Looking Back at Proposition 8, p .3

TheA PUBLICATION OF POLITICAL R PublicEyeESEARCH ASSOCIATES SPRING 2009 • Volume XXIV, No.1 $5.25 New Tactics and Coalitions Take Aim at Planned Parenthood s s e

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D 1973, the federation and its clinics have When young members of the LGBTQ group Soulforce visited Brigham Young University in April 2006 to been in the sights of right-wing activists, promote respect for gay rights, student Matt Kulish led them on a walk from the Mormon Temple (rear) most horrifically in 1994 during the har - to campus. rowing siege of a Brookline, Massachusetts, clinic when a gunman took the lives of two workers in the name of God. Indeed major anti-abortion groups Younger Evangelicals recently came together in a master coali - tion using old time pressure tactics aimed Where WillTheyTake the Christian Right? at stripping Planned Parenthood of its By Pam Chamberlain * 2008 was the third year of the Equality government funding (see box, pg .10). ast October a chartered bus rolled deep Ride, a project of Soulforce Q, the youth But a new generation is using new Lthrough the South, its passenger’s col - arm of Soulforce, an organization Mel media tactics to challenge Planned lege-aged young people drawing inspiration White cofounded “to cut off homophobia Parenthood, while paying lip service to from the Freedom Riders of the 1960s.The at its source—religious bigotry.” A former New Tactics and Coalitions continues on page 8 black vinyl advertising plastered on the side evangelical minister and speechwriter to broadcast the riders’ goals, “Equality Ride Jerry Falwell (the founder of the Christian 2008: Faith in Action: Social Justice for Right group Moral Majority), White was IN THIS ISSUE Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered a closeted gay Christian who came out in People.” The bus brought young LGBTQ 1993, left his evangelical ministry, and Editorial ...... 2 began work for the Metropolitan Com - activists and their allies face to face with stu - Tying the Not ...... 3 dents at 15 Christian colleges in an attempt munity Church, an LGBTQ Christian to generate more acceptance of homosexu - community. He has made his life’s work the Book Reviews ...... 19 reconciliation of evangelical Protestant ality at evangelical schools. Reports in Review ...... 21 Christianity and homosexuality. Soulforce *The author thanks Nathaniel Rosenblum for research recognized that encouraging young people Eyes Right ...... 23 assistance with this article. Younger Evangelicals continues on page 13

THE PUBLIC EYE 1 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye

EDITORIAL ThePublicEye Publisher The Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, M. Div., D. Min. Editor Abby Scher, Ph.D Design/layout Hird Graphic Design Printing Red Sun Press Editorial Board Chip Berlet • Pam Chamberlain Thomas Cincotta • Frederick Clarkson David Cunningham • Gillian Kane Surina Khan • Jean Hardisty • Roberto Lovato Katherine Hancock Ragsdale Tarso Luís Ramos • Abby Scher • Holly Sklar

PRA Political Research Associates

Founder and President Emerita Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D y e l g a

B Staff t a P The Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, President Alen Abdula, Data/Web Master ou don’t find publications like the Public Eye around much anymore. Our style evolved Chip Berlet, Senior Analyst out of a moment of progressive ferment when we read avidly to understand the world Pam Chamberlain, Senior Researcher Y Thomas Cincotta, Project Director in order to change it. The magazine was founded in the 1970s by the National Lawyers Kapya Kaoma, Project Director Guild to publish the latest news coming out about government repression of activists. Cindy King, Business Manager Tarso Luís Ramos, Research Director Our mandate broadened when we moved to the then-new think tank Political Research Abby Scher, Editorial Director Associates during the Reagan era. Thus our articles are a hybrid of journalism and more Interns academic-styled research and we aspire to track and illuminate the role of the U.S. Right Mohamed Brahimi for activists no matter which issue they happen to be working on. We seek to defend and Chris Coombs Maria Planansky expand progressive achievements even as we seek to understand the sources of strength Nathaniel Rosenblum of the reaction. Board of Directors It is arguable that the Reagan era finally ended with President Obama’s inauguration. Richard Gross So is there still a role for Public Eye to play? Of course. When the Right is out of power, its Pardis Mahdavi Supriya Pillai activists use that time to strategize, regroup, and do movement building. So we need to pay Emelia Rallapalli attention. And as we saw during the Clinton years, when pushed from power, parts of the Rene Redwood Wendy Volkmann Right can get mean. We saw, and the Public Eye documented, the upsurge in militias, the The Public Eye is published by Political Research expansion of the Christian Right and its attempt to paint a “family friendly” face, and even Associates. Annual subscriptions are $21.00 for individuals and non-profit organizations, $10.00 for homegrown terrorism, from Oklahoma City to the parking lots of abortion providers. students and low-income individuals, and $36.00 for libraries and institutions. Single issues, $5.25. It is an interesting time. As the articles in this issue reveal, the Christian Right is embrac - Outside U.S., Canada, and Mexico, add $9.00 ing new tactics (as in its attack on Planned Parenthood) but also is facing new cleavages for surface delivery or $14.00 for air mail. (among the young evangelicals from whom they hope to nurture future leaders). The Please make checks payable to Political Research Associates, 1310 Broadway, Suite 201, economic meltdown has not stopped conservative leaders’ from peddling a bankrupt view Somerville, Massachusetts 02144-1837. 617.666.5300 fax: 617.666.6622 of the market, but we need to know whether this tune still plays in Peoria. We’ve felt PRA is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. All Editorial continues on page 20 donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted Winter issue: Apologies for the late arrival of the by law. © Political Research Associates, 2008. winter issue. Our mailhouse originally sent our freshly Website: www.publiceye.org printed copies to another group’s list, forcing our printer All rights reserved. ISSN 0275-9322 to hastily create a new batch for our own readers. ISSUE 63

THE PUBLIC EYE 2 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye Tying the Not How the Right Succeeded in Passing Proposition 8

By Surina Khan shrewd, media-savvy, n June 26, 2008, well-funded and well- O1,000 ministers, organized grassroots mostly from evangelical movement that under - congregations, met by con - stood California’s com - ference call to discuss plex geographic and tactics for passing political landscape. The Proposition 8, a ballot Yes on 8 campaign effec - initiative to ban same sex tively reached California’s marriage in California by diverse racial and ethnic amending the state consti - communities with mate - tution. The call was con - rials translated into at least vened by Pastor Jim fourteen different lan - Garlow from the 2,500- guages including Span - member Skyline Church ish, Hmong, Vietnamese, in San Diego County.The Chinese, Filipino, ministers on the call had a Samoan, Punjabi, Farsi, far reach: they lead con - Russian, and Polish. 2 gregations representing Garlow told the minis - about one million people, ters on the conference call and Garlow alone provides that on the weekend radio commentary to 629 before the election, his stations each day. 1 goal was to fill Qualcomm The strategy session, Stadium in San Diego and which included input other amphitheaters with from lawyers and political people praying for a ban consultants, was one of on gay marriage. To this many efforts in a broad- end, they organized a 40- based organizing cam - day fasting period lead - paign by the Christian ing up to election day, Right to galvanize sup - along with 100 days of b port for Proposition 8. u prayer. h S n

e “We are working with

Proposition 8 passed l l E all the churches who are in the November 2008 Calling voters for Proposition 8 “haters” does not advance the progressive agenda. election by four points, willing to work with us,” with 52 percent of voters noted Frank Schubert, the supporting it and 48 per - oppose same sex marriage in a state that has campaign manager for Yes cent opposing it. The Right was success - national significance in the marriage equal - on 8. “It’s woven together to form what we ful in their multipronged approach to ity movement. Simply put, they out organ - hope will be the largest grass-roots campaign 3 ized the No on 8 Campaign. in California history.” Surina Khan is Vice President of Programs An analysis of how the Right succeeded for the Women’s Foundation of California. in their efforts reveals a campaign of mis - A Broad Network of Support She is a former research analyst with Politi - information and unlikely alliances that he weaving together of the campaign cal Research Associates and a member of the took years of planning, dating back to at Tinvolved a broad network of support Editorial Board of the Public Eye. least the mid-1990s. It also reveals a and funding that included prominent Chris -

THE PUBLIC EYE 3 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye

Unlikely Alliances heYes on 8 campaign set out to change Thow the initiative process can further a conservative movement agenda. Campaign organizers built a well-funded operation that rivaled any major electoral campaign in its scope and complexity.They also built a powerful, religious coalition that centrally involved the Roman Catholic Church, Protestant evangelicals and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 7 In an internal memo dating back to 1997, the LDS proposed a coalition with the Catholic Church in order to stem what they m o

c saw as the rising tide of gay marriage in . s n o

o Hawaii and California. In the memo, a t r a c l high-ranking Mormon leader discussed a c i t i l

o approaches for challenging gay marriage and p / e

o noted that anti-gay marriage legislation n r o

T would not be a successful pursuit. b o R The memo notes that a referendum, while expensive, would be the only route. It advocates for an alliance with the Catholic tian Right organizations including Focus on school classrooms and to rollback affir - Church in order to launch a successful the Family, Concerned Women for Amer - mative action in California. He has been campaign against gay marriage. “The ica, and the Family Research Council. a supporter of anti-gay issues for many Church should be in a coalition and not out The campaign raised more than $40 years. Ahmanson’s most controversial phi - front by itself,” the memo notes. “The million from conservative supporters across lanthropy relates to his funding of the public image of the Catholic Church is the country. Much of the funding came religious empire of Rousas John Rush - higher than our Church.... If we get into from prominent donors like the Utah- this, they are the ones with which to join.” 8 based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day The memo notes that in order to win Saints and the Roman Catholic conserva - the battle against gay marriage, “there tive group, Knights of Columbus. Propo - may have to be certain legal rights recog - sition 8 also received donations from Elsa The LGBTQ movement nized for unmarried people such as hos - Broekhuizen, the widow of Michigan- pital visitation so that opponents in the based Christian Right supporter Edgard has focused on marriage legislature come away with something.” 9 Prince and the mother of Erik Prince, The Right was willing to concede some founder of the controversial private mili - equality as a stand-alone rights for gays in an effort to defeat same tary firm, Blackwater. 4 sex marriage. The initiative’s third largest private issue and with Proposition 8 The fact that the coalition to define donor was Howard F. Ahmanson Jr., reclu - marriage in California as the union sive heir to the Home Savings of America missed the opportunity between “one man and one woman” was banking fortune and a trustee of the anchored by a church whose founder Ahmanson Foundation. Ahmanson to organize. claimed 33 wives did not seem to deter donated $900,000 to the passage of Propo - their ability to wage a successful cam - sition 8. In a 1985 interview with the paign. Nor it seems did the fact that the Orange County Register, Ahmanson sum - coalitio n— which framed Prop 8 as a fight marized his political agenda: “My goal is doony, an evangelical theologian who to protect California’s childre n— was qui - the total integration of biblical law into our advocated placing the United States under etly knit together by the Catholic arch - lives.” 5 the control of a Christian theocracy which bishop of San Francisco, who once excused Ahmanson has been behind campaigns includes death by stoning for practicing the molestation of children at the hands to teach “intelligent design” in public homosexuals. 6 of a pedophile priest as mere “horseplay.“

THE PUBLIC EYE 4 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye

But once the Mormons joined the effort, to them if same sex marriage passed. This they quickly established themselves as framing was a compelling one for their base, “the foundation of the campaign.” 10 especially when coupled with the message that no rights would be taken away from Misinformation Campaign gays and lesbians if Proposition 8 passed. he Yes on 8 coalition promoted a stag - The campaign insisted on the falsehood Tgering misinformation campaign. Mul - that if Proposition 8 did not pass, children tiple advertisements told voters that without would be forced to learn about gay marriage Proposition 8, their churches would be in schools. “If the same sex marriage forced to perform same sex unions and be stripped of their tax-exempt status; that Road to Inequity schools would teach children to practice heYes on 8 Campaign understood that homosexuality; and that even President Tto win in California required cam - (then candidate) Barack Obama had stated For years, the California paigning in both urban and rural areas of the during his campaign that he did not favor state as well as doing outreach to youth.The gay marriage (although Obama did come Christian Right campaign effectively used media technolo - out in opposition to Proposition 8). gies and far-reaching social networking sites Obama’s statement against gay marriage was apparatus, long including Facebook, MySpace, andTwitter. circulated in a flier by the Yes on 8 campaign, A Facebook group promoting Proposition targeting African-American households. hampered by nativism 8 has more than 60,000 members. 15 TheYes The campaign also used Obama’s voice in on 8 website made it simple for anyone to 11 a statewide robo-call. This kind of outreach and racism, had been copy a sidebar or graphic to be displayed on and organizing in communities of color was websites and other locations. Unbeknownst particularly effective. unable to make inroads to them, some gay bloggers were surprised Perhaps understanding that public per - and many appalled that their sites featured ception had shifted significantly in support into communities this sidebar. 16 of LGBTQ people and marriage equality They also went to small towns and big since Proposition 22 in 2000 when 61 of color. cities across the state. In October, the cam - percent of voters voted to ban same sex paign organized a bus tour that began in mar riage in California, the campaign did Sacramento and ended in San Diego. Rally not put out a message of overt hate against stops during the tour included Chico, lesbian and gay people. Instead their mes - Oakland, Salinas, Fresno, Modesto, Bak - ruling is not overturned, teachers will be saging centered on not taking away rights ersfield, Lancaster, Los Angeles, Mont - required to teach young children that there for gays and lesbians. “Gay couples in clair, Indio, El Centro, Camarillo and is no difference between gay marriage and domestic partnerships have and will con - Fullerton .17 With the exception of Oakland traditional marriage.” 13 tinue to have the same legal rights as mar - and Los Angeles, a majority of voters in One press release noted, “[San Francisco] ried spouses. We’re not here to stop anyone these regions supported the proposition. Mayor Gavin Newsom made it perfectly from expressing their commitment or Organizing in churches was a key clear for parents throughout the state that responsibility to another. We’re simply strategy.The Yes on 8 Campaign gave very the target is not just marriage for gay here to protect the definition of marriage specific instructions to churches on how to activists, they have also set their sites [sic] to what the majority of California voters organize their congregations to support the on our schools.” 14 (and all of history) have decided it should initiative. 18 Mainstream outlets like the be— a union between a man and a Los Angeles Throughout the summer, Yes on 8 had 12 and the woman.” This strategy allowed the Chris - Times San Francisco Chronicle more than 100,000 volunteers knocking countered these falsehoods as did the No tian Right to attract a moderate base that on doors in every zip code in the state which on 8 Campaign, but with little impact.The may not have taken a hardline position gave them an enormous grassroots advan - misinformation messaging had taken root, against LGBTQ people, positioning them - tage. Central to their base of support were in churches across the state, in rural, mostly selves as being compassionate towards gays Christian people who they were able to White, communities and in many com - and lesbians while trying to hold onto the organize through churches. According to munities of color. “sanctity of traditional marriage.” the Campaign, they visited 70 percent of The Campaign’s messaging centered all California households in person, and on children and the harm that would come contacted another 15 percent by phone. If

THE PUBLIC EYE 5 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye these numbers are to be believed, the cam - nities of color. This base as well as the Right, including publishing houses, legal paign’s get-out-the-vote effort was equally organizing they did in rural, mostly White organizations, think tanks, mass-based impressive. The weekend before the vote, communities will be important for the organizations, and funding organizations the Campaign’s volunteers went door to Christian Right as the move forward to that helped provide the resources needed door, speaking to supporters and directing advance a broader agenda. for the movement to advance their agenda them to the right precinct locations. On The Christian Right in California made and secure a base of support in California. election day Yes on 8 had 100,000 peopl e a strategic shift in sharpening its “family —five per precinc t— checking voter rolls values” focus on sexuality and marriage. Lessons to Learn and contacting supporters who hadn’t This shift is likely to be effective for the long he Christian Right in California and shown up to vote. 19 term political objectives of the Right which Telsewhere is seeking to enshrine dis - Nearly every single television station in include an assault on the legal protections crimination through constitutional amend - San Diego covered the end of the bus against discrimination for LGBTQ people. ments. Like California, the Right was tour and along the way the Campaign was The coalition of “family values” organiza - successful in passing a constitutional successful in generating media stories in tions have used an anti-LGBTQ message amend ment in Florida that eliminated television, radio, and newspapers. In addi - marriage for same sex couples. And in tion to these stories, the Campaign had a Arkansas the Right was successful in its cam - well-developed strategy of buying media paign to take away the right of same sex cou - ads in a range of ethnic media outlets. Early ples and most straight unmarried couples on in their efforts, the Yes on 8 Campaign The Right’s success to adopt children or be foster parents. And purchased ad space in Chinese, African- yet, it’s important to recognize that the American, Spanish, and Korean media. In with the passage of Christian Right’s opposition to same sex addition to purchasing these ethnic media marriage is only one part of a broader pro advertisements, the Campaign held mas - Proposition 8 should be (heterosexual) marriage, “family values” sive rallies for Christians in communities agenda that includes abstinence-only sex of color. 20 a call to the LGBTQ education, stringent divorce laws, coercive Yes on 8 placed advertisements on marriage promotion policies directed Latino television and radio statewide with movement to build toward women on welfare, and attacks on prominent Latino spokespeople and reli - reproductive freedom. 22 gious leaders voicing support for the propo - alliances across issues The LGBTQ and progressive move - sition. In the African American community, ment’s response must remain focused on the Campaign was successful in building and constituencies. the leadership of the right-wing move - alliances with pastors who used their ser - ment which has successfully organized in mons to galvanize their congregations to diverse communities and built broad- support the Proposition. The Asian com - to organize and mobilize conservative con - based alliances. Demonizing the followers munity also was well-represented with stituents, recruit followers, and raise money. and accusing them of voting for hate will advertisements in Chinese, Vietnamese, The broader agenda that the Christian not advance a progressive agenda. Korean, and South Asian media markets. 21 Right will continue to pursue will promote The LGBTQ movement has focused For years, the California Christian Right Christian nationalism, an ideology that on marriage equality as a stand-alone apparatus, long hampered by nativism and seeks to use laws and regulations to promote issue and with Proposition 8 missed the racism, had been unable to make inroads fundamentalist Christian values on the opportunity to organize, particularly in into communities of colo r— a demo - nation. This is an agenda that seeks to communities of color and build a broad graphic necessity in a state that is more than eliminate the constitutional wall separat - coalition that addresses the range of issues 50 percent people of color and growing. ing church and state in pursuit of an anti - affecting families, including economic With Proposition 8, they finally took hold democratic and authoritarian agenda. security, immigration status, incarcera - in building a base of support in commu - With Proposition 8, the Christian Right tion, and health benefits for non-married was successful in furthering a divisive polit - family members. 23 ical agenda that offers fundamentalist The Right’s success with Proposition 8 Christian dogma and heterosexuality as the Visit Right Web for profiles of the individuals leaves marriage equality efforts with much and organizations promoting a militarist U.S. only acceptable norms. to learn and hope for.The youth vote is one foreign policy, especially in the Middle East. The Yes on 8 campaign was able to draw reason to be hopeful. Sixty-one percent of upon the complex movement of infra - http://rightweb.irc-online.org voters younger than 30 opposed Proposi - structure organizations that make up the tion 8, while 61 percent of those older than

THE PUBLIC EYE 6 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye

65 supported it. Generational shifts are tial for success in the longer term. 2008, http://prettyontheoutside.typepad.com/gilmore/2008/ likely to benefit LGBTQ efforts. For The Right’s success with the passage of 10/martinique-prop.html#more. 17 Yes on 8 press release, http://www.protectmarriage.com/blog/ future efforts, LGBTQ advocates and Proposition 8 should be a call to the 2008/10/yes-on-8-statewide-media-bus-tour-proves-to-be- organizers will have to undo the false LGBTQ movement to build alliances a-success/, last viewed on 11/30/08. assumption that most people of color voted across issues and constituencies.The efforts 18 Instructions included: Purchase enough plain white envelopes to distribute to your congregation. Down - for Proposition 8, particularly when many towards same sex marriage should be part load the contribution form located under Resources youth of color did not. 24 While it’s true that of a larger effort to strengthen the stabil - for Churches, on the Resources page of the Right was successful in organizing in ity and security of diverse households and www.protectmarriage.com . Make enough copies of the contribution form to distribute to your congregation. Pass communities of color, it is not accurate to families. I out envelopes and contribution forms to your congre - say that people of color are the reason that gation. Each individual donation should be put into a separate white envelope by the donor. Donations of $24 Proposition 8 passed. Blaming communi - This article was posted on our website in or under do not require the donor to complete the con - ties of color, as some segments of the December 2008. tribution form. Donations of $25 or over DO require the contribution form to be completed.The completed LGBTQ movement have done, will not form should be put into the envelope along with the dona - move us where we need to go. End Notes tion. We can accept cash ($99 or under only), checks or 1 Jessica Garrison, “Pastor Rallies Clergy Against Gay credit card contributions. Checks should be made Our current legal and economic struc - Marriage,” Los Angeles Times, June 26 2008. payable to ProtectMarriage.com – Yes on 8. Collect all tures favor straight married couples over http://www.nomcalifornia.org/site/c.htJSJaMQIuE/b.4293527/ envelopes from donors, put them in a larger mailing enve - other kinds of families. Meanwhile, a 2 Campaign materials were translated into the following lope, put your church name and return address on the mailing envelopes and send it via regular US mail. 30-year political assault on the social safety language according to the Yes on 8 campaign website, www.protectmarriage.com: Armenian, Cambodian, 19 Dickinson. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/ net has left households with more burdens Chinese, Hmong, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, 24603325/samesex_setback/3 Filipino, Vietnamese, Polish, Samoan, Punjabi, Farsi, and and constraints and fewer resources.There 20 Kim, http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081124/kim Pashto. The No on 8 Campaign website listed materials is, however, potential to create new struc - in 4 languages: Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese. 21 http://www.protectmarriage.com/blog/tag/media/ , last tures that make it easier for all kinds of Last viewed on 11/30/08. viewed on 11/30/08 families to provide one another with ade - 3 www.protectmarriage.com 22 Jean Hardisty, Pushed to the Alter: The Right Wing Roots of Marriage Promotion (Somerville, MA: Political Research 4 Max Blumenthal, “The Man Behind Proposition 8,”The quate material support. A progressive Associates, 2008). See also, www.beyondmarriage.org. Daily Beast, http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-sto - response can find ways to recognize and ries/2008-11-03/the-man-behind-proposition-8/?sem=1 23 Nancy Polikoff, Beyond (Straight and Gay Marriage):Valu - ing All Families Under the Law , Beacon Press, 2008. accommodate all family structures with 5 Blumenthal. 24 Patrick J. Egan and Kenneth Sherrill, :Proposition 8: our public policies in order to build more 6 Blumenthal. See also, Michael J. McVicar, “The Liber - What Happened and Where Do We Go From Here?” tarian Theocrats: The Long, Strange History of R.J. stable families and communities. A con - National Gay & LesbianTask Force, January 2009. See Rushdoony and Christian Reconstructionism.” The Pub - also, John Diaz, “The Ugly Backlash Over Proposition tinuing effort to diversify and democratize lic Eye, Fall 2007, Vol. 22, No. 3. http://www.publiceye.org/ 8,” SF Gate, November 23, 2008. http://www.sfgate. magazine/v22n3/libertarian.html. partnership and household recognition com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/23/ may have more staying power and poten - 7 Tim Dickinson, “Same-Sex Setback: Don’t blame Mor - INOQ147155.DTL. mons or black voters - the California activists who tried to stop Prop 8 ran a lousy campaign,” Rolling Stone, December 11, 2008. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/ story/24603325/samesex_setback/3 8 Hekebolos, “Prop 8: DEVASTATING internal memo INTERNS WANTED! from the LDS Church,” The Daily Kos, November 3, 2008. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/3/ 15369/3779/711/651188 The Public Eye 9 “Prop 8: DEVASTATING internal memo from the LDS The Public Eye welcomes interns Church.” to join us in producing the only 10 Dickinson. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/ magazine dedicated to exposing 24603325/samesex_setback/3 the U.S. Right. 11 Richard Kim, “Marital Discord: Why Prop 8 Won,” The Nation, http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081124/kim. Political Research Associates See also, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/ 24603325/samesex_setback/3 Political Research Associates, 12 Jeff Flint, “Newsom Decries Our Ad as Absurd,” Yes on the parent think tank of The 8, September 30, 2008. http://www.protectmarriage.com/ Public Eye, offers a research blog/tag/media/. See also Frequently Asked Questions, www.ProtectMarriage.com last viewed on 12/5/08. internship, and a communica - 13 Flint. tion and development internship. 14 http://www.protectmarriage.com/blog/tag/media/ , last New Report from PRA! viewed on 11/30/08 To apply, just email a letter and 15 http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid= resume identifying the internship Available online now! 8468062397, last viewed on 11/30/08 that interests you to 16 Pretty On the Outside Blog, “Martinique, Prop 8, my [email protected] . www.publiceye.org Nephew, and an unwanted phone call.” October 30,

THE PUBLIC EYE 7 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye NEW TACTICS AND COALITIONS cont’d from page 1 progressive values, saying the reproductive past century; anti-abortion activists such office in Columbus, in which a reception - services organization violates norms of as Alveda King, niece of the late Rev. Mar - ist replied “Okay,” when the caller said there racial justice and fails to protect minors tin Luther King, Jr., charge that Planned were “definitely way too many Black from sexual predators. At the pivot point Parenthood embodies a eugenicist and people in Ohio.” 4 After losing the guber - where the Right’s wedge-driving themes racist goal targeting Black people for geno - natorial race to DemocratTed Strickland, converge sits a 20-year-old college stu - cide. In 2006, Rose deployed an actor to Blackwell joined the Family Research dent who has found stardom on YouTube. call Planned Parenthood clinics posing as Council staff. At press time, with the back - Lila Rose, who leads the sting group, a racist donor offering to fund abortions ing of the right-wing umbrella group the Live Action, is winning fame by going to sought by African-American women. 2 Live Center for National Policy, he was vying abortion clinics, armed with a hidden Action secretly recorded the phone calls, for the chairmanship of the Republican camera, posing as a young teenager. In a then incorporated them into videos posted National Committee. clinic in Los Angeles and at two others in on YouTube. (YouTube removed several of At September’s Values Voter Summit, an Indiana, Rose and a colleague recorded annual religious Right gathering convened clinic personnel who appear to advise by the FRC Action arm of the Family Rose to either alter her own (fictional) age Research Council, Lila Rose appeared as an or not to mention the age of the fictional A new generation is emerging star. Introduced to the audience older man who supposedly impregnated as “a young Sarah Palin,” Rose touched on her.This would allow the clinic personnel using new media tactics the Right’s anti-Planned Parenthood to avoid reporting the case to child themes, both new and old, favorably quot - protective services. along with lip service to ing the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rose’s sting at an Indianapolis clinic she the socialist organizer Saul Alinsky (whose visited in June resulted in Planned Par - progressive values in socialist methods Palin accused Barack enthood dismissing a clinic counselor Obama of appropriating) along the way. named Janet after Live Action released the challenging Planned The speech was tightly crafted, and Rose’s video in December. Janet had assured the performance evoked the stilted timing and girlish-voiced Rose that she didn’t care Parenthood. preciousness of a child actor. how old Rose’s boyfriend was after Rose said She said she received an e-mail from that she didn’t want to get him in trouble. 1 Mary-Jane Wagle, president and CEO of As the Associated Press reported, “Indiana Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles, threat - law requires anyone learning of sexual acts those videos for “inappropriate content,” ening legal action against Rose’s group if between an adult and a child under 14 to presumably to avoid any legal issues aris - the undercover footage of her sting at the report them to police or child welfare ing from the manner in which the mate - L.A. clinic was not removed. Rose said, “I authorities.” rial was obtained.) remember sitting wide-eyed at my com - A video released by LiveAction in Octo - While Rose is quick to note in public puter, startled by the realization that ber shows a staff member at a Blooming - remarks that none of the affiliates contacted Planned Parenthood, the billion-dollar ton Planned Parenthood clinic telling by Live Action “on that first day of calling” corporation and number-one leader of Rose, posing as a 13-year-old impregnated turned down the money, she cited only two abortions in America, was afraid.” She by a 31-year-old, how to avoid parental instances in her speech last year to a right- paused apparently expecting a response, notification laws by traveling to an out-of- wing gathering in Washington, D.C., and when no applause came, she let out a state clinic. where the caller made clear his racist moti - girlish laugh, as if amazed at her own A separate gambit plays on Planned vatio n— that his earmarked donation was power in the face of the mighty giant. On Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger’s designed to help reduce the number of cue, the crowd roared its approval. Accord - sorry relationship with eugenics in the “Black kids” on “the streets.” 3 She did not ing to Rose, the Alliance Defense Fund say how many affiliates were contacted represented her and the L.A. Planned Adele M. Stan is a journalist, blogger and “on that first day,” or the total number ulti - Parenthood ultimately did not file a law - editorial consultant whose work appears in mately called. And she referred not to an suit against her or Live Action. The Guardian, The American Prospect, actor making the calls, but an activist. Think of an anti-choice activist, and the and Mother Jones Online . She authors Ken Blackwell, Ohio’s former secretary image that comes to mind is likely one of the blog AddieStan: A breakaway of state and an African-American, was an aggressive, older White person waiting republic of the mind www.addiestan. then running for governor. He called for outside an abortion clinic to buttonhole a blogpspot.com and is a featured blogger a congressional investigation into the result client for “sidewalk counseling” to convince for The Huffington Post . of a call made to a Planned Parenthood her that she’s about to commit murder if

THE PUBLIC EYE 8 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye she has an abortion. Perhaps you recall the tactics of anti-choice groups in years past, when activists recorded the license plate numbers of cars entering clinic lots, some - times posting those numbers publicly, or Operation Rescue enthusiasts carrying giant signs graphically depicting bloody fetuses. But decades of harassing or demonizing the women who seek reproductive health care at women’s health clinics have done little to move public opinion. In 1983, the year Catholics United for Life began sidewalk counseling at a Planned Parent - hood clinic in Walnut Creek, California, 5 respondents to a national Gallup poll found only 16 percent wanted abortion outlawed in all circumstances. 6 Not long after Lila Rose posted her first video sting shot at the Los Angeles Planned Parenthood facility, a 2008 Gallup poll found those numbers virtually unchanged, with only 15 percent wanting to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. 7 These days, right-wing strategists rely on new storylines for opposing abortio n— narratives with victimization themes that tap into the success of liberals’ two largest movements for social change: the African- American civil rights movement, and the women’s movement. Both movements won great gains for their constituents by demonstrating in the court of public opin - ion the violence, degradation, and unfair -

ness suffered by the people whose cause they s e g a

advocated. Feminism expanded once very m I y t t

limited notions of rape to include rape by e G / acquaintances and spouses. n o s l O

So the Right has recast teenage girls and t t o c women who have abortions as victims of S a greedy and faceless corporation (Planned A four-year-old holds a sign at a 2007 protest against a new Planned Parenthood in Aurora, Illinois. Parenthood), or tools of a racist movement whose purpose is ethnic and racial cleans - ing. A corollary theme portrays Planned National Coalition to Defeat Planned Parenthood. The American Family Asso - Parenthood, the faceless corporation (it’s Parenthood picks up on longstanding ciation features on its Web site an online actually a non-profit federation), as an right-wing arguments in painting the non - petition that answers the question, “Should incorrigible breaker of laws, accountable to profit as being a corrupt beneficiary of big President Barack Obama keep his prom - no on e— corporate accountability being government (see box, pg .10). ise to Planned Parenthood and strike down another cause embraced most often by With the prodding of their new nearly every pro-life law in America?” 8 liberals and progressives.This is not to say coalition and tactics, the Religious Right (During the presidential campaign, Obama old arguments aren’t still in play.The new loses no opportunity to target Planned promised to sign the Freedom of Choice

THE PUBLIC EYE 9 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye

Act, which would open up certain state- children into sin, we have a grievance on Sexuality, the Institute for Religion level restrictions on abortion to court chal - against our government,” Perkins wrote in and Democracy, best known for fomenting lenges.) Tony Perkins, president of the an e-mail to supporters, “Paul Weyrich was strife over gay issues in mainline Protestant Family Research Council, used his elegy for the first to show us how we could effectively denominations, picked on RCRC for Paul Weyrich, a founding father of the petition our government for redress of our showcasing a staffer from Planned Par - Christian Right who died in December grievances.” 9 enthood Federation of America. 10 2008, to rail against Planned Parenthood: When it wanted to go after the Religious Out on the fringe, Rod Parsley, one of “Wherever a Planned Parenthood worker Coalition for Reproductive Choice’s 12th the right-wing pastors whose endorsement is breaking parents’ hearts by leading their Annual National Black Religious Summit presidential candidate John McCain even - tually disavowed, compared Planned Parenthood to Nazis in an edition of his COALITIONTO CUT GOVERNMENT FUNDING OF television show that featured Rev. Johnny PLANNED PARENTHOOD LAUNCHED Hunter, president of the Life Education And Resource Network, Inc.(LEARN). 11 Last summer, more than 50 leaders from anti-abortion organizations banded together LEARN is an organization whose main to form the National Coalition to Defeat Planned Parenthood. The coalition, spear - mission appears to be the advancement of headed by Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League, met for the first time in September the notion of Planned Parenthood as a racist and quickly issued its plan to cripple Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a organization. major provider of reproductive health services for poor and uninsured women, by The Right’s new storylines seem ending any federal, state, or local government funding to the group. 16 Among those designed to trip up liberals, to use their in attendance were David Bereit of 40 Days for Life, Jim Sedlak of STOPP Planned compassion against them, to depict them Parenthood, Janet Morana of Priests for Life, Ray Ruddy of Gerald Health Foundation as frauds. These are narratives as rhetori - and Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America. 17 cal traps set by a handful of religious-right The coalition has pledged to “mobilize pro-life supporters wherever a new Planned actors, seemingly in coordination so closely Parenthood attempts to open its doors,” modeling its tactics on Pro-Life Action do they play their parts. League’s efforts to oppose the opening of a Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Alveda King capitalizes on her last name Aurora, Illinois dubbed “ground zero” by both prolife and prochoice supporters. and illustrious uncle to promote the notion of abortion as a “black genocide.” “I have “We’re excited to work together and learn from each other’s strategies that have been a dream; it’s in my DNA” she said at an effective in the battle to save the lives of unborn babies,” said Joe Scheidler, founder anti-abortion protest staged outside the of the Pro-Life Action League and author of 99 Ways to Stop Abortion. 18 NAACP’s national convention in Cincinnati last September (posted on Live The coalition will most likely implement strategies devised by member organization Action’s home page). 12 Lila Rose, with her STOPP Planned Parenthood, which has a 31-step plan to defeat government funding adolescent affect, represents the under- of Planned Parenthood. STOPP instructs community members to determine whether age girl whom the Right says Planned their local government is contributing to Planned Parenthood and, if so, how much. Parenthood exploits after she has been With those facts in hand, STOPP advises prayer and community engagement to used by an adult man. eliminate funding. 19 But members of the coalition are also charging that Planned Phill Kline, the former attorney general Parenthood “may have fraudulently charged the federal government millions of dollars” of Kansas, fronts the notion of Planned because it does not bill for “cost,” and they claim a government investigation is Parenthood as a scofflaw. Kline made big needed. 20 news when, as Kansas attorney general, he STOPP, as well as the National Coalition to Defeat Planned Parenthood, is faith-based. subpoenaed the medical records of hun - In the coalition’s joint-resolution it calls upon, “people of faith and conscience to unite dreds of Kansas women who obtained in prayer for an end to Planned Parenthood.” STOPP cites the passage, “If the man medical services in a Planned Parenthood does not get up and give it to him for friendship’s sake, persistence will make him get clinic, as well as a private clinic directed by up and give his friend all he wants” (Luke 11:8). 21 The coalition, too, reminds us that Dr. GeorgeTiller, where Kline asserted that the prolife movement isn’t disappearing any time soon. Its influence is already seen in illegal late-term abortions were being the growing public denunciations of Planned Parenthood by such major Christian performed. Kline’s case against Tiller was Right groups as Family Research Council. dismissed in 2006, a month after voters 13 – Maria Planansky turned Kline out of office . He went on to become the district attorney of Johnson All sources accessed on January 15, 2009. County, Kansas, where he pursued an

THE PUBLIC EYE 10 SPRING 2009 r t p We e p x e h T l as h t o b t a h t “ not suc fe th a th Ros e inc cas who g brings wom of le ng e. ho inv grou “ d th pr a hi t i n u m c i v d a s e o d handbo P vi vi a can some c n i never an o t s i He h c nd torney ir l t u oz le n a l y “c atu ct de s; fi en ere, e osecu b au A At T“ o R ’s t estu y e e n e es e d u l n a ce en in ri ver i o i i on d n f o he th e pu es ons.” vil an wr it w ps s o ’s u c n e i r th imp si mi red d e n dges ti en dience g u f d e e e by repr be t e c qu nd d t cli h e y d e e n Co pi ce her. y v i h t in h gati , y e r e he me t ch or. ous ea ir this o t d n o a ri a o . s Kl te. u c e en ” re and e c , es es t nic, gir ers ta h a tio bor e t p l l we g with k, reg la ghts ab o Va ri o t rs. bu ose a he odu ctive e o s l t en s a o s r a in gul s u s a P , a u t l on I “ Th In rg a n a e h o convic r me P io n rap i r u c e ‘M e Rule ls n e m es o t ve day, lu at We a t ro b nate st r e e m ins n la e of abo A th e r r s Kl re he l a t n bu tw ndi atio p x e o ral e said at e e of d r, ti r t es i r b s; Kin p . t r ne the e e. a ug a w f t n t e n ” . pi n o in ane r r n e d a r te gy s e h e v i ic n he t l a t we the t o g s o y t y b V r w e n as eg d P em tio r M n d o o h t ng for g he do n e g d ust ag a l cli eed re isk ted ns e’s (s e , —n We was sa ote l g d ir o n h mi T“ he un y l t ane ul d o o — ju d e n i ocki l”; i l a i s r e v o r t n o c ain he m respect nic ain ls of er, me me di ca l l on aR c) o th c u d o r p e r d f Parenthod wo n oca ations of ’t who stice dis e r 208 o t i t e h t pen ll s de a f ya w .’ ust o t by who iv da ugh ter a c a th th e p a r at to turned Su li ke cli dicals a c i f a a wh i v d l i m conferen rke d ng in as d r- ag e trict co n —l l nd choice y stor n t c a n e e ere e h t the an y g e t a r t s c s s ro c take ing m nic pro vide c Planed i t a Parenth rime,” advocat abotr ion th sek an n o to the at ” , e c a i a t f d n a h te L ’ pr older ag ti n or sh n a , n o e he r pro-life to at anecd r th g i R ad e k s g was t x e t to ec or ds Sau it, y acesor the h im te p ain.” design e p x e ir l langu e out r - e v i t torne human d ue m ro f gr eat f ands was s e Rs o tion abor of picked m s i c a r r o Kline l t abor wh ce speak p e s u Rose y ar e s w a e k a t wil l man l ab ru ptl y the bile to r o f i s o xp lo th od es ead Alinsky ts i v i t c a . Par ote, ’s of t e i r oe v ind alwa ich T“ ys o e age m of argue ef f of me h t h g i co o i t ch n a t a s co oe p ma n pro ion c n a h t ent t e h told d an h t i a and lif was oc k r e h h h hat th e th te d us ra e r m h ec t .d i nd up al h -i t sn n e to t of of ys as as st .e e. ri si is s. d o y a e e s ------t to n i se div t n e v h Am ur S circ H T h ome eat recently ize es e a por t n- ide d e le e e h E e for d r Anti-abortion gover nment master d s At at ica U P sou n upon t on a de T 1 ograph w to he Par enthoo d ’s 8 9 e p s om strip ping B bate gh rn e h por how f I L , s 0 e t ey a i c e m th p C n s no came ro y; Ge ins e t who l n e h w b u P be E o coalition graph tect i is ot s i m m o c E Y ne st sue k t he mo suff ral place t ve o rs g i r 1 of i l y Ed together v ad er or fe Plann ed fund ing. e pro c t h po i s ed me are S wit win of r groups n o em w - re P r Ey ble h d n n hin I R s arm n i Mee aimed t ogr its edi th o t . m t N g e In h e fe , a s aph G “s e p im l se rela j min 1984, m ust l u t is a 2 in co pac y y 0 0 e yd ted ue. sr e as ist n t as 9 o ” - - t T 19 S t go T m a P suc vi A ac e t c suc t Mees co so f v t sc i Gen era n o he ively h o a p x is e a c h h d r g rm m em ti o t n a p ird nce nat ren v ion c en T ivs o e ol in g h h f ern a i o l o e e o m impac b n rd i - w m min bers e of as e $ d r th o or re l e di in t t a t of ne as — as ge n 3 m co ay, f s e in l oo d go gro , 3 t th asure ’ g n g Plan tu n d i en w n o i placin nf is g 5 pr ogr on) y Supre o c and o v o o er al t abo righ t n t i t t mi t h up i ern t n f se el an o rm w i e m ec ol h e n -a fun ne y th a s o l as t . u t l c c h cc w a h ment t- botr migh f n a fea a i a i g t o o e me on d -p n ea l ti e ms dev om og i o w w o r din u n nt t aci o ef f t pro Par Wa u tu o h d n c in e f - i th p n r io rn n er e c e m Co u en ast ac er red or s g t g m co al h t nre g a r e m n l en gre n s ogr s h l ea ’s v i er ept i n i m y it t lead ed fo at t ur n he a h ntra ave in S — ea t t An ri mov e la e tret s o h ing; aph r r n a sive al e io —r ec n le o abo ce s 86 te d d ag lt h no o dr g t cts od’s s n ague i g ep ri ve d r h n s t y ain s ives per no ea Jou minat (no a s l r f c c ut care to ment cru fr coalit t g i r o for nd se om ar n e e r st e Dwo t budget ab c e r e t r Cl r o t until sa h en n f oge k P ape s , t es it se spe or includ e he g a t t ior d al, lan der are ion - x io t to o r is e in h t i w r .s r e vices of the e f f pro p ech. n— e k and o f n , du nce on . es o the t th ro a ec pit i — gn on ne h e i in n s t r. d 1 e e e s - - - - - , 4 R.J. Mattson/politicalcartoons.com The Public Eye entire budget (including government and moral concerns,” Simon reported. “The 3 Thaddeus Baklinski,”Undercover Investigation Reveals Planned Parenthood’s Racism”; LifeSiteNews.com, non-government funding), according to campaign paints Planned Parenthood as a February 28, 2008. http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008 Planned Parenthood, with many of those wealthy organization that doesn’t need /feb/08022802.html services provided to women of color. taxpayer help. Planned Parenthood 4 Candace Candinsky, and Jonathan Riskind; “Planned Par - enthood racist, activists say,” Associated Press, May 10, Indeed, of its total budget for services, reported record revenue and a $115 mil - 2008, Columbus Dispatch. http://www.dispatch.com/live/ only 3 percent goes to abortion service s— lion budget surplus last year...” This year, content/local_news/stories/2008/05/10/ppvideo.ART_ART_ and none of that funding comes from the however, more women than ever are 05-10-08_B1_0LA5NQ1.html?sid=101 government. expected to seek their health care through 5 Connie Paige, “The Right-to-Lifers,” Summit, New York, 1983, p. 75. Access to contraception is known to be Planned Parenthood, as lost jobs mean 6 “Public support for legal abortion continues, although an important factor in the economic lead more to live without health insurance. polls show conflicting trends in 1983,” Family Planning prospects of a woman; indeed, the most Perspectives (via Poponline),1983 Nov-Dec;15(6), pp. 279- 81. http://www.popline.org/docs/019834 significant social effect of the invention of 7 Lydia Saad,”Will the Abortion Issue Hurt or Help the Pill, argues British academic Angela McCain? ”, Gallup.com , September 3, 2008 . Phillips, was not the sexual revolution, http://www.gallup.com/poll/110002/Will-Abortion-Issue- but the relative improvement in the eco - Help-Hurt-McCain.aspx A separate gambit plays 8 American Family Association Web site. http:// nomic status of women where the Pill and www.afa.net/petitions/pp/TakeSurvey.asp other reliable birth control methods are on Planned Parenthood 9 Tony Perkins e-mail to supporters, Family Research available. Before contraception was widely Council, December 18, 2008 available to women, she writes, 10 Rebekah Sharpe, “Abortion Activists Promote Agenda founder Margaret Sanger’s in African-American Churches ,” Institute for Religion “[p]regnancy meant the end of economic and Democracy web site, August 11, 2008. independence. A pregnant woman became sorry relationship with http://www.theird.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid immediately dependent on the man who =755&srcid=183http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2008/01/ parsley_and_hun.html had impregnated her. If he refused to take eugenics in the past 11 Ezra’s blog, “Parsely and Hunter: Planned Parenthood on this responsibility she had to resort to = Hitler,” RightWingWatch , People for the American Way, dangerous backstreet abortion, or have January 31, 2008. http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2008/ century. 01/parsley_and_hun.html her baby adopted. If he married her she was 12 www.liveactionfilms.org literally enslaved: totally dependent on his 13 15 Roxana Hegeman, “Charges Against Kan. Abortion earnings to keep her and her child.” Doc Dumped,” Associated Press, December 22, 2006 Planned Parenthood clinics make that 14 Stephanie Simon,”Abortion Foes Open a New Front”; birth control available to women with lit - After she had cited Alinsky’s writings and Wall Street Journal, December 10, 2008. tle means. For many low-income women, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s “Letter 15 Angela Phillips,”The pill, sex and women’s liberation,” The Guardian, March 13, 2006. http://www . the health services they receive at Planned From a Birmingham Jail,” Lila Rose closed guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2006/mar/31/thepillsex Parenthood are the only professional health her remarks to the Values Voter Summit andwomenslibera care they enjoy. with this quote from Mother Theresa: 16 “Pro-Life Organizations Form First National Coalition Against Planned Parenthood.” http://www.christiannews With federal and state government “The so-called right to an abortion has wire.com/news/903847945.html. budgets strapped for funds as the economy pitted mothers against their children and 17 Pro-Life Leaders Outline Strategy To Defeat Planned takes its toll, the Right sees an opportunity women against men.” In truth, the Chris - Parenthood,” Pro-Life Action League. http://www. to remove a significant player in the tian Right’s war on Planned Parenthood prolifeaction.org/home/2008/ppsummit.htm advancement of wome n— especially seeks to pit members of the progressive 18 Pro-Life Organizations Form First National Coalition Against Planned Parenthood.” http://www.christiannews women of colo r— toward equality.Turn - coalition against each other, leaving wire.com/news/903847945.html ing her remarks directly to Planned countless low-income women to frantically 19 STOPP International’s plan for defeating Planned Parenthood, Lila Rose, at the Values Voter tread water in a sinking economy. I Parenthood.” http://www.stopp.org/plan.htm#three Summit, threatened, “You will be brought 20 Bill Berkowitz, “Right-wing Magnate Takes Up Anti- Abortion Banner,” Inter Press Agency News Service, to justice and, Planned Parenthood, you October 8, 2008. will be defunded.” In her December 2008 End Notes 21 “Pro-Life Leaders Outline Strategy To Defeat Planned Wall Street Journal article, journalist 1 “Planned Parenthood suspends Ind. staffer in video”; Asso - Parenthood.” http://www.prolifeaction.org/home/2008/ ciated Press , December 16, 2008. Stephanie Simon described the Right’s ppsummit.htm 2 For an anti-abortion writer who distinguishes Sanger’s sup - campaign to deprive Planned Parenthood port for eugenics from outright racism, see Angela Franks, of government funding. “[T]he new lob - “Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood: the Eugen - ics Connection,” National Right to Life News, July 2004. bying effort, backed by conservative Chris - http://www.nrlc.org/news/2004/NRL07/margaret_ tian groups such as the Family Research sanger_and_planned_pare.htm Council, focuses more on economic than

THE PUBLIC EYE 12 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye YOUNGER EVANGELICALS continued from page 1 to engage in conversation with their peers social justice efforts such as environmen - traception, abortion, and changing family who hold conservative views about homo - tal stewardship, anti-poverty programs, or structures. The evangelical tradition in sexuality could be transformative for both HIV/AIDS treatment. While they mostly general perceives these trends as indicative sides. Since 2006, the riders have visited 50 believe that homosexuality is a sin, at least of the destructive forces of modernity, Christian schools, welcomed by some and some of them support employment and such as increased tolerance of divorce and arrested for trespassing by others. housing rights for LGBTQ people. sex before marriage. For their leaders, these The Equality Riders hoped to meet Younger evangelicals are emphatic about trends must be resisted rather than accom - people where they are and engage stu - being “prolife,” with a 2008 poll showing modated, and this tradition is nurtured at dents in honest discussio n— and, if that two thirds believing abortion should be ille - Christian colleges. avenue is thwarted, protest the school’s gal in all, or most, circumstances. This is Of the over 4000 colleges and univer - anti-gay policies with direct action in the about the same percentage as their older sities in the United States, perhaps 400 are tradition of Gandhi and the Rev. Martin counterparts. 2 To place this in context, a Christian colleges that identify as evan - Luther King, Jr. As an added objective, they majority of Americans have supported the gelical Protestant schools. Students attend - sought sympathetic media attention. legality of abortion since Roe v. Wade. 3 ing these colleges enter environments The Ride won good notice in the gay where conservative Christian values are cel - press and stories in the local media in ebrated, and often codified. Most of these targeted college towns. schools explicitly prohibit drinking, smok - ing, sexual activity, and homosexuality, and Capturing Evangelical College Are younger evangelicals a some require students and staff to sign faith StudentsViews statements. Yet there is more diversity re the Equality Riders on to some - kind of collective bellwether, among these colleges than their stereotype Athing more than a press opportunity? might suggest. As Alan Wolfe, religion Where ar e evangelical Protestant students presaging developments professor at Boston College notes: these days? While often characterized as Conservative Protestant colleges and homogeneously conservative, they are more within the Christian Right? universities have become too varied diverse in their religious and political views and interesting to pigeonhole into the than one might think. Evangelical college categories of America’s culture war. students are an interesting research niche. They can no longer be caricatured as Despite the wealth of recent polling data simpleminded defenders of the old- about young evangelicals, accurate con - Same sex marriage remains a contro - time religion and hostile to reason, clusions are hard to come by. Because cur - versial topic in the country at large with the any more than secular colleges can be rent methodologies rely on land phone majority of Americans opposed to allow - characterized as globally hostile to lines and internet questionnaires, students ing gays and lesbians to marry legally and religion and traditional moral values. 6 polled are overwhelmingly White, and a slight majority favoring civil unions. 4 what little we know about young evangel - Evangelicals in general oppose same sex Evangelical students’ views reflect this icals of color, the fastest growing group, is marriage at predictably higher rates than diversity.They seem to be able to hold both that they may have differing opinions from the broader population, with only 10 per - conservative and liberal views simultane - their White counterparts. This has been a cent in favor. They see same sex marriage ously. According to Alyssa Bryant, an aca - problem for pollsters and their audience as a profound threat to the traditional demic who works with the well-respected alike, and we will have to wait for research family and a useful rallying point. However, Higher Education Research Institute at refinements. For the figures quoted here, young evangelicals are more than twice as UCLA: then, we should assume they reflect younger likely (24 percent to 10 percent) as their eld - Revealing their conservative side, White evangelicals. ers to support gay couples being allowed to evangelical students are predomi - Recently polled younger evangelicals marry, and another 32 percent supports nantly in favor of the pro-life agenda, seem more conservative in their theologi - only civil unions. 5 So a majority of young whereas their liberal inclinations cal positions than those polled in the evangelicals support some legal recognition emphasize the importance of pro - 1980s. 1 At the same time they are more of gay partnerships. viding for the welfare of economically inclined than their parents to support Marriage and women’s roles are symbolic disadvantaged people, protecting the issues for evangelicals of all ages who con - environment, implementing gun tinue to struggle for indicators of social sta - control, and abolishing the death Pam Chamberlain is senior researcher of 7 Political Research Associates and a member bility against evolving social mores. They penalty. of the Public Ey eeditorial board. worry about the growing acceptance of con -

THE PUBLIC EYE 13 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye

John Skees, an evangeli - cal student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas reflects a common belief among his peers in an op-ed published in his stu - dent paper: For evangelicals, espe - cially those who know at least one gay person, this issue [a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage] became greatly troubling. The vast majority of con - servative Christians

strongly believe that mar - m o c . s

riage should be restricted n o o t r

to between a man and a a c l a c i

woman, but they also t i l o p value human rights and / y e l g don’t think that the gov - a B t a

ernment should treat P anyone unfairly. 8 It is safe to say that young This is an idea that the Christian Right about gay bashing, we’d just get on evangelicals would be able to explain their (which includes many evangelicals) pro - with our lives.” 11 positions by asserting that their faith jus - moted politically for at least the past ten Yet it was a student at Palm Beach tifies such dissonant views. years, but often in an abrasive and judg - Over the three years of the ride, Equal - Atlantic University in Florida who man - mental way that many younger evangeli - aged to articulate the contradictions evan - ity Riders have met their share of hostile cals find offensive. 9 At another stop, a receptions, but media attention may have gelical students experience around Mississippi College student joined the homosexuality. Kelly Ribiero found influenced a shift in administrative Soulforce vigil on her campus: responses. In 2006, administrators at herself challenged and inspired by the Liberty University, the Lynchburg, Virginia It is out of my compassion for Soulforce riders. school founded by Jerry Falwell, arrested peopl e— and the moral obligation As much as I know that homosexu - 20 riders for trespassing; in 2008 riders that I, as a Christian, fel t—that I got ality is sinful and wrong, my mind delivered books to the library and engaged involved with their visit to campus keeps wandering back to the many in dialogue on campus with students.The ….I am a Christian and a straight times Jesus met with prostitutes and Equality Ride visited Columbia Interna - ally and I am not afraid to love with thieves. Even though this was looked 10 tional University, a Bible college in Colum - reckless abandon. down on in His time, He still treated bia, South Carolina in 2008, after receiving Her student paper at the Southern them with love and respect. We need letters from closeted gay students there who Baptist school reported that: to do the same for people of differ - were scared to speak openly. Students who Some students thought Soulforce ent beliefs today…. Soulforce’s visit spoke to reporters responded in cordial yet was making a conscious effort to stir did nothing to change my views on firm ways, consistent with the school’s up anti-gay sentiment and cause gen - homosexuality….[But] how amazing policies. “We don’t believe in what these eral unrest. One student asking to it must be to believe in something so people stand for, but we do love them…as remain anonymous said, “I really much you are willing to go through people,” said 19-year-old Israel Markle, don’t care if they walk all over cam - anything for it….Soulforce, thank reflecting a common catchphrase of pus, but it’s all a show. If they weren’t you for coming to my school and modern Christianity, which advises that here we wouldn’t even be talking challenging me in my Christian Christians hate the sin but love the sinner. walk. 12

THE PUBLIC EYE 14 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye

It could well be that the current crop of a politically mobilized conservative move - 1942. Richard Cizik, Vice President for younger evangelicals are influenced sig - ment of Protestants and Roman Catholics Governmental Affairs at NAE for 28 years, nificantly by their peers as well as by their who often place cultural issues like abor - stirred controversy in early December parents or their professors, which happens tion and same sex marriage as top priori - 2008 by publicly siding with more open- in many youth subcultures. 13 For instance, ties in voting choices. minded evangelicals on a nationally broad - 37 percent of young evangelicals report a Two important things to remember are cast NPR radio talk show. Referring to close friend or a relative who is gay, about that not all evangelical Protestants are young evangelicals’ potential influence, the same percentage of all young adults, motivated to act out their theological he predicted, “[T]hey will determine the according Public Religion Research, com - beliefs in the voting booth and that being future of this huge movement that, well, pared to 16 percent of people over 35. 14 an evangelica l—even a conservative evan - by some surveys’ estimates, if you include And knowing someone who is gay is gelica l— is not equivalent to being a mem - children and the rest, a hundred million closely linked to greater acceptance of ber of the Christian Right. John Green, at people, one-third of all Americans.” In same sex marriage. 15 If this kind of peer the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, esti - fact, according to Cizik: influence continues, the trend of coming mates the size of the U.S. Christian Right [T]hese younger evangelicals, they 17 out as gay at younger ages may be a tipping is about 15 percent of the electorate. disagree quite strongly with their point for young evangelicals’ views on Moderate evangelicals, who are also polit - elders on [same sex marriage]…. homosexuality. The influence of their generational peers is clear. Four in ten young Who Speaks for Evangelicals? evangelicals say they have a close lthough often described in general One study seemed to suggest friend or family member who is gay Aterms, evangelicals across generations or lesbian. And so, much different are not unanimous on social issues, even on that evangelical students than their elders, younger evangeli - abortion and same sex marriage.They hold cals they, well, 52 percent favor either a range of political views, some of which can same sex marriage or civil unions. 18 be associated with age or religious practice. returned to more conservative Cizik aligned himself with younger The tradition of evangelicalism has been a evangelicals on same sex marriage, a “hot strong one in the United States, with espe - religious views, in line button” social issue for the Right, and went cially rapid growth in the past 25 years on to suggest that evangelicals need to among nondenominational church com - with their parents. clean their own house when it comes to munities. The most commonly held reli - heterosexual marriage before they con - gious beliefs are: a personal, redemptive tinue to judge same sex marriage. “I am relationship with Jesus through a “born shifting, I would have to admit. In other again” experience, the inerrancy of the Bible, ically motivated but place more emphasis words, I would willingly say I believe in and the responsibility to share their faith with on social issues like poverty and the envi - civil unions. I don’t officially support others. The Pew Forum on Religion and ronment, constitute another 10 percent of redefining marriage from its traditional American Life estimates that about 26 per - the electorate, according to Green.This lat - definition, I don’t think.” cent of Americans identify as evangelical ter group may have members who vote with In the interview with NPR’s Terry Protestants. 16 the Christian Right in certain circum - Gross, Cizik attempted to shift the focus But not all evangelicals hold the same stances, but who are not as consistently con - away from the divisive issue of same sex conservative political views. Forty-one servative. Many evangelicals, even those marriage and instead look other aspects of percent of all evangelicals, counting both with conservative views, do not vote reg - marriage among evangelicals. Divorce and people of color and Whites, voted for ularly, just like the rest of the population. unwanted pregnancies are nearly as preva - Barack Obama in 2008. Nor are they all The millions of evangelicals who create this lent among evangelicals as in the popula - motivated to join a conservative political complex set of voting patterns are repre - tion at large. 19 “We have become so movement. When conservative Christians sented in Washington by the National absorbed in the question of gay rights do become active politically, and also Association of Evangelicals. and the rest that we fail to understand the become involved with one or more of the The National Association of Evangeli - challenges and threats to marriage itself, many Christian social movement organi - cals (NAE) is the public face of American heterosexual marriage. Maybe we need zations such as the Family Research Coun - evangelicalism. Based in Washington, to reevaluate this and look at it a little cil, Concerned Women for America, or D.C., NAE has coordinated over one hun - differently.” Focus on the Family, they are generally dred denominations, ministries, and aca - For his attempts to position some evan - referred to as the Christian Right. This is demic institutions since its founding in

THE PUBLIC EYE 15 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye gelical attitudes as more open-minded Rather, according to David P. Gushee, than generally thought, Cizik came professor of Christian ethics at Mer - under fire from member organiza - cer University, they are attracted to “a tions of his employer, the NAE. Its broader agenda,” that includes the president Leith Anderson announced, environment, poverty, and human “He cannot continue as a spokesper - rights, the very issues Cizik champi - son for NAE, and the implication of oned. Signs indicate some are moving that is that he resign.” Nine days after into more moderate positions, or per - his interview, Cizik did just that. 20 haps it shows that there are more Although it’s unclear what Cizik’s moderates being mobilized to vote. goals were in bucking the evangelical leadership, it’s perhaps more clear Who Speaks Most Effec - that his opinions, also held by many tively to EvangelicalYouth? moderates, including those in a oung evangelical voters are being younger cohort, are threatening to the Yorganized both through top-down politicized conservative evangelical and bottom-up strategies. At one establishment. extreme is an organizing strategy That establishment is aging. Jerry embodied by theocrat Lou Engle, a Falwell, D. James Kennedy, and Paul seventh-generation Pentecostal min - Weyrich, all founding fathers of the ister featured in the documentary Jesus Christian Right, died within the past Camp who, balding and father of year and a half. While megachurch seven, is definitely not one of the pastors, political movement spokes - young people he seeks to mobilize. people, and others are jockeying for Founder of The Call, a series of mass media attention, evangelical Christian youth rallies billed as spiritual events college graduates will be a major Shane Claiborne’s “Simple Way” is inspiring some younger warning about the end times, he delib - evangelicals. source of future leadership.They will erately mobilizes young people polit - be expected to maintain evangelical ically by encouraging opposition to traditions and step up to direct evangeli - views had converged on most issues except abortion and same sex marriage, two pow - cal social and political movements as well. homosexuality. 22 In recent years, however, erful examples of evil in his mind. Engle A 1982 study of nine evangelical colleges younger evangelicals appear to be once joined forces with Proposition 8 support - by James Hunter uncovered students again shifting their attitudes regarding ers in California to bring his theocratic increasingly moving away from traditional religion and politics in ways that currently message of spiritual warfare to young evan - conservative evangelical religious beliefs, an are difficult to explain. gelicals. Highlighted in this magazine’s last effect of growing secularization, even at Since the mid-1990s the acceptability issue, Engle’s efforts indicate the importance these enclaves of evangelical thought.The of homosexuality in the culture at large has of the youth vote to Christian Right lead - update of the study, published in 2002, by shifted as well. What once was a debate over ers. 23 Organizers of events like the Novem - James Penning and Corwin Smidt, revealed LGBTQ people’s civil rights in housing, ber 1, 2008 rally in Qualcomm stadium in some interesting changes among students employment, and health care has focused San Diego where Engle spoke in favor of at the identical set of schools polled by to a pinpoint on same sex marriage (thanks Proposition 8 hoped to attract tens of thou - Hunter. largely to opposition campaigns by the sands of attendees. The stadium was The more recent study seemed to sug - Right and a mainstream LGBTQ move - nowhere near full, but the fact that the rally gest that evangelical students had returned ment that frames gay marriage as a prior - took place at all signals the desire of major to more conservative religious views, in line ity issue). As Richard Cizik said, young conservative funders who backed the event with their parents. While students continue evangelicals appear to distinguish between to attempt to reach religious youth. 24 Robust to believe that a personal faith in Jesus was their concern about same sex marriage attendance estimates at other Call rallies the only hope for heaven and that the within the church, which only a minority indicate that at least some young evangel - devil actually exists, a higher percentage of supports, and their more common support icals are attracted to more demanding and the more recent cohort of students believed for civil unions as a civil right under the law. judgmental voices. that the Bible is to be taken literally. 21 In fact But more importantly perhaps, younger By contrast, Shane Claiborne’s “A Penning and Smidt suggest that by 1996, evangelicals place less emphasis on issues Simple Way” is an example of the kind of at least, younger and older evangelicals’ like abortion and same sex marriage. grassroots Christian organization that has

THE PUBLIC EYE 16 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye resonated with some younger evangeli - should not judge homosexuals but love servative and my religious friends call me cals. He arguably has done more to bring them, Colson explained that, “We have to liberal.” 27 dialog about gay issues to young evangel - recognize that it is not the way men and Although often welcomed by Chris - icals than the Equality Riders. Claiborne, women are made.” On the other hand, tian college administrators, Claiborne’s a 1997 Christian college graduate and Claiborne told a story about a young gay 2008 appearance at Cedarville University self-described “radical Christian social man he once met. “He felt that God had in Ohio (also a site for the 2007 Equality activist,” has authored several books and made a mistake when he made him. He got Ride) was canceled because of his unortho - cofounded an intentional religious that message from the church, from soci - dox theological and political views. A community in inner-city Philadelphia. ety. He wanted to kill himself.That breaks spokesperson for the conservative Baptist Attracting large crowds at any speaking my heart. If that kid can’t find a home in college explained, “There can’t be any con - engagement, he toured the country in a veg - the church, then who have we become?” 25 fusion about our commitment to God’s etable oil-run school bus during the 2008 Rather than organize through large Word and our historically conservative presidential year with a campaign called pressure groups, Claiborne calls for indi - doctrinal position.” 28 “Jesus for President.” He visited campuses, viduals to create intentional religious com - Is this clash, thoroughly discussed on primarily evangelical schools, asking stu - evangelical blogs, emblematic of a gener - dents to choose to support a candidate ation gap as some would like to believe? Are based on their own Christian values. Fur - younger evangelicals a kind of collective ther he asked the candidates themselves bellwether, presaging developments within to endorse Jesus, whom Claiborne calls Young evangelicals appear the Christian Right and among conserva - America’s Commander-in-Chief. tive Christian voters? More likely we are Claiborne’s hip appearance, from his to distinguish between their witnessing a representation of the diversity dreadlocks to his hemp hoodie, is part of of political and theological ideas across gen - a package that has attracted many young concern about same sex erations that constitute current evangeli - evangelicals who seek more active con - cal Christianity.The Claiborne/Cedarville gruity between what they believe and how marriage within the church, controversy is a sort of Jim Wallis vs. Mike they behave. “The most important camps Huckabee confrontation: any disagree - for young evangelicals are not ‘Left’ and which only a minority ments about politics remain under the ‘Right,’” Claiborne told me. “They are umbrella of American evangelicalism. ‘nice’ and ‘mean.’” He has attracted many supports, and their more Indeed, Sojourner magazine editor Jim who would call themselves “political mis - Wallis wrote the forward to Claiborne’s fits,” and he preaches the inclusion of all common support for 2006 book The Irresistible Revolution: Liv - marginalized peoples. “Young evangelicals ing as an Ordinary Radical. Wallis is a cen - have done something really dangerous. We civil unions. trist who opposes abortion and gay picked up our Bibles and we read them. marriage, yet shares positions with polit - It put us at odds with the evangelical ical progressives on issues such as peace, establishment… When we looked at the social justice, and poverty. On the other Moral Majority [and other groups], we saw munities. His speeches can be found on hand, Claiborne pushes the sectarian enve - the inconsistency of the church.” YouTube with hundreds of comments. 26 lope by praising the Roman Catholic anar - Claiborne identifies this movement as His image is not always so attractive to the chist Dorothy Day as an inspiration, and part of a “post-Religious Right America.” older Christians responsible for evangeli - those raised in the Catholic Church are In a debate about the future of the church cal college students’ education. His poli - members of Simple Way communities. 29 and politics at the 2008 National Pastors tics aren’t always attractive to them either; We are at a moment when the broader Conference, Claiborne distinguished him - while anti-abortion, he is anti-war, pro-gay, public is just learning to distinguish among self from Chuck Colson, the born-again and pro-immigrant, and brings attention different sectors of Christianity and among Watergate felon and prison reformer, about to economic inequality and environmen - different evangelical voices, including out - how to respond to the divisive conversations tal degradation (although not necessarily right progressive ones from the African about homosexuality in evangelical to governmental solutions), presenting all American community and the global churches. Colson’s traditional response these issues together in a “support for life” South. Within the United States there are was, “There is a natural moral order cor - theology similar to Roman Catholic “Seam - signs that a Christian Left is percolating and responding to the natural physical order. less Garment” theology. He warns, “I don’t seeking alliances with spiritual and non- Something which is so plain on its face is really fit into the old liberal-conservative spiritual progressive activists. 30 not normative.” Adding that the church boxes… My activist friends call me con - Without more reliable information

THE PUBLIC EYE 17 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye about younger White evangelicals, it may are talking freely about issues that their 13 Maria R. T. de Guzman, “Friendships, Peer Influence, and Peer Pressure During the Teen Years,” Neb Guide be too tempting for liberals to categorize predecessors could barely articulate. (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska, August this group as across the board more liberal- It is hopeful news that a progressive 2007). http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/pages/ leaning, if we use the litmus test of gay mar - political movement has influenced younger publicationD.jsp?publicationId=837 14 Public Religion Research, The Faith and American Pol - riage as a core tenet of modern political evangelicals’ views. It’s also enlightening to itics Survey: The Young and the Faithful (Washington, liberalism and progressive thought. Leap - see that this influence does not necessar - D.C.: Faith in Public Life, October 8, 2008). ing ahead of the incomplete research would ily take place through the most direct http://www.faithinpubliclife.org/content/faps/upload/2008/1 0/The%20Young%20and%20the%20Faithful.pdf be a mistake. channels. It’s been twenty years since the 15 Shawn Neidorf and Rich Morin, “Four-in-Ten Ameri - The Equality Ride targeted students first gay-straight alliances appeared in cans Have Close Friends or Relatives Who are Gay,” Pew whose identities as Christian are central to schools, and attitudinal change has come Research Center Publications, May 23, 2007. http://pewresearch.org/pubs/485/friends-who-are-gay their lives. Such students’ choice of attend - slowly. That’s why it will be so interesting 16 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey: Religious Affiliation, ing a Christian school probably helps them to observe the direction young evangelicals Diverse and Dynamic (Washington, D.C.: The Pew resist some of the social pressures of mod - take, not just with LGBTQ issues but in Forum on Religion and Public Life, February 2008). I http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report-religious-land - ern life. A loving confrontation by fellow other arenas as well. scape-study-full.pdf young people with contrasting views on 17 John Green and Steve Waldman, “TheTwelveTribes of homosexuality was designed to challenge American Politics,” Belief Net , October 2004. http://www.beliefnet.com/News/Politics/2004/10/The- orthodoxy and certainty. It’s unclear what End Notes Twelve-Tribes-Of-American-Politics.aspx 1 direct, long-term effects the Equality Rid - James M. Penning and Corwin E. Smidt, Evangelicalism 18 “Rev. Richard Cizik on God and Global Warming,” Fresh ers will have on the evangelical students they the Next Generation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Air with Terry Gross , December 2, 2008. Transcript on Academic, 2002). file with PRA. met, but it will be important to pay atten - 2 Public Religion Research, The Faith and American Poli - 19 tion to the political paths young evangel - Margaret Talbot, “Red Sex, Blue Sex: Why do so Many tics Survey: The Young and the Faithful (Washington, Evangelical Teenagers Become Pregnant?” The New icals take. Those pathways will be DC: Faith in Public Life, October 2008). Yorker , November 3, 2008. http://www.newyorker.com/ http://faithinpubliclife.org/content/faps/ ; Public Religion reporting/2008/11/03/081103fa_fact_talbot?currentPage=1 influenced by who can afford to provide the Research, Religion in the 2008 Election: Post Election Sur - asphalt. As long as spokespeople like Engle vey (Washington, D.C.: Faith in Public Life, November 20 Adele M. Banks, “Cizik, under Pressure for Gay Com - 2008). http://www.faithinpubliclife.org/content/post-elec - ments, Resigns from NAE,” Religion News Service , retain their funding, their visibility will tionpoll/ December 11, 2008. http://pewforum.org/news/ rss.php?NewsID=17149 upstage most modest efforts by the Shane 3 A Slight but Steady Majority Favors Keeping Abortion 21 Claibornes. Legal (Washington, D.C.: Pew Forum on Religion and Penning and Smidt, pp. 43-68. We do know that evangelical students Public Life, September 2008). http://pewforum.org/ 22 Penning and Smidt, p. 140. docs/?DocID=350 223 Fred Clarkson, “The Culture Wars are Still Not Over,” will increasingly be taking stands on the 4 A Stable Majority: Most Americans Still Oppose Same-Sex The Public Eye , Winter 2008. http://www.publiceye. social issues of the day and, as far as Marriage , (Washington, D.C.: The Pew Forum on org/magazine/v23n4/the_culture_wars_are_still_not_over. LGBTQ rights are concerned, they have Religion and American Life, April 1, 2008). html http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=290 moved past their elders into more tolerant 24 Sarah Whitman, “The ‘Call’ at Qualcomm Stadium: 5 “The Faith and American Politics Survey,” p. 11. territory. Ironically, it has not been the Translation Needed!” Huffington Post , November 4, 6 Alan Wolfe, “The Evangelical Mind Revisited,” Change , 2008. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sara-whitman/the- efforts of the evangelical leadership that has March/April 2006, 8-13. http://www.carnegiefoundation. call-at-qualcomm-stad_b_140072.html influenced their youth the most; it has been org/change/sub.asp?key=98&subkey=1119&printable=true 25 American Public Radio, “Evangelical Politics: Three other young people.This shift in attitudes 7 Alyssa N. Bryant, “A Portrait of Evangelical Christian Stu - Generations,” Speaking of Faith , April 17, 2008. dents in College,” Social Science Research Council’s http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/evangelical_ largely has happened because of the efforts Essay Forum on the Religious Engagements of Amer - politics/ of the LGBTQ youth movement. ican Undergraduates, January 24, 2007, p. 2. 26 “Shane Claiborne at Fusion Youth,” http://www. In organizing itself, young members of http://religion.ssrc.org/reforum/Bryant.pdf youtube.com/watch?v=QPANKUHabx4 8 this progressive arm of the LGBTQ com - John Skees, “Evangelicals Have BeenTricked,”The Daily 27 Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Campus, November 17, 2004. http://media.www.smudaily Ordinary Radical (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, munity have succeeded in altering public campus.com/media/storage/paper949/news/2004/11/17/Opi 2006). p. 20. nion/Evangelicals.Have.Been.Tricked-2275671.shtml opinion about their own issues—safe 28 Carl Ruby quoted in Karen Beaty,’s “Braking for Blog - 9 schools, being out, family acceptance, Katrina A. Goggins, “Columbia International Gives gers,” February 11, 2008 blog entry on Christianity Boot to Soulforce,” Daily Gamecock , October 7, 2008. Today’s website. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/ equal rights. Where students run http://media.www.dailygamecock.com/media/storage/paper2 2008/februaryweb-only/107-22.0.html?start=1 47/news/2008/10/07/News/Columbia.International.Gives.B gay/straight alliances (GSAs) in schools, for 29 oot.To.Soulforce-3472936.shtml Shane Claiborne’s eclecticism is on display in his inter - view with the public radio show Speaking of Faith . “The example, there is less physical violence 10 MarySue Strong, “Soulforce: Why I’m an Ally,” Missis - New Monastics,” May 10, 2007. http://speakingoffaith. against LGBTQ students. Where students sippi Collegian , November 10, 2008. publicradio.org/programs/newmonastics/ 11 know peers who are gay, they are more open Jared Bounds, ‘Soulforce Walks Over Values,” Mississippi 30 See the website http://www.Talk2Action.org and Fred to LGBTQ rights. Despite Christian col - Collegian , November 10, 2008. Clarkson, ed., Dispatches from the Religious Left , (New leges’ desire to protect their students from 12 Kelly Ribiero, “A Different Perspective on Soulforce’s York, Ig Publishing, 2008). Campus Visit,” The Beacon, November 24, 2008. succumbing to undesirable aspects of mod - https://www.pba.edu/beacon/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.det ern life, young evangelicals at these schools ail&issueId=11§ionId=4&content_id=154

THE PUBLIC EYE 18 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye Book Review The Rise of Biblical Womanhood Much has already Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarch Movement been written about by Kathryn Joyce patriarchal move - Boston: Beacon Press, 2009, 315 pp., $25.95, hardcover ments, from the Reviewed by Gillian Kane Promise Keepers to Last October the cable networkTLC began airing a new real - Jon Krakauer’s best - ity series, “17 Kids and Counting.” The show chronicles the selling nonfictional domestic life of Bob and Michelle Duggar of Tontitown, account of polyga - Arkansas, and their ten boys and eight girls, whose names all mist fundamentalist begin with the letter J. The Duggars were famous even before Mormons. What is the premiere of their series; their ever-growing family has been overlooked is the featured on the Today Show, the Early Show, CNN, and question of what People magazine. Should there be a second season of the TLC motivates women to series the name will have to change: the Duggars recently wel - willingly participate comed their 18th child, Jordyn-Grace Makiya. Bob Duggar told in movements that reporters, “We would both love to have more.” require their total What the warm and fuzzy human interest stories about the submission to men Duggars’ very large family have failed to note is the broader polit - and accompanying ical and social context in which it plays out. The Duggar s— loss of autonomy. Jinger, Josiah, Jedidiah and the res t— are the most visible faces Joyce has done of the “Quiverfull” phenomenon, a largely neo-Calvinist sub - some hard reporting group of evangelical Protestantism that rejects all forms of con - to answer these questions: embedding herself within several Quiv - traception, even non-barrier methods like natural family erfull factions, attending their conferences, and in some cases planning. The driving philosophy behind Quiverfull’s procre - befriending these women. One such woman even named her sixth ative mission is women’s self-abnegation: child after Joyce. women must submit to the “headship” of The result is more a work of anthro - their husbands, who are the corporal rep - pology than political tract. Joyce is a resentation of God. Submission to God Submission to God and reporter; she rarely casts judgment on her and husband entails bearing as many subjects, even when encountering women children as possible and conceding any and husband entails bearing as like Debi Pearl, cofounder with her hus - all decision making rights to her spouse. band Michael of the No Greater Joy There has been little study of this tiny many children as possible ministry in Pleasantville,Tennessee, who but growing pronatalist movement, but believes that “God grants the marriage with Kathryn Joyce’s Quiverfull: Inside and conceding any and all partner full access to his spouse’s body for the Christian Patriarch Movement , we sexual gratifications,” because sex is “a self - now have an excellent resource. Joyce decision making rights to less act of benevolence…She [the wife] tracks Quiverfull’s genesis and doctrinal need only seek to fulfill her husband’s roots to untangle the various strands of this her spouse. needs.” (p. 79) complex patriarchal movement and So what drives women to join the explain why, in the 21st century, a group Quiverfull movement? Joyce suggests that eschews modernity and individual - that the Quiverfull lifestyle offers an ism is gaining ground and adherents. antidote to feminism, which conservative Christians blame for the decline of morality, family, and the role of women within marriage. Joyce cites many sources, across several denominations, Gillian Kane is a senior policy advisor at Ipas, an international to support this thesis, and singles out the mentoring ministry, organization that works around the world to increase women’s “Titus 2,” as forming much of the basis of Quiverfull’s theol - ability to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights, and is ogy.Titus 2, named after Paul the Apostle’s teachings to his dis - a member of the Public Eye editorial board. ciple Titus, Joyce writes, “is dedicated to rediscovering the lost

THE PUBLIC EYE 19 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye arts not just of motherhood but of cleaning, cooking, home - talking and to stay away from socializing with other women or schooling, and particularly, submitting in wifehood.” (p. 45) even with women’s church groups. This is classic cult isolation But Quiverfull, as Joyce goes on to explain, isn’t simply about tactics but Joyce is too respectful to name it as such. Ironically, reclaiming housekeeping and mothering skills, forgotten once it’s the trust that Joyce builds with her subjects that gives her entrée feminists dropped their kids off at daycare and marched on to into the movement. With this nuanced view comes the under - work; it’s about women as the keystone to the family and ulti - standing that Quiverfull women are hardly Stepford Wives.Traci mately to salvation. Joyce’s main point is that what makes Knoppe, a Quiverfull disciple and developer of a Titus 2 min - Quiverfull attractive is that women gain a sense of control istry says, “We’re equally intelligent and capable of doing the through their submission. things that men do, but that doesn’t mean we have to or that we It’s twisted logic, really. Wives must follow the dictates of should.” “Biblical motherhood,” which relegates them to a secondary Quiverfull takes its name from Psalm 127:3-5 of the OldTes - role in their marriage, yet they are ultimately responsible for tament which promotes the teachings be fruitful and multiply. the failures or successes of their husband and their partnership. And aptly enough, it only refers to the glory of men. For example, if a man cheats on his wife it’s not actually his fault but rather his wife’s for not being sexually available. Or if a wife Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: nags too much and demands too much of her husband forcing and the fruit of the womb is his reward. him to leave, well, that’s her fault too. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; In order to rein in a woman’s natural “impulses” (i.e. gossip - so are children of the youth. ing, nagging, getting angry, and complaining about your Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. husband) someTitus 2 ministries instruct women to limit their

EDITORIAL continued from page 2 tectonic shifts in discussions of race with but will the new administration disman - the election of Obama, but does that mean tle these tools? We will continue to ask the Right and the GOP’s reliance on racism interesting questions that we hope help our in their rise to power is no longer tenable? readers be clear-eyed about the real polit - The government’s capacity for repression ical challenges we must face to organize a grew exponentially during the Bush years more just world. –Abby Scher, editor m o c . s n o o t r a c l a c i t i l o p / e f e e K e k i M

“Finally, the Religious Left has found its voice.” –JOAN BROWN CAMPBELL L

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THE PUBLIC EYE 20 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye ……Reports in Review…… REPORT OF THE MONTH The Economic Road Ahead The recession began in December 2007 with a quick 2.3 percent Without Adequate Public Spending, A Catastrophic jump in unemployment in its first year. The jump in those under - Recession for Some employed was also large, from 8.7 percent of the workforce in By Lawrence Mishel and Heidi Shierholz with Tobin Marcus, December 2007 to 13.5 percent in December 2008. And the unem - Economic Policy Institute, January 13, 2009. ployment rate only measures those jobless in a single month. “This http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/ib248 fails to capture the total share of workers who will be jobless at some point during the year, which is generally twice as large.” Thus this “Unless action is taken (and fast), unemployment and underem - commonly used statistic understates the pain of a recession. In 2007 ployment will plague 35 percent of the labor force over the course of alone, some 15 million people were unemployed at some point, 2010, as people move in and out of a shrinking pool of jobs,” write although only an average of 7.4 million showed up jobless in a these longtime trackers of the economy. It remains to be seen whether single month. the bill ultimately approved by Congress will do the job, but without Recessions also cut many workers’ hours, and their incomes are massive governmental action the forecast looked dire. When other further reduced as high unemployment cuts into wage gains, hurting sources of economic growth falter, government spending spurs the poorest workers the most.The report quotes Sharon Parrott’s recent demand for goods and services.This demand in turn creates more pro - study for the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities showing that an duction and employment. unemployment rate of just 9 percent would increase the number of Even with this action, the current recession “will be the longest and poor Americans by 7.5 million to 10.3 million. The number of poor deepest since the Great Depression of the 1930s.”Without it, progressive children would rise by 2.6 million to 3.3 million. Unfortunately even economists predicted 17.9 percent of the workforce would be un- or massive government action may not forestall those figures. underemployed. For women, that figure would be 18.8 percent; for – Abby Scher Blacks, it would be 18.2 percent.

Other Reports in Review

Turning the Page on Criminal Toward that end, theTransition Coalition report compares three bills in the Senate and Justice offers a detailed roadmap in a wide array of notes that former Senator Joseph Biden’s Drug Smart on Crime: Recommendations for areas, including grand jury abuse, mandatory Sentencing Reform and Cocaine Kingpin the Next Administration and Congress minimums, prison reform, and prisoner re- Trafficking Act of 2007 (S.1711) comes clos - The 2009 Criminal Justice Transition Coali - entry. It emphasizes steps that can realistically est to rational reform by eliminating the tion (The Sentencing Project plus 20 groups), be accomplished in the early stage of the new mandatory minimum penalty for simple pos - November 2008. administration by detailing the status of pend - session of crack cocaine to bring it in line with http://www.sentencingproject.org/Publication ing bills, existing and potential allies and simple possession of any other drug. Details.aspx?PublicationID=629 opponents, and polling results. Where legis - The coalition also identifies Right-Left Skyrocketing prison budgets combined lation is not pending, the report proposes coalitions. For example, the Heritage Foun - with spending constraints should create inter - amendments, plus action by the executive dation opposes Democratic Senator Dianne est in criminal justice reforms that save money, branch where it has jurisdiction. Feinstein of California’s Gang Prevention emphasize treatment, reduce racial disparities, A top priority is crack cocaine sentencing and Effective Deterrence Act (S.456), which and protect the innocent. So argues this reform, an issue that has been “seeded, vetted, passed the Senate by unanimous consent in report, devised as a guide for the Obama and is ripe for congressional consideration.” In 2007. The bill defined “gang crimes” so administration. It cites a 2006 Zogby poll that what has come to be known as the 100:1 broadly that it would drastically increase the found “by an 8 to 1 margin the U.S. voting quantity ratio, it takes 100 times more pow - number of youth who are swept into the public is in favor of rehabilitative services for der cocaine than crack cocaine to trigger harsh juvenile justice system.The report notes that prisoners as opposed to a punishment-only sys - five and ten-year mandatory minimum sen - the Heritage Foundation was instrumental in tem.” With numbers like this, the next chal - tences. For twenty years, this ratio has punished reducing Republican support for the bill in the lenge lies in convincing members of Congress low-level crack cocaine offenders far more House, and supports a John Conyers-backed to implement common sense legislation. severely than their wholesale suppliers with an alternative. enormous racially discriminatory impact.The –Thom Cincotta

THE PUBLIC EYE 21 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye

New Day for Human Rights? With the creation of the Department of By Heidi Beirich, Southern Poverty Law Center, February 2009. Human Rights at Home: A Domestic Policy Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003, the http://www.splcenter.org/pdf/static/splc_nativis Blueprint for the New Administration implementation of immigration policy was transformed into a “singularly focused, blunt, tlobby_022009.pdf by Catherine Powell, American Constitution antiterrorism enforcement tool.”This report Society for Law and Policy, October 29, 2008. Much of recent nativist organizing has http://www.acslaw.org/node/7549 identifies administrative reforms that can focused on the scapegoating of immigrants. reverse the most repressive features of that This collection of four articles, republished by “When the United States fails to practice transformation. the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) at home what it preaches to others, it loses cred - For example, the United States has increas - from its magazine Intelligence Report, indis - ibility and undermines its ability to play an ingly focused on detaining as many migrants putably links three major anti-immigrant effective leadership role,” writes Fordham as possible, regardless of their health, age, fam - organizations to a single source: JohnTanton, Law professor Catherine Powell in this report ily situation, or of the merits of their claims a 75-year-old Michigan-based White for a liberal legal organization. for asylum or lawful status. Immigration and suprema cist with many racist connections and This blueprint makes concise proposals for Customs Enforcement (ICE) holds 32,000 a well-developed ability to fundraise. how the new administration can narrow the immigrants in detention on a daily basis, Tanton founded FAIR, the Federation for gap between the human rights ideals it pro - representing more than a three-fold increase American Immigration Reform, in 1979, fesses, and its actual domestic practice. in beds since 1996. Conditions of detention and he is still on its board of directors. FAIR, Reconstitution of the Interagency Work - are very often substandard. More than 80 a beltway lobby organization that played a key ing Group on Human Rights is a realistic and immigrants have died in ICE custody since role in the derailing of the 2007 immigration necessary first step. Executive Order 13107, ICE was established in 2002. reform bill, has its roots in racist and White issued by Bill Clinton, established the Inter - But ICE already has discretionary author - supremacist thinking and organizing. Its agencyWorking Group in 1998 coordinated ity to release noncitizens from detention. It leadership often testifies before Congress and by the National Security Council, an impor - rarely takes advantage of cost-effective com - FAIR misrepresents itself as a mainline immi - tant move that gave the group the authority munity-based programs that connect indi - gration reform organization. and weight of the White House. Under Bush, viduals with legal assistance and help improve Tanton created CIS, the Center for this interagency coordination fell into disuse. court appearance rates. Even when immi - Immigration Studies as a spin-off of FAIR. CIS The Group’s revised mandate should be to grants win hearings, ICE calls for automatic churns out studies that “expose” the negative mainstream human rights into the govern - stays that prevent release (Obama can direct aspects of immigration, claiming, for instance, ment infrastructure through education, train - ICE to repeal 8 C.F.R.§ 1003.19(i)(2), author - fraud in marriages between holders of green ing, policy reviews, and coordination of treaty izing such stays). cards and American citizens, the success of compliance reports. Its early agenda should The authors recommend that DHS use decreasing undocumented workers by the include a thorough review of the human detention only when absolutely necessary. threat of increased Immigrations and Customs rights treaties that require ratification or The use of family detention should be ended. Enforcement (ICE) raids, or evidence that less implementing legislation, as well as previous Asylum seekers should be given custody hear - educated immigrant workers took less edu - reservations and understandings that should ings rather than detention by default as “arriv - cated natives’ jobs. Despite the fact that all be withdrawn. If you want something done ing aliens.” ICE should be directed to create these claims have been refuted by reputable right, do it yourself. To this end, the authors a nationwide community-based alternatives investigators, CIS enjoys extensive visibility have included a draft revised E.O. 13107 program and establish protocols to maximize through mainstream media outlets. that is ready for the President’s signature. release on personal recognizance. Executive A third organization, the grassroots organ - The authors also recommend an inde - action is recommended to adopt least restric - izing group NumbersUSA, argues that the pendent agency to monitor the domestic tive means of ensuring compliance with immi - population of the United States must be situation in the form of a U.S. Commission gration courts and promulgate standards for reduced by severely limiting immigration in on Civil and Human Rights. detention. order to avoid the wholesale destruction of the –Thom Cincotta Unfortunately, this blueprint is a “to do” country due to overpopulation. list for well-intentioned officials to follow, but In an act that may be the result of an Redeeming Homeland Security it does not serve as a citizen action guide if those impulse based on hubris, Tanton donated Immigration Policy: Transition Blueprint policymakers lack the authors’ commitment his letters to a library at the University of American Immigration Lawyers Association to human rights. Michigan, where SPLC researcher Heidi (plus others), January 13, 2009. –Thom Cincotta Beirich uncovered much of the evidence link - http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid ing the man to the groups.The fact that these =27611 One Man:Three letters document the nativist lobby’s awareness The breadth of this transition document Anti-Immigrant Groups ofTanton’s racist beliefs and its unwillingness demonstrates that we can create a more The Nativist Lobby: Three Faces of to repudiate him is for the author an indict - humane immigration system without debat - Intolerance ment of their bigotry. ing “who should stay and who should go.” –Pam Chamberlain

THE PUBLIC EYE 22 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye

Students are allowed to employ HLA mate - predictable, scientifically plausible opera - rials to promote the following: the human - tion of the world was overruled, suspended, Eyes ity of the pre-born child, abstinence or otherwise altered dramatically.” “Regard - education, and end-of-life issue s— all less of whether the audience’s faith belief sys - RIGHT intended to assist fellow students to embrace tem recognizes divine intervention in the a pro-life philosophy. The students are also form of miracles, viewers will be fascinated.” GOP FINDS UNITY IN encouraged to document their work in videos Sources: “Three New Programs Promise to Pack a Punch OBSTRUCTIONISM for YouTube. “This is just what new clubs with TBN Viewers,” WDC Media News , January 27, Republicans are doing what Republicans need to get off the ground, a boost in fund - 2009. http://www.wdcmedia.com/newsArticle.php? ID=3969; Trinity Broadcasting Network, shoul d— at least according to Michael ing,” says SFLA director Kristan Hawkins. http://www.tbn.org/index.php/2/4/p/1193.html Goldfarb, in his Weekly Standard blog post. Source: “Human Life Alliance and Students for Life of The Republicans’ unanimous vote against America Team Up for Campus Activism Award,” Barack Obama’s stimulus package in Christian Newswire, January 28, 2009. Congress does little to block the Democrats, http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/992809301.html so long as they can hold their coalition together, he admits. “The Left can com - WATCH FOR MIRACLES plain about Republican obstruction until “Susan Zahn, an expert in faith-based media, Eye LASHES they’re blue in the face, but they don’t need notes that there is an ever-increasing demand Republican support to enact their agenda of for all types of family-friendly and inspira - social justice and government handouts,” tional television,” writes WDC Media News, writes Goldfarb, “and they shouldn’t expect quoting its own PR staff person. She is talk - On Nov. 4, 2008, America it.” Goldfarb applauds the Republicans and ing about the new “ultimate reality television “lost the war on terror. the fact that they have “finally unified by series” launched in 2009 by Trinity Broad - President Barack Obama’s being in opposition.” casting Network (TBN), which says it is the feckless, pathetically Source: “Opposition Rules,” Weekly Standard The Blog, world’s largest religious network offering 24 January 28, 2009. apologetic perspective on http:www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/ hours of commercial-free inspirational pro - 01/opposition_rules.asp gramming. The show, Miracles Around Us, foreign policy spells the end will consist of thirteen one-hour episodes, of the quest for liberty in each retelling “actual stories and documented the Middle East. It spells CAMPUS ACTION cases” where the lives of ordinary people The Human Life Alliance (HLA) and Stu - have been altered forever in extraordinary the end of America’s moral dents for Life of America (SFLA) are jointly ways through miracles. The shows recreate leadership in the global war sponsoring the first “Campus Impact Award,” “moments in the lives of otherwise unre - for freedom. And it spells an effort which offers a total of $1,000 in prize markable fathers, mothers, children, grand - money for students to promote prolife parents, and even family pets” when “the the end of a hard-fought activism during the spring 2009 semester. campaign to protect America. Our enemies must be hap pily celebrating their Read the best analysis of the Christian Right on great good fortune in Talk2Action.org! America’s election of this platitudinous, morally Talk2Action is a group blog led by Public Eye writer and relativistic, Jimmy Carter editorial board member Frederick Clarkson. Read weekly carbon copy in the midst contributions from Fred, Political Research Associates of battle. ” researcher Chip Berlet, and the rest of the best thinkers –Ben Shapiro, “The Day America Lost the War On Terror,” Human Events, January about the Christian Right. 28, 2009. http://www.humanevents.com/ Visit Talk2Action.org. article.php?id=30452

THE PUBLIC EYE 23 SPRING 2009 The Public Eye

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