Christian Coalition
P.O. Box 1990
Chesapeake, VA 23320
(804) 424-2630
Founder and President: Pat Robertson
Executive Director: Ralph Reed
Date of founding: 1989
Activities: The Christian Coalition's central goals are two: to take working control of the Republican party by working from the grassroots up; and electing "Christian candidates" to public office. The group has had considerable success in both areas, claiming control at several state Republican central committees and winning election to public office for Christian Coalition members and endorsees.
The Christian Coalition distributed 33 million voter guides for 1994 general election. The Christian Coalition claims to have approximately one million "pro-family voters" in its voter files.
The group has also focused on other issues such as defunding the National Endowment for the Arts, campaigning against gay rights and opposing equal rights for women, including reproductive freedom. Through its legal arm, the American Center for Law and Justice, it has filed numerous church-state lawsuits. In the fall of 1995 the Christian Coalition launched the Catholic Alliance in an attempt to boost its membership among "pro-family" Catholics.
Membership: About 1.7 million members.
State chapters: 2,000 across the United States.
Publications: Christian American (bimonthly newspaper with 700,000 subscribers) and Religious Rights Watch.
TV: Pat Robertson's "700 Club" has about 7 million viewers every week.. Additionally, the group now has an hour-long satellite television show, "Christian Coalition Live." The first half-hour of the show is broadcast over National Empowerment Television (NET is run by the Free Congress Foundation). The second half of the program, available only by subscription, is a closed forum meeting focusing on legislative strategy.
Finances: The Christian Coalition is a 501(c)(4) organization, and is therefore, partially tax-exempt; it can lobby, but cannot endorse candidates. The Christian Coalition's budget is about $27 million.
Staff: 50
Quotes from Pat Robertson:
"The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians." (Pat Robertson direct mail, Summer 1992)
"We want...as soon as possible to see a majority of the Republican Party in the hands of pro-family Christians by 1996." (Denver Post, 10/26/92)
"I believe that during the next couple of years there will be a fierce struggle between the militant leftists, secular humanists, and atheists who have dominated the power centers of American culture for the past 50 years and the Evangelical Christians, pro-family Roman Catholics, and their conservative allies. The radical left will lose its hold, and by the end of this decade control of the major institutions of society will be firmly in the hands of those who share a pro-family, religious, traditional value perspective." (Pat Robertson's Perspective, July - August/1991)
On South Africa: "Again I think 'one man one vote,' just unrestricted democracy would not be wise. There needs to be some kind of protection for the minority which the white people represent now, a minority, and they need and have a right to demand a protection of their rights . . . ." (700 Club, 3/18/92)Quotes from Ralph Reed:
On the Coalition's election plan in San Diego, CA: "It's like guerilla warfare. If you reveal your location, all it does is allow your opponent to improve his artillery bearings. It's better to move quietly, with stealth, under cover of night. You've got two choices: You can wear cammies and shimmy along on your belly, or you can put on a red coat and stand up for everyone to see. It comes down to whether you want to be the British army in the Revolutionary War or the Viet Cong. History tells us which tactic was more effective." (Los Angeles Times, 3/22/92)
On election strategy: I want to be invisible. I do guerilla warfare. I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag." (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 11/9/91)
"We tried to charge Washington when we should have been focusing on the states. The real battles of concern to Christians are in neighborhoods, school boards, city councils and state legislatures." (Washington Post, 3/14/90)7/96
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