09/10 13:52
   WASHINGTON (AP) -- To a chorus of hisses, the Democratic Party
chairman rebuked the Christian Coalition on Friday for ads he said cast
President Clinton's supporters as unchristian. He said it was wrong to
use faith "as a weapon to divide."

   "God and faith are not and cannot be the province of one political
party or movement," David Wilhelm said in a blunt speech to more than
2,000 Christian Coalition activists. "God is an independent. And no
single entity can claim to speak for all persons who believe in Christ
and consider themselves Christians."

   Wilhelm's speech at the opening day of the Pat Robertson-led group's
annual conference overshadowed later remarks by Robertson himself and a
parade of Republican luminaries that included at least two 1996
presidential prospects.

   That Democrat Wilhelm was invited at all was part of the Christian
Coalition's fledgling effort to expand its political power. It is
trying to shake its image as an arm of the Republican Party and is
expanding its issues portfolio beyond its traditional opposition to
abortion and homosexual rights.

   But the hostile reaction to portions of Wilhelm's speech, and the
warm reception afforded Republican speakers who attacked Clinton, left
no doubt of the audience's partisan preference.

   "We thought we elected Bubba from Arkansas; instead we got one of
the aging Woodstock generation and all the radicals who go along with
it," Robertson said. He gave the keynote address to Christian activists
whose two-day meeting includes training on how to organize and run
political campaigns.

   Bragging of growing grassroots power, Robertson said the
organization has a simple message to politicians at every level of
government: "If you advocate the agenda of the radical left, you will
not be re-elected to public office."

   Robertson's warning came a short time after Wilhelm tried, with
little success, to persuade the activists that the Democratic Party and
Clinton shared their commitment to faith, family and tax fairness.

   "Let me say it plainly: the Democratic Party is and always has been
a party of values," Wilhelm said. "And those values are at least as
richly informed by religious beliefs and moral principles as the party
you have chosen to align yourself with -- the Republican Party."

   That remark met with hisses from the audience, which turned up the
volume and added boos when Wilhelm challenged the Christian Coalition's
views on abortion and homosexuality. Robertson has called homosexuality
"a lifestyle that destroys all it touched."

   "I believe you can be a good Christian and support a woman's right
to choose," Wilhelm said. "I believe strongly that God loves all and
accepts all his children, regardless of differences among us, including
sexual orientation. That is why I find it troubling when religion is
used as weapon to divide rather than a tool to heal. ... It is wrong to
use religious authority to coerce support in the public arena."