by Dana Milbank - The Washington Post
December 24, 2001.
Pat Robertson's resignation
this month as president of the Christian Coalition confirmed the
ascendance of a new leader of the religious right in America: George
W. Bush.
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" G.W. Bush Emerges as Movement's Leader After Robertson Leaves Christian Coalition"
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For the first time since religious conservatives became a modern
political movement, the president of the United States has become
the movement's de facto leader -- a status even Ronald Reagan,
though admired by religious conservatives, never earned. Christian
publications, radio and television shower Bush with praise, while
preachers from the pulpit treat his leadership as an act of
providence. A procession of religious leaders who have met with him
testify to his faith, while Web sites encourage people to fast and
pray for the president.
There are several reasons for the adulation. Religious
conservatives have regarded Bush as one of their own since the
presidential campaign, when he spoke during a debate of the guidance
of Jesus. At the same time, key figures in the religious right --
Robertson, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Billy Graham and Franklin
Graham -- have receded in political prominence or influence, in part
because they are no longer mobilized by their opposition to a
president. Bush's handling of the anti-terrorism campaign since
Sept. 11 has solidified his standing by painting him in stark terms
as the leader in a fight of good against evil.
"I think Robertson stepped down because the position has already
been filled," said Gary Bauer, a religious conservative who
challenged Bush in the Republican primary. Bush "is that leader
right now. There was already a great deal of identification with the
president before 9-11 in the world of the Christian right, and the
nature of this war is such that it's heightened the sense that a man
of God is in the White House."
Ralph Reed, who once led the Christian Coalition and now is
chairman of the Georgia GOP, notes that the religious conservative
movement "no longer plays the institutional role it once did," in
part because it succeeded in electing Bush and other friendly
leaders. "You're no longer throwing rocks at the building; you're in
the building."
Conservative Christians tend to view Bush's recent success as
part of a divine plan. "I've heard a lot of 'God knew something we
didn't,' " Reed said. "In the evangelical mind, the notion of an
omniscient God is central to their theology. He had a knowledge
nobody else had: He knew George Bush had the ability to lead in this
compelling way."
Bush himself dismisses the notion that he is part of some divine
plan. "He does not believe he was chosen for this moment," a senior
aide said. "He just views himself as governing on his beliefs and
his promises. He doesn't look at himself as a leader of any
particular movement."
Still, some of those around Bush say they have a sense that a
higher purpose is involved. "I think President Bush is God's man at
this hour, and I say this with a great sense of humility," Bush aide
Tim Goeglein, described as a "strong evangelical," told World
magazine, a Christian publication.
Partially a victim of their own success, groups such as the
Christian Coalition are finding fundraising difficult. Some leaders,
such as Focus on the Family's Dobson, have retreated from political
involvement.
Some religious conservative leaders have inflicted wounds on
themselves. Falwell was roundly criticized, even by supporters, for
saying on television, with Robertson's agreement, that "abortionists
and the feminists, and the gays and lesbians" and civil libertarians
were to blame in part for the Sept. 11 attacks. Franklin Graham
produced a furor by declaring Islam a "very evil and wicked
religion."
Voting patterns also show a declining religious right. Karl Rove,
Bush's top political strategist, said that only 15 million of the 19
million religious conservatives who should have voted went to the
polls in 2000. "We may be seeing to some degree some return to the
sidelines of previously involved religious conservatives," he
said.
And Bush, his advisers acknowledge, deliberately circumvented the
power of the leaders of the religious right, appealing to
conservatives himself rather than paying homage to the Christian
Coalition during the campaign. "In the old days, Republican
presidential candidates went to religious conservative leaders to
seek their imprimatur," said a Bush adviser. "George W. Bush was
able to go directly to those who sat in the pews."
Bush's effort succeeded. "He is the leader of the
Christian right," said Marshall Wittmann, a former Christian
Coalition figure now with the Hudson Institute, a think tank. "As
their institutions peel away, he can go over the heads" of religious
conservative leaders.
Bush, aided by speechwriter Michael Gerson, himself a religious
conservative, speaks the language of religion better than any
president since Jimmy Carter, religious leaders say, and Bush's
policies appeal more to conservatives. To many outside the religious
conservative movement, Bush's faith-infused words may sound
sanctimonious; to those within it, the words sound familiar and
comforting. Across the country, churchgoers share Bush's
"testimony," his discovery of God 15 years ago with the help of
Billy Graham. "Reverend Graham planted a mustard seed in my soul, a
seed that grew over the next year," Bush's memoir recounts. "He led
me to the path, and I began walking. It was the beginning of a
change in my life."
As Bush had embraced religious conservatism, religious
conservatives have openly embraced him. The Internet has several
sites offering prayers for the president's success. One example:
"Call on the name of the Lord to hedge him in from terrorists and
violent people. Psalm 91:11-12; 1 Corinthians 1:10-11."
World magazine, which is edited by one-time Bush adviser Marvin
Olasky, named Bush's attorney general, John D. Ashcroft, its "Daniel
of the Year." Ashcroft himself considered running for president in
2000 as the candidate of the religious right. "Just as the biblical
Daniel faced an established idol-worshiping religion in Babylon, so
our Dans must not back down in the face of deadly persecution abroad
or the scorn and harassment that comes domestically from the
academic and media high priests of our established religion, secular
liberalism," Olasky wrote.
The top Daniel, of course, is Bush himself, a view liberally
offered by the many religious figures who pass through the White
House. In an account of one such meeting, Jean Bethke Elshtain, a
professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School, wrote of a
"powerful and moving moment" with Bush and an ecumenical group of
religious leaders. "One of our group asked, 'Mr. President, what can
we do for you?' He indicated that we could 'pray for me, for our
country, for my family.' He believes in the efficacy of prayer and
needs wisdom and guidance and grace, he said. A Greek Orthodox
archbishop was invited to lead us in prayer. We all joined hands in
a prayer circle, including the president."
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
