http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1506&ncid=703&e=7&u=/afp/20040902/ts_alt_afp/us_vote_republicans
Christian right keeps low key at Republican gala
NEW YORK (AFP) -
While God and gospel feature high on the Republican party's convention
agenda, the most vocal apostles of US evangelical activism are keeping
firmly out of the spotlight.
Each session of the four-day meeting is opened with a religious
invocation, its speech schedules are punctuated with a heady mix of
gospel, Christian and country music and they are ended with a prayer.
There has even been a row over whether the party deliberately chose a
podium marked with a subliminal cross made from lighter-coloured wood
for its Madison Square Garden venue.
Officials have denied the claim.
But the religious stalwarts mobilised to appeal to the party's core at
previous party conventions, such as television preachers Jerry Falwell
and Pat Robertson, are notably absent from the speakers' podium.
They have been replaced by a string of socially moderate politicians
like movie star-turned-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Senator John McCain and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.
"The image the party wants to present to the public is one of
moderation, so they have kept evangelicals and as well as the
anti-gay, anti-choice and pro-gun elements of their base, well off the
prime time screen," said Professor Marty Kaplan of the University of
Southern California.
Reports quoted Robertson, founder of the conservative Christian
Coalition and a former presidential candidate, as saying the party was
deliberately trying to keep him away.
His office did not respond to requests for comment.
But while the vanguard of the organized religious right did not take
to the convention stage, there was no shortage of conservative
Christians among the 4,800 delegates and thousands of guests here.
"The party is aggressively working its evangelical base in meetings
closed to the press, in e-mails and other means which they hope will
not seep out into the general public," communications expert Kaplan
said.
On Tuesday, the Bush campaign organized an invitation-only "Family,
Faith and Freedom" rally attended by hundreds of faithful who have
been holding their own private prayer meetings away from the
convention centre.
And the religious theme permeating the official proceedings is
intended to reassure Christians that Bush and the party are pursuing
their interests even if they aren't showing it on stage.
"They are using the symbols and trappings of conservative religion
like singing Amazing Grace and God Bless America to signify to their
religious right allies that they haven't forgotten them," said Scott
Thumma, an expert on evangelical religion at Hartford Seminary in
Connecticut.
Evangelical Christians insisted that they did not feel marginalised by
the lack of attention threatened by the parade of speakers who support
issues such as abortion and gay rights which they abhor.
Falwell, who has been on the convention floor since its start Monday,
said he supported the party's decision to reach out for independent
and undecided voters who were not seduced by its right wing.
"Dr Falwell and the social conservatives here are already decided and
committed and are firmly in the president's camp," Ron Goodwin, of
Falwell's ministry, told AFP.
"He and other leaders like him in evangelical circles fully support
the idea of putting speakers on the stand that speak to undecided and
moderate voters rather than to the committed. We are pragmatic."
Other Christian groups and conservative delegates, including the
Christian Coalition from which Roberts resigned in 2001, agreed,
saying they were confident that their cause was safe with Bush in
power.
"The speakers at the convention might be moderate, but the party
platform has changed little since 2001 and is very strong on Christian
family values," said Christian Coalition's Michele Ammons.
She said her group did not feel any need for evangelical Christians to
be represented heavily on stage because between 40 and 45 percent of
the delegates were members or supporters of the Christian coalition.
"There is no need for us to drive home our point here," said
Traditional Values Coalition chairman, the Reverend Lou Sheldon.
"Our priority is to get George W. Bush re-elected because he is our
best representative, one who is leading America's Christian revival."
____________________________________________________________
"The mission of the Christian Coalition is simple. It is to mobilize
Christians -- one precinct at a time, one community at a time -- until
once again we are the head and not the tail, and at the top rather
than the bottom of our political system. The Christian Coalition will
be the most powerful political force in America by the end of this
decade. We have enough votes to run this country...and when the people
say, 'We've had enough,' we're going to take over!"
--Pat Robertson
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