev. Jerry Falwell barely had time to announce his new campaign to register 10 million new voters before a church-state watchdog group announced it had reported Falwell to the Internal Revenue Service for violating his tax-exempt status.

Falwell, a heavyweight of the Religious Right and chancellor of Liberty University, came to Washington on Friday (April 14) to launch “People of Faith 2000,” a broad-based campaign to register 10 million new voters before the November elections.

Falwell said religious conservatives are “discouraged and frustrated” after eight years of Bill Clinton and are considered “persona non grata” with both the Republican and Democratic parties. His new campaign, he said, is to remind them they have a voice in the voter’s booth.

“We want to energize, to register to vote, to mobilize and get to the polls millions of people of faith who otherwise might not vote,” Falwell said in an appearance at the National Press Club.

But before Falwell could even begin his press conference, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State filed a complaint with the IRS, alleging that Falwell’s new organization violates rules prohibiting nonprofit groups from engaging in partisan activities.

“In reality, this project is a highly partisan drive that Falwell himself has admitted is intended to help put George W. Bush in the White House,” said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United.

Falwell made repeated attempts to classify his organization as nonpartisan and to distance himself from the Christian Coalition, which last year lost its tax-exempt status with the IRS.

Unlike the Coalition, People of Faith 2000 is a seven-month campaign that will cease to exist on Nov. 8, the day after the national elections, Falwell said. The campaign will need $18.6 million to register new voters, work with more than 200,000 churches and distribute 100 million membership cards to people who pledge to vote in November.

The new organization is the latest chapter in a long battle to mobilize millions of Christian conservatives that form the basis of support for the Republican party. Bush heavily courted conservatives in his race for the GOP nomination while Arizona Sen. John McCain openly criticized Falwell and the Rev. Pat Robertson as “agents of intolerance” within the party.

The religious right is as much a political holy grail this year as the nation’s 43 million Catholic voters and together, the two groups could decide who wins the White House in key swing states.

Falwell is no stranger to the political scene. In 1979, he founded the Moral Majority to mobilize Christian conservatives and helped elect Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984. He dissolved the organization in 1989, saying the group’s work was done.

He’s also a major fund-raiser, both for religious and political causes. Falwell said in the past 30 years, his church and university have raised $2.5 billion dollars, and the Moral Majority alone raised $70 million.

And when it comes to voter registration, Falwell says the Moral Majority mobilized 8.5 million new voters, and he said his Lynchburg, Va., church, Thomas Road Baptist Church, has already registered 2,000 new voters.

But Falwell said he has returned to politics because the 2000 elections not only determine the White House but congressional majorities and appointments to federal courts.

“This may be the most important congressional and presidential election in modern times,” Falwell said.

While Falwell is a major Bush supporter, he stressed that his organization would be nonpartisan and nonpolitical. However, he acknowledged that most of the evangelical churches he wants to work with are filled with political conservatives who most likely would vote for Bush over Vice President Al Gore. Falwell said he trusts those voters to make the right choice, and “we will be able to live with the results.”

Speaking to USA Today last month, Falwell said, “It is my experience that most people of faith in this country vote pro-family, pro-life, and that will mean George W. Bush. If I’m right, the Republicans are going to feel a very positive result on this from the top to the bottom of the ticket.”

That’s exactly what has Lynn and his organization so upset. Lynn provided a detailed history of Falwell’s previous efforts to mix politics and religion under the banner of nonpartisanship.

“Jerry Falwell’s project is so partisan,” Lynn said, “it ought to be registered as an auxiliary of the Republican Party.”

(OPTIONAL TRIM BEGINS)

The Interfaith Alliance, which also monitors the political moves of the Religious Right, said it supports the idea of Falwell’s new campaign but wants to make sure the coalition includes voices from all faith traditions.

“Religion has already been tossed around like a football during this election season,” said the group’s executive director, the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy. “Now is the time to end divisiveness and exploitation of religion in the political process.”

Falwell said he would welcome the support of the Interfaith Alliance, which has a similar voter registration drive under way. And he noted his movement is made up of Protestants of all stripes, Catholics and Jews.

“But I’ll leave the Buddhists for Mr. Gore,” Falwell joked, in a not-so-subtle reference to Gore’s 1996 controversial fund-raiser at a Buddhist temple.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

While Falwell and his organization’s board of directors are solidly behind the Bush campaign, he said he will make no attempts to tell people how to vote. Even if everyone he registers ends up voting for Gore, Falwell said he would not be disappointed.

“We don’t want to tell them what song to sing,” said Janet Parshall, a conservative talk show host and member of Falwell’s board of directors. “But we do want to remind them they have a voice.”

DEA END ECKSTROM