Christian Voice (USA)
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- There is an unconnected organisation called Christian Voice in the UK
Christian Voice is an American conservative Christian advocacy group, with 107,000 members including 37,000 pastors from 45 denominations. [1] It is a project of the American Service Council. Christian Voice was headquartered at the Heritage Foundation in the 1970s and 1980s and is currently located in suburban Washington, D.C., in Alexandria, Virginia [2].
Christian Voice is best known as the originator and developer of the "Congressional Report Card" and the "Candidates Scorecard". It helped pioneer grassroots action through use of its "Church Networking Guide". The organization has been cited in more than 7,000 feature articles in publications, including Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News and World Report and on television programs such as 60 Minutes, ABC News Special Report, 20/20, and Good Morning America.[3]
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[edit] History
Founded by Dr. Robert Grant, Gary Jarmin and Colonel Donor in 1978, Christian Voice recruited evangelical voters and pioneered the techniques that have enabled the Christian Right gain influence in federal and state governments. [4]
Christian Voice was the first of the Christian Right groups, pre-dating the Christian Coalition, American Coalition for Traditional Values, Concerned Women for America, Moral Majority, Family Research Council, and other Christian political groups. Christian Voice has employed hundreds of political organizers, including Susan Hirschman, Chief of Staff to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Congressman Tom Hagadorn, who chaired the organization for several years, and Tim LaHaye, author of the Left Behind series. Many of the techniques used by current independent and 527 political campaigns were originally developed by Christian Voice.[5]
[edit] Voter drives
Christian Voice President Gary Jarmin has been involved in the founding of dozens of other public policy organizations, including the Christian Coalition, Coalition for Religious Freedom, The Seniors Center, and American Council for a Free Asia.
In 2004, Christian Voice spent 2.9 million dollars on its Christian Voter Drive. Its website [6] reports that Christian Voice registered 355,562 new Christian voters in 2004 and turned out 1.2 to 1.5 million voters in its get out the vote efforts. They also distributed 530,000 copies of the grassroots organizing guide "Building the Shining City"[7].
[edit] Morality Ratings Controversy
The Christian Voice morality rating system for American political figures created controversy when Republican Congressmen Richard Kelly, who was convicted of bribery and corruption in the Abscam scandal, and Dan Crane, who was censured for having a sexual relationship with a teenage congressional page (see Congressional Page sex scandal), received 100% morality ratings, while Father Robert Drinan, a Catholic priest who was a Democratic member of Congress at the time, received a 0% morality rating. Presumably this number was based on the perceived morality of their votes on issues, rather than their own personal morality.[citation needed]
[edit] Principals
- Robert Grant Founder, Chairman (1978-1998; 2003-present) [8]
- Gary Jarmin, President
[edit] External links
- Christian Voice Website
- Christian Voice sponsored Christian Voter Drive
- Building The Shining City grassroots organization guide published by Christian Voice
[edit] References
- People for the American Way Newsletter (1984).
