Bill Berkowitz
April 13, 2006

'Where's the outrage?'

Another fracture in the conservative evangelical movement

Ken Connor, the former head of the Family Research Council, is angry about the 'double standard' on ethical issues that may threaten the credibility of Christian conservative leaders.

The tumultuous reception accorded Tom DeLay at the late-March "War on Christians and the Values Voters in 2006" conference appears to have triggered at least two distinct reactions. For DeLay, the love in the room assured him that there would be life after Congress, so he decided the time was right to announce his resignation from the House. For Ken Connor, the former head of the Family Research Council and the founder and president of the Center for a Just Society (website), the reaction appeared to be a tipping point; a visible indicator that his Christian evangelical brethren had lost their bearings when it came to identifying and criticizing unethical behavior.

DeLay subsequently announced his resignation. Connor wrote a blistering piece criticizing the double standard on ethical issues that Christian evangelical leaders were embracing.

"Where's the outrage?" was the clarion call -- one wag called it a "forlorn cry" -- of Senator Bob Dole's 1996 run for the presidency as it approached the final weeks of the campaign. Staring at defeat, Dole made a final attempt to stir up his conservative base by appearing at rallies, reciting a litany of Clinton Administration misdeeds, and following it with a vigorous cry of "where's the outrage?"

At a late-October 1996 rally in Houston, a frustrated Dole told supporters:

... I don't understand -- Vice President Gore goes to a Buddhist temple where everybody takes a vow of poverty and comes out with $122,000. And so good old Al, he explains it to the media, oh, I was on an outreach program. So that'll be the end of that. Nobody'll look beyond that in the media. That's the end of that one. And then we have the President of the United States sitting down here with 900 FBI files, might be one of yours, might be one of yours. And then we have the President of the United States who won't say he will not pardon somebody who did business with him and might implicate him later on. Where is the outrage in America? Where is the outrage in America? Where has the media gone in America? Where is the outrage in America? Can you imagine former President Bush doing one of those things? No! And you'll never imagine Bob Dole doing one of those things either. So where's the outrage? Where's the outrage?

Despite the possibility of losing movement friends, Ken Connor recently voiced his outrage about Christian conservatives' failure to condemn the ethical abuses of Tom DeLay in a 600+-word essay that appeared on the front page of his organization's website, and was sent out to subscribers of his Ideas in Action e-mail newsletter.

Connor, a Florida-based lawyer and the co-author, with John Revell, of "Sinful Silence: When Christians Neglect Their Civic Duty," maintained that the most troublesome aspect of the DeLay affair "has been the willingness of far too many Christian conservatives to cast a deaf ear and a blind eye toward DeLay's misdeeds. In the midst of ethical scandals swirling around DeLay, Christian conservatives closed ranks and rallied around him.([Marvin Olasky's] World magazine and Baptist Press have been notable exceptions)."

While it's true that DeLay "has been a champion of a number of causes near and dear to social conservatives," at the same time, "his excesses in converting power into perks have made him the poster-boy for the Democrat's charges that Republicans are mired in a 'culture of corruption,'" Connor wrote.

Connor is troubled that DeLay has become a major league martyr to many of his fellow Christian conservatives. At the recent "War on Christians and the Values Voters in 2006" conference held in Washington, DC in late March DeLay was treated as a conquering hero.

In introducing the former House Majority Leader, Rick Scarborough, the founder of Vision America and the convener of the conference, said that he believed that DeLay "is a man that ... God has appointed." Scarborough told the crowd that he thought that "the most damaging thing that Tom DeLay has done in his life is take his faith seriously into public office, which made him a target for all those who despise the cause of Christ." After DeLay concluded his remarks, Scarborough laid it on even thicker: "God always does his best work right after a crucifixion," Scarborough bellowed.

"In explaining his decision to leave Congress ... DeLay ... said the moment that 'pretty much clinched it for me' was during a speech he gave" at the "War on Christians" conference, US News & World Report's Dan Gilgoff recently reported. "DeLay received so many standing ovations that he realized he could continue his political career outside Congress, inside the conservative Christian movement."

The overwhelmingly positive reception DeLay received came despite the fact that the soon to be former congressman "is the subject of a state criminal prosecution in Texas involving money laundering and illegal contributions, and a possible Federal criminal investigation involving illegal bribes and gifts," Ken Conner pointed out. "Two DeLay aides have already pleaded guilty to charges of bribery and corruption. Former super-lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, who DeLay once described as one of his closest friends, has pled guilty to a variety of charges involving bribery and corruption, and is reportedly singing like a bird," he added.

"Evangelical leaders have been among DeLay's most outspoken defenders since ethics allegations started swirling around him a year and a half ago, the US News & World Report pointed out. "A Washington dinner last year organized as a show of support for DeLay in tough times featured Family Research Council President

"We're saddened by your announcement," Pat Robertson told DeLay during an interview on The 700 Club. " ... You've been a stalwart for conservative causes."

Rick Scarborough acknowledged that not everyone in the Christian conservative community was happy to see DeLay at the "War on Christians" confab. "I received an enormous amount of negative communication," Scarborough said. "But I happen to believe in the old-fashioned adage 'innocent until proven guilty.'"

There are other examples of Christian Right luminaries who have received the velvet glove treatment over charges of unethical/criminal behavior.

Ralph Reed, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition is currently involved in a campaign to win the GOP's nomination to run for lieutenant governor of Georgia. In recent months, the campaign has hit some major bumps as more has become known about his dealings with super lobbyist Jack Abramoff's gambling initiatives. While Reed has been criticized by local Georgia Conservatives, he has yet to be taken to the woodshed by major Christian conservative leaders.

And then there is the case of Claude Allen, the conservative African American icon who was recently forced to resign after revelations that he had devised a scheme to bilk Washington-area big-box stores out of thousands of dollars by claiming refunds on items that he hadn't paid for. Allen, who cut his political teeth at the side of ultra-conservative North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, was the chief White House domestic policy adviser who had received near universal praise from Christian conservative leaders, including a spokesperson for Focus on the Family, who called him as "a tireless champion of the family and traditional values." Thus far Allen has been given a pass by fellow Christian conservatives.

Some Christian conservatives, such as the editorial staff of World magazine, an evangelical weekly, have not been silent about Reed's relationship with Abramoff: "Some conservative evangelicals may regard the purpose of our magazine to do public-relations work for Christians," editor Marvin Olasky, a former adviser to President Bush, told US News & World Report. "But as journalists, our goal is to tell the truth. God does not need our public relations."

Might Connor’s protest about his silent comrades stem from left over bad feelings from when he resigned as president of the conservative Family Research Council in July 2003. At the time according to Christianity Today, Connor “cited unspecified ‘professional and personal reasons.’”

"Knowledgeable sources told CT Connor resigned in part because of a disagreement with members of the board of directors over the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), but FRC founder James Dobson said there was no ill will and that the disagreement did not cause Connor's resignation."

"Ken has said emphatically that this issue was not the reason he resigned as president of FRC," Dobson told CT in a statement. "Good people often disagree on strategy, but that does not have to mean there is resentment or ill will between them. In this case, there was none of which I am aware."

At the time, Connor said that he didn't "want to cause division among the brethren."

Shortly after Connor founded the Center for a Just Society he got into a minor dust-up with the National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru over the issue of tort reform. Ponnuru charged Connor with opposing tort reform -- a no no among conservatives -- as evidenced by Connor's involvement in filing suits against nursing homes. Connor fired back a barbed response that maintained, "testimony of FDA employees suggests that the agency is much more interested in protecting the profits of drug companies than the health of the people who consume their products."

Whatever his motivation, Connor's conservative politics -- he represented Florida Governor Jeb Bush during the Terri Schiavo case -- have not changed. He appears to be motivated by a sincere concern about how Christian conservatives will maintain their political influence. If DeLay, and similar wrongdoers get a free pass, the public might view this as gross hypocrisy and "Christian conservative leaders" will lose their "credibility in the political arena."

Connor maintained "they must not apply a double standard -- one for our friends and one for our adversaries." Conservatives cannot just criticize "the peccadilloes of Bill Clinton and the Democrats and ignore those of Tom DeLay and the Republicans. They must stand on principle and apply those principles equally across the political spectrum.

"When politicians affirm those principles, Christian leaders should affirm the politicians. When politicians violate those principles, Christian leaders should exhort them. In other words, Christian leaders must be willing to be 'equal opportunity' critics. If they fail to do so, they risk becoming indistinguishable from the rest of the political pack."