Editorial

CONSERVATIVE COALITION HOLDS FIRM

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Pro-family groups are playing a prominent role in lobbying for the balanced budget amendment, whipping up support through fax alerts, computerized bulletin boards, and broadcasts on Christian radio and television. It is the liberals' worst nightmare: Sonny Bono and religious conservatives working together for fiscal responsibility.

What is going on here? Such unity on the right was not supposed to happen. The demise of communism was alleged to spell the disintegration of the coalition of economic and social conservatives that had elected Ronald Reagan. Without a common enemy, it was argued, the deep fissure that always existed on the right would be exposed, and liberals would be the beneficiaries. Yet five years after the Berlin Wall crumbled, the conservative coalition -- while slightly reconfigured -- is stronger than at the height of the Cold War.

Likewise, the much anticipated "holy war" pitting moderates against religious people in the GOP ended without a single shot being fired. Last year editorialists warned that Republicans were "in the midst of a blood war for the heart and soul of their party." One columnist charged that religious conservatives were "an albatross" that would drag the Republicans down to defeat.

Evangelical Turnout

In fact, exit polls demonstrate that the precise opposite occurred. A remarkable 33 percent of all voters were self-identified born-again evangelicals -- the largest turnout in history. They voted 69 percent Republican and only 26 percent Democrats. These voters contributed mightily to a conservative landslide that pollster Fred Steeper has called the most ideological midterm election in the modern era.

The reasons for this remarkable unity are numerous -- the visionary leadership of Newt Gingrich, the growing savvy and sophistication of religious conservatives, and a consensus across ideological lines on the need for values that inform our private and public lives. But even more important is a new respect for a rather old-fashioned wisdom: that in an essentially conservative society, traditionalist ends can be advanced through libertarian means.

Religious conservatives eschew efforts to replace the social engineering of the left with their own government-run Promised Land. Moses delivered the 10 Commandments, not a 10-point legislative program. The values we advocate are learned, not mandated. They are values taught around kitchen tables on fathers' knees, during bedtime stories, and at midnight mass and sabbath services. These values suffer when weighed down by the heavy hand of government. Therefore, anything that reduces the role of the Washington bureaucracy in the lives of families is a step in the right direction.

This is where the Contract With America fits so neatly in a religious conservative vision of society. In sharp contrast to Bill Clinton, who strayed from "New Democrat" themes by bobbling issues like gays in the military and racial quotas, the Republicans are sticking to their message. And religious conservatives are providing much-needed ground support for the Contract With America.

Critics charge that the Contract ignores the social issues. But people of faith know better. It includes tougher laws against violent crime and pornography that are ravaging our neighborhoods and assaulting decency. Middle-class tax relief will reduce the crushing tax burden on families. A tax credit for adoption services provides a compassionate alternative to the tragedy of abortion.

Welfare reform, with its emphasis on reducing illegitimacy and encouraging responsibility, is ultimately a cultural issue. An election Day survey conducted by Luntz Research Co. found that nine out of 10 evangelical voters ranked welfare reform as their top priority for the new Congress.

But after the Contract, then what? Religious conservatives have four major priorities for the new Congress.

First, government should be the friend rather than the foe of the family. At a minimum, this means that it should no longer undermine the values that we nurture in our homes and celebrate in churches and synagogues. The abuses of the National Endowment for the Arts are notorious and legion. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Legal Services Corporation cry out for budget cuts. It is unconscionable that in a nation in which one out of two marriages ends in divorce, the government funds 200,000 divorces a year. It makes even less sense to provide massive subsidies to Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the Western world.

Federal cultural policy amounts to a reverse Robin Hood syndrome: robbing from the middle-class to give to the tuxedo and evening pumps crowd. A recent survey of contributors to WETA, the public TV station in Washington, D.C., revealed an average net worth of $627,000. One in seven owned a wine cellar; one in three had been to Europe in the past year. If single mothers in the inner city must make sacrifices, let patrons of the arts sacrifice as well. Let Barney, that lovable Jurassic billionaire, get rich on his own dime.

Second, Congress should radically downsize government. Bill Bennett and Lamar Alexander, both former secretaries of education, have proposed abolishing their old department, eliminating 50 of the current 253 programs. An even more sweeping proposal is to take the $33 billion spent at the federal level -- 70 percent of which never reaches the classroom -- and give it back to the people in the form of block grants for school choice.

"A Bible and a newspaper in every house, and a good school in every district -- all studied and appreciated as they merit -- are the principal support of virtue, morality, and civil liberty," said Benjamin Franklin. Today we deprive children of all three -- and Franklin is given shorter shrift than the Twist or the Hula-Hoop in a new history course developed by federal bureaucrats. It is time to shift power and responsibility for educating children away from Washington and return it to local school boards and parents.

A third priority is to replace the welfare state with a community and faith-based opportunity society. Since 1965 the U.S. has spent $5.3 trillion on welfare at every level of government -- more than it spent in 1990 constant dollars on World War II, Korea and Vietnam. The magnitude of Great Society failures is staggering: multi generational poverty, skyrocketing illegitimacy, and inner cities that resemble Beirut.

Glenn Loury, the brilliant economist from Boston University who also grew up in the inner city, observes that "in every community there are agencies of moral and cultural development that seek to shape the ways in which individuals conceive of their duties to themselves ... and of their responsibilities before God." He adds that unless "these institutions are restored, through the devoted agency of the people and not their government, (it) threatens the survival of the Republic."

These institutions -- churches, synagogues, private charities -- have eroded through decades of neglect. Mr. Loury proposed rebuilding a nation of neighbors who redeem society through one act of kindness at a time. We must replace the pity of bureaucrats with the generosity of citizens; the destructiveness of handouts with the transforming power of faith and personal responsibility: the centralized scheme of the Great Society with the compassion of communities and charities.

The fourth and final priority of the new Congress should be to secure religious liberty and freedom of conscience for all citizens. Too often, a scowling intolerance greets those who bring their faith to bear in the public square. For people of faith the issue is much broader than voluntary school prayer. They seek to redress three decades of systematic hostility toward religious expression by government agencies, the schools and the courts.

Religious conservatives will propose a religious liberty statute and constitutional amendment, modeled after the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, to guarantee that the right of all citizens to freely express their faith in public places is no infringed. Congress should codify in federal law what the Supreme Court ruled in Tinker v. Des Moines School District in 1969, that no child sheds his right to freedom of expression at the schoolhouse grate.

Blurred Constituencies

The purpose of this agenda is not to legislate family values, but to ensure that Washington values families. In many instances, these proposals will enjoy the support of deficit hawks and tax cutters, of religious conservatives and business groups. The differences between these constituencies are becoming increasingly blurred. A recent survey conducted for the National Federal of Independent business found that 43 percent of all small-business owners are evangelical Christians. Their concern is both the regulatory choke hold of the federal government and the coarsening of the culture.

Differences over issues like abortion will remain. It is best to acknowledge those disagreement forthrightly and discuss them freely while stressing unity on the broader agenda. If religious and economic conservatives can cooperate where possible and remain civil in disagreement, they will accomplish far more together than separately.

Mr. Reed is executive director of the Christian Coalition and the author of "Politically Incorrect: The Emerging Faith Factor in American Politics" (Word Publishing, 1994) This commentary appeared in The Wall Street Journal.