wfn.org | Religious Activists Gear up For Fall Election Campaign

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29-September-1998 
98304 
 
    Religious Activists Gear up For Fall Election Campaign 
 
    by David E. Anderson 
    Religion News Service 
 
WASHINGTON--Religious leaders and political activists from across the 
theological and ideological spectrum opened their versions of the fall 
election campaign Sept. 16 with a series of events that could not escape 
the climate of moral urgency hanging over the nation's capital. 
 
    In a series of speeches, forums and news conferences, groups as diverse 
as the Christian Coalition, The Interfaith Alliance and Americans United 
for Separation of Church and State sought to lay out their views of the 
proper role of religion in the nation's political life. 
 
    But the more immediate issue of President Clinton's sexual liaison with 
Monica Lewinsky  - and the religious community's response to it - dominated 
the day. 
 
    There were few kind words for the president. 
 
    Randy Tate, executive director of the Christian Coalition - which held 
its annual "Road to Victory" conference for 3,500 politically conservative 
religious activists a few days later in Washington - called on Clinton to 
resign, saying the president has "defiled the office." 
 
    In a speech at the National Press Club, Tate said religious 
conservatives believe the United States is the offspring of two impulses - 
religious faith and the rule of law. 
 
    Answering questions following his speech, Tate charged Clinton had 
"perjured himself in the Oval Office" and dismissed the president's legal 
strategy for defending himself as "ridiculous hairsplitting." 
 
    "He should do the honorable thing and step down," said Tate, who has 
headed the Coalition, which claims 1.9 million members and supporters, for 
the past year. 
 
    Tate also said Clinton's confession to a White House prayer breakfast 
that he had "sinned" in his relationship with Lewinsky "seemed more 
contrived than contrite." 
 
    But he voiced conditional approval of reports Clinton has named a group 
of three religious advisers - evangelist Tony Campolo of St. David's, Pa., 
the Rev. Philip Wogaman of Washington, and the Rev. Gordon McDonald of 
Lexington, Mass. - to meet and pray with him weekly. 
 
    Tate said he did not know any of the clerics, but added: "It is always 
a positive thing when people turn to the clergy" for advice and help. 
 
    The news of Clinton's decision to name the moral accountability group 
was met with a more positive response at "The Road to Responsibility" forum 
attended by generally liberal clerics and religious experts. Organized by 
The Interfaith Alliance, the forum was designed to underscore that 
conservatives are not the only religious leaders concerned with the 
nation's direction. 
 
    While acknowledging the possibility Clinton could be seeking to 
manipulate public opinion by promising to ask the panel of clerics for 
help, the Interfaith Alliance forum participants said the system should be 
allowed to work. 
 
    "Tony Campolo is a tough cookie," said the Rev. James Dunn, executive 
director of the Baptist Joint Committee.  "He's not going to be snowed." 
 
    Azizah Y. Al-Hibri, an expert on Islamic law and jurisprudence from the 
T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond, noted the 
demands Clinton has faced to show the sincerity of his apology. 
 
    "When he does, then he gets criticized," she said, adding, "I'd go 
[counsel Clinton] even if I felt I was being manipulated." 
 
    The Interfaith Forum participants also generally agreed - contrary to 
the Christian Coalition's Tate - that Clinton still retains enough moral 
credibility to lead the nation. 
 
    "It is diminished but not destroyed," said Dunn. 
 
    Retired bishop Frederick Calhoun James of the African Methodist 
Episcopal Church said Clinton "seems to be ideally placed" to speak about 
the pervasiveness of sex in contemporary American society.  "We use sex to 
sell almost everything but Bibles," he said. 
 
    The Rev. Herbert Valentine, executive presbyter of Baltimore Presbytery 
of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), said Clinton's future moral 
credibility "is still an open question," while Rabbi Jack Moline, president 
emeritus of the Washington Board of Rabbis, said it "depends on what he 
does" during the current crisis. 
 
    None of the liberal clerics said they believed Clinton should resign or 
be removed from office at this point, despite the legal problems he faces. 
 
    "Our legal system does not reflect our [religious] understandings of 
forgiveness," said Al-Hibri. 
 
    While Clinton's troubles dominated the day, strategy for the fall 
election campaign - in which the president's troubles are certain to be a 
major issue - also received considerable attention. 
 
    Tate, in his speech to the press club, said the Christian Coalition 
would distribute 45 million voter guides through its network of chapters 
and supportive congregations.  That promise brought an immediate pledge of 
legal action from Americans United. 
 
    "We will file ... against any church that distributes" the Coalition 
guides, said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United. 
 
    A legal memorandum published by the group warned that before agreeing 
to distribute a voter guide, "a church must ensure that the guide is truly 
nonpartisan and does not endorse or oppose any candidate, either explicitly 
or by implication. 
 
    "It does not matter that the church may not intend any political 
intervention," the memo added.  "The IRS and the courts do not look to the 
church's motive, but to whether the voter guide in fact favors one 
candidate over another." 

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