c. 1998 Religion News Service

(Carter Heyward is an Episcopal priest who lives in Boston and Asheville, N.C. She is a regular contributor to the RNS series, Voices of Women in Religion.)

UNDATED _ Just a few weeks ago, the Christian Coalition held its”Road to Victory”conference in Washington, D.C. As an incognito participant _ I waited until the final dinner to come out as gay-friendly and feminist to my banquet table companions _ I learned a lot about the rank and file of the Christian right _ its fears, hostilities, and successful tactics.

Many of the 5,000 people at the conference were intelligent folks with strong fears about the state of the nation, world and church. People _ like many of us _ afraid of losing what they love: their children through drugs, crime, divorce, irresponsible sexual behavior; their families through evolving understandings of gender and sex; their economic security through rapidly changing demographics and possibilities for education and meaningful work; their cultural heritages through what sometimes feels like an avalanche of many cultures.

These brothers and sisters are afraid of losing everything they most cherish to forces they don’t understand and, for the most part, can’t control by ballot, legislation, or prayer.

Most of those white, middle strata people who attended the Christian Coalition conference were seeking some kind of assurance _ or at least some solidarity with others seeking assurance _ that all is not lost to mysterious, evil forces that seem to be assaulting the children and families, the schools and churches, the future and past of the home they call America.

But from the podium there was a different message.

The conference came just after the Starr report had hit the streets, and Bill Clinton _ especially Bill Clinton’s sex life _ was on every speaker’s lips.

I was struck at how, despite endearing comments made in other moments about the precious love and value of women, spouses, children and family, not one single mention was made by any speaker of the well-being of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, or Monica Lewinsky in the current crisis.

This omission clarified for me the extent to which the religious – and, by extension, political _ right is targeting”bad”women, which is what both Hillary and Monica represent: one because she is feminist, the other because she is sexually active.

The right hates women who are engaged in the struggles for gender, racial and economic justice and is contemptuous of women who like sex and go after it.

Moreover, the right understands what the rest of us sometimes fail to notice: that gender justice _ that is, justice for women _ cannot in reality be separated from sexual justice, justice for gays and lesbians. They go together politically, ethically, spiritually, systemically. For this reason social conservatives are also targeting people who are publicly supportive of gay and lesbian people in the current political climate.

But there’s still more to this hostility.

Its leaders are determined to defeat not only what the sad-eyed mother of Anti-Feminism, Phyllis Schlafly, after 25 years continues to label”radical feminism,”and what Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott refer to as”the gay agenda,”but also those powerful straight men who advocate”radical feminist”political goals.

They despise men like Clinton, whom they see as gender-traitors and, in the president’s case, a race-traitor as well _ men they feel are not dedicated enough to maintaining white privilege.

At least one speaker referred to Clinton’s presidency as”treasonous”and I think many of these religious and political leaders on the right believe that he is.

They also believe those of us who are feminist or gay are traitors to our genders (especially if we’re men), to our race (especially if we’re white), to our class (especially if we’re from wealth), and certainly to our religion if we’re Christian.

But credit should be given where credit is due. The leaders on the religious right are exemplary in their organization. They understand the power in numbers _ the more people, the better; the more money, the better. They reach out and stir people’s passions. They encourage them to feel their deepest convictions and to live them.

Then, after giving them an attractive emotional feast, they deluge them with mailings, calls, and prayer. Before I’d even arrived back home, they’d left me a message on my answering machine telling me Christian Coalition members will be praying for me every Monday if I want them to, and wishing me God’s blessings in any case.

What to say, except thanks. And that I’m still keeping watch.

DEA END HEYWARD