Christian Coalition on the Brink

How the once-mighty have fallen.

The Christian Coalition, that icon of the marriage between religion and politics, is struggling to survive. The problems it faces include anemic fundraising, massive debt and lawsuits for unpaid bills.

And, of course, Pat Robertson. Robertson no longer heads the group, but he remains tied to its public image, and vice-versa.

Robertson resigned as the Christian Coalition's president in 2001 after defending China's one-child policy in a CNN interview that fellow conservatives viewed with horror. It was among the most damaging in a series of remarks that have hurt Robertson's standing among evangelical Christians -- and may have hurt the Christian Coalition as well.

"He kind of constantly makes people wonder whether the organizations he was involved with really are fringe organizations when he does things like explain Ariel Sharon's stroke as an act of God," Guth said, referring to a comment Robertson made about the Israeli prime minister earlier this year.

***Michele Combs, the Christian Coalition's spokeswoman and Roberta Combs's daughter, described the organization as "a victim of our own success."

Money flowed to the coalition in the mid-1990s, when Bill Clinton was president. But, Michele Combs said, with a conservative president and a conservative Congress, things are different. "It's harder to raise money when the agenda you've been working for all these years is moving forward and you have a place at the table," she said.According to some former employees, however, the Christian Coalition stumbled because it lost touch with core conservative principles.

Despite Robertson's denials, fellow conservative Christians viewed his 2001 CNN interview as a defense of forced abortions. "The Christian Coalition was already on life support. Robertson's remarks probably mean its demise," former Christian Coalition lobbyist Marshall Wittmann predicted at the time.

Whether the religious right's agenda is really moving forward to the degree they would like is open to debate. However, Michele Combs' remark about the difficulty with fundraising is right on the mark. This is precisely why, despite holding the levers of power in every branch of the federal government, religious conservatives must still find ways to make their consituents feel and behave like an embattled minority.

The "War on Christmas" is a perfect example of Christian conservatives ginning up a controversy to stimulate the check-writing hands of their base. Recently, they ramped it up with a "War on Christians." They will dig as deeply into their supporters' psyches as they need to in order to keep the money and the votes coming.

The problems facing the Christian Coalition are just a symptom of a much more serious illness. The movement ran out of intellectual credibility and moral authority years ago. In exchange for influence, that "seat at the table" Ms. Combs refers to, they sold out their faith. They tied themselves to the most venal politicians who have ever stalked the halls of power. Those politicians were happy to exploit the religious passions of these people in exchange for political contributions and votes. Votes equal power, power equals more money and so on and so on and so on.

There is no such thing as perpetual motion, however. Eventually, even galaxies stop spinning. The Christian Coalition just ran out of steam. That's what happens when all that's driving you is a bunch of hot air.