The Rebirth Of Ralph Reed

courage, unbelievable adversity and
unfathomable pain." He mentioned
his trip to Israel in January 1994, and
described a visit to Yad Vashem as the
most moving experience" of his trip.
At the same time, Reed defended
the Christian Coalition and religious
conservatives, though taking care to
emphasize that "the Christian
Coalition believes in a nation ...
where the separation of church and
state is complete and inviolable."
"I felt that it was an opportunity
for someone from the Christian com-
munity to say, 'I understand what
you feel, and I understand your fears,
and I'm not dismissive of them,"' he
says today. That was something that
needed to be said."
For his part, Foxman says, "If he had
asked us to write the speech, I don't
think we could have written it better."
Many found Reed's pragmatic
statements at odds with Robertson's
fundamentalist declarations.
Reed, though acknowledging that
evangelicals' talk — like Robertson's —
occasionally rubs Jews the wrong way,
remains a staunch defender of his for-
mer boss. In Active Faith, he calls
Robertson one of the dearest and most
reliable friends of Israel and the Jewish
people ... If [he] is an anti-Semite, he is
the most bizarre and cynical anti-
Semite ever known to man." Reed
views Robertson as a man who has
donated large sums of money to Jewish
charities, denounced David Duke and
Louis Farrakhan, and lobbied Congress
"like the committed Zionist he is."
After the ADL address, Reed spoke
at other Jewish gatherings. A month
later, he was the featured guest at the
annual meeting of the American
Jewish Committee.
Rabbi James Rudin, the AJC's
director of interreligious affairs, had
been both a partner and opponent of
Reed's. "He was a formidable ally on
Israel, a formidable adversary on
domestic issues," he says.
The meeting was "contentious, in
the AJC fashion," chuckles Rudin.
Ironically, the strongest criticisms came
from Rev. James M. Dunn, executive
director of the Baptist Joint Committee
on Public Affairs. The Baptist Joint
Committee, which opposes school
prayer and is strongly committed to
the separation of church and state,
accounts for about 20 million of the
nation's 30 million Baptists, according
to Dunn. The major holdout: the
Southern Baptist Convention, from
which the Christian Coalition has
drawn much of its strength. A Texan
with a penchant for bluntness, Dunn

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1999

32 D?ttGit,Jemsh_l\levys,

says, "Reed made a speech so saccha-
rine nobody could fuss about it."
Overall, however, Rudin says the
AJC meeting went fairly well. "I think
we had what Martin Luther King
would have called 'creative tension,'"
he says. "Our place pushed [Reed] a
little more on his beliefs, and he was
questioned more critically."
"He's not an enemy of the Jewish
people; he's someone to listen to,"
Foxman says now. He has the
courage to meet you halfway. ...
Ralph passionately believes in his
truth. He advocates his truth. But he
has an appreciation for other truths.
That's a major, major difference when
you're dealing with true believers."

organizations support Israel because a
modern state of Israel is necessary for the
I .ast Days and the return of Jesus Christ.

Leaving The Coalition

In 1997, Ralph Reed left the Christian
Coalition. Much has been made of his
departure, but in Active Faith — pub-
lished the previous year — Reed wrote:
"[I]f they are to be taken seriously, peo-
ple of faith must do more than rock
the boat and panic the establishment.
They must exhibit a seasoned capacity
and an enthusiasm for governance,
coalition building, and working within
a political party that stands on the
brink of long-term majority status."
Mark Silk, for one, thinks this

Ralph Reed And Israel

eed has visited Israel twice: the first time in early 1994, and the second this
year. The first trip, not long after the Oslo accords, was sponsored by the
Jerusalem Post, Reed describes it as a chance "to get to know the country" But it
was also a chance for him to meet Israeli politicians, particularly those of the
Likud political party, whose ties to the religious right go back to the Ronald
Reagan years. Reed acknowledges that he has "the closest affinity" with Likud.
Reed says the influx of American political advisers — James Carville for
new Prime Minister Ehud Barak; Arthur Finkelstein for Binyamin Netanyahu
— into Israel, "certainly seems to have brought Israeli politics of age.
"Party organization and party mobilization are still more important in Israel
than media and polling," Reed adds. "Look, I met with Netanyahu in '94 and he
said they would pass these accords, I guess it was Oslo, and that somebody is
going to blow up a bus or blow up a restaurant -- that's exactly what happened.
And, as a result of security fears, he won. And then he lost because he agreed to
the:Wye Accords, which helped implode his conservative base. So I don't know
that [political advisers] really affected the outcome of either election."
As for Barak, who is now extending the promised olive branch, Reed shrugs.
"I recognize that Barak - won and won pretty strongly, and if without
compromising Israeli security — if he can accelerate the peace process and
bring about an end to the killing, I'm certainly supportive of that." ❑

— Todd Leopold

Marshall Wittmann, a Jewish lob-
byist who is now director of congres-
sional relations at the right-wing
Heritage Foundation, worked as the
Christian Coalition's chief lobbyist.
The only problems he had being a
Jew in the Coalition, he says, came
from his own family and friends.
"I often tell people that it was the
only job I ever had where my
employer sent me Rosh HaShana
cards," he says with a laugh. "Ralph
particularly understood some of the
stresses I faced in my own personal
life because I was a Jew working for
the Christian Coalition."
If the Christian Coalition and Jewish
organizations didn't agree on much, they
did agree on one item: a strong Israel,
though even here there has been cause
for concern. A number of Christian

conciliatory attitude effectively trig-
gered Reed's departure. Others say he
felt it was time to move onto a bigger
playing field, without the inherent
constraints of fringe politics.
Reed agrees: "I was ready for a new
professional challenge."
In Reed's absence, the Christian
Coalition has declined. Newsweek
magazine reported that Robertson lent ,
the organization $1 million last year
— and in June the Internal Revenue
Service revoked the organization's tax-
exempt status. The IRS is seeking
more than $300,000 in back taxes.
The Christian Coalition's relation-
ships with Jewish groups also have
cooled. Foxman, for one, says he
"misses Ralph's presence and leader-
ship" and that he hasn't really con-
nected with the group since Reed left.

In his book .Reed mpg The' Tole ,of
a series of grass-roots religious-political
movements in American history His
old Emory adviser, Dan Carter, notes
that the Christian Coalition is squarely
in this tradition. The Coalition
says, "is another '44iithglottaini of
resistance movements w_aich lave
sprung up in response to the stresses of
modernization and the secularization
of American society ... The problem, is
that, to me at least, the movement has ,
all too often focused on `the ,wrong tar- IN\
gets ("liberals," gays,' etc.) while failing
to challenge ... the taproot of our Spiri-
tual malaise and civil decline: mindless
consumerism, laissez-faire economics
and unfettered capitalism."
As Reed notes in his book, the
impact of these groups may be pro-
found, but the seeds of decline are
often sown in their success.
Reed created his political consult-
ing firm, Century Strategies, just after
leaving the Coalition. The firm ended
up running 22 campaigns for office
in a dozen states. Not surprisingly the
incumbents did well, but overall Reed
broke even in 1998, a year in which
Democrats did better than expected.
Democratic political consultant
Mark Mellman suggests Reed is dis-
covering the political game is a lot
more difficult from the outside.
"He was an extraordinarily success-
ful leader of the Christian Coalition,"
Mellman says. "But, I think he's having
more trouble electing people to office
because he's on the wrong side of sub-
stantive issues from most Americans."
Reed has gotten an early jump on
the 2000 presidential =campaign by
becoming an unofficial adviser — "I
help him and support him," Reed
says — to Texas Gov. George W.
Bush. "Gov. Bush is a unifying figure,
not only for the Republican party but
for the nation, and therefore he is
attracting support across the spec-
trum of our party," Reed says.
Reed says the Jewish community
would be very comfortable with Bush
as president, despite his declaration
years ago that only those who accept
Jesus will go to heaven.
"I think Gov. Bush will make it
clear that while he believes that faith
plays a role in our public life, that he
doesn't wish to use his office or the
government to impose his religion on<
anybody else," Reed says.
Whether Ralph Reed will be one of
the individuals shaping Bush's cam-
paign — or as he imagined not so long
ago, this nation's agenda — remains to
be seen. The real question is whether
he will be able to remake himself