{"id":8824,"date":"2006-04-10T22:49:28","date_gmt":"2006-04-11T05:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/04\/10\/doubtless-its-all-because-of-the-persecution.html"},"modified":"2006-04-10T22:49:28","modified_gmt":"2006-04-11T05:49:28","slug":"doubtless_its_a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/04\/10\/doubtless_its_a.html","title":{"rendered":"Doubtless it’s all because of the persecution"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Christian Coalition is threatened with extinction<\/a>. What could be the reason? Evil satanic atheist secularist humanist Hollywood types, turning public opinion against them? No, just the march of time and a boatload of debt.<\/p>\n

The once-mighty Christian Coalition, founded 17 years ago by the Rev. Pat Robertson as the political fundraising and lobbying engine of the Christian right, is more than $2 million in debt, beset by creditors’ lawsuits and struggling to hold on to some of its state chapters.<\/p>\n

[…] “The credibility is just not there like it once was,” said Stephen L. Scheffler, president of the [break-away] Iowa affiliate since 2000. “The budget has shrunk from $26 million to $1 million. There’s a trail of debt. . . . We believe, our board believes, any Christian organization has an obligation to pay its debts in a timely fashion.”<\/p>\n

At its peak a decade ago, the Christian Coalition deployed a dozen lobbyists on Capitol Hill. Today, it has a single Washington employee who works out of his home. Its phone number with a 202 area code is automatically forwarded to a small office in Charleston, S.C.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As to the underlying reason? Too much dependence on leaders (Pat Robertson and Rex Reed) who have since moved on, if not without a certain degree of notariety; lots of accrued debt (though it’s down from $4MM in the hole in 2001); the general “success” of conservative politics since the “dark days” of the Clinton presidency; and disputes over how well the CC served the core values of its constituency, how much its spokesmen strayed from orthodoxy and unifying, vs. dividing, conservative Christian themes.<\/p>\n

Despite Robertson’s denials, fellow conservative Christians viewed his 2001 CNN interview [supporting China’s one child policy] as a defense of forced abortions. “The Christian Coalition was already on life support. Robertson’s remarks probably mean its demise,” former Christian Coalition lobbyist Marshall Wittmann predicted at the time.<\/p>\n

In 2003, [Robertson’s successor] Roberta Combs defied conservative orthodoxy when she campaigned in Alabama in support of a state tax increase. Leaders of the Christian Coalition’s Alabama chapter said the national organization had “dramatically departed from a 13-year traditional core values platform.”<\/p>\n

Combs also drew charges of nepotism by hiring her daughter and son-in-law, Tracy E. Ammons, a schoolteacher who became a $6,000-a-month Senate lobbyist. When the couple divorced two years ago, he claimed that the Christian Coalition owed him $130,000 in unpaid salary.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Other, smaller organizations have arisen to fill the vacuum, but they don’t have the clout the CC once yielded.<\/p>\n

Which is, in my opinion, a good thing.<\/p>\n

(via Les<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Christian Coalition is threatened with extinction. What could be the reason? Evil satanic atheist secularist humanist Hollywood types, turning public opinion against them? 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