c. 1996 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) In a restaurant near his Chesapeake, Va., office, the Christian Coalition’s Ralph Reed spent a recent lunch expounding on the politics of abortion, Bob Dole and the upcoming Republican convention, talking and eating with equal gusto.”Abortion is the most overrated issue in American politics today,”Reed said dismissively.”The liberal media keeps the issue alive as a way to keep talking about infighting within the Republican Party because most of the media is pro-choice.” Some days later and a half-continent away, Paul L. Hetrick, the chief spokesman for James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, also addressed the politics of abortion, Bob Dole and the upcoming Republican convention _ but with a different spin.”In our view, abortion is the most profound moral issue of the day,”Hetrick said from his Colorado Springs office.”It is more profound than slavery was 150 years ago because it always results in death. What Bob Dole does on this issue is of deep, deep concern to millions and millions of voters. It won’t go away.” As the presidential campaign season heats up, the two biggest players in conservative Christian politics _ the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family _ appear increasingly at odds.

Both profess unyielding commitment to the”pro-family”cause, for which abortion remains the marquee issue, Reed’s comments notwithstanding. But public differences over how best to achieve the religious right’s goals have grown as the GOP’s San Diego convention nears.

In short, the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family have come to represent the movement’s two faces _ the first pragmatic and willing to make short-term political compromises, the latter seemingly concerned only with adherence to principle whatever the political cost.”Dobson is the kind of guy who would rather go down to defeat rather than compromise,”said Rob Boston, who keeps tabs on conservative Christian groups for the advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State in Washington.”Reed’s the opposite. He can’t see losing the chance to get a Republican into the White House because of a fine point of principle,”said Boston, author of”The Most Dangerous Man Alive? Pat Robertson and the Rise of the Christian Coalition”(Prometheus).

Founded in 1989 by Robertson, the religious broadcaster who unsuccessfully sought the 1988 Republican presidential candidacy, the Christian Coalition has emerged as the religious right’s most able political operation. Robertson remains the organization’s strategist, while Reed, its 35-year-old executive director, runs the day-to-day operation.

The two men _ with offices just one highway exit apart in Virginia’s Tidewater region _ speak to each other daily.

Claiming about 1.8 million members and supporters, the Christian Coalition has been credited with engineering Dole’s key South Carolina GOP primary victory, which all but guaranteed him the nomination he will formally receive in San Diego the week of Aug. 12.”The Christian Coalition is about building a grassroots organization of political activists who know how to work within the party system and get people elected,”said John C. Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron.”The strategy is to mobilize enough voters so that the candidates have to come to them.” Dobson’s Focus on the Family, meanwhile, operates in a less direct political manner, preferring to concentrate on policy rather than particular candidates. The organization has, however, also established a more partisan Washington offshoot, the now-independent Family Research Council run by Gary Bauer.

Bauer’s criticism of Dole’s comments he considers less than staunchly anti-abortion has earned him the candidate’s anger. In June, Dole said Bauer”misinterprets about everything I say; I mean he looks for reasons to put out press releases.” Founded by Dobson in 1977, Focus on the Family has a mailing list of 2.2 million names. Dobson, who has a background in psychology and child development, uses radio as his primary vehicle for spreading a daily message of Christian-centered advice designed to strengthen family relationships and build opposition to pornography and abortion. He is presently heard on more than 2,900 stations across the United States, according to his office.”Dobson understands that winning an election doesn’t guarantee policy results,”said Green.”He prefers to hold someone’s feet to the fire as long as possible to eventually get as close to the desired policy change as possible.” (BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

From a historical perspective, both the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family are far more politically pragmatic than was any part of the religious right in its formative years during the 1970s and 1980s.”They both represent an evolutionary change compared to Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority or how Robertson was in the 1988 campaign,”said Green.”But the Christian Coalition represents still a further leap forward in the emergence of pragmatic engagement. They’ve taken that further than Dobson is prepared to go.” (END OPTIONAL TRIM)

The first big difference between the two camps this political season surfaced last fall, when retired Gen. Colin L. Powell’s entry into the Republican fray appeared a possibility and his personal popularity made him a strong candidate for the party’s presidential nomination.

Despite Powell’s support for abortion rights, Reed reportedly backed the former war hero. That prompted Dobson to send Reed a confidential letter, soon made public, allegeding that the Christian Coalition leader was more interested in gaining political power than adhering to the anti-abortion principle.

Since then, two separate issues have fueled the ongoing abortion debate _ and both have served to underscore the differences between the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family.

One is the tussle over”tolerance language”relating to the GOP platform’s anti-abortion plank. The second is what position Dole’s still-unnamed vice presidential running mate will take on abortion.

Given the importance of conservative Christians to the Republican Party _ they represent about one-third of the GOP’s core base of support _ the issues have broad implications for Dole and the presidential election.

Dobson has said that should Dole fail to satisfy the anti-abortion bloc, conservative Christians may well stay home in November or shift their support to some third party candidate.

The differences became even sharper when Reed hinted in his latest book,”Active Faith: How Christians are Changing the Soul of American Politics”(Free Press), that he was willing to entertain changes in the anti-abortion plank, which now calls for a constitutional amendment to ban most abortions.

The Dobson camp again hit back, arguing that any attempt to tamper with the plank would be seen as weakening it.

More recently, Reed has played a behind-the-scenes role in crafting the so-called tolerance language _ saying something to the effect that Republicans have differing opinions on abortion _ that party leaders hope to insert into the platform to ease the discomfort of GOP moderates who favor abortion rights.

And when Dole said in early July that opposition to abortion would not be a litmus test in his selection of a running mate, Reed responded diplomatically, saying that in the end he was sure the GOP standard bearer would pick a”conservative, pro-life and pro-family”vice president candidate.

True to form, Dobson’s reaction was again unyielding.”Every time Bob Dole says he has no litmus test for a running mate, he insults millions of pro-life voters who resent him trivializing an issue about which they care passionately,”Dobson said.”If he has no litmus test for a vice president, then he’ll probably have none for a Supreme Court appointment or a secretary of health & human services.”Why does this man insist on alienating the conservative base of the Republican Party? It could cost him dearly.” Green, the Bliss Institute director, believes that the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family will eventually end their tactical squabbling and pull together for Dole once the GOP convention is over and the presidential campaign begins its sprint to the wire.

But if they don’t, he added, it could mean trouble for a Dole campaign that must have strong conservative Christian support if it is to win.”If they’re going to disagree, now is the time to do it and get it over with,”Green said.”But if the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family are still disagreeing in September, that’s very bad news for Bob Dole.”

MJP END RIFKIN