Freedom Writer - January 1995 [ref001] Concerned aboutConcerned Women for America By Julie

Freedom Writer - January 1995

[ref001]

Concerned aboutConcerned Women for America

By Julie Schollenberger

Concerned Women for America (CWA) held its 11th annual national convention 
 in mid-September, just two weeks after the Christian Coalition's 
Road to Victory conference.  

The Christian Coalition conference garnered much more media coverage 
and was much better attended, drawing 3,000 attendees compared with 
Concerned Women for America's 800, but the CWA conference was noteworthy 
in a number of respects, perhaps especially for the ways in which 
it echoed the messages of several of the other Religious Right conferences 
held during the last year. 

Concerned Women for America "seeks to preserve Judeo-Christian Values 
in law and public policy, to protect family rights, and to provide 
a voice for women who feel unrepresented by the feminist movement." 
The group gave its American Patriot Award to Jesse Helms for his "fights 
against liberalism, abortion and the homosexual agenda."

Some of the speakers at the CWA conference included:

_

Governor George Allen of Virginia, who pronounced his stand "against 
those who want to remake our children through such outrageous schemes 
as outcome-based education" and characterized welfare as "encouraging 
and promoting laziness and idleness."

Oliver North, who proved to be an alarmingly good speaker capable 
of stating his beliefs in relatively moderate terms. While stating 
that "we need God in America" and "we know every word in the Bible 
is true," he categorically denied any intention of imposing his religious 
beliefs on others if he were elected to the United States Senate. 
Strong support for North (who has since been defeated by Democratic 
opponent Charles Robb) was evident throughout the conference. 

Wilma Leftwich, who apprised the audience of her physical ailments, 
which include respiratory problems, spurs on her heels, and the fact 
she hears radio signals. She claimed that when she first discovered 
the international "one world government" plot, she became so sick 
she was flat on her back in the hospital. Leftwich revealed to her 
rapt audience that multicultural education, outcome-based education, 
and environmentalism were part of a worldwide plot which would abolish 
United States sovereignty and require Christians to renounce their 
faith in God. "They" (secular humanists, i.e., everyone who is not 
part of the Religious Right, including Christians who do not agree 
with the Religious Right's agenda) would reduce U.S. population by 
imposing a marriage tax and a child tax; implementing compulsory sterilization 
of all who have two children (except for a few who would be allowed 
to have three); requiring a certificate-type permit to have children; 
giving monetary compensation to encourage sterilization, abortion, 
and contraception; putting fertility control agents in the water supply; 
restructuring the family  ("this is where the feminist/socialist movement 
comes in"), and encouraging increased homosexuality ("this is of course 
where the gay rights movement comes in").

David Barton, who gave practically verbatim the same anti-separation 
of church and state speech he gave at the Christian Coalition's Road 
to Victory conference. (He also wore the same stars and stripes tie.) 
Barton went on to recapitulate the Christian Reconstructionist theory 
that the basis of our laws should be "whatever is Christian is legal. 
Whatever isn't Christian is illegal."

Dr. Lorraine Day, who claimed that "everything the government has 
told you about AIDS since 1981 is a lie, part of a plan to decrease 
population not only through abortion and birth control, but through 
disease." Day revealed that AIDS is transmitted through the air, in 
the course of casual contact (involving no exchange of bodily fluids), 
and even through contact with surfaces such as toilets for up to seven 
days after contamination. She went on to claim that HIV is a lot smaller 
than sperm and can permeate latex condoms. (The CDC has scientifically 
tested this possibility and refuted it, and the reduction in incidence 
of HIV among persons using condoms corroborates CDC findings. The 
possibility of condoms breaking is a different matter, and is the 
reason why the use of condoms is referred to as a safer sex, as opposed 
to safe sex, practice.) Dr. Day said that the only source of truth 
on this subject is _The_Washington_Times_ (which is owned by the Unification 
Church, whose adherents are popularly known as "Moonies"). Day's campaign 
of misinformation appears to be aimed at developing support for future 
mandatory testing and quarantine initiatives.

Dr. Richard Glasow, who extolled the evils of abortion generally, 
and of RU-486 in particular.

Senator Jesse Helms, who declared that "the great overwhelming majority 
of American women don't believe in 'secular' values. They believe 
the roles of mother and homemaker are important."

Josh McDowell, director of Campus Crusade for Christ. The gist of 
his speech was that the secular humanist view that moral values are 
not necessarily absolute is responsible for virtually every gruesome 
event reported on the nightly news.

Will Perkins, who organized Colorado's Amendment 2, which prohibits 
protecting gays, lesbians and bisexuals against discrimination in 
housing and employment. Perkins claimed that he has homosexual friends 
who fully approve of his efforts.

Jim Woodall, CWA's vice president of management, explained to his 
audience that there is a homosexual agenda and that agenda is a conspiracy 
to lay siege on people of faith and to close all churches which condemn 
homosexuality.  Woodall turned the majority of his speaking time over 
to Fred D. Vastine, "a scientist that's a believer" whose task was 
to convincingly refute the theory that homosexuality may be genetically 
determined. Vastine is a coal hydration specialist who works for ARCO.

Dennis Prager, a Jewish radio talk-show host and author who served 
to demonstrate that it is not exclusively Christians who compose the 
Religious Right, but some conservative Jews as well. Prager proclaimed 
that the fact that he was invited to speak was "proof of the intellectual 
openness of the Religious Right." (If intellectual openness is the 
reason CWA invited Prager to speak, I'm perplexed that they chose 
a Jewish presenter who, by Prager's own account, is believed by some 
of his radio talk-show audience to be a Christian. Prager describes 
the L.A. riots as evidence of "post-Christian America," and claims 
that "the blacks who saved peoples' lives were overwhelmingly identified 
as Christians, and the blacks who killed people were overwhelmingly 
secular." He did not cite any study to support this "fact." It would 
seem to me to be more "open minded" to invite as a speaker any one 
of the thousands of Jews who are identifiable as such and who do not 
share part and parcel CWA's views).

_

The Concerned Women for America conference demonstrated what had become 
apparent from several other Religious Right conferences held in the 
past year: virtually all of the Religious Right organizations work 
to further the same agenda, regardless of their proclaimed emphasis. 
The ultimate goal of many of the most powerful leaders of the Religious 
Right is the  "Christianization of America." That is precisely what 
makes the apparent willingness of some conservative and ultraconservative 
Jews to coalesce with the overwhelmingly Christian Religious Right 
so irrational. 

Julie Schollenberger is director of the Los Angeles-based Institute 
for the Study of the Religious Right. Founded in 1992, ISRR was formed 
to research and disseminate information about the activities of the 
Religious Right in the United States. For more information email [ref002]ISRR@aol.com.

[ref003][ref004] Return to table of contents 

Copyright 1995 IFAS
The Freedom Writer / ifas@crocker.com

[ref001] ../banner.gif
[ref002] mailto:isrr@aol.com
[ref003] index.html
[ref004] ../../uparrow.gif

        This file is copywritten by the Institute for First
        Amendment Studies.

        Subscribe to The Freedom Writer and Walk Away news
        letters by writing to or telephoneing the Institute
        for First Amendment Studies:

        Post Office Box 589
        Great Barrington, Massachusetts.  01230
        Telephone: (413) 528-3800
        E-Mail: ifas@crocker.com
        Web page: http://www.crocker.com/~ifas