What K Street Does All Day

EX-CON. EX-GOVERNOR. FUTURE CONGRESSMAN? Eric Benson CAPITOL HILL’S GREAT PHOTOSHOP DEBATE Marin Cogan RUNNING AS A GAY REPUBLICAN Winston Ross Plus: What K Street Does All Day NJ_cover_07.12_JM.indd 1 7/9/14 4:01 PM 20 July 12, 2014 National Journal The Culture Warrior inWinter Richard Land’s fall and the end of the old Religious Right. By TIFFANY STANLEY PhotographbyRichardA.Bloom NTHESPRINGOF2012, Richard Land went on the radio and uttered a series of sentiments he would come to regret. It was March 31, a month after the shoot- ing death of Trayvon Martin, and Land—for decades one of the preeminent leaders of theI Religious Right—was holding forth on his weekly, three-hour radio show, Richard Land Live! The Martin discussion started when a caller asked about racial profiling. Land did not mince words in response: He accused African-American leaders of using the killing of Martin to “gin up the black vote” in an election year. He derided Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Louis Farrakhan as “race hustlers.” He argued that President Obama had National Journal July 12, 2014 21 “poured gasoline on the racialist fires” by sympathizing with the Land’s ebullience disappeared. “He cer- Martin family. And he posited that George Zimmerman was be- tainlybelievestheBibleandisinterestedin these issues. He’s doing his thing, I’m doing ing prematurely convicted in the media. “Instead of letting the mine.” There was an awkward pause. It was legal process take its independent course,” Land said, “race- the last question Land took before bidding mongers are anointing themselves judge, jury, and executioners.” the students farewell. Later, Land told me he has no qualms about Moore’s leadership of the ERLC. “I Land, who was 65 at the time, has a nat- Richard Land Live! Eight weeks later, he don’t have much contact with the commis- ural radio voice, a deep baritone with a announced he would retire. sion. And I don’t need to,” he said, adding, smooth Texan drawl, and he is a skilled Today, Land is a long way from Washing- “I’ve moved on.” polemicist. But he wasn’t mainly known as a ton—416 miles to be exact. He says he had If Land has moved on from his role as a radio host. As the longtime head of the Eth- 10 job offers after he went public with his leader of the Religious Right, the reverse ics & Religious Liberty Commission of the retirement plans, but none were in South- is also true: The Religious Right is in the Southern Baptist Convention—the larg- ern Baptist life. Eventually, he started a new process of moving on from him. The move- est Protestant denomination in the United job as president of the nondenominational ment is, by all accounts, entering a new era, States, with a membership of nearly 16 mil- Southern Evangelical Seminary, located as Land’s generation and the one before his lion—he was one of the Religious Right’s top in a suburban enclave outside Charlotte, gradually depart the public stage. Jerry Fal- spokesmen in Washington. “In that position, North Carolina. Only 22 years old, SES is a well hasbeen dead for sevenyears. Pat Rob- hewasthelastoftheclassicMoralMajority- tiny institution, with an undergraduate and ertson is 84, and the Christian Coalition he Christian Coalition-Christian Right culture graduatepopulationofjust350students—a founded has all but buckled under mount- warriors,” says Mark Silk, a professor of reli- majority of them online only—and a recent ing debt. James Dobson resigned from his gion in public life at Trinity College. In 2005, graduating class of 43. Focus on the Family organization in 2009, Timemagazine had named Land one of the In early May, I spent a day with Land at partly over differences with his younger most influential evangelicals in America the seminary. He was vague on the details successor. For years, Land and these other and dubbed him “God’s lobbyist.” For years, of his typical schedule at SES, preferring to men helped to set the tone for what kind of he had been a frequent source for journalists wax poetic about the busy years he spent in movement the Religious Right would be. and a regular on the talk-show circuit. Dur- his former position. But he was also quick And now, in his dramatic departure, it is ing the administration of George W.Bush, he to note that he doesn’t miss the travel, the possible to see the seeds of the very differ- was known to have the White House’s ear; in hectic agenda, or “having to give instan- ent movement it is about to become. 2001, Bush appointed him to the U.S. Com- taneous answers—to very complex ques- mission on International Religious Free- tions, without any warning—to the media.” dom, where he ended up serving five terms. Plus, he added, “I don’t miss having 44,500 and is animposing figure: a In short, Land was a political power- bosses”—a reference to the approximate tall man with a booming voice. house—which was one of the reasons his number of Southern Baptist churches oper- A sixth-generation Texan, he Trayvon Martin comments were soon draw- ating during his tenure. grew up in Houston, the son ing plenty of scrutiny. Calling the remarks On the second floor of the school’s sole of a welder. His household “damaging, alienating, and offensive,” one building—a large, brick structure in a field Lwas “bicultural,” as he tells it: His father prominent black Southern Baptist minis- of manicured grass—we interrupted a class was a Yellow Dog Democrat; his mother ter asked the SBC to fire Land—and others of a dozen students. Many of them were was a Boston-born Republican. The South- followedsuit.Then,twoweeksaftertheini- working ministers who travel to campus ern Baptist Church was the center of fam- tial broadcast, a Ph.D. student at Baylor Uni- from out of state for short stays to complete ily life—services twice on Sundays, once on versity blogged that Land had lifted nearly courses toward a doctor of ministry degree. Wednesdays, and church camp in the sum- half his words on the Martin case from a Most of them had never met Land. He went mers. By age 16, he felt God was leading him conservative columnist at TheWashington around the room, asking their names and to the ministry. Times, and had done so without attribution. inquiring about their backgrounds. Mean- Land’s parents intended for him to be the He had done the same in at least two other while, he regaled them with his own stories, first in the family to go to college. He had his segments of his show. Land, the head of an which were often funny, and had the kind of eye on the University of Texas when a high ethicsorganization,was labeled a plagiarist. well-worn punch lines that frequent speak- school guidance counselor, prompted by For a time, Land remained defiant. “True ers and preachers employ. Land’s SAT scores, encouraged him to chan- racial reconciliation means that you do not The only time Land froze up, losing his nel his ambition north. She loaned him the bow to the false god of political correctness,” cheerful demeanor, was when someone money for his application fee to Princeton, he said. He issued a halfearted apology to mentioned the man who now holds his old where he was accepted on scholarship. anyone who might have misunderstood him job as head of the Ethics & Religious Liberty The late ’60s was a time of left-wing cam- and been ofended. But the furor continued. Commission. “How’s Russell Moore doing?” pus tumult, at Princeton and elsewhere. Land sat down for a nearly five-hour meet- a student asked. “They were so liberal, they thought it was ing with black Southern Baptist leaders and, “I guess he’s doing fine,” Land said. “Far as sort of exotic to have an evangelical in class,” within a week, published a second, five- I know.” Land recalls. But unlike many Ivy Leagu- part apology. That June, the denomination “He seemed like a good choice as a replace- ers from modest backgrounds—who find publicly reprimanded him and canceled ment, I thought,” the student said. themselves catapulted into a new stratum 22 July 12, 2014 National Journal 712LAYOUT-feat-stanley.indd 22 7/10/14 9:11 AM and may be tempted to forsake parts of their dissent. “There were a lot of us who were Baptist,aswellasRobertson,whohadbeen upbringing—Land did not abandon his reli- very upset about what was taught in sem- ordained in the denomination. gious views at Princeton. If anything, the inary,” he says. “And we were determined In Dallas, Land got involved in Republi- experience seems to have ignited his reli- when we had an opportunity to do some- can Party politics. In 1987, he took a leave gious fervor in opposition. And, closer to thing about it, we would.” from academia to work for Texas GOP Gov. home, he found a booster. A prominent After seminary, Land enrolled in a doc- Bill Clements as an adviser on church-state lawyer, former state legislator, and future toral program in theology at Oxford, an issues and on antiabortion and antidrug judge, Paul Pressler—a Princeton alum and environment he found more accept- legislation. He met a political operative a conservative Southern Baptist—invited ing. “They thought, ‘How tolerant of us, we named Karl Rove who was stumping for Land to lunch, in essence ofering his men- have both an American and an evangeli- Republicans while Land was stumping for torship.

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