Nation: Politics from the Pulpit

• Share

(4 of 4)

Whatever their impact on the presidential race, the evangelical conservatives already have demonstrated clout in some local contests. In Alaska, members of Moral Majority this summer took over the entire state delegation to the Republican Convention. In Alabama last month, Representative John Buchanan lost his seat in Congress; though he is a Baptist minister, his liberal views on women's rights aroused the wrath of Moral Majority, which turned out a huge Republican primary vote against him. Says Buchanan: "They beat my brains out with Christian love."

Whether such successes can be repeated in the more important state races is in some doubt. In Iowa, state groups allied with Moral Majority and Christian Voice are going all-out to defeat liberal Democratic Senator John Culver. Declares Christian Voice Strategist Colonel Doner: "John Culver is part of the crowd which made legal the killing of babies, made the streets safe for criminals and rapists and kicked God out of our schools."

But polls indicate a backlash gathering against such attacks, and Culver is stimulating it by doing some loud Bible-thumping of his own. He ridicules the Christian Voice list of issues as a warped test of morality, pointing out that Florida Congressman Richard Kelly scored 100%—before being indicted for allegedly taking ABSCAM bribes. The list, thunders Culver, says nothing about such Christian concerns as helping the poor, hungry and sick.

Less partisan critics of the political preachers make similar points. Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, head of the American Jewish Committee, charges that the conservative evangelicals are trying to impose a "religious test" on public officials, which is forbidden by Article VI of the Constitution. The Catholic Jesuit weekly America claims that the right-wing evangelicals are preaching "moral fascism."

In rebuttal Falwell hotly maintains that "most of our critics are hypocritical. Nobody ever criticized Martin Luther King when he was using the churches for political activity. No one has ever criticized the National Council of Churches and its leaders for 50 years of active political involvement. What bothers our critics is that we don't agree with them."

The argument will not end with this year's elections. Win or lose with Reagan, the evangelicals are mapping plans to expand their movement and make it a permanent and influential part of the political scene. Already some are talking about organizing for the congressional elections of 1982. —By George J. Church.

Reported by Anne Constable/Lynchburg and Simmons Fentress/Washington