Subject: How Many People Really Belong to the Christian Coalition?
From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 12:02:25 -0400

WHAT'S IN A NUMBER? 
By Paula Xanthopoulou***

What's in a number? Plenty if it's accurate, and even more if it's not.

As the Christian Coalition (CC) prepares to open its annual Road to Victory
conference on Friday in Washington, DC, amidst signs that conference
registration is down by 25 percent from last year, the logical question is
"How many people really belong to that organization?"

The number bandied about in recent times was "1.7 million members and
supporters." But just before the GOP convention, Christian Coalition
Executive Director upped the ante. On August 9th, on Larry King Live, Reed
said that there were 1.8 million. Then one week later, Reed added 200,000
more folks --telling John Hockenberry on MSNBC on August 16th that the
Christian Coalition has 2 million members. Mr. Reed did not offer any
explanation or documentation for his new number.

Are we to believe that in one week, 200,000 people rushed to sign up with the
Christian Coalition after watching it wheel and deal in Republican Circles on
behalf of Bob Dole while there is serious discomfort among grassroot
conservatives over supporting Dole and having the abortion issue swept under
the rug during the convention?

Let's back up a moment. In January of 1995, the Christian Coalition
publication Christian American stated that the CC had 1.5 million members and
that the paper itself had a circulation of 450,000. At Road to Victory '95
(last September), the official membership number became 1.7 million. That
number stuck for almost a year, until Reed revealed his new one last month.

For some time now, the published number of Christian Coalition members has
been questioned by those wondering how such a media-driven organization can
have 1.7 members and send out so few copies of its primary publication. The
December/January 1995 Christian American stated that it had a press run of
353,937. The CC's 1995 IRS Form 990 states that the publication had
"approximately 400,000 readers."

It should be noted that the CC's 1994 tax forms cite "approximately 415,000
readers." By the same token, total revenues/expenditures for 1995 were
$19,745,323/$19,459,498, while revenues/expenses for 1994 were
$21,992,678/$21,379,914. Catch their drift?

In the Christian Coalition's 1991 training and recruitment video "America at
the Crossroads," Pat Robertson lays out a number of goals. One was a
circulation of 10 million for the Christian American (then a newspaper, now a
magazine). At Road to Victory '91, Robertson said this about money and
followers: "This year we will finish out with $5 million...The goal in 1994
is 48 million. And the goal by the year 2000 is to have four times the
current budget of the Republican National Committee which is $250
million...By the end of the decade, I want the Christian Coalition -- it's a
doable thing -- to have a database of 50 million voters accord to their
interests..."

For the record, the Christian Coalition is at least $28 million and many
million names short. 

Not incidentally, the recent suit against the Christian Coalition by the
Federal Elections Commission plus allegations of  financial wrongdoings by
former CC CFO Judy Liebert have cast a pall over the organization despite all
of its GOP convention high tech and low profile shenanigans.  The charges are
very serious and well-documented -- cries of religious bigotry from Mr. Reed
and/or the FEC's track record for similar lawsuits notwithstanding. 

At the very least, some churches will think twice before distributing the
Christian Coalition's 45 million all-important "voter guides" in November --
for what Ralph Reed had labeled the most important election in our lifetime.
At the very most, Pat Robertson will be scurrying around very soon in an
effort to reinvent himself yet again in his march for unmitigated political
power.

What's in a number? Plenty if it's accurate, and even more if it's not.

So don't go making any reservations at the Washington Hilton for Road to
Victory '97. There probably won't be one.

***Copyright 1996 Public-Spirited Enterprises. All rights reserved. If this
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