c. 1996 Religion News Service

(RNS)-Sounding a call for moral persuasion rather than political coercion, Christian Coalition Executive Director Ralph Reed has proposed a wording change in the Republican Party’s anti-abortion plank and urged religious conservatives to cool their rhetoric against President Clinton and homosexuals.

In his new book”Active Faith”(Free Press), Reed suggests rewording the GOP platform to remove a specific call for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion. His rationale: Such a measure lacks the necessary votes in Congress, while more effective means exist to reduce abortions in the immediate future.

Reed’s move-which he characterizes as his own, not a reflection of Coalition policy-puts him at odds with many prominent conservatives who refuse to budge on their demands for an amendment in the GOP platform.

Reed’s modified stance appears to be part of a larger transformation in his public persona.”Religious conservatives must shun harsh language on critical issues-chiefly abortion, Clinton-bashing and homosexuality-and learn to speak of our opponents with charity,”Reed wrote in an excerpt of his book published in Newsweek magazine’s May 13 edition.

In the two-page excerpt, Reed wrote that although any word change in the abortion plank would be”anathema”to some anti-abortion activists, it is possible to draft other”morally compelling”language.”The pro-life community’s hopes … do not hinge on the existing wording of the GOP platform, but on the principle behind it,”he wrote.

In an interview Friday (May 3) with Newhouse News Service, Reed said the Coalition, founded in 1989 by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, could accept”slightly different words”in the GOP anti-abortion plank provided there is”no retreat, in fact or in perception, on the principle of the sanctity of innocent human life.” Reed’s abortion strategy is viewed by some as a bow to political realities. Others, however, see Reed trying to walk a dangerous tightrope between the Coalition’s anti-abortion constituency and more moderate political powerbrokers in the Republican Party.

Reed’s position conflicts with that of other conservatives who believe there should be absolutely no compromise on the GOP position against abortion.

Gary Bauer, president of the conservative Family Research Council, for example, told Newhouse News Service that any effort to make the Republicans’ anti-abortion plank less restrictive would doom Sen. Majority Leader Bob Dole’s chances of beating Clinton in the 1996 presidential race.”The bottom line is that either the platform says the party is for a constitutional amendment or it doesn’t,”said Bauer.”And if it gets watered down, then everyone associated with watering it down will no longer be part of the pro-life movement.” James Dobson, an anti-abortion activist and president of Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based Christian ministry, said of Reed’s willingness to drop specific amendment language:”That’s not good enough … It may take years to get a constitutional amendment, but let’s don’t abandon the need for the ultimate solution to this (abortion) problem.” Leaders of groups opposed to the Religious Right, such as Jill Hanauer, executive director of the Interfaith Alliance, predict Reed’s willingness to nudge away from the current platform will jeopardize his relations with members of his Coalition.”Ralph Reed’s trying to move beyond the Christian Coalition and be a kingmaker in his own right and he’s going to find very quickly that he’s only as powerful as his grassroots,”said Hanauer, whose Washington-based organization includes representatives of Catholic, mainline Protestant and Jewish groups.

But John C. Green, an expert on the Religious Right and director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron in Ohio, is not certain Reed will lose his grass-roots support.”There are a lot of other people in the Christian Right who are thinking along similar lines”as Reed, said Green.”The idea is to find something that will actually have some chance of passing and really restrict the number of abortions rather than have something that can’t be passed and therefore can’t have any effect.”(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Haley Barbour, the Republican National Committee chairman, declined to state his opinion on Reed’s latest words.”Ralph Reed wrote two years ago in the Wall Street Journal, `Abortion is an issue about which Republicans can disagree without it dividing the Republican Party,'”Barbour recalled in an interview Monday (May 6).”That is exactly correct.”(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

Reed’s suggested change in the Republican plan is subtle, but for hardline opponents of abortion it represents a monumental alteration in a long-standing strategy.

The first two sentences concerning abortion in the 1992 GOP platform state:”We believe the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life that cannot be infringed. We therefore reaffirm our support for a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the 14th Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.” Reed, in the Newsweek excerpt of”Active Faith,”suggests wording that begins:”We are a party that respects the sanctity of innocent human life as the basis of all civil rights. We will seek by all legal and constitutional means to protect the right to life for the elderly, the infirm, the unborn, and the disabled.” But the words used in the abortion debate are not Reed’s only concern. In the book excerpt, he also calls for”a theology of political activism”marked by humility and grace.

He points to attacks on Clinton’s character as an example.”I oppose President Clinton’s policies, but I do not despise him,”Reed wrote.”If Bill Clinton is a sinner, he is no worse than you or me.” Reed goes on to suggest a less vitriolic approach to homosexuality than many conservatives have espoused in the past.”Calling gays `perverts’ or announcing that AIDS is `God’s judgment’ on the gay community is not consistent with our Christian call to mercy,”Reed wrote.”We oppose the granting of minority status based on one’s sexual preference. But we must always speak and move in love, seeking redemption rather than condemnation.”(STORY CAN END HERE. BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM TO END)

Michael Hudson, vice president of People for the American Way, a Washington-based advocacy group that opposes the Christian Coalition, said state chapters of the Coalition have continued to bash gays and Clinton in recent primary elections.”Ralph Reed has tried to put on for the last year this moderate, more civil face, but the Christian Coalition has been just as intolerant through Pat Robertson and in the state chapters as it’s always been,”Hudson said.

But Michael Cromartie, director of the Evangelical Studies Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, calls Reed’s statements about civility prudent and”theologically correct.” He wonders whether Reed’s efforts to separate his views from those of the Christian Coalition reflect”a little internal struggle”within the organization. Or, Cromartie says, Reed’s stance could be the result of prodding by Dole’s campaign, which is hoping for Republican Party unity.

Whatever the motivation, Cromartie added that it would be hard to predict if the grass-roots members of the Christian Coalition will begin to behave differently.”The evangelical world is not monolithic and Ralph Reed is not the pope, so this is not an encyclical,”Cromartie noted.”It’s just a book.”JC END BANKS