The Prodigal Sheep

Ralph Reed blames the media for creating a "straw man" that "religious conservatives focus on one or two issues or somehow believe that other issues lack a moral component."

In a response to Jim Wallis on God's Politics, Reed says he believes there is no disagreement between religious liberals and conservatives that "there are many issues of moral concern beyond marriage and abortion."

Reed speaks of

the tendency to focus on controversy over healing and reconciliation. Where religion and politics intersect, the media spotlight generates more heat than light. If a religious leader speaks out on gay rights, media coverage is extensive and often sensational. But when Franklin Graham helps tsunami victims or the Southern Baptist Convention assists Hurricane Katrina victims, there is scant press coverage. So we must do more to raise the profile of works of compassion outside the prevailing stereotype that defines religious folk engaged in public life.

Granted that evangelicals, including religious conservatives, are active in areas of social concern. Yet further on he reinforces the so-called "straw man" when he confesses that abortion and homosexuality are central concerns of religious conservatives:

In our own time, issues of life are prominent in our politics, especially since Roe v. Wade. Religious conservatives did not create this issue and did not seek it out to benefit the Republican Party; indeed, most of them were Democrats until the 1980's. But the nation's conscience is unsettled by one out of every three pregnancies ending in the death of an unborn child, and people of faith should address it persistently and prominently. And when the courts began to impose a redefinition of marriage, people of faith were right to speak out consistent with their beliefs and values.

This obsession with a small number of narrowly defined 'moral' issues is not the creation of a sensationalist media. It reflects the active agendas of the majority of religious right organizations. The Christian Coaltion, led by Reed from 1989 to 1997, is a case in point.

According to the Coalition's About Us page, the organization's primary focus involves representing the "pro-family agenda", ending "Partial Birth Abortion" and lowering income taxes. "Pro-family" of course is code for anti-homosexual. A glance at their 2006 legislative agenda shows the same priorities along with conservative judicial appointments, tax-exemption for partisan political advocacy, increased media censorship and eliminating the constitutional separation of church and state. No mention of hurricane reconstruction, foreign aid or other "works of compassion outside the prevailing stereotype."

Let's see if other religious right organizations have a broader focus. Take Focus on the Family, for instance. FOTF's five guiding principles includes two broadly social objectives, namely support for traditional marriage (#2) and opposition to abortion (#4). The "hot topics" for families are listed prominently on the home page: Divorce, Military Families, Single Parents, Internet Safety for Kids, P-rnography, Homosexuality, Abortion, Worldview and Culture.

A search of the Focus website turns up 2,199 results for the words "homosexual" and "gay" (more than the number of mentions for "Jesus"), 1,355 for "abortion", 411 for "abstinence", and 363 for that 'p' word my web hosting service doesn't allow me to use...

On the other hand, there are 553 references to "discipline" (the term that made James Dobson a household name), 342 to "compassion", 254 to "mercy", 232 to "minimum wage", 154 to "poverty", 203 to "AIDS", 81 to "Katrina", 39 to "tsunami" and a mere 12 to "Darfur".

I could go on with more examples from other organizations on the religious right, but the data makes one thing clear: media coverage of religious right reflects the movement's own stated priorities. They are obsessed with issues like homosexuality and abortion to the general exclusion of what many mainline Christians would consider other equal or more weighty "moral issues".