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Christian Coalition symbolized a commitment to building an organization with broad appeal toconservative Christians. The Moral Majority had built its organization through the hndamentalistchurches of Jeny Falwell's Baptist Bible Fellowship denomination (Liebman, 1983; Wilcox, 1992).In contrast, the Christian Coalition sought to recruit politically savvy local leaders bvho couldbuild truly interdenominational local organizations, and perhaps bridge the longstanding dividebetween pentecostals and fundamentalists, and attract support among neo-evangelicals and possiblyeven Catholics as well (Bendyna and Wilcox, 1997; Berkowitz and Green, 1997).There is some evidence that the Christian Coalition has succeeded in this effort (Wilcox,Rozell and Gunn, 1996; Green, Rozell and Wilcox, 1998; Wilcox, DeBell and Sigelman, 1999).Although the Christian Coalition managed to win the support of many orthodox Protestants, itexperienced difficulty in expanding beyond that base. Suneys showed that the Christian Coalitioncommanded the passive support of a narrow majority of white evangelicals, but that most otherevangelicals were unlikely to ever support the organization (Wilcox, 1996). Consequently, theorganization's leaders decided to make a focused attempt to broaden its appeal to consenlativeCatholics, mainline I'rotestants, African-Americans, orthodox Jews, and other groups (Appleby,1997; Bendyna and Wilcox 1997; Bendyna, Green, Rozell and Wilcox 1998; Wald and Sigelman,1997).The largest and most attractive of these target constituencies were Catholics. At its annual"Road to Victory" conferences, the Christian Coalition has routinely held workshops on buildingbridges to Catholics and has featured many Catholic speakers. It has also recruited Catholics inleadership and staffpositions in the national, state, and local organizations. In his book
PoliticullyIncorrect
former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed effectively apologized for the historicalanti-Catholicism among evangelical Protestants and he exhorted evangelicals to engage in a "newecumenism" with Catholics (Reed, 1994). Finally, in 1995, the Christian Coalition launched theCatholic Alliance in an attempt to attract Catholic members (Bendyna, 1996). That affiliated groupeventually separated from the Christian Coalition, evidencing the challenge that the organizationfaced in attracting the loyalty of Catholics.There are many reasons nonetheless to believe that the Christian Coalition and other ChristianRight organizations could potentially attract conservatibe Catholics. First, there are several issueswhere the official positions of the Catholic Church resemble those of the Christian Coalition,Family Research Council, and other groups
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most notably on abortion and school bouchers(Cook, Jelen, and Wilcox, 1992; Jelen and Wilcox, 1995). Second, there are significant numbersof Catholics who are in substantial agreement with certain other issue positions of the ChristianRight. Third, Catholics habe historically comprised a significant part of earlier right-wingmovements and groups, including support for Father Coughlin, Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisc.) and the John Birch Society (Wilcox, 199 I).' Fourth, there was cooperation in some diocesesbetween the Catholic Church and the Christian Coalition in particular, most notably in the Neu-York school board races in 1993. Finally, some Catholics have adopted evangelical styles ofreligiosity, and research suggests that these Catholics are more likely to share evangelical politicalattitudes on issues where the Catholic Church has not staked a position (Welch and Leege, 1991).Yet Catholic teachings and tradition, particularly as articulated by the American CatholicBishops, depart from Christian Right organization positions in several important areas. In contrastto Christian Right organizations, the Catholic Church has supported social welfare programs andexpanded opportunities for women, and has opposed the death penalty and nuclear weapons. TheBishops have also issued a critique of income inequality that is the inebitable result of unregulatedcapitalism. Even on moral issues, there are sometimes important difl'erences in ebangelical andCatholic teachings. For example, a recent statement by a committee ofthe National Conference ofCatholic Bishops called for acceptance, love and pastoral care of homosexuals. Although theChurch did not abandon its traditional prohibition against homosexual activity, it recognized thata homosexual orientation is a deep-seated dimension of personality that is not in itself sinful. Thestatement also reiterated traditional Catholic teaching about respecting the inherent dignity of
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