Christian Coalition of America

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For other organizations with a similiar name see Christian Coalition.

The Christian Coalition of America is a US Christian political advocacy group, which includes Christian fundamentalists, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Roman Catholics and members of mainline Protestant churches. It claims to have 1,200,000 members, but the organization People For the American Way says other data suggest it is 300,000-400,000.^[1] The Christian Coalition was founded by Rev. Pat Robertson, who served as the organization's president for some time. The current president is Roberta Combs (through 2006). Joel Hunter was scheduled to assume the presidency of the organization as of January 1, 2007,^[2] but he then declined to take the job, citing differences of philosophy and vision. Hunter believed the group could better represent Christ by focusing on issues such as poverty and the environment. And while he reported that he was not asked to leave, Hunter felt the board considered his additional issues weren't core to their constituency.^[3]

The CCA's values are consistent with those of the Christian right. Its website states:

Christian Coalition of America is a political organization, made up of pro-family Americans who care deeply about becoming active citizens for the purpose of guaranteeing that government acts in ways that strengthen, rather than threaten, families. As such, we work together with Christians of all denominations, as well as with other Americans who agree with our mission and with our ideals.^[4]

Contents 1 Brief history 1.1 Beginnings with Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed 1.2 Decline in influence and loss of tax-exempt status 1.3 Activity in 2000 and 2004 presidential elections 1.4 Criticism and loss of affiliates 2 See also 3 Notes and references 4 External links

[edit] Brief history

[edit] Beginnings with Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed

Following a well-funded but failed bid for the U.S. presidency in 1988, Pat Robertson used the remains of his campaign machinery to jump-start the creation of a voter mobilization effort dubbed the Christian Coalition. Ralph Reed took control of day-to-day operations of the Coalition in 1989.

After its founding in 1989, it was granted a grace period to operate as a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organization before the IRS made its final determination. In 1992, it began producing non-partisan voter guides which it distributed to conservative Christian churches. Under the leadership of Reed and Robertson, the Coalition quickly became the most prominent voice in the conservative Christian movement, its influence culminating with an effort to support the election of a conservative Christian to the presidency in 1996.

TheocracyWatch wrote that "the Christian Coalition was founded in 1989 by television preacher Pat Robertson to take over the Republican[sic] Party from the bottom up," contributing to "Congressional scorecards from organizations such as the Christian Coalition, Family Research Council, and Eagle Forum.^[5] In their report Funding the Culture Wars,^[6] the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy^[7] lists the Christian Coalition as one of the leading organizations funding the activities of the Christian right. Along with the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, the Christian Coalition is identified as an dominionist organization by TheocracyWatch,^[8][9] which points to the Congressional scorecard of the Christian Coalition to illustrate the success and the strength of dominionists in Congress.^[10]

[edit] Decline in influence and loss of tax-exempt status

Following Bill Clinton's re-election and Reed's departure in 1997, the organization has made only limited progress and has declined in influence,^[11][12][13] with a loss in revenue from a high of $26.5 million in 1996 to $1.3 million in 2004.^[1] In 1998, Americans United urged the IRS to review the Coalition’s partisan political activities over the decade in which its tax-exempt status was pending. The following year, the IRS revoked The Coalition’s provisional tax-exemption, in view of the Coalition's distribution of "voter guides" which had a partisan bias. The revocation cost the Coalition up to $300,000 in back taxes and penalties. Following this, the Coalition reorganized as the Christian Coalition of America, as an effort to regain its tax-exempt status.^[11][14] Churches that once embraced the Christian Coalition have disassociated themselves for fear of losing their own tax-exempt status.^[14] After its tax-exempt status was denied, CCA was able to turn all of its attention to politics. In 2000 the coalition moved from its long-standing base of operations in the Chesapeake Bay area to an office on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

After Robertson stepped down as the group's president in 2000, Roberta Combs took over the Coalition. Members of her family are now high-ranking officials in the group. However, since Robertson and Reed left the group, the Coalition's influence has greatly declined under Combs, and the once prosperous group now owes more than $2 million in debt. It is now under siege by lawsuits from creditors and is also struggling to hold on to state chapters since March 2006, when the Coalition's influential Iowa chapter broke from the group and formed the Iowa Christian Alliance. Once, the Christian Coalition organized a dozen lobbyists in Washington, but now the only remnant of the Coalition within a mile of the Capitol is a single employee who works from his home.^[12]

In 2005, the Coalition concluded a settlement agreement with the Internal Revenue Service, ending its long-running battle with that agency regarding its tax exempt status.^[12] As a result, the IRS has now recognized the Coalition as a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organization, the first time in the Agency's history that it has granted a letter of exemption to a group that stated in its application that it would distribute voter guides directly in churches. (A 501(c)(4) organization does not pay taxes on its revenue, but members cannot deduct donations from their income for tax purposes.) The consent decree enforces limitations on the terminology that may be used in the Coalition's "voter guides".^[12]

[edit] Activity in 2000 and 2004 presidential elections

In both the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections, voter mobilization efforts of conservative Christians tended to be focused internally within the machinery of the Republican Party, as opposed to lobby groups and voter mobilization organizations such as the Christian Coalition. In a related example of this more "in-house" approach to mobilizing votes from the conservative Christian community, Reed served as Southeast Regional chairman for the Bush-Cheney campaign during the 2004 election.

In the 2000 Presidential election, the organization distributed over 70 million voter guides in churches all across America, including over 5 million in Spanish (approximately 2 million of which were distributed in Florida alone). In 2004, the group distributed approximately 30 million voter guides, but this time in targeted states and congressional districts, choosing instead to focus its efforts on areas that were more politically competitive.^{[citation needed]}

In 2006, the Christian Coalition joined with Moveon.org to support Network Neutrality.^[15]

[edit] Criticism and loss of affiliates

AFL-CIO representatives have written that the Christian Coalition, along with much of the Christian right, opposes organized labor.^[16] In March 2006, the Christian Coalition of Iowa renamed itself the Iowa Christian Alliance.^[17] In splitting from the national group, the Iowa Christian Alliance cited "the current problems facing the Christian Coalition of America" in announcing that it had no ties to the national organization.^[18] In August 2006, the Christian Coalition of Alabama split from the national group.^[19] It later renamed itself Christian Action Alabama.

In November 2006, The president-elect of the Christian Coalition of America resigned his post, citing a difference in philosophy over which issues the conservative Christian organization should embrace.

Rev. Joel C. Hunter, currently the senior pastor of the Northland Church in Longwood, Florida, was to assume the presidency in January. But Hunter said CCA leaders resisted his calls to expand their issue base, saying the organization wouldn't allow him to expand its agenda beyond opposing abortion and same-sex marriage.^[20]

Hunter also said he wanted to focus on rebuilding the CCA's once powerful grassroots network—an appeal he says board members rejected.

"After initial willingness to consider these changes, the board of the CCA decided, 'that is fine, but that is not who we are,'" Hunter said.

[edit] See also

• Jerry Falwell
• Robert Grant
• Christian right
• Secular Coalition for America
• Agudath Israel of America

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• Christian Coalition of America
• Northland Church