Freedom Writer - September 1995 [ref001] By Liz Gore I spent five summer days with crowds

Freedom Writer - September 1995

[ref001]

By Liz Gore

I spent five summer days with crowds of well-behaved evangelists who 
gathered in Denver, intent upon reaffirming their "commitment to Jesus 
Christ, who alone can bring stability to our homes and to our nations." 
These stability-seekers came from far and wide to convene the International 
Congress on the Family, another high-tech zeal-inspiring event made 
possible by Focus on the Family, one of the largest and wealthiest 
Religious Right organizations in the country. Co-sponsored by the 
American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC), approximately 
2,500 conservative Christians attended, 97% of whom were from the 
United States. The majority were practicing counselors — psychologists, 
ministers, crisis pregnancy center staff, etc. A well-orchestrated 
showcase for polished pandering and canned charisma, the event brought 
the likes of James Dobson, Bill Bennett, Kay James, and Phil Gramm 
to center stage.

Enthusiastic and eager, many attendees told me they were drawn by 
the opportunity to experience the affirming camaraderie of like-minded 
Christians. As mental health professionals, AACC members are out to 
convince believers and non-believers alike that the path to emotional 
health is to be found in finding Christ. In attending to the difficult 
task of guiding patient-clients toward Biblical enlightenment, it 
seems Christian counselors often feel isolated among their less-blessed 
secular peers. "Psychology has half of the equation," they say. "Christian 
counselors have the other half." 

Conference-goers were motivated by at least one reactionary truism: 
Christianity and the family are institutions under attack.  The consensus, 
underscored at every rhetorical turn, was painfully familiar. Judeo-Christian 
civility is being eroded by a cancerous litany of anti-family forces, 
including sex addiction, rap music, feminism, communism, single mothers, 
inattentive fathers, suicidal generation X-ers, academics with deconstructionist 
tendencies, homosexuals, and anyone perceived to undermine parental 
authority. 

Participants chose from over 100 workshops conducted on such topics 
as sexuality, contemporary Christian thought, and social issues. Among 
the offerings were seminars like "Cult-proofing Our Children and Families," 
"Making Anger Work for You and Your Family," "AIDS: America's Tainted 
Sexuality," and "Family Public Policy: Can It Be Christian?"  

Most seminars were strategy sessions for strong marriages and God-centered 
families. I scribbled lots of notes, intent to share Religious Right 
secrets with my progressive friends who are ill-informed about practical 
applications of  moral absolutism.   Here are a few excerpts: 1) feminists 
who challenge Biblical manhood are attempting to "wash away 2,000 
years of scholarship,"  2) the problem with gays and lesbians is that 
they are unable to enjoy the "transformative experience of parental 
love," 3) single mothers are guilty of an "utterly pernicious dismissal" 
of their children's fathers, and 4) the women behind the UN Conference 
for Women in Beijing are after nothing less than the "total destruction 
of gender and the family."

As the days went on, a subtext of Christian militancy reared its spite-filled 
head. While preaching that salvation lies in resisting "Wrong" for 
the (Biblical) "Right," speakers warned of the evils of tolerance. 
This oft-repeated equation sanctifies easy condemnation of discomforting 
social 'ills' like divorce, homosexuality, single motherhood and welfare. 


An unusual instance of discord surfaced on day two of the conference. 
When Phil Gramm's 'surprise' appearance yielded a predictable anti-choice, 
anti-welfare, anti-NEA diatribe, some listeners were offended, apparently 
unimpressed by Gramm's  unsolicited recitation of unflinching partisanship. 
James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family, apologized to all 
the following day, confessing he had not realized Gramm's speech would 
be 'so political.'  

The seminars, held in small groups of 15 to 250 people, were punctuated 
by more politically-charged plenary sessions attended en masse. Keynote 
speakers extolled the imperative that conservative Christian ideology 
be expounded beyond the homefront to the public policy arena.  

Among the most well-received were former drug czar and Secretary of 
Education William Bennett; former professional pro-lifer Kay Cole 
James, currently the Secretary of Health and Human Resources of Virginia; 
and Slovenian preacher and professor Peter Kuzmic. 

William Bennett's opening address provided an excellent lesson in 
contemporary conservative resistance to social change. At the heart 
of our collective troubles, Bennett inveighed, is a pervasive  uncritical 
acceptance of 'modernity.' Popular culture and its vehicle, television, 
have inculcated in vulnerable viewers a dangerous desire for happiness. 
Shortsighted, this pleasure quest has numbed our intellectualism, 
distracted our youth from pursuit of God's will, and resulted in moral 
devolution of tragic proportion. 

It doesn't sound all bad, does it? Bennett's much-touted aversion 
to exploitation by advertising and entertainment corporations is hardly 
objectionable. But in addition to television and Time Warner, he took 
special care to include public education among his hit-list of nihilism-infected 
enemies of virtue. Schools, he says, harbor educators who breed immorality 
by encouraging collectivism, exhorting kids to have sex, and undermine 
parental authority along the way. The  battle is over culture, and 
the war is a civil one. Bennett's praise for Ronald Reagan underscored 
his belief that the public sector is enemy territory.   

Fashioning a self-styled irony that defies analysis, Kay James used 
her personal experience as a government official to affirm Bennett's 
contention that solving social problems is not the purview of Uncle 
Sam. Enchanting the crowd with anecdotes of public sector ineptness, 
she proclaimed that the proper role for Christians is to "keep the 
government from doing any harm." In their efforts to eliminate poverty 
and racism, James explained, liberal policy makers of the last 30 
years  have actually caused America's urban decline and social disconnectedness. 
To substantiate her case, she invoked examples of the "unintended 
consequences of...misguided compassion." The eternal beneficence of 
the welfare state, James proffered, offers single women an immoral 
incentive to give birth.  Herself a survivor who once benefited from 
public assistance, she condemned 'other' welfare recipients for their 
 chronic self-perceptions of victimhood. 

The world according to Kay James may amount to little more than skillful 
scapegoating, but at least it sounds familiar. The award for politicized 
evangelism with the most shock value goes to  Peter Kuzmic, visiting 
professor of theology at Wheaton College in Illinois. The sole international 
keynote speaker at this 'international' congress, Kuzmic explained 
 that the relentless hell-torn atrocity of Bosnia has been needlessly 
compounded by a global dearth of morally-fortified political leadership. 
Devising an end to the chaos, he exalted, is the natural province 
of the "last remaining superpower." The U.S. must demonstrate the 
courage to redefine its global mission in order to rightfully assume 
an expanded position of leadership, he pleaded. As members of the 
"international family of God," evangelicals are summoned into the 
political fray to ensure against a triumph of secular priorities. 
 "There is much discussion about the First Amendment," Kuzmic declared. 
"What about the first commandment?" 

Kuzmic left little doubt that his New World Order epiphanies are the 
product of divine inspiration. God's loyalties lie with the United 
States and not with the United Nations, he preached, declaring the 
UN unfit as an "effective instrument of peace and justice in the world." 
It was  God's hand that destroyed communism, Kuzmic assured, the same 
hand that now offers the opportunity for global salvation. The triumph 
of capitalism has brought a much-guarded respite from communism's 
relentless persecution of Christians, he relayed. Evangelism is free 
to flourish as never before. 

Kuzmic's rallying cry for the Christianization of the world  is unabashedly 
imperialist. The moral of his story is that conservative Christians 
are called to reap the harvest of a miraculous convergence: the interests 
of God and the interests of the United States are one. 

James and Kuzmic warned their listeners that heeding the call for 
participation in the public policy process presents great challenges. 
The political arena is "no place for wimps and whiners," James touted. 
Kuzmic's resolve to ready his missionaries took a more militant tone. 
"Do not retreat! Do not flee!" he ordered, declaring  "Our God is 
a global God!" American evangelists must move "away from the mirror 
and...over to the window," he harkened, his thick Slovenian accent 
swelled with the authority of a self-appointed exile determined to 
halt the "radical secularization" of his homeland. 

While the foot soldiers of the Radical Right may feel daunted by the 
burdens of theocratic activism, consolation  for the  politically 
weary abounds. In conformity-minded forums like the one I attended, 
just about anything can be appropriated to fortify the righteousness 
of followers who fault the separation between church and state for 
what they see as America's epidemic of moral decline. The inspiring 
words of Gary Collins, president of the American Association of Christian 
Counselors, are a case in point. 

"Research, history, scripture, and common sense are on our side," 
he shouted to a crowd already primed for an exaltation of applause. 
 "We don't have to defend what we stand for!"

_Liz_Gore_is_a_research_associate_for_the_Institute_for_the_Study_
of_the_Religious_Right_in_Los_Angeles,_California._

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