Bill Moyers Journal; 603; Campaign Report #3: Evangelicals, The New Right

BILL MOYERS' JOURNAL Air Date:

September 26. 1980

Campaign Report #3

MAN AT CONVENTION CENTER: That movement of Christians coming together has begun. We have seen that in this year of 1980. And it's only the beginning. - - -

WOMAN: Looking at the Democratic platform and the things that Jimmy Carter supports. I'm not sure that Jesus Christ- well. I know that Christ would not support that platform.

GARY JARMIN: We didn't politicize the moral issues. The other side politicized the moral issues. Whether ERA or homosexual rights or abortion. and things like this. we aren't the ones that. you know. brought this to pass. they brought it to pass. And we're saying we're tired of it.

BILL MOYERS: Voices of angry opposition are never new in politics: only the source varies. This year's most powerful protest comes from a coalition of born-again Christians and political conservatives who are making themselves felt in the elections. We'll Look at that coalition in this report.

I'm Bill Moyers.

MOYERS: They call themselves the New Right. to distinguish themselves from established conservatives like William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater. who know that polemics and passion must sometimes yield to pragmatism. Not satisfied with the single-issue campaigns of the past. leaders of the New Right have assembled a long list of grievances against government. legal abortions. gun control. homosexual rights. busing. the ruling against school prayers. recognition of communist China. strategic arms talks. the Panama Canal and the Equal Rights Amendment, to name a few. They've labeled these issues moral. perceived them a threat to family and religious values. and set out to defeat anyone who doesn't agree. They've already been successful this year in Republican primaries in Alabama. Oklahoma and Alaska. and using television as their first strike force. they've targeted six senators running for reelection on November 4th.

JAMES GOLDER, State Representative, Boise, Idaho: We're standing in front of these missile silos to dramatize one of the effects of Senator Church's power in Washington.

HAL WICK, State Representative: Like you. I've been paying property and sales tax in South Dakota. George McGovern hasn't had to pay those taxes because he neither lived nor owned property here.

SPEAKER: John Culver took four extensive junkets visiting countries around the world. all at taxpayer's expense. No wonder John Culver has lost touch with Iowa.

SPEAKER: Did you know Tom Eagleton voted against building the B-1 bomber. the MX missile and the Trident submarine? Did you know Tom Eagleton ranks as one of the most anti-defense senators in the entire Congress? Did you know Tom Eagleton is running for reelection this year?

SPEAKER: One huge piece of baloney is Senator Alan Cranston telling us that he's fighting inflation. The price tag on that baloney is $46 billion.

SPEAKER: The price tag on that baloney is $46 billion. That's how much deficit spending Bayh voted for last year alone.

SPEAKER: To stop inflation. you've got to stop Alan Cranston first. Because if Cranston wins. you lose.

SPEAKER:-because if Bayh wins. you lose.

SPEAKER: If Culver wins. you lose.

MOYERS: Those commercials are the handiwork of NCPAC. the National Conservative Political Action Committee. The New Right chose those six senators for defeat because collectively. they add up to a lot of liberal power: 90 years of seniority in the Senate; 15 chairmanships of committees and subcommittees. To the New Right. as one spokesman said. they are the most distasteful. the most liberal. the most radical. and the most vulnerable. NCPAC plans to spend $1 million this year, and more than a quarter of that money has already gone into direct mail. Direct mail. It is to the New Right what Middle East oil is to industry, its lifeblood. Millions of letters a year. raising millions of dollars.

Betty Phelps of Hanover. Maryland. received all these letters in just one month- more than one letter a day, from all kinds of New Right organizations. The Moral Majority. The Leadership Foundation. The Second Amendment Foundation. Christians for Reagan. The American Security Council. The Council for Interamerican Security. And on and on. The letters portray a world bristling with enemies, and call for help-;- meaning money. contributions. One man sends out 70 million letters like this every year. and more than anyone else. He's been the catalyst for bringing together the disparate factions that make up the New Right and for raising the money that translates into clout. His name is Richard Viguerie.

RECEPTIONIST [on telephone/: Good afternoon. Viguerie Company. Thank you.

MOYERS [voice-overj: Richard Viguerie, 47, millionaire and exchequer ofthe New Right. Through the success of his direct mail business, Viguerie has become a political power broker. His influence comes from his ability to raise money for candidates and groups endorsed by the New Right, $40 million this year alone. Viguerie started 15 years ago with the names of 12,000 Republican Party contributors. When George Wallace ran for president, Viguerie raised millions for him from disaffected. southern Democrats and angry middle-class voters whom Viguerie now calls the backbone of the New Right. Viguerie's mail-order conglomerate, based in Falls Church. Virginia, employs 250 people. [Shot of the computer room/ This is the nerve center, the computer room. Inside this locked and guarded vault are 20 million names, cross-indexed by the conservative issues they are most likely to support. Viguerie uses sophisticated techniques to identify the constituencies that make up the New Right, those groups most likely to shell out cash to oppose gun control, abortion, and liberal incumbents, and to support school prayer and local conservative candidates. From them Viguerie can weave a coalition of single-interest groups to raise money, drum up votes. and generate pressure on legislation. At the touch of a button, he is able to provoke by mail a blizzard of grassroots protest.

RICHARD VIGUERIE: For many years, conservatives were very frustrated that we weren't able to get our message to the American people. The dominant media in the country has a left-of-center perspective, and so the New Right really didn't have access to the microphones of this country until we discovered direct mail. And now we can go directly to our people, people who agree with us on abortion, or gun control. or prayer in school; whatever the issue might be, through direct mail we've found a way to go right to these people, talk to them about their particular interests. And maybe they're not interested in 19 of20 things that are being talked about in the presidential campaign this year. but there's one thing that really interests them. And when you can go to them and talk to them about that one issue and invite them to a meeting or ask them to subscribe to a magazine or to come to a rally. they get involved in the political process again; and I don't think there's any question that direct mail has reactivated large numbers of people.

MOYERS: Mr. Viguerie. What is the New Right Coalition?

VIGUERIE: The New Right Coalition is basically a group of young men and women who have come together in the last half a dozen years to try to make plans and devise methods to bring the silent majority to power in this country. There's nothing really new about the New Right. We've studied the liberals. we've seen how they've succeeded. We've studied that they have foundations. They have political action committees and they have all these various structures. and the New Right has gone out and basically just duplicated what the left has done. And as opposed to. say. the Old Right. we're convinced we can win. We don't see ourselves. quite frankly. as just providing some nice opposition to the left. We see ourselves as governing in the very near future.

MOYERS: If you are to be successful in November. What groups are critical? Whom do you have to reach?

VIGUERIE: We're interested in organizing all the people that are opposed to the people that are in control right now, and that would be the people that are concerned about abortion, the pro-life people; they'd be concerned organizations and individuals that are concerned about more gun legislation; it would be the Christians. religious people. the conservative Jewish community. the Evangelicals. the conservative Catholics who are concerned about the deteriorating moral climate in this country; it'd be parents that are concerned about the almost collapse of the education system in this country. It's all of the various groups that feel they've been beat up by the federal government. that see life deteriorating around them. and see the government as the problem.

MOYERS: If you're successful in unseating those liberal senators who are on your target list. What would the shape of Congress be after November? What will it look like? What will be its priorities?

VIGUERIE: Well. It depends how many conservatives are elected. and it depends on whether there's a conservative in the White House. If there's a liberal in the White House. If President Carter or Anderson is president, the conservatives will. quite frankly. not be in a position to implement a great deal. The bureaucracy will still be in the control of the liberals. But when that day comes. whether it's 1980 or 1982 or 1984- and it will come, one of those years- when the conservatives are running the White House and the Congress. you're going to see a great deal of legislation that is going to bring the decision-making apparatus back to the local level. Milton Friedman said a few years ago that he felt it was possible to tum the thing around and for conservatives to come to power if things got to bad so quickly in this country that people would just rise up almost as one and demand a change, but if it happens slowly, it's going to be almost impossible to tum it around. And that's our hope, that things have gotten so bad so quickly that we'll be able to come to power. And if we don't make it this time, and if Carter is reelected, I think that the country is going to be in such disastrous shape that almost for certain the country is going to elect conservatives across the board in 1982 and '84.

MOYERS: If the New Right does gain power in this or future elections, it will be because to the money and methods of Richard Viguerie is being added the moral fervor of millions of fundamentalist Christians. Viguerie is himself a conservative Catholic, as are some other New Right operatives, and they've linked up with equally conservative Protestants. Their common cause is anger at the militant ideologies of the left that shook American politics the past decade and alienation from a secular society they consider hostile to their religious beliefs. So they're fighting back. And to see how they're making treaty with one another. you had to be present. as I was recently. when it all came together in Dallas, Texas.

[Interior, Dallas convention hall. Audience standing]

SPEAKER and AUDIENCE: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God. indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

JAMES ROBISON [at podium]: If you think our solution is political, you too have been deceived. Don't you commit yourself to some political party or politician. you commit yourself to the principles of God. and demand that those parties and politicians align themselves with the eternal values in this book and America will be forever the greatest nation on this earth! [Applause, cheers from audience

MOYERS [voice-over/: More than 15.000 fundamentalist Christians gathered in Dallas. most of them ministers who were here to learn how to mobilize their congregations for political action. For these preachers, it was once unthinkable to trumpet political messages from pulpit to pew; fundamentalist born-again Christians have traditionally registered and voted less often than others. But they are 20 percent of the adult population, representing over 30 million potential votes, and they are aroused now by what they see as growing interference from a government dominated by liberals.

ROBISON {at podium/: Don't you know the government doesn't produce anything and was never intended to? It's a protector. It's not a provider and it's certainly not a producer. it's a confiscator and a consumer and a disburser of your wealth; it produces nothing. And it will function best when it functions least! Who's gonna lock up that unbridled. excessive. uncontrolled federal government.

VOICE IN AUDIENCE: We are!

ROBISON: You better believe it!

FIRST MAN IN BOOTH: Would you like to join us? Just step up and sign the petition for prayer asking Congress for a day of prayer and fasting and repentance.

SECOND MAN IN BOOTH: Now. we gonna get right with the Lord. Regardless of who we put in office. If we do not get right with God, America's still going down the drain. We're in trouble. You'll hear that at the rallies out here. and if we don't pray and we don't get God's help. why. I'm afraid this nation is going to suffer what Rome suffered long ago. We already are messed up and confused. and we oughta wake up. They better wake up in Washington, the senators. the representatives. our president.

FIRST MAN: Trying to get a million of these signatures. Then we're going to fly them back to Washington in our old airplane, Old Glory.

SECOND MAN: Not only sign. but if you take some of the petitions and use them. why. distribute them wherever you can.

WOMAN: No, I've got several friends in several churches that will distribute these. and we'll all be praying for you. Thank you.

SECOND MAN: That's good. Where are you from?

WOMAN: I'm from Houston.

SECOND MAN: Well. I'm from Greenville. South Carolina.

WOMAN: Are you? I'm amazed at how far people have come for this. God bless you. too. {They shake hands.

Rev. BILL JACKSON: I'm Reverend Bill Jackson from Picayune. Mississippi. and this is my son. Mike Jackson. who is with me in the ministry in Picayune.

MIKE JACKSON: Well. we feel that for too long the church has adopted the position of maintaining a separation from politics. In fact. a fear of discussing religion or politics. And we feel very strongly that as Christians it should be providing the answers and providing the direction. not only spiritual leadership. but just as it was biblically. they should be providing the answers even in governmental leadership and in politics as well; that we should be dictating the direction of-the spiritual direction of this nation.

Rev. BILL JACKSON: I believe God is raising up men who could be called prophets on this day and would actually have an impact upon our nation and upon this entire world.

MOYERS {voice-over/: James Robison of Fort Worth, Texas. one of several television evangelists who are responsible for the political awakening of conservative Christians. They have created an electric church whose congregation of over 30 million homes hears a message every week that is often more politics than piety. Robison syndicates his program to over 100 local television stations across the country. It's a fiery brand of political evangelism that is well received by a devoted and increasingly militant following.

ROBISON {at podiumJ: There is no possible way that you can separate God from government and have a successful government. God is the ultimate authority. {Applause 1 I tire of the constant reference to Christians and to religious people and the term separation of church and state. implying that if you belong to a church or if you claim faith in God and believe in God you are to have no basic influential part in political activity or policy-making. If the righteous. the pro-family. the moral. the biblical. the Godly. the hardworking and decent individuals in this country stay out of politics. who on this earth does that leave to make the policies under which you and I live and struggle to survive? [Shot o(Gov. Ronald Reagan seating on dais. applauding! I'm sick and tired of hearing about all of the radicals and the perverts and the liberals and the leftists and the communists coming out of the closet: it's time for God's people to come out of the closet. out of the churches. and change America! We must do it!

MOYERS: What's the practical application of all the preaching that I've heard here and all of the concerns that have been expressed?

ROBISON: Disburse the valuable resource material and knowledge that's been placed in their hand. their head and their heart. to thousands of people. We have. September the 28th. announced 'Christians Are Citizens. Too' Day. Hopefully in every church in America where we encourage anyone who's not registered to register. And hopefully the pastors and church leaders will deliver a message on the importance of Christian citizenship. To say to a man that you're not supposed to have anything to do with the political process because you're a church member means that if you go to church or you're a Christian. see-separation of church and state- carry it to the ultimate end. it means don't vote. It means don't vote. That's the bottom line in political action. Or if you do vote

MOYERS: Is this then basically a get-out-the-vote movement?

ROBISON: You better believe it is. And it's an informed vote out. What they're saying is. 'Don't you get informed. because if you find out the truth. we can't stop you.' That's what they know. We are going to make an impact on the country for good. and stop this direction that we're on toward destruction. The answer to the course we're on now is not to rearrange the furniture. Rearranging the furniture on the Titanic would not have prevented this disaster. The Titanic needed to sail a new course. America needs to sail a new course.

MOYERS: But hasn't the genius of the American system been, in a pluralistic society where there are Baptists. Jews. Protestants. Catholics. unbelievers, that pluralism prevented a moral majority. prevented a religious majority from imposing its views on those who didn't accept those views? Hasn't that been the

ROBISON: And I think that's exactly what this is. We've had Catholics, Jews, all denominations. people that don't wave a cross or a Christian flag at all; but they're people of principle who love this country. and they're sick and tired of the poor people and the minorities getting all the lying liberal politician promises for the government handouts, at the same time devaluing that dollar, inflating the economy so that the purchasing power is gone. the productive incentive of the American people is destroyed. the personal desire to achieve. and the integrity. even the moral integrity. somehow has diminished. I believe the government has largely depressed the economy. has oppressed the poor and the needy while promising them handouts that they vainly promise and can't really deliver on. and I believe that we've been guilty largely of suppressing the truth that the nation desperately needs to hear.

MOYERS: To what extent would all this be happening if it were not for television? You are a very effective television preacher, you reach millions of people with television. You've even been criticized by some for mixing politics and religion. But to what extent would this kind of movement be linked with political concerns if it were not for the incredible technology of television?

ROBISON: It would be limited, just as through television and the radio we have access to millions of people we can reach with the gospel. No one was ever saved. people say. by political activism. That's true. That's true. But I don't know of anyone being saved fooling around with electrical wires. either. But through electricity and through the technology in television. we can deliver the gospel to millions of people. They have no evangelists that I know of on the radio in Moscow and in Havana. Radio or television. They don't have crusades for Christ in those areas welcomed by the government. And when they present that they do. it's a propaganda scheme that is lying to the American people. The fact is that only where freedom reigns do you have the liberty to preach the gospel to millions through television.

ROBISON {on 7V monitor/: Our preachers are to warn the people. we're to warn the people the enemy comes. God said. 'Preachers. if you don't warn the people that the sword is coming against this land.' listen. friend. we're being attacked by satanic forces. You say. 'Who incites those revolutions in Iran?' Satan. Who incites it? I believe behind all of it you may find someday communist propaganda and infiltration had a lot to do with it. Let me tell you something else about the character of God. If necessary. God would raise up a tyrant. a man who might not have the best ethics. to protect the freedom interests of the ethical and the godly.

BERT HOMER: Many of us preachers have preached this same thing for years and years. and we've been accused of being radicals and anti and all this sort of thing for years- even lots of the preachers used to accuse us of being that way - but we thank God today that many other preachers who are much more prolific and have more of the public eye. like Jerry Falwell and others of the national television and so on. and James Robison. that are on the public eye. they have really gotten hold of the thing now. and we thank God that it's transpiring. and this nation by the grace of God is either going to tum around or it's going to completely collapse in this next few years. is all there is to it. Personally. I thank God that people have finally begun to get their eyes opened up as to what is taking place. and I believe you'll see a great movement in this nation that'll be changed November the 4th this year. and I think Carter and all the rest of that crowd is going to realize it. and they realize it now and I think they're running scared.

JERRY FALWELL {at podiumJ: I am convinced the future of our nation is in your hands. and mine.

MOYERS [voice-over!: Jerry Falwell is the best known of the TV preachers. From his church in Lynchburg. Virginia, he reaches an estimated 20 million viewers and raises over $1 million every week. Falwell founded an organization called the Moral Majority. It is the most powerful of the Christian activist groups. claiming in the last year to have registered three million new voters.

FALWELL [at podium/: This is our day. Even George Gallup says this is the day. the decade of the evangelical. the Bible-believing Christians and preachers. And you are the leaders of the population in this country that can make the difference. I want to challenge you preachers tonight: I want to challenge you to stand with James Robison. with Ed McAteer. with a dozen or more national leaders who are calling America back to God and back to moral sanity.

YOUNG WOMAN: The Bible has all the answers. all we have to do is tum to it.

MOYERS: So what are you going to do when you leave here?

YOUNG WOMAN: We go back and try to inspire other Christians to get involved.

MOYERS: How do you feel about the ERA?

WOMAN: It's against everything that Christianity is. It's against God's word.

MOYERS: In what way?

WOMAN: The ERA?

MOYERS: Yes.

WOMAN: Itself? Because God didn't make woman to- God made man to be superior. and to protect the woman. He didn't make woman to go out and fight. he made the man to go out and fight and protect the woman.

MOYERS: What's important to you in November?

SECOND WOMAN: Biblical principles. Biblical principles.

MOYERS: But don ·r you have three born-again Christians running? John Anderson. Jimmy Carter. and Ronald Reagan.

SECOND WOMAN: I don't know. If I looked at- looking at the Democratic platform and the things that Jimmy Carter supports. I'm not sure that Jesus Christ- well. I know that Christ would not support that platform.

MOYERS: Why, from a Christian standpoint are so many people here opposed to the Equal Rights Amendment?

JERRY FALWELL: The Equal Rights Amendment and equal rights for women have really no connection. As a matter of fact, we believe in superior rights for women. and these people here do. We still believe that we should take care of our women. open the doors for them. help them with their coats. etc. We believe when a man marries a woman, she is his obligation for life. He is not her obligation for life. And I feel that if the Equal Rights Amendment is ratified. there will be a lot of sorry men off the hook who have deserted their wives. and because it would be discrimination on account of sex to have to take care of that woman financially. therefore they would not have to do it. Another problem is the ambiguous wording. 'There shall be no discrimination on account of sex' would mean that homosexual marriages could not be disallowed anywhere. for that too would be discrimination on account of sex. and that. I feel. would be a repudiation of our conviction that the traditional family mold is right.

MOYERS: But where does that come from. religiously. the position on the husband's obligation to the wife. and the view on homosexuality?

FALWELL: From Ephesians 5. in particular. the New Testament. 'Husbands. love your wives. for this is right.' And then. 'Wives. be submissive to your husbands.' and 'The husbands are not to be dictators but leaders.' But. throughout. the husband is to be not just the breadwinner but the spiritual leader and fountainhead. and he is responsible both spiritually and materially for that family.

MOYERS: All right. what about homosexuality?

FALWELL: Homosexuality. in Romans I. for example. is called reprobate. and in the book of Genesis it's called an abomination. and God condemns men seeking after men. that which is unseemly. is called perversion.' What God has condemned we don't feel that we should sanction. And just-if we have no biblical background. obviously a condoning of homosexual marriage and a moving of this society to that context would mean that one generation from now we'd cease to be. because homosexuals don't reproduce.

JAMES ROBISON [at podium/: I do not believe the lovely ladies of our great nation should be used as political pawns for immoral purposes. perverted special interest groups to get their ways and their so-called rights to live against God! [Applause/ Friend.listen to me. You can live any way you want to live. You can sin every day. But I would highly suggest you not put yours in in neon lights and parade it down Main Street and glory in your shame. Keep it in the closet. keep in the alley. keep it in the gutter. {Applause/ You say. 'Don't you care about those people that have the problem?' Yes. I do. but the cure to cancer is not to ignore it. Remove it.

MOYERS: Tell me as a woman how you feel about the Equal Rights Amendment. I ask that because so many women around here are absolutely ferociously opposed to the Equal Rights Amendment.

WOMAN: Well. equal rights- I'm for equality for women. because God made us neither male nor female- I mean. as far as we're equal in his sight. But I am not for the ERA because

MOYERS: Why?

WOMAN: Well. there are some hidden things that they are not coming out and telling you.

MOYERS: Such as?

WOMAN: Such as. uh. marriage in. uh- male- urn. homosexuality. They are for this. they're pushing this and they're trying to make it that we-that there is no difference. I can, uh, have a woman mate as well as a man, and in the beginning it was not so.

MOYERS: You think the Equal Rights Amendment would--

WOMAN: They are doing this. This is one of those issues. And then, of course, we do not- since we are opposed to that, we don't want that in our schools and those people influencing our children, because children in their little minds, they look up to their teachers.

FIRST WOMAN: One thing is lack of- breaking up the family and lack of direction, I think. I don't know whether- is that it?

SECOND WOMAN: Yes; yes. The disintegration. And humanism. You see, our secretary of education, Shirley Hutstedler, is on the board of the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. And humanism is-- they don't call themselves atheists, but they do not believe in any spiritual faith. And this is taught in our textbooks and in our schools.

FIRST WOMAN: !I think we need to stand for a higher principle; that is, a nation under God. That's where we're failing. ·

SPEAKER AT PODIUM: Governor Ronald Reagan.

MOYERS [voice-over]: The tax-exempt foundation that organized this Dallas meeting is prohibited from endorsing a presidential candidate. Just nine out of ten people I met here were for Ronald Reagan. All three leading presidential candidates were invited to speak, but only Reagan accepted. His strategists see the fundamentalist vote as crucial to his.phances in November. 'You may not endorse me,' Reagan told the crowd, 'but I endorse you.'

RONALD REAGAN [at podium]: We have all heard it charged that whenever those with traditional religious values seek to contribute to public policy, they're attempting to impose their views on others.if we have come to a time in the United States when the attempt to see traditional moral values reflected in public policy leaves one open to irresponsible charges, then the structure of our free society is under attack and the foundation of our freedom is threatened. [Applause] When I hear the First Amendment used as a reason to keep traditional moral values away from policy-making, I'm shocked. The First Amendment was written not to protect the people and their laws from religious values but to protect those values from government tyranny. [Applause] The Federal Communications Commission has shown greater interest in limiting the independence of religious broadcasting than it ever did in limiting the drug propaganda poorly concealed in the lyrics of some recorded songs. [Applause. cheers]

MOYERS [voice-over]: Although politicians and preachers dominated the podium, out in the corridors the real work of translating their rhetoric to action was being done by political activists like Howard Phillips. Phillips, whom Richard Nixon put in charge of dismantling the war on poverty, is head of the right-wing lobby known as the Conservative Caucus.

HOWARD PHILLIPS: Increasingly, these people on their own have concluded that if they are to be true to their faith they have to fight for their faith, and that means fighting for it politically.

MOYERS: So you see them as allies in what you've been trying to do for the last several years.

PHILLIPS: To a very great degree I do.

MOYERS: Footsoldiers, in a sense.

PHILLIPS: Well, I wouldn't put it that way. I would say that if America is going to be turned around, these are the people who are going to turn it around.

MOYERS: But would you want to, as a Jew, live in what these people define as a Christian nation? I mean

PHILLIPS: As I understand it, yes.

MOYERS: You would not hesitate.

PHILLIPS: Yes; yes.

MOYERS: A lot of observers say that what people like you have been working for for a long time is coming to fruition this year. Reagan, a true conservative member of the Republican Party, finally nominated; a sense of disaffection with the size of government, with government spending; many of the conservative causes that have been championed unsuccessfully for the last 20 years seem to be flowering this year. How do you explain that?

PHILLIPS: All great movements are fueled by unhappiness with the status quo, and the people who have come to this movement in all of its diverse elements - the right to life movement, the pro-prayer movement, the anti-tax group, the people who favor a strong foreign policy, the people who believe that their kids belong to them rather than to a federal judge and th~refore should not be bused to another school, the people who believe that America is worth defending - all of them have come smack up against the ugly power of government in some way in recent years. I think the real problem we face today is that the American people have been convinced that things are out of control, that there's nothing they can do to control events, that they live

MOYERS: I think that's true.

PHILIPS: -they live in a spectator world where the television set says, 'Here's what's happening, and there's nothing you can do about it, folks.' It is our belief that there is something you can do about it, that honestly all things are possible, and that in the political arena Congress does have the power to change constitutionally, through the political process, what the bureaucracy is doing and what the judiciary has done, and it is possible to change the direction of the Congress of the United States through sufficient action at the congressional district level. But it requires that we be faithful to God's law, it requires that we be faithful to moral standards that are eternal, that do not change with technological change.

MOYERS: What's to prevent us from becoming a theocracy?

PHILLIPS: Well, in a sense, we have been a society that has always been based on an agreed set of moral standards. It was agreed throughout most of our history that the Bible was our rulebook.

JERRY FALWELL [at podium]: Let me tell you, there's no Bible belt in America anymore. They used to call the South the Bible belt. The number one city in America in our ministry in the number of persons and financial support is Los Angeles. Number two is Philadelphia. Number three is Boston. Number four is New York. Number five is Chicago. You come down to number 16 before you get to a southern city, and that'sGreenville, South Carolina. I'd like to say there is no Bible belt in America. There's a Bible cloak in America that covers the whole blooming republic, and they're everywhere, ready for the leadership, preachers, that you and I can offer them, and let's give it to them. [Applause] During the 1980s, preachers, we have a threefold primary responsibility. Number one, get people saved, number two, get them baptized, number three, get them registered to vote.

WOMAN: Are you a minister? You know, if we're going to save our country, you all play a big role in letting the American people know the truth, because the American people will make the proper decision, the correct decision, when they are informed.

BRYCE MOORE: I'm a Christian, and I believe, in what is going on, that this country needs to be turned around. And the Christians are the only one who can do it. And I'm tired of the bureaucrats telling us, 'Well, we're going to lose if we don't do something, and we are too weak to do anything,' but the Christians know better. I can't stand these people that are middle-of-the-roaders. And you know what a middle-of-the-roader is, that's that yellow streak that

runs right down the highway that's covered with dead cats and dogs. And that's what we're faced with in this country today, and unless we get these middle-of-the-roaders out of the way and get them to the right and turned to Jesus Christ as our savior, then we're going to have more problems than we're ever going to be able to survive.

MOYERS {voice-over/: Christian Voice, a political lobby based in California, aims to drive middle-of-the-roaders and liberals from public office. It claims a membership of 190,000, including 29,000 ministers. Gary Jarmin, a former follower of the Reverend Moon, is the legislative director of Christian Voice and the author of its Moral Report Card.

MOYERS [to Gary Jarmin/: I'm intrigued by this congressional report card that you and your group put out. and it rates members of the Senate and the House according to certain moral issues. It gives them a high rating down to a zero rating. There are at least four ministers in Congress, and each rated near zero on your Moral Report Card. How do you explain that?

GARY JARMIN: Well, first of all, in the Christian community you have a wide range of viewpoints, and I'm the first to say that we're not saying that this is the Christian viewpoint. I might believe that it is, but the point is that you're having a debate here among Christians as to what is the right policy, and because somebody is a former minister, you know, got a zero, Bob Drinan--

MOYERS: Father Drinan got a zero on your report card.

JARMIN: -who's a priest, got a zero:

MOYERS: Congressman Edgar of Pennsylvania, former Methodist minister, got a nine, I think. Congressman Buchanan, whom I believe was a Baptist minister at one time or is an active Baptist

JARMIN: Still is; well, he doesn't preach every Sunday,

MOYERS: He's an ordained minister, but got a very low rating. Did they get those ratings because their voting records were liberal? ·

JARMIN: Well, you could call it that, they got their voting records because they disagreed with our position on the issue, that's how they got them. We have targeted about 36 members of Congress and the Senate who have scored low on a voting record and whom we think can successfully retire from Congress in November. We're going to do up a little flier showing exactly how the targeted congressman or senator voted on these issues, like school prayer, abortion, IRS versus private schools, or Taiwan security, what have you- print up thousands of these voting records and hand-distribute them to Christian as they leave their churches on Sunday morning.

MOYERS: Now, why are you doing that? All these men are saying in these speeches here, 'We're not for a candidate, we're not for a platform, we're just for principles.' Why are you targeting particular members of Congress, and why are you urging members of the churches to vote for or against them?

JARMIN: Well, you can't separate principles from personalities in the election booth, because when you're going into the election booth you're not voting on one- pulling one level for Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and on the other hand pulling a lever for secular humanism, you're pulling a lever for a candidate. You have to make a determination which candidate best represents your view. So I agree with Falwell and Robison and all the others who've spoken here, we are for principle first; but when you go into the election booth you better make sure you know where that congressman and senator stands on those principles. We didn't politicize the moral issues. The.other side politicized the moral issues. ERA or homosexual rights or abortion, and things like this, we aren't the ones that, you know, brought this to pass, they brought it to pass. And we're saying we're tired of it.

ROBISON [at podium]: If there is darkness in the land, it is because of a scarcity of light. Jesus said, 'Put the light on the lampstand, not under the bushel.' Get it up on the hilltop. You want to know why certain political elements in our country don't like this meeting? They perform better in the dark. [Applause. cheering] They don't want their dirty dealings uncovered. They don't want the searchlight, the scrutiny of intelligent, committed people. successful Americans who are willing to put their hand to the plow. to reach down in the ditch and lift up the fallen brother, to defend the faith, they don't want us involved! Let's tell them we're not listening to them anymore! We're going to be involved.

WOMAN: All pro-life groups are grassroots movements, so if you're just getting started, take more if you like. We have lots. Okay. That's what we've done. We've borrowed these from other groups.

SECOND WOMAN: Christianity has been the defender of life, the proponent of human life as a personal, valuable thing, so valuable to God that he sent his son to express human life. He made Himself into a human being because life to Him was so valuable. And certainly we can reflect that value by defending life, even from conception.

MOYERS: What do you think would happen in a democratic, pluralistic society when politics becomes exclusively the instrument for a particular religious view?

SECOND WOMAN: Well, we're trying not to make politics the instrument of a particular view. we're trying to keep politics out of being an instrument of a particular view. Politics right now expresses a particular view, that is, a view that human life is expendable if it does not have the quality that is desirable. That is a particular view. We are trying to get politics out of it and get Christianity back into that. We don't want- and you will have noticed here- that we don't want more government, we actually want less.

YOUNG MAN: The purpose of our foundation is to restore Ameica to its biblical heritage and roots. And we find that most Christians and most Americans don't know our true history. The problem with America is not the homosexual or the humanist; the problem with America is the American Christian. So we've got to be people with answers, practical answers, to inflation, to government spending, to abortion, to various issues, but we've got to go back to our heritage and roots to explain those issues, otherwise the American people will write us off as a bunch of extremists.

Rev. BAILEY SMITH [at podium]: And if America is going to know revival. there must be the preaching of the supremacy of Christ.

MOYERS [voice-over]: The Reverend Bailey Smith, from Oklahoma, is the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. It has over 13 million members, making it as large as the AFL-CIO.

SMITH: I'm telling you, all other gods besides Jehovah and his son Jesus Christ are strange gods. It's interesting to me at great political rallies how you have a Protestant to pray, and a Catholic to pray, and then you have a Jew to pray. With all due respect for those dear people, my friend, God almighty does not hear the prayer of Jew, for how in the world can God hear the prayer of a man who says Jesus Christ is not the true Messiah? It is blasphemous. We nec:d to bring the world to the foot of the cross. The cross, the cross ascends everything and every idea and every nation and every philosophy and every effort and every goal! My friend, it is not God and country, it's God! [Applause]

[Film clip of Robison in 1978, Mid-Cities Crusade]

ROBISON [on 1V monitor]: There's only one thing, friend, that can save America, and that's change every person one at a time by the power of almighty God working in that corrupt heart.

[At convention booth]

FIRST MAN: The gates of hell was government. Because in Bible times, the government set at the gates of the city.

SECOND MAN: Yes.

FIRST MAN: And that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.

SECOND MAN: That's what it says.

FIRST MAN: That's powerful.

SECOND MAN: Very powerful.

FIRST MAN: That's powerful. And when ungodly rules and laws are forced upon the Christian. the Bible says the gates of hell shall not prevail.

SECOND MAN: There's no question about that. We are willing to see the most tremendous tum of events. not only in this nation, it's going to affect the whole world. That movement of Christians coming together has begun. We have seen that in this year of 1980. And it's only the beginning. And when you've begun to marshal the multiplied tens and tens and tens of millions of born-again Christians across this nation. then we can expect rapid changes.

REAGAN [at podium/: May I close on a personal note. I was asked once in a press interview what book I would choose if I were shipwrecked on an island and could have only one book for the rest of my life. I replied that I knew of only one book that could be read and reread and continue to be a challenge: the Bible. The Old and New Testaments. [Applause/ I can only add to that, my friends, that I continue to look to the scriptures today for fulfillment and for guidance. Indeed, it is an incontrovertible fact that all the complex and horrendous questions confronting us at home and worldwide have their answer in that single book. [Applause. handshaking from supporters/

MOYERS [voice-overJ: It is one thing to espouse moral and religious values, another to translate them into votes. For that, the people here seek a coalition between pulpit and precinct.

PAUL WEYRICH [at podium/: God gave us a purpose. God put us here for some reason. Everything that we do here is aimed at the next world, or it ought not to be done.

MOYERS [voice-over/: Christian populists, right-wing activists, electronic evangelists and Reagan strategists are united on turning out the vote on November 4th. So the preachers here tum the meetings over to the professionals, men like Paul Weyrich, a conservative organizer who has been called the architect of the movement. He spends much of his time urging ministers to get out the vote.

WEYRICH: And then, my friends, we will truly see a moral majority in America. May God bless you.

MOYERS [voice-overJ: Weyrich is the head of a conservative lobby called the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress.

WEYRICH: The committee is a bipartisan political committee aimed at electing conservatives to the House and Senate. And so in that arena, we of course are interested in getting people who are potential voters to be registered and to vote. And so we have been counseling with some of the pastors on how-the mechanics of voter registration, and whether or not they can do it in their church, or if they can't, how they can do it; the state laws vary from state to state. So the one means to reach them is through the churches, because we have now what we call the social precinct. You know

MOYERS: The what?

WEYRICH: The social precinct. You see, years ago, it was relevant what area of the city you lived in, and if you lived in a particular area of the city there was a good probability that you would vote a certain way. Now. However, you may be in a certain economic strata, and you may live in this area of the city, but you may be a born-again Christian and next door to you may be a gay activist. And the gay activist has in common on that issue with someone who is across town and has a similar view, as the Christian activist has with somebody who lives across town in another precinct but listens to that television evangelist or goes to that particular church. And so what we have here is really a new dynamic in American politics, with the social precinct being really the area where you can reach them. and of course the way to reach them is through the churches.

WEYRICH: You who are pastors. who have been chosen by God almighty_ to lead. we are talking about Christianizing America.

VOICE FROM CONGREGATION: Amen!

WEYRICH: We are talking about simply spreading the gospel in a political context. We share the guilt, because many of us have fallen into the heresy of division of God's program. We have ceded certain areas of endeavor to the devil. We have said that there are areas which are proper for us to engage in and then there are areas which are not. They don't take us seriously, and rightfully so; rightfully so. Because they know that if they cross the National Organization of Women, there will be, if you'll forgive the expression, hell to pay_ What- what happens if they cross us? You know? Maybe we pray, or something. Most often we don't know about it. And my friends, what we're talking about here is making ourselves felt. Make no mistake about it. Even if we should prevail in every possibility, from the presidency on down to the lowest state official in the November election. our job will just be beginning. [Murmurs from congregation] We are in this for the long haul. We are in this until the Lord Himself comes back and rescues all of us. [Applause] If we really want to turn around America, then we're going to have to turn around the legislature. And the only way that we can do that is for people to be informed and frankly outraged at what is going on in the nation's capital. And therefore, you have to be able to put things in. if you will, simplistic polemical terms: Now, on of the reporters that interviewed me the other day said, 'Well, you know, you people think that everything is black and white. everything can be reduced to simplicity.' And I accept that charge.

VOICES FROM CONGREGATION: Amen!

WEYRICH: Everything can ultimately- ultimately everything can be reduced to right and wrong. Everything_

BOOKSELLER: Voter's Guide is the result of Mr_ J.C. Spencer going to Washington, D.C .. from Houston, Texas, compiling all the voting records of the senators and the congressmen, coming back home, hiring some artists, designing pie-shaped charts to graphically illustrate, rather than using yes-and-no charts and- you know, that blur your eye, graphically illustrating the conservatism of the liberality or the moderation of each senator or congressman. The issues concerned in the Voter's Guide are the abortion issue, the IRS taxing private schools, the creation of another department of education, the school busing, Equal Rights Amendment, ERA, the Wald nomination, IRS and the private schools- taxing the private schools- balancing the budget, child welfare and social services. That's for the Senate. Looking at the Senate on those issues, I can look and see that Ribicoff in Connecticut is zero family. I look and I see- and I'm just going at random at the ones who have the worst records - Matsunga- Matsunaga in Hawaii is zero family_ Adlai Stevenson, Illinois, is zero family.

MOYERS: What do you mean, zero family?

BOOKSELLER: Now, zero family, meaning that if they vote against the interests of the family, if they vote for the homosexual amendment, then that would be a black chart on the family; if they vote for federal funding of school busing, that would be against the private rights of the family, so that would be a black mark. Schweiker in Pennsylvania has a 90 percent family; Thurmond in South Carolina has a 90 percent family rate. John Tower in Texas has 75 percent. In Utah, Gam and Hatch has 89 percent. Birch Bayh in Indiana is zero family. Senator Kennedy in Massachusetts is zero family, zero business, zero foreign_ I had one congressman in my home. I looked up his voting- I was just shocked at who I was entertaining, what he believed about my family rights, what he voted. Congressmen do vacillate. Everybody vacillates. I want to know, how do they vote when they're there. They may say one thing here, but it's when they're there and voting on the floor that's a permanent black -and-white vote_ And I just want to make sure that we got a country, we got a Christian country, we got that we don't murder our babies anymore, that we don't scrape them out of the cans anymore, that we don't- you know, I got a three-year-old, and I've got a nine-year-old. and I've got a ten-year-old. And I don't wanT him- [voice breaking. blinking away tears/- I don't want them to, to be dominated by the black that's represented on this chart. That's my urgency. simply.

AUDIENCE: My country. 'tis of thee. sweet land of liberty. of thee I sing. Land where my father., died. land of the pilgrims' pride. from every mountainside. let freedom ring'

SPEAKER: Amen.

MOYERS: I know the people in this report. I was born and reared among them; they're my kin. Although long ago I made a passage to another place and culture. to another way of seeing and believing. I still hear at certain times with affection echoes of their prayers and hymns. I recognize deeply imprinted within me the inherited yearning for order and authority that caused them in menacing times to cleave more tenaciously to their faith. It isn't surprising that they're fighting back against the discoveries of science. decrees of government. and dilemmas of democracy that intrude upon their fixed scheme of things. Nor is it unprecedented for people of a religious persuasion to want to affect the system. to matter politically. to try to elect to office agents of their anger who will attempt to supply the leadership for which they ache. There are precedents aplenty. I once wrote a speech for Lyndon Johnson asking Southern Baptists to rally behind the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A Catholic bishop urges his parishioners to vote for candidates who oppose abortion. Jimmy Carter prowls black churches as if they were precincts of the Democratic Party. which many are. William Sloane Coffin marshals his congregation to march on the Pentagon. and Jews pressure Washington to support Israeli government decisions based on interpretations of scriptures from the Bronze Age. precedents all. It is not that the evangelicals are taking politics seriously that bothers me. It's the lie they're being told by the demagogues who flatter them into believing they can achieve politically the certitude they have embraced theologically. The world doesn't work that way. There is no heaven on earth. Nor can our democracy agree to a moral majority that makes religious doctrine the test of political opinion. You may have that only where all are alike in thought and root and intent which America is not. The idea has long been to protect religious freedom from a carnivorous state, political deliberation from dogmatic zealots. and militant believers from one another. So they're being misled. these people. by manipulators of politics masquerading as messengers of heaven. and their hearts will be broken by false gods who. having taken the coin of their vote or purse. will move on to work the next crowd. The same Reverend Falwell who claims a divine mandate to go right into the halls of Congress and fight for laws that will save America is caught lying in public about a meeting he had with the president. Ronald Reagan. having endorsed the moral majority in Dallas. moves on to a luncheon given for him by teamsters in Ohio whose chieftains include four men either indicted or convicted or being investigated for corrupt practices.

Some majority. Some morality.

I'm Bill Moyers.