Bill Berkowitz
March 9, 2006

The coming crack up in the Christian Right: Fact or fiction?

Focus on the Family's Dr. James Dobson calls for civil debate after being attacked by evangelical brethren

Focus on the Family's Dr. James Dobson was recently roughed up for supporting legislation that some on the right have charged is too "gay-friendly." When more than 80 highly respected evangelical leaders signed onto the Evangelical Climate Initiative -- a campaign recognizing that global warming is a serious threat to the planet -- they were blasted for cavorting with the enemy. And even the Rev. Pat Robertson -- once considered untouchable by his Christian right colleagues -- has gotten cuffed around by former close associates over a string of controversial commentaries he's made over the past several months.

Is the Christian conservative movement heading for a crack up? Or, are right-wing watchers making much ado about much too little?

Dr. Dobson, the founder of the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based Focus on the Family (website), a multi-million dollar mega-media ministry, received heat from Christian conservatives who accused him of being soft on gays because he had expressed support for a bill in the Colorado state legislature making it easier for non-traditional partners to share certain benefits.

Brannon Howse, the President of the American Family Policy Institute, and the host of a weekly radio broadcast heard over 225 Christian stations, was one of a number of Christian conservatives who were critical of the signers of the Evangelical Climate Initiative. Howse penned a column for Conservative Worldview Network accusing the 80-plus evangelical leaders who signed the call to action of being in league with "pro-abortion, pro-same-sex marriage, globalist foundations."

In an interview with Marvin Olasky, the Rev. Pat Robertson, bristling from ongoing criticism from leading Christian conservatives over his controversial comments, both defended himself as well as admitted that he had recently hired an experienced newsman to sanitize his comments.

Dobson defends Dobson

In an article posted on Renew America (website), the website of former presidential hopeful and failed Illinois Republican Senatorial candidate Alan Keyes, Dobson was taken to the woodshed for supporting Colorado Senate Bill 166. The bill -- authored by conservative legislators as an alternative to a more liberal civil union bill -- "would help streamline the process by which unmarried people who cannot legally marry each other can share certain benefits--such as powers of attorney, the right to make medical decisions or end-of-life decisions," CitizenLink reported.

The critical column, written by Andrew Longman, suggested that perhaps the bill should be called the "Dobson Gay Valentine Surprise?"

Upset and unnerved by what CitizenLink characterized as "sharp, vitriolic criticism...from some within the conservative Christian community," Dobson issued a sharp rebuttal to Longman on his radio program, and appeared on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" to set the record straight.

DOBSON: There is, here in Colorado, a bill to create civil unions for homosexuals. We think that's a very bad idea. And, yet, the Democrats in the state legislature have the majority in both houses. And this could very easily pass. We're very much opposed to it.

In contrast, there's another bill that our conservative legislators have asked us to support--and we agree with it--which is not based on sexual behavior. It's based on human need. So, if you have two sisters who are 80 or 82 years of age, they can get benefits. They can authorize medical care for one another. Or a grandfather and a retarded child, or any combination thereof in the state can get benefits. It's not based on homosexuality...

O'REILLY: But it's the same thing--it's the same bill, it just takes the sexual description out of the bill. Correct?

DOBSON: It's not the same thing. See, Bill, contrary to the propaganda that's out there, we believe in equality under the law. And we don't believe that you set aside people and not allow them the same benefits. But homosexuality is not mentioned in S.B. 166 at all because...you can't qualify for it by sexuality.

Keyes was the first to apologize to Dobson. "Whatever the merits of the arguments Mr. Longman intended to present," Keyes wrote, "the piece was extremely disrespectful to Dr. Dobson personally, and characterized by ad hominem sarcasm that was un-Christian and deeply offensive."

"I hold Dr. Dobson in high esteem," Keyes continued, "and I believe that he always acts conscientiously, with a heartfelt commitment to the cause of moral decency and principle. We have not, and may not, always agree on every issue, but we agree in our love of God and our respect for one another. Mr. Longman's piece utterly disregarded this community of mutual faith and respect, and this I repudiate and unequivocally condemn."

Longman also issued an apology to both Keyes and Dobson:

I must state forthrightly that my remarks in a recent column regarding a Colorado Senate bill and Dr. James Dobson are fully and completely my own imagination and rendering. It would be impossible for me to represent the particular thoughts of Dr. Alan Keyes in that I have not exchanged any substantial dialog with Dr. Keyes ever. Previous writings of mine have been in a distinctly different stream.

Dr. Keyes has openly and forcefully rebuked me. Holding him in the utmost regard, I can do little else except accept his judgment, recognize my fault for personally attacking Dr. Dobson, and repent.

It is a great sadness to me today that I have been a detriment to the good cause and not an advancement. I apologize most profusely to Dr. Dobson, to Dr. Keyes, and to the community of believers at large for allowing angry passion to motivate personal remarks, rather than keeping a discussion firmly based in ideas. The ideas are very important, and I have drawn focus away from them through poor sportsmanship, and I am sorry.

I do request your forgiveness.

In Christ,

Andrew Longman

"You would think that people who would purport to be on our side would at least call us," Tom Minnery, senior vice president of government and public policy at Focus on the Family Action, said. "We often get calls from hostile secular reporters; we often don't like what they write about us, but at least they call. (Our) friends, however, did not. They jumped to conclusions and went wild with it. This thing has crossed the Internet, and a lot of Focus on the Family listeners have read these things and are calling here."

According to CitizenLink, "Dobson accepted Keyes' apology, but said what was most troubling about the article in question, as well as other recent attacks, is the fact that it came from within the family of God. Criticism from the outside world has been a staple for the last 30 years, he said, but not criticism from the inside.

Dobson told listeners to his "Focus on the Family" radio program that his "integrity means more to me than my life. And that's what's being assaulted here." On February 18, 2006, the "Focus on the Family" daily radio broadcast received a media award for "Best Radio Talk Show" from the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) organization, the nation's largest association of Christian communicators. According to the FOTF website, Dobson hosts the "Focus on the Family" radio program, which is "heard on more than 2,000 U.S. radio facilities by over 1.5 million listeners daily."

The blog Sadly, No! reported that Longman had been "banned" by Renew America, and now it appears that all of Longman's articles have been removed from the site.

Evangelicals sell out to liberal foundations?

According to Brannon Howse, the president and founder of Worldview Weekend -- America's largest Christian worldview conference -- many of those who signed onto the Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI) are:

"Christian leaders who would rarely, if ever, take a stand publicly on moral issues, like abortion and homosexuality. However, now they are leading a crusade that is making national headlines on what is not only a 'political' issue but an issue adored by members of the secular left like former Vice-President Al Gore and Hollywood's wackiest."

Some of the evangelicals who signed onto the ECI statement called Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action include Rick Warren, author of Purpose-Driven Life and pastor at Saddleback Church; Senior Pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, MN and former National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) president Leith Anderson; World Vision president Rich Stearns; Salvation Army national commander Todd Bassett; Christianity Today editor David Neff and executive editor Timothy George; and Wheaton College president Duane Litfin.

"In January of 2006," Howse wrote, "twenty evangelical leaders wrote a letter to the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Ted Haggard, urging him not to adopt 'any official position' on global climate change because 'Bible-believing evangelicals...disagree about the cause, severity and solutions to the global warming issue.'"

Those who signed the letter to Haggard include Charles Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries; James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family; the Rev. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries; the Rev. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention; Rev. Donald Wildmon, chairman of the American Family Association; and the Rev. Louis Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition.

Howse argued that while "It is bad...that so many 'evangelical' environmental extremists have infected our churches, colleges, universities and evangelicalism with their liberal brand of Christianity but now they want to damage America's free enterprise system by making it difficult for business to compete in the world market place?"

In addition to being wrong on the science, the ECI signatories are committing a worse offense, Howse charged. "According to the New York Times," Howse reported, "the group's efforts are being funded by such liberal organizations as the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Hewlett Foundation. The Rockefeller Brother's Fund has given grants to such radical environmental groups as Greenpeace. Let's not forget that it was the Rockefellers that donated the land and formed the United Nations."

Robertson digs in

In the aftermath of statements calling for the assassination of Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's democratically elected president -- a comment he quasi-apologized for and then apparently reiterated a few months later on the Fox News Channel; warning the people of Dover, Pennsylvania that God would not be there for them in the case of a natural disaster because of a judge's ruling that the teaching of "intelligent design" was not in the best interests of area students; and claiming that Ariel Sharon's stroke was retribution from God for him having been to generous to the Palestinians with Israel's land, Pat Robertson has decided to seek professional help.

If criticism of Robertson had only been coming from the usual suspects -- the ACLU, Americans for Separation for Church and State, People for The American Way, and the "liberal" media -- Robertson would likely be trumpeting it on his daily "700 Club" program.

But critical comments from longtime allies and supporters appear to have shaken the veteran televangelist, businessperson and political operative. In an interview with Marvin Olasky, the Editor In Chief of World Magazine (website)--a weekly evangelical news magazine -- Robertson responded to a statement from one of his closest comrades. After Robertson's comments about Sharon, Southern Baptist Convention leader Richard Land said that he was "both stunned and appalled that Pat Robertson would claim to know the mind of God concerning whether particular tragic events, such as...Sharon's stroke, were the judgments of God. Pat Robertson should know better."

A contrary, but steadfast Robertson told Olasky that Sharon was "doing something that violates God's will....All I'm doing as a faithful Bible teacher is teaching the Bible. And if Dr. Land doesn't believe the Bible, I'm sorry. That's his problem."

While Robertson admitted that he sometimes goes overboard -- "They say when a big ship goes through the water it makes waves, and I'm sure I've made waves. I've said stupid things" -- the ever-attuned entrepreneur told Olasky that his "biggest regret is that I didn't buy Channel 13 in Seattle when I could have gotten it for $165,000. I had it cleared through the FCC, and I turned down the offer. I kick myself for that."

Instead of these being Robertson's "diamond days," Robertson was recently forced to withdraw as the main speaker at the closing banquet of the National Religious Broadcasters convention.

In order to at least slow down his predilection for controversial off-the-cuff comments on the news, Robertson recently hired a former news producer from "Good Morning America." "I didn't use to review the news. Now prior to the air we go over the news stories....I'm going to have an earpiece in my ear...He's going to be whispering in my ear. ...He's going to be in the control room. As the news comes up, (he'll say), 'Why don't you say this, why don't you suggest this, let's discuss this.'"

According to Olasky, "At the heart of some of Robertson's disputes with other Christians is a theological difference. All evangelicals believe that God answers prayer (although often not as we might choose) and speaks to us through the Bible. Robertson, like some other charismatics, believes that God speaks to him directly 'all the time.'"

Robertson explained it to Olasky: "It's not conceited. We ask for leading....God did speak to me directly concerning (Regent) University [his law school], and it was real simple. He said, 'I want you to buy the land and build a school for My glory.'...You read Jeremiah. He said, 'The word of the Lord came to me.'...You read the Torah, 'The word of the Lord came to Moses,' 'The Lord said to Moses, tell the people.' The Lord spoke to Joshua. The Lord spoke to David."

Let the healing begin

In the aftermath of the Dobson bashing, CitizenLink asked Joey Cope, the executive director of the Center for Conflict Resolution at Abilene Christian University, how Christians should conduct themselves when they disagree with their colleagues on important matters.

While disagreements were to be expected, Cope acknowledged, they should not result in personal attacks: "Rather than take the time to deal with the (real issues) in a conflict and unwrap what's really going on," he said, "we often, instead, turn to personal attack and we dismiss the person out of hand--(when we should) we can introduce them to the message of reconciliation--which is the whole message of the Gospel."

At this time, it's clear that dragging Dr. James Dobson through the mud -- whose position as a movement leader is unquestionable -- will exact a heavy price. However, the anger expressed by some Christian evangelicals at those who signed the Evangelical Climate Initiative may be an indication that significant change is brewing; that a new wave of more media savvy, and politically flexible evangelical leaders are beginning to stake their claim on leadership of the movement.

Robertson's case is vastly different in that his critics appear mainly concerned that the televangelist has become a public relations nightmare.

Some Christian right watchers have argued that these tip-of-the-iceberg incidents are indicative of widening cracks in the movement, cracks that could threaten its hegemony over the Republican Party. One can also read recent events as the natural evolution/outgrowth of a 25-plus year-old political movement that is experiencing serious growing pains which bring out petty jealousies and feuds and sometimes result in a changing of the guard.

At this juncture it is difficult to say whether any of these mini-brouhahas will permanently injure the Christian conservative movement, and threaten its chokehold on the GOP. Will Dobson's critics heed his call for "civil debate" amongst comrades, or will they continue the vitriol? In the meantime, while this is playing itself out, don't rush to toss your Focus on the Family coffee mug and Pat Robertson prayer beads on the trash heap of history.