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The Christian Coalition: Dreams of Restoration, Demands for Recognition
The mobilization of politically conservative followers of the Christian religion into a single lobbying force is perhaps the most unique feature of American politics in the late 20th century. The group most frequently associated with this movement is the Christian Coalition (CC), founded by talk show host and past Presidential candidate Pat Robertson. In The Christian Coalition, Justin Watson provides an unflinching look at the underpinnings of this remarkable organization. Watson examines the CC in the context of religious and political history in the United States, offering theories which help to explain its purpose, its popularity and its power. He argues that the two main motives for its existence are 1) a longing for the restoration of America to a â purer,â homogeneous nation under God and 2) a desire for widespread recognition of conservative Christians as a victimized minority by a socially liberal world. Including a fascinating conclusion which sheds light on what the future might hold, The Christian Coalition is an engrossing study of a phenomenal political movement.
- GenresReligion
Hardcover
First published October 15, 1997
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January 22, 2023
A DETAILED STUDY AND EXAMINATION OF THE CC
At the time this book was published in 1997, Justin Watson was an Instructor in the Department of Religion at Florida State University.
He wrote in the first chapter, “when I first started to investigate the Christian Coalition (CC), Pat Robertson’s controversial political organization, a friend of mine heard about my research and asked, ‘What do they want?’ I gave a brief summary of what I thought were the major issues that concerned the CC and its constituency. My friend was not satisfied and asked, ‘But what do they REALLY want?’ After several years of research, I have found that the answer to that question is not as straightforward as I once thought it was, or as simply as the CC’s opponents or defenders would have us believe.” (Pg. 1)
He continues, “These two questions, ‘Will this bring our nation back to God?’ and ‘Do you think we have a right to do this?’ embody two pervasive themes that I have found in the literature of the CC. The first theme, the necessity of restoring America to its status as a Christian nation, is reflected in the … earnest desire to ‘bring our nation back to God.’ This theme fits with the conventional wisdom about the CC---that it is attempting to impose the values and beliefs of conservative evangelicals on American society… There has been far less serious attention paid to a second theme that has become common, if not pervasive, in the literature and activities of the CC and its allies---the victimization of evangelical Christians by a hostile secular culture. ‘Do you think we have a right to do this?’ is the question of a defiant victim demanding recognition for the rights, interests, and identity of evangelicals through political action.” (Pg. 2)
He goes on, “There is an obvious and fundamental tension between the calls for the restoration of a Christian America and the demands for recognition of evangelical Christians as a persecuted group. The calls for restoration involve a rejection of the legitimacy of social and religious pluralism as an accepted norm of American society. The demands for recognition, in contrast, depend on the norms of pluralism for legitimation.” (Pg. 3)
He clarifies, “I must also explain that I have restricted my research to one organization, the CC, rather than the more common practice of dealing with the Christian Right as a whole. What we call the Christian Right is actually a multitude of organizations with a variety of concerns and approaches. It is rooted in a sector of American Christianity that is characterized by organizational diversity and the lac, of any central authority. The Christian Right does not speak with a single voice.” (Pg. 6)
He states, “Politicized evangelicals felt themselves to be under attack by the forces of modernity… Beyond judicial decisions on school prayer and abortion, the expanding network of evangelical colleges and broadcasting enterprises had to be ‘defended’ against interference by various regulatory agencies of the federal government. Many evangelicals felt the federal government’s … increased regulation of education and family life had to be resisted… the family because an important symbol of both the idealized restorable past and what was presently under attack. The ‘traditional’ American family… has been invested with tremendous religious, personal, social, and political meaning. The
‘pro-family’ coalition sought to defend a traditionalist concept of the family against the challenges explicit or implicit in the sexual revolution, no-fault divorce, birth control and abortion, feminist and gay rights movements, and the recognition of children’s rights, as well as the economic conditions that required any mothers to return to the work force… The family provided evangelicals with a potent and multifaceted symbol of many of their concerns, as well as common ground with neo-evangelicals on the political right.” (Pg. 21-22)
He reports, “[Ralph] Reed’s enthusiasm for technology that will further the CC agenda was demonstrated by the elaborate communication system set up by the CC at the 1996 Republican National Convention… the CC distributed wireless ‘personal digital assistants’ … that would link 102 floor whips to the centralized CC ‘Communications Command Center.’ This system allowed whips to canvass delegates, communicate the information to the Center, and relay voting instructions bac to the convention floor. This system allowed rapid and continual coordination by CC leaders.” (Pg. 56)
He summarizes, “the CC has been an attempt to institutionalize the Christian Right. While this attempt has not met with unqualified success so far, the CC’s financial strength and membership size, its orientation toward grassroots activism, and its broader constituency and issues agenda, as well as its more inclusive rhetoric, have allowed it, in a short period, to become a ‘player’ in national politics.” (Pg. 80-81)
He states, “The similarities and differences between Robertson and Reed in their depiction of America’s lost golden era extend also to their understandings of how that era can be lost. Robertson… has been likely to see this loas as a breaking of the covenant, or a fall from grace through sin… [Reed] advanced his lamentations within the framework of secular history. He explained the nature and causation of American decline in terms that can be understood… by those who do not share his religious view… [Reed] has not pulled God and Satan onstage as players in his historical drama.” (Pg. 101-102) Later, he adds, “What Robertson and Reed want is a return to a supposed golden era in which it would not occur to anyone to question the propriety of public school prayer, the Ten Commandments on the wall of a government building… or the assertion that this is a Christian nation… what [they] hope for is … the restoration of a culture in which evangelicals are insiders, not outsiders.” (Pg. 121)
He observes, “Reed has opponents… but they have not been a solid phalanx---they too have been … blown about by the winds of social change. The enmity that some bear toward people of faith … [was explained] by a combination of proximate causes, rational concern, flawed political opinions, self-interest, and irrational prejudice. And Reed has been willing to admit that religious conservatives need to put their own house in order before they can be full participants in American cultural and political life… Nor has he resorted to the paranoid style of American politics.” (Pg. 155-156)
He summarizes, “I began this study with the simple question, ‘What do they really want?’ To answer that question I have [suggested]… restoration and recognition…. They want both. They want their ‘place at the table’ AND they want everyone at the table to agree with them. They want a Christian nation AND religious freedom… This seems an unsatisfactory resolution because restoration and recognition are fundamentally incompatible responses to the pluralistic reality of contemporary America.” (Pg. 175)
He notes “Reed’s concern with racism within the movement. If religious conservatives are a historically or divinely ‘chosen people,’ the sin of racial prejudice may make them, just as the sin of slavery made Americas… an ‘almost chosen people.’ Race, however, seems to be the only question on which Reed has taken a less than celebratory stance toward his constituency.” (Pg. 183)
This book will be of great interest to those studying this movement.
At the time this book was published in 1997, Justin Watson was an Instructor in the Department of Religion at Florida State University.
He wrote in the first chapter, “when I first started to investigate the Christian Coalition (CC), Pat Robertson’s controversial political organization, a friend of mine heard about my research and asked, ‘What do they want?’ I gave a brief summary of what I thought were the major issues that concerned the CC and its constituency. My friend was not satisfied and asked, ‘But what do they REALLY want?’ After several years of research, I have found that the answer to that question is not as straightforward as I once thought it was, or as simply as the CC’s opponents or defenders would have us believe.” (Pg. 1)
He continues, “These two questions, ‘Will this bring our nation back to God?’ and ‘Do you think we have a right to do this?’ embody two pervasive themes that I have found in the literature of the CC. The first theme, the necessity of restoring America to its status as a Christian nation, is reflected in the … earnest desire to ‘bring our nation back to God.’ This theme fits with the conventional wisdom about the CC---that it is attempting to impose the values and beliefs of conservative evangelicals on American society… There has been far less serious attention paid to a second theme that has become common, if not pervasive, in the literature and activities of the CC and its allies---the victimization of evangelical Christians by a hostile secular culture. ‘Do you think we have a right to do this?’ is the question of a defiant victim demanding recognition for the rights, interests, and identity of evangelicals through political action.” (Pg. 2)
He goes on, “There is an obvious and fundamental tension between the calls for the restoration of a Christian America and the demands for recognition of evangelical Christians as a persecuted group. The calls for restoration involve a rejection of the legitimacy of social and religious pluralism as an accepted norm of American society. The demands for recognition, in contrast, depend on the norms of pluralism for legitimation.” (Pg. 3)
He clarifies, “I must also explain that I have restricted my research to one organization, the CC, rather than the more common practice of dealing with the Christian Right as a whole. What we call the Christian Right is actually a multitude of organizations with a variety of concerns and approaches. It is rooted in a sector of American Christianity that is characterized by organizational diversity and the lac, of any central authority. The Christian Right does not speak with a single voice.” (Pg. 6)
He states, “Politicized evangelicals felt themselves to be under attack by the forces of modernity… Beyond judicial decisions on school prayer and abortion, the expanding network of evangelical colleges and broadcasting enterprises had to be ‘defended’ against interference by various regulatory agencies of the federal government. Many evangelicals felt the federal government’s … increased regulation of education and family life had to be resisted… the family because an important symbol of both the idealized restorable past and what was presently under attack. The ‘traditional’ American family… has been invested with tremendous religious, personal, social, and political meaning. The
‘pro-family’ coalition sought to defend a traditionalist concept of the family against the challenges explicit or implicit in the sexual revolution, no-fault divorce, birth control and abortion, feminist and gay rights movements, and the recognition of children’s rights, as well as the economic conditions that required any mothers to return to the work force… The family provided evangelicals with a potent and multifaceted symbol of many of their concerns, as well as common ground with neo-evangelicals on the political right.” (Pg. 21-22)
He reports, “[Ralph] Reed’s enthusiasm for technology that will further the CC agenda was demonstrated by the elaborate communication system set up by the CC at the 1996 Republican National Convention… the CC distributed wireless ‘personal digital assistants’ … that would link 102 floor whips to the centralized CC ‘Communications Command Center.’ This system allowed whips to canvass delegates, communicate the information to the Center, and relay voting instructions bac to the convention floor. This system allowed rapid and continual coordination by CC leaders.” (Pg. 56)
He summarizes, “the CC has been an attempt to institutionalize the Christian Right. While this attempt has not met with unqualified success so far, the CC’s financial strength and membership size, its orientation toward grassroots activism, and its broader constituency and issues agenda, as well as its more inclusive rhetoric, have allowed it, in a short period, to become a ‘player’ in national politics.” (Pg. 80-81)
He states, “The similarities and differences between Robertson and Reed in their depiction of America’s lost golden era extend also to their understandings of how that era can be lost. Robertson… has been likely to see this loas as a breaking of the covenant, or a fall from grace through sin… [Reed] advanced his lamentations within the framework of secular history. He explained the nature and causation of American decline in terms that can be understood… by those who do not share his religious view… [Reed] has not pulled God and Satan onstage as players in his historical drama.” (Pg. 101-102) Later, he adds, “What Robertson and Reed want is a return to a supposed golden era in which it would not occur to anyone to question the propriety of public school prayer, the Ten Commandments on the wall of a government building… or the assertion that this is a Christian nation… what [they] hope for is … the restoration of a culture in which evangelicals are insiders, not outsiders.” (Pg. 121)
He observes, “Reed has opponents… but they have not been a solid phalanx---they too have been … blown about by the winds of social change. The enmity that some bear toward people of faith … [was explained] by a combination of proximate causes, rational concern, flawed political opinions, self-interest, and irrational prejudice. And Reed has been willing to admit that religious conservatives need to put their own house in order before they can be full participants in American cultural and political life… Nor has he resorted to the paranoid style of American politics.” (Pg. 155-156)
He summarizes, “I began this study with the simple question, ‘What do they really want?’ To answer that question I have [suggested]… restoration and recognition…. They want both. They want their ‘place at the table’ AND they want everyone at the table to agree with them. They want a Christian nation AND religious freedom… This seems an unsatisfactory resolution because restoration and recognition are fundamentally incompatible responses to the pluralistic reality of contemporary America.” (Pg. 175)
He notes “Reed’s concern with racism within the movement. If religious conservatives are a historically or divinely ‘chosen people,’ the sin of racial prejudice may make them, just as the sin of slavery made Americas… an ‘almost chosen people.’ Race, however, seems to be the only question on which Reed has taken a less than celebratory stance toward his constituency.” (Pg. 183)
This book will be of great interest to those studying this movement.
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