DeLay's troubles expose rift among evangelicals
In explaining his decision to leave Congress this week, Tom DeLay has said the moment that "pretty much clinched it for me" was during a speech he gave in Washington last month at an event billed as "The War on Christians Conference." DeLay received so many standing ovations that he realized he could continue his political career outside Congress, inside the conservative Christian movement.
But despite the warm reception, conference organizer Rick Scarborough, a former Baptist preacher, says his decision to invite DeLay triggered plenty of complaints from evangelical Christians disillusioned by the former House majority leader's alleged misdeeds.
"I received an enormous amount of negative communication," Scarborough says. "But I happen to believe in the old-fashioned adage 'innocent until proven guilty.'"
The Texas-based Scarborough is hardly alone.
Evangelical leaders have been among DeLay's most outspoken defenders since ethics allegations started swirling around him a year and a half ago. A Washington dinner last year organized as a show of support for DeLay in tough times featured Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and a videotaped message from Focus on the Family founder James Dobson.
Support from leaders continued after the DeLay resignation bombshell.
"We're saddened by your announcement," Pat Robertson told DeLay during an interview on The 700 Club this week. " ... You've been a stalwart for conservative causes."
But some in the evangelical community are starting to worry that the Christian right's credibility on moral issues is being undercut by the movement's close association with scandal-dogged figures like DeLay, a hero to many Christian conservatives for pushing antiabortion rights legislation and for spearheading last year's House intervention in the Terri Schiavo case.
"We can't blast Bill Clinton on one hand and cast a blind eye to Republican friends who are guilty of the same kind of misconduct," says Ken Connor, an evangelical activist and past president of the Family Research Council.
"We saw Christian conservatives embrace Mr. DeLay without regard to the merits of the issue," Connor continues. "When you offer a ringing affirmation of someone in the face of very serious allegations, you're presumed to be affirming the conduct as well."
DeLay isn't the only high-profile political figure allied with the Christian right who is now facing charges of unethical behavior. Among the others:
Former Christian Coalition Executive Director Ralph Reed, currently running for lieutenant governor in Georgia, had been hired by disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff to organize Christian opposition to casinos that threatened to compete with those operated by Abramoff's gaming clients. Reed is attracting criticism on the campaign trail for declining to disclose the full extent of his Abramoff connections.
Claude Allen, a chief White House domestic policy adviser who has been praised by Focus on the Family as "a tireless champion of the family and traditional values," resigned earlier this year and has been charged with conning Washington-area stores out of more than $5,000 worth of refunds for merchandise he didn't buy.
Allegations against Reed and Allen have attracted little outcry from Christian-right leaders, who emphasize that neither has been found guilty of illegal behavior.
One exception has been World Magazine, an evangelical publication that has run a series of articles criticizing Reed.
"Some conservative evangelicals may regard the purpose of our magazine to do public-relations work for Christians," says Editor Marvin Olasky, a former adviser to President Bush. "But as journalists, our goal is to tell the truth. God does not need our public relations."
But the GOP might. Some political experts say scandal-plagued Republican politicians—and the members of the Christian right who champion them—risk alienating the in-the-pews evangelicals who delivered 2 of every 5 votes for George Bush in 2004.
"Christian conservatives put a tremendous stock in morality, not only in regard to abortion but in telling the truth and not stealing," says John Green, a religion and politics expert at University of Akron. "I have noticed some disquiet among the grass-roots activists about Tom DeLay and Ralph Reed."
Of course, so have the Democrats. Sources at the Democratic National Committee say the party's attempt to label GOP ethics scandals as a "culture of corruption" is helping it make inroads among religious voters as the 2006 elections approach.
"Faith voters, a key cohort of Red state swing voters, are now almost evenly dividing their vote for Congress," reads a recent memo from the DNC's chief pollster. "These are the same voters who place issues of morals or values above all else. ... They are increasingly losing faith in Bush and the Republicans in Washington."
But conservative Christian leaders say they will continue to stand by the political figures who have stood by them for so long.
"If they pick a fight with Tom DeLay," the FRC's Perkins said at last year's dinner for DeLay, "they pick a fight with all of us."