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| Founded | 1989 (1989) |
|---|---|
| Founder | Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson |
| Type | non-profit 501(c)4 organization |
| Location | |
| Website | www |
The Christian Coalition of America (CCA), a 501(c)(4) organization, is the successor to the original Christian Coalition created in 1989 by religious broadcaster and former presidential candidate Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson, and is a US Christian advocacy group, which includes Christian fundamentalists, neo-evangelicals and conservative charismatics. While labeling itself as the Christian Coalition, the organization represents certain viewpoints among numbers of Christians in the United States, but Christians with other beliefs disagree with the organization's ideas. The CCA's values are consistent with those of the Christian right.
Early Years
Formation
Following a well-funded but failed bid for the U.S. presidency in 1988, religious broadcaster and political commentator Pat Robertson used the remainder of his campaign resources to jump-start the creation of a voter mobilization effort dubbed the Christian Coalition. Americans for Robertson accumulated a mailing list of several million conservative Christians interested in politics. This mailing list formed the foundation for the new organization.
The coalition had four original directors, including Robertson himself, Robertson's son, Gordon Robertson, Dick Weinhold, head of the Texas organization, and Billy McCormack, pastor of the University Worship Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. McCormack had headed the Louisiana division of Americans for Robertson in 1988 and was also the vice president of the coalition.
After its founding, the CCA allowed a grace period to operate as a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organization before the IRS made its final determination. Forty-nine state chapters were also created as independent corporations within their states, including the Christian Coalition of Texas. A handful, including the Christian Coalition of Texas, successfully obtained non-profit status as a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organization, while the national group's application remained pending and unresolved.
Voter guides
In 1990, the national Christian Coalition, Inc., headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia, began producing non-partisan voter guides which it distributed to conservative Christian churches. 40 million guides were distributed in the 1992 and 1996 presidential election years. Complaints that the voter guides were actually partisan led to the denial of the Christian Coalition, Inc.'s tax-exempt status in 1999. Later that same year, the Coalition prevailed in its five year defense of lawsuit brought by the Federal Election Commission.
Ralph Reed, a University of Georgia Ph.D. candidate and hotel waiter whom Robertson had met at an inaugural dinner for George H. W. Bush in January 1989, took control of day-to-day operations of the coalition in 1989 as its founding executive director. He remained in the post until August 1997 when he left to enter partisan political consulting, founding his new firm Century Strategies, based near Atlanta, Georgia.
Political involvement
Robertson served as the organization's president from its founding until June 1997, when President Reagan's Cabinet Secretary Donald P. Hodel was named president of the CCA, and former U. S. Representative Randy Tate (R-WA) was named executive director. Upon announcement of Hodel becoming president of the CCA, he expressed a desire to serve the grassroots activists that made up the Coalition: "...I am here. Not only because I felt God's call on me but that I knew of God's call on you."
Washington insider and president of Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist, an old Reed ally, said of the appointments: "What you've got is Reagan and Gingrich. Hodel is a Reagan Republican and Tate is a Gingrich Republican."
The CCA was ranked by Fortune magazine as the 7th most powerful political organization in America late in 1997.
After a disagreement with Robertson, Hodel left in January 1999 and Tate soon followed. Robertson re-assumed the presidency, and later turned it and the chairmanship over to the group's South Carolina state director, Roberta Combs, when he officially left the Coalition in late 2001.
Recent Years
In 2000, the CCA moved from its long-standing headquarters in Chesapeake, Virginia, to a large office on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.. Roberta Combs, the current president and CEO, is a founding state director and has been the only woman on the board of directors for the CCA in the history of the organization.
In March 2001, the CCA was sued U.S. District Court by its African-American employees, who alleged racial discrimination by Roberta Combs. The Wasshington D.C. District Court issued an injunction against the CCA and the case was later settled with money paid to the African-American plaintiffs.
In 2005, the Coalition finally concluded a settlement agreement with the Internal Revenue Service, ending its long-running battle with that agency regarding its tax exempt status. As a result, the IRS has now recognized the Coalition as a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organization, the first time in the agency's history that it has granted a letter of exemption to a group that stated in its application that it would distribute voter guides directly in churches. The consent decree enforces limitations on the terminology that may be used in the Coalition's voter guides.
In March 2006, the Christian Coalition of Iowa renamed itself the Iowa Christian Alliance. In splitting from the national group, the Iowa Christian Alliance cited "the current problems facing the Christian Coalition of America" in announcing that it had no ties to the national organization. In August 2006, the Christian Coalition of Alabama split from the national group. It later renamed itself Christian Action Alabama.
In November 2006, the president-elect of the CCA resigned his post, citing a difference in philosophy over which issues the conservative Christian organization should embrace. Rev. Joel C. Hunter, currently the senior pastor of the Northland Church in Longwood, Florida, was to assume the presidency in January. But Hunter said the Coalition's leaders resisted his calls to expand their issue base, saying the organization wouldn't allow him to expand its agenda beyond opposing abortion and same-sex marriage. Hunter also said he wanted to focus on rebuilding the Coalition's once powerful grassroots, an appeal he says board members rejected. "After initial willingness to consider these changes, the board of the CCA decided, 'that is fine, but that is not who we are,'" Hunter said. Combs still remains as the Coalition's president.
References
- Joel D. Vaughan, "The Rise and Fall of the Christian Coalition," Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2009.
- Don Hodel speech, Christian Coalition Road to Victory '97, Atlanta, GA, September 13, 1997.
- USA Today http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Christian%20Coalition%20of%20America.
{{cite news}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - "Pulpits and Politics: The Role of Religion in Elections, September 27, 2004". justicetalking.org. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
- "We've Come a Long Way, Baby, in Race Relations, March 16, 2008". demo.openlogicsys.com. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
- The Washington Post. June 12, 1999 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/june99/christian11.htm.
{{cite news}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - Vaughan, p. 177.
- E. J. Dionne, "The Religious Right Loses Its Most Skilled Tactician," (Norfolk) Virginian Pilot, April 24, 1997.
- Vaughan, p. 125.
- Peter Baker and Laurie Goodstein, "Christian Coalition Rearranges Top Posts," Washington Post, June 12, 1997.
- Baker and Goodstein.
- Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, "Washington's Power 25," FORTUNE, December 8, 1997, pp. 144-158.
- Ralph Z. Hallow, "Christian Coalition President Resigns," Washington Times, February 10, 1999.
- Vaughan, pp. 151 - 163.
- See Washington Post, "10 Blacks Allege Bias at Christian Coalition," March 31, 2001.
- http://www.thelutheran.org/article/article.cfm?article_id=4634
- http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2007/spring/face-right
- http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2005/oct/13/20051013-121940-9083r/?page=all
- http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/default-200135222537.htm/
- ^ Cooperman, Alan (2006-04-10). "Christian Coalition Shrinks as Debt Grows". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-03-10.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Cooperman, Alan; Edsall, Thomas B. (April 10, 2006). "Christian Coalition Shrinks as Debt Grows". The Washington Post.
- http://www.cephas-library.com/church_n_state/churchnstate_christian_coalition_shrinks_as_debt_grows.html
- http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/11/a-rebuke-of-robertson-from-iowas-powerful-christian-alliance/50934/
- Banerjee, Neela (November 28, 2006). "Pastor Chosen to Lead Christian Coalition Steps Down in Dispute Over Agenda". The New York Times.
External links
Categories:- Political advocacy groups in the United States
- Political party factions in the United States
- Political organizations in the United States
- Organizations that oppose same-sex marriage
- Christian organizations based in the United States
- 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations
- Organizations established in 1989
- Organizations based in Washington, D.C.