Trying to Give the Christian Coalition a Jolt of Vigor

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — In government service, Donald Hodel has gone from checking under his car for explosives while head of the Bonneville Power Administration in Oregon to balancing business and environmental concerns, first as Energy secretary and then as Interior secretary under President Ronald Reagan.

When he left Washington for the mountains of Colorado in 1989, he planned to spend some time as a private consultant. “I had an idyllic life in the eyes of most people, including me,” said Hodel, smiling at the thought, at the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center. “I was living in ski country, and I had time to ski.”

So why give it all up? As the new president of the unsettled Christian Coalition, he travels almost nonstop to rouse the souls and wallets of religious conservatives. Last month, he was doing just that in Fort Lauderdale, at the Reclaiming America for Christ Conference sponsored by broadcaster D. James Kennedy.

For Hodel, 62, it’s a chance as a private citizen to make a difference in what he sees as a nation in moral decline. “Grass-roots is in my blood,” he said, and the Christian Coalition “is one of the premier grass-roots organizations in the country.”

However, these are not the glory days for the coalition, established by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson in 1989.

Under the direction of charismatic leader Ralph Reed, the group quickly rose in size and influence, helping to get out the vote for the 1994 Republican sweep of Congress.

Reed’s departure last year to become a political consultant left the organization without a visible spokesman.

The coalition’s revenues rose to $26.5 million in 1996 and sank to $17 million last year. About a fifth of 200 national staff workers were laid off, and the organization’s magazine ceased publication. Outreach programs for blacks and Catholics were spun off or shut down.

In addition, the Internal Revenue Service is investigating whether the coalition violated its tax-exempt status with voting guides and efforts that benefit conservative candidates. The Federal Election Commission has sued the coalition, accusing it of making illegal corporate donations.

Hodel said the group’s problems are shared by many politically active religious conservatives. All, he said, are caught in a backlash of resentment against Congress over failure to adopt conservative proposals in areas such as abortion and the elimination of the tax code’s “marriage penalty.”

“I think it’s disillusionment,” he said in an interview. “We were all paying the price for the Republican Congress’ apostasy.”

There also has been a subtle shift among religious conservatives away from the practical approach of Reed, who willingly compromised for a seat at the GOP table, to a more confrontational style.

Earlier this year, James Dobson, head of the Focus on the Family ministry based in Colorado Springs, Colo., warned Republican leaders to stop taking religious conservatives for granted. They will abandon the party, he insisted.

In his speech at the Florida conference, Hodel drew the loudest applause when he talked of the “slaughter of innocents,” declaring: “We oppose partial-birth abortion. We oppose abortion.”

In an interview, Hodel said the organization plans to concentrate on strengths, distributing election guides, registering voters and getting them to the polls. The organization claims 1.9 million members in 2,000 chapters, and Hodel says about 800,000 of them are “active.”

With so many voters to influence elections, he said, the coalition plans to place its emphasis on keeping supporters informed on priority issues. These, he said, include “any indicator vote on abortion,” plus legislation pertaining to education, religious freedom and tax policies that benefit traditional families.

Few of the coalition’s opponents are ready to ignore it, though some, such as People for the American Way Vice President Matthew Freeman, are sensing “a shifting of the pecking order.”

Individuals such as Gary Bauer of the Family Research Council are gaining more visibility in Reed’s absence as public voices for religious conservatives.

“I think the Christian Coalition has lost some ground,” Freeman said.

Hodel may, however, be doing the right things by going back to the organization’s strengths in grass-roots politics. “He strikes me as very capable and confident, even more straightforward than Reed was,” Freeman said.

For his part, Hodel paraphrased humorist Mark Twain, dismissing rumors of the organization’s demise as exaggerated.

He lauded the coalition’s role in last month’s repeal of a gay rights law in Maine, and he noted how the issue of late-term abortions has drawn broader political attention to the abortion issue.

Wiry and energetic, Hodel was in constant motion during an interview. He tipped his chair forward, replying firmly about whether the next Republican presidential candidate will strongly oppose abortion.

“Yes,” Hodel insisted. “And if he doesn’t, he won’t be elected. Guaranteed defeat.”

He also predicted a few surprises for GOP “deserters” during the last Congress. “You’ve read our obituary,” Hodel said. “The truth is, come November, that’s the time to determine whether we’re alive and well.”