Fundamentalists, the "Religious Right," and the Political Process

Changing Conditions

The activities of the Christian Coalition and its legal arm, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), became a matter of increasing concern at the national level and in many communities, even as Jewish and other groups engaged in an evaluation of the extent of the coalition's activities and threat to pluralist values.

Background

The increased visibility of the fundamentalist political movement was manifest during 1992 and 1993 in the prominent role played by the Reverend Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition in political and other arenas. (See 1993-94 Joint Program Plan, page 64, for background on the Christian Coalition.) Robertson's group expressed its aim at electing "pro-family Christians" to public office and achieving "working control" of the Republican Party by 1996. Having become a force on Republican central committees in more than half a dozen states, and placing some 300 members as delegates to the Republican National Convention, the coalition looked toward local elections in 1994 and the national 1996 elections.

In the public policy arena, particularly in the area of the separation of church and state, Christian Coalition activities were a matter of concern. A letter sent in late 1992 by Alan J. Sekulow, lawyer for the American Center for Law and Justice, to all 14,712 school superintendents in the country, suggested the direction that fundamentalist public affairs activists would follow. In his letter, Sekulow asserted that "certain national groups have been pressuring local school districts to censor any religious observances of Christmas," misrepresenting the position of Jewish and other civil liberties groups and the law as well. The NJCRAC engaged school boards around the country on this issue.

Also on the agenda of the Christian Coalition is vigorous support of anti-gay ballot initiatives in a number of states and municipalities; so-called studentinitiated prayers and prayer groups in public schools; voucher measures; tax rollbacks; term limits; and other initiatives whose goal is the erosion of church-state separation.

While the religious right draws much of its support from evangelical and fundamentalist denominations - although there are data to indicate that Christian Coalition support may be somewhat more diffuse - demographic data continue to indicate a mixed picture with respect to the grass-roots of the fundamentalist communities, with a split between a group of moderates, perhaps growing, and those who continue to maintain a hard line on theological questions and public affairs issues.

Further, analysts suggest a question yet unresolved with respect to the data on Christian Coalition inroads in local elections and in terms of religious practices in the public schools across the country. The Jewish community relations field, together with its partners in the civil liberties coalition, will be called upon to evaluate with care the data that emerge on practices such as school prayer and prayer groups, and on local election results.

The Jewish community relations field approaches the question of relationship with the fundamentalist religious right as it does with other religious and ethnic groups in the United States, working in coalition on issues of mutual concern, and parting company on those issues where there are profound differences of view. The NJCRAC will be called upon to assess changes in the fundamentalist community, including demographic and leadership changes, for the purpose of continuing the examination of the stance of the Jewish community vis-a-vis these groups. (See NJCRAC Policy Statement on the Role of Religion in Politics in Joint Program Plan, 1985-86.)

Priority Strategic Goals

The Jewish community relations field should