Though Christian voters played a pivotal role in electing Bush in his razor-thin victory over Al Gore, NewsMax has learned that major figures in the evangelical movement are talking about withholding support from the Republican Party.
The issue came recently to the fore because of comments made by Ken Connor, president of the Family Research Council, a Washington-based public advocacy organization founded by Dr. James Dobson and affiliated with Dobson's Focus on the Family.
Recently, Connor, as a guest on Dobson's national radio program as well as in a newsletter sent to Christian activists, openly questioned the Republican party's commitment to social issues Christians are concerned about.
"If Republican leaders cannot mount a vigorous defense of marriage, then pro-family voters perhaps should begin to reconsider their loyalty to the party," warned Connor.
When contacted for this story, Dobson's office indicated he was unavailable for comment, but directed NewsMax to tapes of his interview with Connor.
Conservative religious activists cite the latest insult: the Republican Party’s failure to rally behind Sen. Rick Santorum, whose comments about the upcoming Supreme Court case on consensual homosexual acts triggered a national firestorm.
With the left mounting a major battle to redefine marriage, pro-family leaders are worried that the White House and Beltway Republicans care little about this issue and other social issues.
Along with other leaders of the politically powerful pro-family movement, Connors was appalled at the "muted defense" of Santorum, R-Pa., who has been under attack by the gay rights lobby and its liberal allies in the media and the Democrat party. That failure, Connors said ominously, raises the question whether the GOP is the best vehicle for resisting the Democrats' radical political agenda.
Connors recently wrote a scathing memo attacking the Republican leadership to pro-family leaders.
"Beyond a few tepid statements of personal support for Santorum, no prominent national GOP leader seems willing or able to mount a spirited, principled defense of marriage and family.
“The question naturally arises: have Republicans been so intimidated by the smear tactics of the homosexual lobby and its Democratic attack dogs that they are cowering in silence," he wrote.
Dobson echoed these sentiments during a joint broadcast with Connors on his Focus on the Family radio broadcast.
"Where are the Republicans on this?" he fumed. "I’ve heard very, very little coming from Mark Racicot, the Republican national chairman, or from the White House or from anybody else."
Dobson chastised the Republicans for getting too cozy with the gay lobby. He complained that Racicot met secretly with the homosexual group Human Rights Campaign but failed to disagree with it on the major issues. Connors said that Racicot didn’t utter one word in defense of marriage and failed to make the case that the Republican platform makes – that marriage should be limited to one man and one woman – he simply went with the message of so-called tolerance and inclusion.
Tolerance and inclusion aren’t the issues here – the issue is whether or not we’re going to radically redefine marriage, according to Connors.
Connors has written that HRC, "which desperately wants to marginalize pro-family Republicans, is exploiting the meeting to suggest the GOP is open to its political agenda. Surely someone as savvy as Mark Racicot, a former governor who was seriously considered as President Bush's running mate, was aware of the propaganda value in his meeting with HRC."
The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of Traditional Values Coalition was also angered by Racicot's meeting with HRC. He warned that "this has caused concern among conservatives that Republican leaders are going to sell out on the issue of homosexuality."
Dobson worries that the Santorum controversy indicates the Republican Party’s weak commitment to social issues. He said: "And now that one of the most articulate defenders of family values in the Congress is under attack, Republicans are hiding under a bush somewhere. The lack of courage is amazing."
How much does the GOP's increasing timidity on family issues threaten the party's future? Mike Farris, chairman and general counsel of Home School Legal Defense Association and one of the leading pro-family activists on Capitol Hill, told NewsMax.com: "Nobody who cares about these issues is going to go the Democrat party … this is a question of enthusiasm versus inactivity. Enthusiasm is going to wane if there’s not solid support for the fundamental principles that this nation was founded on."
It is only "smart politics to always remember to take care of your base. You don’t ever want to alienate your base,” said Farris, an ordained minister and father of 10 who is is president and professor of government at Patrick Henry College.
Farris, who has close ties to the White House, blamed the problem on GOP stupidity. “We’ve been doing a lot of things smart as Republicans, but ignoring Rick Santorum when he needs public reaffirmation is just stupid politics and it will hurt,” he said.
Famed and influential activist Phyllis Schlafly, who single-handedly took down the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s, told NewsMax.com she was disturbed by the Republicans' failure to rally around Santorum. She called the
"There’s no reason for Santorum to apologize or back off. What he said was almost word for word what Justice Byron White said in his Supreme Court opinion in the previous gay rights case a number of years ago,” Schlafly said.
“I think the party and the administration’s statements are pretty generally recognized as weak-kneed and that they’re not backing up the constituency that elected George Bush. I think they’ll pay a price for that."
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