The Top Ten Power Brokers of the Religious Right

By Rob Boston, Church & State Magazine. Posted November 10, 2008.

For the past two years, numerous media pundits have been all abuzz over the so-called "death" of the Religious Right. There is one problem, however: Someone forgot to tell the Religious Right.

A recent Americans United study of the finances and influence of the Religious Right shows a movement that is very much alive and kicking. Indeed, our research shows that the nation's leading Religious Right organizations took in more than half a billion dollars over a recent 12-month period. Several of the organizations reported dramatic increases in their budgets; only a few showed a drop.

Financial information was not the only factor we took into account when compiling this list. We also attempted to determine the influence organizations have on the larger political scene. A group can have a modest budget and still cast a long shadow.

Many of these organizations are also well represented in Washington, D.C., and in state capitals. Their lobbyists troll the halls of Congress or state legislatures, in some cases actually helping draft legislation.

For budgetary data, Church & State relied on Internal Revenue Service Form 990, a document that most 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) tax-exempt groups are required to file. In most cases, the figures come from a period spanning the end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007.

1. Christian Broadcasting Network

Founder and Chairman: The Rev. Pat Robertson

2006 Revenue: $246,986,289

Location: Virginia Beach, Va.

Web site: www.cbn.org

Overview: Television preacher M.G. "Pat" Robertson founded the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) in 1961, primarily as an instrument of Pentecostal preaching and evangelism. Over the years, the ministry took on a political cast and became a vehicle for the propagation of Robertson's far-right views.

In 1988, Robertson ran unsuccessfully for president in the Republican primaries. He gathered millions of signatures from supporters during that campaign and later used them as the basis for an explicitly political group, the Christian Coalition. The Coalition did well during the 1990s but began to experience financial difficulties and leadership problems as the decade wound down. In 2001, Robertson withdrew from the organization completely. (It still limps along, based in South Carolina, with a budget of $1.4 million.)

Some today deride Robertson's influence among conservative Christians, but no other Religious Right leader has the media and academic platform he has. During the presidential primary season, Mitt Romney and Rudolph Giuliani made personal appearances at Robertson's Regent University and courted his support.

President George W. Bush has also labored to keep Robertson happy. At least 150 Regent graduates were placed in the Bush administration. Among them was Monica Goodling, who sparked a scandal by applying a "pro-God" political litmus test to non-political appointments at the Justice Department. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft is now a professor on the Regent campus, and a Robertson charity, Operation Blessing, has received $1.5 million in tax money under the Bush "faith-based" initiative.

CBN's major project is production of the "700 Club," Robertson's talk/news program. The show, estimated to have about 800,000 viewers daily, is Robertson's primary vehicle for spreading his political views, which include vociferous opposition to church-state separation, legal abortion and gay rights. Like the Fox News Channel, CBN gives right-wing members of Congress and authors friendly interviews and publicity.

Robertson frequently uses the program to espouse extremism. Over the years he has ranted that America should be a Christian nation, compared gay people to Nazis, blamed court decisions and civil liberties groups for the 9/11 attacks and asserted that God punishes communities that displease Him with hurricanes, tornados and possibly even meteors. One of Robertson's most infamous observations is that Episcopalians, Methodists and Presbyterians reflect "the spirit of the Antichrist."

Aside from Regent, Robertson's empire includes the American Center for Law and Justice, a Religious Right legal group (see below); Operation Blessing, a charity that has been racked by scandal, and Regent University, a graduate-level school.

Now 78, Robertson has been increasingly shifting day-to-day responsibilities to his son, Gordon, who often appears alongside him on the "700 Club." It has been reported that CBN has an endowment of at least $1 billion, meaning the ministry should be able to continue long after Robertson has retired.

Robertson Quote: "America wasn't built on Hinduism. America wasn't built on Islam. America wasn't built on Buddhism. America and our democratic institutions were built on the Christian faith. There is no question about it." ("700 Club," July 30, 2007)

2. Focus on the Family

Founder and Chairman: James C. Dobson

2006 Revenue: $156,972,266

Location: Colorado Springs, Colo.

Web site: www.focusonthefamily.org

Overview: Child psychologist James C. Dobson formed Focus on the Family (FOF) in 1977. Dobson made his name by endorsing corporal punishment for children at a time when most experts on child rearing were moving away from it, views he outlined in his first book Dare to Discipline.

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Rob Boston is the associate editor for Church & State magazine.

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