ears after declaring that he was abandoning politics on behalf of "saving souls," controversial televangelist Jerry Falwell has jumped back into the arena and announced that he is launching an all-out effort to register 10 million voters.

    "I don't think religious conservatives have lost any of their power," Falwell told reporters at a press conference late last week. "I think they've lost their enthusiasm." The controversial evangelist and head of one of the early religious right political action groups, Moral Majority, added that his "People of Faith 2000" initiative would work closely with local pastors, and solicit nearly $19 million in contributions to operate.

    Critics quickly compared the Falwell plan to other efforts to use churches as political fronts. Ellen Johnson, President of American Atheists, said that while local congregations may conduct "get out the vote" drives or try to register voters, the activities must be nonpartisan and not endorse a particular candidate.

    "Everyone knows what's really going on here," Johnson warned. "Falwell is using this as a way of recapturing his influence within the Republican party, and to make sure that George W. Bush tows the line on issues like abortion and gay rights."

   When Republicans lost their bid for the White House four years ago, Falwell was one of a number of religious conservatives who believed that Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals had "lost their way" in the quest for political power. Falwell announced that he was trading in the political stump circuit to return to his first preoccupation of preaching and "saving souls." Similar views were put forth by columnist Cal Thomas, who frequently has espoused the religious right social agenda. In books, speeches and opinion Columns, Thomas has joined Falwell in warning of the pitfalls of the political process.

    This left Falwell lingering on the political fringe, though, often making him a media caricature. He made numerous gaffes in public, such as the time when he addressed a pastors' conference in Kingsport, Tennessee and suggested that Jesus Christ would soon be returning to Earth, and that "the Antichrist will, by necessity, be a Jewish male." He also became the target of commentators and late-night talk shows hosts when a Falwell publication, The National Liberty Journal, claimed that one of the "Telebubby" characters was gay, and that the popular children's show carried "subtle depictions" extolling a homosexual lifestyle.

    Falwell was also swept up in the endless round of conspiracy theorizing about President Clinton. He co-financed and distributed a bizarre documentary, "The Clinton Chronicles," and according to Salon Magazine "covertly paid" $200,000 to people making damaging allegations about the president's behavior in exchange for their dubious information. Appearing desperate to remain in the public eye, Falwell announced in late January of this year that he was suing the White House over an alleged secret database of antiabortion and pro-life religious activists.

    For Falwell, the leap back into the electoral political arena, though, has to do with growing skepticism in some quarters of the religious right about GOP front-runner George W. Bush. The media christening of the "People of Faith 2000" drive came the day after Bush attempted to moderate his political profile by meeting with members of a gay GOP organization known as the Log Cabin Republicans. For Bush, who opposes same-sex marriages and supports the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, the meeting was a halfhearted effort to position himself as more of a moderate, especially after the primary brouhaha over his appearance at Bob Jones University. Some religious right leaders, however, including Falwell fear that Bush is waffling on the gay-rights stand or sending the wrong message to the electorate, and that he is "soft" on the abortion issue as well. Bush raised eyebrows several months ago when he declared that Americans "were not ready" for a federal ban on abortion.

    The meeting with Log Cabin Republicans and other gay supporters immediately drew flak from Gary Bauer, head of the influential Family Research Council. "I don't think the meeting broadens the base when you take that approach," Bauer told Associated Press. "That's the approach that we tried in the last two presidential elections. We end up shooting ourselves in the foot."

    Falwell may also be falling closer into the political orbit of Pat Buchanan, who seems assured now of a lock on the Reform Party ticket. Taking aim at Bush for his meeting with gay Republicans, Buchanan accused the GOP front-runner of "political pandering."

   "The conservatives and the Christian folks who have given him (Bush) his victory have apparently lost their usefulness to the governor," Buchanan told the New York Times. "He's out searching for what he considers greener pastures."

    The "People of Faith 2000" National Advisory Committee reflectsthe involvement of several key extreme religious right leaders. They include:

   ¶    Paige Patterson, since 1998 president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and former president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Described as a "tireless advocate for evangelism," Patterson and his wife crafted a new declaration adopted by the SBC in 1998 that required wives to "submit graciously" to the authority of husbands.

   Patterson has also worked closely with Falwell and others involved in the "Clinton Chronicles" project. In September, 1998, he shocked even traditional Baptists by wading into the waters of secular politics, and calling upon President Clinton to resign from the Oval Office "before he is instrumental in corrupting all our young people..."

   ¶    Tim LaHaye is a veteran activist and was "present at the beginning" in the late 1970s when the religious right was first finding its political sea legs. Along with Falwell, LaHaye was a founder of the Moral Majority, the first organized effort to create a viable Christian right presence within the republican Party. He also served as GOP point man with religious groups for the Reagan-Bush campaign in 1994, and was instrumental in organizing important voter registration and "get out the vote" campaigns. This included another LaHaye-Falwell group known as Christian Voice which printed and distributed millions of glossy "Candidates Biblical Scorecard" to rate political hopefuls on their conformity with fundamentalist doctrine.

   Wife Beverly LaHaye founded and heads Concerned Woman for America.

   ¶    Rabbi Daniel Lapin is founder and president of Toward Tradition, a "national alliance between conservative Jews and Christians." He hosts the nationally syndicated radio program, "The Rabbi's Roundtable."

    Lapin told the Atlanta Jewish Times in 1997 that the "chasm" in America is not between "good" and "bad" people, but between "people who understand America's biblical blueprint and those who don't. Good people who toss the biblical blueprint away become liberals. Such well-intentioned people become secularists and socialist. And therein lies the problem..."

    Along with taking critical stand on gay rights, women in the military and sex education in public schools, Lapin has also denounced recycling as "The sacred sacrament of secularism."

    "Why? Because if we are animals then there is a shortage in the world. God doesn't take anything from us and God doesn't create and therefore there is a shortage ... Do not feel guilty for using what God has provided us. Enjoy it!"

   The rabbi also works closely with Pat Robertson, and appears at the podium-pulpit during the Christian Coalition's annual "Road to Victory" conferences. Writer Rob Boston in his new book "Close Encounters With the Religious Right" notes that "Robertson clings to Lapin, even though the man is frequently incoherent, and his speeches are crude and offensive. Robertson needs him to claim Jewish support. Lapin needs Robertson or else he would be completely obscure instead of just irrelevant..."

   ¶    Laurence L. White is pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Houston, Texas and "one of the leading voices in America today in the pro-life, pro-family movement" according to the "People of Faith 2000" web site.

   ¶    Janet Parshall works closely with Gary Bauer in the Washington, D.C.- based Family Research Council, where she serves as official media spokesperson. She also hosts a nationally syndicated talk show, and is a guest columnist for USA TODAY and other publications.

    In speaking to church audience and religious right action groups, Parshall often claims that America in the midst of a "moral of spiritual battle," and recounts the story about George Washington at the Battle of Trenton. Washington told the troops that should they run out of bullets they should resort to bayonets.

    "We must use our spiritual bayonets. We must use the bayonets, for the nation must be taken for the love of God," says Parshall.

   Another favorite agenda item with Parshall and the FRC has been the new "morning after" emergency contraception pill often given to victims of rape. Last summer, in an FRC press release Parshall opined that the new pill "disrespects human life and does not warrant approval of the FDA."

   ¶    Michael Johnston heads Kerusso Ministries, part of a network of conservative religious groups which seek to "convert" gay men and women to a straight lifestyle. Johnson says that he gay and has AIDS, but claims that "he hopes for eternal life ... in his relationship with Jesus Christ." Kerusso Ministries works with groups like Alliance for Traditional Marriage, Christian Coalition, Concerned Women for America and the Family Research Council in opposing local and state initiatives on behalf of gay rights. Johnston also headed up Hope '97, a yearlong project "bringing the message of hope in Christ across America" with rallies and seminars on "how to counter the homosexual agenda..."

   ¶    Armstrong Williams is a syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times groups, and CEO of an international public relations firm, Graham Williams Group. He describes himself as a "third-generation black Republican," and worked at one time for Sen. Strom Thurmond.

   ¶    Mathew Staver is the founder and president of Liberty Counsel, a "religious civil rights" group which has been active in the legal battle to legitimize student-led prayer. He hosts a daily radio program, and is also a member of the semisecret Council for National Policy (CNP), a roundtable group linking conservative and religious right activists with well-heeled financiers of political causes.

   ¶    Richard Viguerie is considered the godfather of many conservative and religious right causes, going back to the early 1970s when he began a direct mail operation on behalf of political candidates and groups. He is head of American Target Advertising in Washington, D.C. Viguerie is considered the architect of the alliance between political conservatives and evangelical-fundamentalist Christians; he helped form groups like the American Life Lobby which began training conservative Christians and integrating them into the ranks of the GOP. He also has had contacts within the beltway for nearly three decades, and when not raising money for candidates like Jesse Helms, Viguerie has used his direct mail organization to assist more shadowy groups like the World Anti-Communist League -- described by sociologist and researcher Sarah Diamond as "a multinational network of Nazi war criminals, Latin American death squad leaders, North American racists and anti-Semites, and fascist politicians from every continent..."

    Viguerie has also maintained close ties with Rev. Moon's Unification Church cult, which even rescued him from bankruptcy in the 1980s.

    With other groups such as Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition fresh from a round of important victories on behalf of George W. Bush, Falwell's decision to launch his "People of Faith 2000" suggests a growing divide amongst key religious right leaders.

    Pat Robertson has backed his close friend Bush since the early days of the Iowa caucus and beyond. Christian Coalition launched a series of ambitious campaigns in February which handed Bush an important primary victory in South Carolina. Robertson has also worked overtime to assure fellow religious conservatives that the Texas governor is "profoundly pro-life" and is the only viable candidate who can best Al Gore in the November, 2000 general election.

    In light of claims that he was "waffling" on the abortion question, though, and has now met with gay Republicans, Bush is not trusted by all on the religious right. Falwell's decision to essentially duplicate much of the work already being done by Robertson's group suggests that "People of Faith 2000" is meant to send a clear signal to GOP leadership that they must continue to espouse a tough line on gay rights, abortion and other issues, or risk the loss of many evangelical and fundamentalist voters. By promising to deliver votes, Falwell also enhances his own standing within the GOP as well.

    "People of Faith 2000" is clearly directed at the Republican party. David Woodward, political science professor at Clemson University in South Carolina, said that Falwell's group is design to maintain the religious right "influence in the political party," which he suggests is "on the wane."

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