The Christian
(i.e. Republican)
Coalition gets
its partisanship
all in a row.

JAMES D. BESSER
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT

o be fair to the Christ-
ian Coalition, which
met in Washington
over Rosh Hashanah
for its Road to Victory
conference, the group is
only trying to do what
many Jewish groups
have done over the
years — apply their re-
ligious values in the po-
litical marketplace.

And they are doing so with
growing vigor and political so-
phistication; an all-star lineup of
political figures, from Republican
presidential candidate Bob Dole
to House Speaker Newt Gingrich,
came courting this week, a re-
sounding signal of the group's
status as a major political force,
not just a fringe player.
But the conference also illus-
trated what's wrong with the
Christian Coali-
tion, and what
Bob Dole:
scares so many
Came
Jews right down
courting.
to their socks.
Despite uncon-
vincing disclaimers, it was a
passionately partisan gath-
ering. That direct connection
between party politics and
specific religious views — the
unavoidable implication that
real Christians are obligated
to vote for a particular party,
while Democrats are the en-
emies of God — represents a
seismic shift in the national
political scene and a direct
threat to all religious minori-
ties.
On the positive side, this
week's gathering did little to
reinforce common stereotypes
of wild-eyed millennialists,
liberally lacing their politics
with apocalyptic visions of a

Newt Gingrich: Still hanging in.

nation about to go up in flames.
Most were ordinary middle
Americans — friendly, well in-
formed, interested in the affairs
of the nation but not fanatic.
Many seemed like they would
make good neighbors, the kind
you could depend on to contribute
to the neighborhood's welfare, be-
cause community is part of their
value system.
But the partisanship of the
convention, and the linkage be-
tween political party and moral
purity, was disturbingly explic-
it.
The speaker's roster included
a long list of House and Senate
leaders, every one of them Re-
publican, and other GOP lumi-
naries such as former presidential
candidate Pat Buchanan and talk
show host Oliver North. (Chris-
tian Coalition chairman Pat
Robertson insisted that President
Clinton was invited. But the
videoevangelist, himself a former
GOP presidential aspirant, was
also the man who called for divine
intervention in defeating Mr.
Clinton — not exactly a state-
ment designed to generate a pos-
itive RSVP.)
The only political figure not
from the Republican Party
was Reform Party candidate
Ross Perot, who was jeered
when he bragged of his role in

defeating former President
George Bush.
Ralph Reed, the group's exec-
utive director, introduced Mr.
Gingrich with these words:
"We feel we need to send a
message to the media, to the left
and to this nation that on Jan. 5,
1997, the man who will be stand-
ing at the speaker's rostrum in
the House of Representatives will
still be Newt Gingrich."
Then, he said with a perfect-
ly straight face, that his state-
ment didn't reflect partisanship.
So how is this different from
the Jewish groups that play the
political game in Washington —
usually in the service of liberal
causes?
The Jewish groups also com-
bine a strong religious and moral
framework with a distinct polit-
ical point of view; nobody is like-
ly to stumble into a Union of
American Hebrew Congregations
meeting or an American Jewish
Congress lobbying session and
come away with the impression
that these are a bunch of Gin-
grichites.
When it comes to a wide range
of domestic issues such as wel-
fare reform, abortion and civil
rights, Jewish organizations are
overwhelmingly allied with the
Democrats.

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