WP,pg1: Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition Shrinks As Debt Grows

[DeepModem Mom]

Christian Coalition Shrinks As Debt Grows
By Alan Cooperman and Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, April 10, 2006; Page A01

In an era when conservative Christians enjoy access and influence throughout the federal government, the organization that fueled their rise has fallen on hard times.

The once-mighty Christian Coalition, founded 17 years ago by the Rev. Pat Robertson as the political fundraising and lobbying engine of the Christian right, is more than $2 million in debt, beset by creditors' lawsuits and struggling to hold on to some of its state chapters....

***

At its peak a decade ago, the Christian Coalition deployed a dozen lobbyists on Capitol Hill. Today, it has a single Washington employee who works out of his home. Its phone number with a 202 area code is automatically forwarded to a small office in Charleston, S.C.

The Christian Coalition is still routinely included in meetings with White House officials and conservative leaders, and is still a household name. But financial problems and a long battle over its tax status have sapped its strength, allowing it to be eclipsed by other Christian groups, such as the Family Research Council and the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Although some of those groups have begun moving into the coalition's specialty -- grass-roots voter education and get-out-the-vote drives -- none is poised to distribute 70 million voter guides through churches, as the Christian Coalition did in 2000....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/09/AR2006040901063.html

[TomInTib]

1. Great big elephant tears here. Couldn't happen to a more deserving

bunch of asshats.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. And is the great wheel FINALLY turning?

Is the "religious" Right in decline?

[TomInTib]

5. The Religious Right is Neither

I grew up in a strong Christian (Southern Baptist) environment. Those were some of the finest people I have ever known.
However, their personal, seriously devout, salt of the Earth religion was hijacked somewhere along the line.

I hope they can reclaim it and toss those right-wing bastards right out the Church door.

Let those Charlatans slink back under the rocks from whence they ventured forth to ruin the sweet thing we all once had.

And I am talking about ALL of us.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. I agree completely. That's why I always put the word "religious"...

in quotation marks when I write about the "religious" Right. They hijacked, as you say. And I look forward to getting religion out of their hands. I moved not too long ago to a conservative area, and can't find a church I'm comfortable in, even among the churches of the relatively liberal denomination we belong to.

[TomInTib]

10. Besides weddings and funerals, I haven't stepped thru the door

of a church in 30 years.

Before that, I had at least visited churches of every denomination I could find.

Every one of them served and deserved the things that are right, albeit in starkly divergent ways.

None of them wished or prayed/chanted/cantored for the Evil that just moved in the back door while it was cracked open.

[TrogL]

35. They're religious all right

In that they slavishly follow a religion (even though its dogma does NOT bear close examination).

Spiritual? Possibly.

Followers of Christ's teachings?

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[murielm99]

7. If you haven't read Jimmy Carter's new book,

Our Endangered Values, you should.

He has nothing good to say about the right-wing bastards who took over his beloved church.

[UpInArms]

14. surely you meant the "religious wrong"?

:hi:

[DeepModem Mom]

33. Yep!

[lovuian]

3. Ya give us a tax deduction and hand out voter guidelines

:rofl: Ya I'm happy...

[Donkeykick]

32. Yeah...

if you think about it, I guess it's OK if you and I fill out income tax returns while getting involved with the political process, while others are exempt!:sarcasm: :eyes:

[leesa]

4. I'm sure the Christian Crime Family can manage to secure some funds

It's always sheep fleecing season, ain't it?

[TheFarseer]

8. Maybe the Government will bail them out

Like the Savings and Loan industry. That would be a fun debate.

[TlalocW]

9. How do we push them further into debt?

eom

TlalocW

[OKthatsIT]

28. Tell them Armagedon is coming...they'll MAX their credit

[BrotherBuzz]

11. I'd like to steal Grover Norquist's unused bathtub...

and finish the job.

[LiberalFighter]

12. How much of that money went directly to Robertson?

They had him on CBS today and he lives in a mansion

[Kurt Remarque]

16. maybe that's one of those mansion's that jesus mentioned

pat was so good that he just got his early

[RubyDuby in GA]

31. Don't know how much, but I do know that his precious school,

Regent University, has it's own conference center, The Founder's Inn, and it's getting upgraded to a spa.

[Mz Pip]

13. Gee, I guess they must

not be praying hard enough.

Now what was it Pat Robertson said about Dover PN? That the Lord was going to ignore them becaise they voted Creationism out of their curriculum.

Maybe the Lord is trying to tell Pat something. Maybe the Lord has Pat on "Ignore."

Mz Pip
:dem:

[stanwyck]

39. A new study revealed that prayer

doesn't work. This was reported on the news last week. Control groups either prayed, or not, for people undergoing surgery. Those not prayed for...actually fared a little better than those who received prayers.
Of course, Bill Maher and Jon Stewart were quick to pickup the story.
So. Pat could ask for his flock's prayers.
But it wouldn't help.

[NMMNG]

15. It's good to know that, at least in some cases,

evil suffers a fitting demise.

[DanCa]

17. Dont you hate it when bad things happan to Satan?

I know I shouldn't compare Robertson to Satan, Robertson is worse.

[niyad]

18. awwwwwwwwwwww.. . . . me widdle heart just bweeeeds!!!!

[Erika]

19. One more of W's theocrat organizations biting the dust

You got to give it to Karl Rove though. He suckered them in big time as he sucked donations out of them.

[WCGreen]

20. It always happens this way...

Now that the Christians have attained unprecidented power....

They no longer need the vehicle that drove them to the party....

[bumblebee1]

21. In order to clear up the debt,

Pat Robertson will have to sell one of his African diamond mines.

[SLCPUNK]

22. This is just

breaking my heart......NOT!

[DoYouEverWonder]

24. Especially now that Mobutu and Charles Taylor

have fallen from grace, it justs so hard to find brutal dictators to partner with.

[0007]

23. Love to see the IRS get a hold of Pat Robertson

[NYC]

25. Family Research Council = Abramoff?

Sounds familiar to me.

[malaise]

26. Maybe Pat's god has

declared a Patwa on him. No more false profits for this evil SOB.

[xchrom]

27. most wished for headline:

''pat robertson bankrupt''

[mitchum]

44. No: "Pat Robertson Dead"

I WILL celebrate that grifter's demise. No apologies.

[catmandu57]

29. I'm cheering their demise, but,

these slugs are morphing, like a resistant strain of bacteria, I'm afraid they're going to come up with ways to innoculate themselves.
We've been engaged in this battle forever, roundheads v cavaliers, it's going to go on for a while longer. I'd love to come up with a new antibiotic that's finally going to kill this strain, but, right now I'd settle for getting the upperhand.

[superconnected]

30. So they get on Faux and cry for donations

and the repukes send them to them.

I know the story. I know how it recycles itself. 2 million is peanuts.

[meow2u3]

34. Pat Robertson has been morally bankrupt for years

Only now, his finances are following suit.

There is some justice in this world....

[lumberingbear]

36. They may not believe in Karma....

but I do!!!

[MARALE]

37. Is he the guy on the 700 Club?

I accidentally turned to the channel and saw this horrible infomercial type of thing about a couple that had a lot of debt. I watched to see what they did and they gave $1000 to the 700 club and they sold a house of their aunt's that had died and all their debt woes were gone; by the grace of GOD. I got so mad with the audacity of that man saying because these people gave their last money to him, they got more in return. He is squeezing money out of the poor people that he is supposed to be helping.

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[FVZA_Colonel]

38. One thing that's been a bit surprising about that show's time slot for me-

It comes on right after "Whose Line is it Anyway?" Since it moved to ABC Family they may have cut some stuff, but that show has shown a number of things that would probably piss off Pat Robertson.

[AnneD]

40. Oh,

was that why CBS Sunday Morning did a big piece on him. Boy, I can't wait to try the Pat shake for my weight loss program:eyes:

[burythehatchet]

41. The Intergalactic Battle Cruiser built to go to Marklar

must have wiped them out.

[donkeyotay]

42. Why are we funding "faith" groups involved in politics?

Although some of those groups have begun moving into the coalition's specialty -- grass-roots voter education and get-out-the-vote drives -- none is poised to distribute 70 million voter guides through churches, as the Christian Coalition did in 2000....

Our tax dollars at work. Maye we'll bail him out, too.


Bill Berkowitz
January 28, 2006

$14 million in federal faith-based money goes to Pat Robertson
Televangelist's claim that Ariel Sharon's stroke was an act of God may have cost him the friendship of some Israelis, but it hasn't prevented his charity, Operation Blessing, from garnering faith-based grants from the U.S. government . . .

Robertson's "700 Club" is broadcast daily in most U.S. TV markets via the ABC Family and Trinity Broadcasting networks. While Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) claimed that the program is viewed daily by one million people, Nielsen Media Research maintained that an average of 828,000 viewers during the last quarter of 2005, according to a recent report in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

"More than 380,000 CBN 'partners' who donate a minimum of $20 per month ... are the bedrock of CBN, which attracted more than $132 million in donations in 2004," the Times-Dispatch reported.

http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=108

And here's a word from the director of faith in the WH:

Jim Towey, who directs the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, said the administration has been clear that "government money is not to fund religious activities."

"This is a culture change in the way government provides social services," he said. "There's always going to be a very delicate balance."

In the past, government has refrained from giving money directly to religious groups, but it has required they set up independent, secular organizations to get taxpayer dollars. Bush tried to get Congress to change that. Congress refused, so he unilaterally put many of his changes into effect.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/010405K.shtml

I wonder if Mr. Towey has a problem with these grants being used for GOP electioneering?

[holboz]

43. Finally some good news today!

After finding out we owe $15k in taxes today, I'm glad to see that these idiots are suffering, too.