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THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT NOW INCLUDES MANY INFLUENTIAL AND POLITICALLY ASTUTE GROUPS THAT WORK TOGETHER ON ISSUES.
THEIR ADVOCATES
IN MID-SEPTEMBER, RICHARD LAND OF THE SOUTHERN Baptist Convention had a meeting in Washington that he didn't want to miss. With the presidential campaign in the homestretch, President Bush was going to discuss several important issues, including his re-election effort, with 15 or so prominent backers. Like Land, about half of the group represented religious and social conservatives.
Land, who has been close to Bush since Bush's days as governor of Texas, recalls that the president thanked the conservative heavyweights at the meeting for their support and told them they "should do our best to get people involved in the process."
For Land arid other social conservatives who had already been working hard to boost voter registration and to urge followers and congregants to vote their values, the president didn't have to say any more. "I think Bush is the greatest president of my lifetime," says Land, who heads the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the national public policy arm of the 16 million-member organization. "Bush doesn't just understand our issues; he shares our worldview."
Bush has given members of the Religious Right unparalleled access to the White House. Since early 2001, for instance, a few dozen social and religious conservatives such as Land, Gary Bauer of the think tank American Values, and the Rev. Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association have regularly joined weekly conference calls with Tim Goeglein, a top aide to White House political adviser Karl Rove, to discuss issues of mutual concern, from abortion to judicial nominees to gay marriage.
"As the pro-family community has become more sophisticated and successful, it has evolved from being a group of outsiders in the political process to a community that has a number of significant allies in important positions on Capitol Hill, in the administration, and in the Republican Party," says Ralph Reed, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition, who this year served as a key adviser to the Bush campaign in several areas, including outreach to social conservatives.
The Religious Right does indeed have many well-placed allies in Congress. About a dozen groups participate in weekly "Values Action...