Founder Pat Robertson has taken back control of the misnamed Christian Coalition, from director  Ralph Reed, who until recently, was the telegenic mouth piece for the closed-minded and selectively-interpreted religious views of the reactionary broadcast evangelist.

Pat has kept the public relations strategy of repackaging the Coalition's "Contract With the American Family." It uses the reasonable and benevolent-sounding goal of "strengthening the American family" to mask legislative proposals that would threaten fundamental freedoms such as the separation of church and state and women's rights to reproductive planning.

Pat has been attempting to make the most of the Christian Coalition's growing publicity, a powerful lobbying presence, millions of dollars in funding, and the deference of elected officials and presidential hopefuls. The Coalition has been quietly trying to amass the power to see its agenda realized.

"Their agenda is rooted in elitism, restricted only by what polls say voters are willing to accept.  It is masked in rhetoric that appeals to people's desire for a better society, but also uses their fears to cast blame. It is an agenda we are working to unmask, to educate the public about and to see brought to a halt before more real families are hurt," says NOW Action Vice President Rosemary Dempsey.

 The "common sense values" that the Contract wants to "restore" include measures that would:

• abolish the long-held Constitutional doctrine of separating church and state;
• endanger the quality of education for low-income and special needs children by abolishing the Department of Education and installing voucher programs that divert dollars from public to private schools, which can reject students for numerous reasons;
• threaten children's basic human rights by rejecting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child;
• end federal funding of the NEA and PBS, thereby endangering educational and cultural exhibits, workshops, and programs;
• return "Christian" prayer to schools;
• deny children potentially life saving sex education under the guise of parental rights to regulate school curriculum;
• endanger millions of families by transforming the bureaucratic welfare state into a system of private and faith- based compassion;
• make birth control, family planning and other women's health services unavailable by denying funding to health clinics;
• and undermine the right of all women to choose abortion.

Some religious denominations have started asking if it is appropriate to associate the word "Christian" with conservative political agendas. One group of 80 ecumenical leaders issued a "Cry for Renewal" that protested the actions of the Coalition and its identification with the Republican Party.  The statement also criticized religious liberals who were affiliated with the Democratic Party for not showing, "moral imagination or prophetic integrity."

If the Contract is "the first word, not the last word," then where will the Coalition stop?  A new, similarly unsigned and more extreme contract could be taken seriously if the Coalition continues to gain political power, if more religious-right supported candidates are elected, or if one wins the presidency. 

• Pat Robertson and the Republican Party:   How much influence does the Christian Coalition within the GOP?
• Pat Robertson and his Political Agenda:   The Christian Coalition and Pat Robertson want to change the way you worship by establishing a State Religion.  They want to tell you how to educate your children.  They want to tell you what movies you can watch.  They want to tell you what TV programs you will have access to.  And they want to tell you what defines Art.   Here, on this page, they tell you how they are going to do it.
• Pat Robertson and His Creative Finances: How does a televangelist get enormously wealthy?
• Pat Robertson and his questionable friends:   The strangest part of Pat's Character, is his support of people who have been described by the News media as Criminals, Murderers, and totalitarion Dictators. 
• Pat Robertson and Banking: Pat and a Bank in Scotland decide to join forces.
• Pat Robertson and his mouth: Pat has strange ideas that can only be described as crazy.  Let him tell you all about it.
• Links:  Organizations that oppose Pat Robertson and his organizations.

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