COVER STORY from Religion and Ethics Newsletter:
Republicans and Religion
August 27, 2004   Episode no. 752
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week752/cover.html   

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: As the Republicans gather in New York this week, many of their prime-time convention speakers will be political moderates such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rudolph Guiliani. But the GOP base remains solidly conservative. For example, the platform the party will present to convention delegates takes strong stands against abortion and gay marriage. Meanwhile, Republican strategists are trying to mobilize their base with an aggressive outreach campaign targeting religious conservatives. Kim Lawton reports.

KIM LAWTON: Sunday morning at Cedar Park Assembly of God outside Seattle, Washington. It's a fairly typical evangelical service. After a spirited time of praise and worship, the ushers come around to collect tithes and offerings. But on this Sunday, something not so typical: the ushers are also passing out voter registration forms.

Reverend JOSEPH FUITEN (Pastor, Cedar Park Assembly of God) (In Sermon): In these days of very close elections, every vote counts. And it's very important for every person to vote.

LAWTON: Cedar Park Senior Pastor Joseph Fuiten is spearheading a statewide effort to register 60,000 new socially conservative voters in churches.

Rev. FUITEN (In Interview): We want religious people to be active in the vote this year. This is a very important year for the religious vote. We want people to be engaged. I mean, Christian citizens should be involved. It's a crime when they're not.

LAWTON: Similar projects are taking place in other evangelical churches across the country. The efforts are ostensibly nonpartisan, but Republicans have high hopes for their impact. Analysts say churches are fertile ground for potential GOP votes.

Dr. ALLEN HERTZKE (Professor of Political Science and Director of Religious Studies, University of Oklahoma): The religious constituency is central to the Republican Party. When you add the evangelical Protestants who vote for Republicans, plus the conservative Catholics, you have a majority of the Republican vote.

LAWTON: According to exit polls from the 2000 elections, 60 percent of all people who attend religious services more than once a week voted for Bush. And the more often people worshipped, the more likely they were to vote Republican. Forty percent of Bush's total vote came from evangelicals.

Throughout his presidency, Bush has worked to solidify his relationship with conservative Christians. He has sought out evangelicals and actively courted Catholics -- a once Democratic voting bloc that analysts say is now up for grabs.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN INTRODUCING PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you for restoring moral integrity to the office of the presidency.

LAWTON: Republican activists are working hard -- often under the radar -- to build on that religious base.

CHRISTINE IVERSON (Republican National Committee): We found a quote from Abraham Lincoln from the 1800s that said the key to winning elections was identifying who was going to vote for you and make sure those people get to the polls on Election Day. And it's remarkable that all of these years later, elections are basically still the same mechanical process it was when Abraham Lincoln was running.

LAWTON: The Bush-Cheney campaign doesn't overtly advertise its religious outreach -- but its "Conservative Values Team" includes endorsements from high-profile evangelical leaders such as former Southern Baptist Convention President Jack Graham and broadcaster James Dobson.

The Republican National Committee has also launched a massive outreach campaign. The center of its strategy is an Internet-based interactive "team leader" project that organizes local volunteers into affinity groups -- many of them religious. So far, they have 112,000 religious team leaders.

Ms. IVERSON: We have Catholic team leaders. We have Muslim team leaders. We have evangelical team leaders. We have stock car team leaders and snowmobiling team leaders as well. These team leaders are a grassroots army of volunteers on the ground. These are the people who -- we don't ask them to donate money. We don't do any fund raising with the team leader list. These are people who donate their time and their energy to getting out the vote on Election Day.

LAWTON: The efforts have also generated controversy. Earlier this year, Republican organizers asked local activists to identify "friendly congregations" and provide parish directories and church membership lists.

Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has been close to the Bush administration, but he says that went too far.

Dr. RICHARD LAND (President and CEO, Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission): They've crossed a line when they start asking campaign operatives to encourage church members to send in church directories to the Bush-Cheney headquarters. It's not illegal, but I believe it's totally inappropriate.

Rev. FUITEN: We might get involved and encourage people to vote, but we're not going to use our lists that way. That's just a poor strategy. I think a better strategy is to encourage voter registration, voter participation. All the Republicans need to do is to encourage the church vote. They'll get the majority of it.

LAWTON: Reverend Fuiten's congregation has been doing its part. Cedar Park volunteers are calling fellow congregations across the state and urging them to join the registration effort.

NATHAN (Caller): Hello, my name is Nathan, and I'm with Yes I Vote.org. We are engaged in an effort right now in Washington State with over 2,000 churches, trying to register socially conservative voters. ...

LAWTON: Congregation members are putting together special displays designed to be set up in churches. Republican strategists say as many as four million evangelical Christians didn't vote in the last election. Fuiten says this time around, the issue of gay marriage is generating new energy.

Rev. FUITEN: I have never seen this level of motivation among the church people. They perceive a genuine threat to the American way of life, to the Christian way of life as they've known it in this country now for over 200 years. They see a genuine threat, and so they want to get involved. They're registering to vote in larger numbers than we've ever seen before.

Dr. HERTZKE: The fear that an activist judiciary is going to redefine marriage, that unelected judges are going to usher in this vast social revolution is absolutely horrifying to evangelical leaders right now. And you hear it across the board.

LAWTON: But Professor Hertzke says too much focus on issues dear to conservative Christians could also backfire.

Dr. HERTZKE: Here's the tricky part: how does the Republican Party galvanize its evangelical base without offending more moderate voters and conservative Democrats they rely on to get elected?

LAWTON: Christopher Barron is political director for Log Cabin Republicans, a pro-gay lobby group.

CHRISTOPHER BARRON (Log Cabin Republicans): It's important to reach out to people of faith, but it's important to reach out to the broadest selection of people of faith as possible, and not to be seen as a party that is so sectarian to its approach in religion that it turns off people of, you know, different religious backgrounds.

LAWTON: His group is pushing the party to adopt a more inclusive platform.

Mr. BARRON: Sure, evangelicals are an important part of the Republican Party, and nobody is saying that they shouldn't be welcomed to the table. But this party and this president ought to be running a campaign that makes gays and lesbians, pro-choice voters, and moderate voters feel comfortable and welcome in this party.

LAWTON: In Washington State, Pastor Fuiten's voter registration drive may be nonpartisan, but he makes no secret of his personal endorsement of George W. Bush. On his Web site, he displays a photo of the president and his Cabinet in prayer.

Rev. FUITEN: He is a person of faith, but more than that, he actually makes decisions based on the ethical framework of his faith.

LAWTON: Fuiten says such open expressions of faith have secured Bush the support of most religious conservatives. And Republicans may not be able to win only with conservative religious voters -- but they definitely can't win without them.

I'm Kim Lawton reporting.