The number of religious advocacy groups in the nation’s capital has more than tripled since the 1970s, with conservative groups seeing the biggest growth, according to a new report.
Together, faith-based lobbying and advocacy groups spend $390 million a year to influence lawmakers, mobilize supporters and shape public opinion, according to the report, released Monday (Nov. 21) by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
The report reflects shifting fortunes in religion and politics: the rise of the religious right 35 years ago, the decline of mainline Protestant churches and the outsized presence of the Roman Catholic Church.
I think it was in 1997 in Philidelphia that I went to a PB&F hearing and suggested we close the TEC Washington lobbying office as a way to save money. The reaction I got was something similiar to suggesting we draw and quarter somebody’s grandmother. I really don’t have a problem with monitoring legislation, because some anti-religion things come up in Congress from time to time, but the notion of maintaining a lobbying office has always struck me as wasteful at best.
Churches seem to be under siege by lobbyists of one sort or another. A great deal of money has probably been spent by lobbying groups such as the (RCRC) Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights (an abortion advocacy group), “INTEGRITY” (a GLBT advocacy group) and other unknown advocacy groups which quietly infect the political structure of targeted Christian churches.
Although these unrelenting lobbying efforts have changed the political structure of the church to be more relevant to certain special interests, they have undermined the Christian truth and Holy Word which has held the church together over the years so I can understand why those who oppose these special interests or simply are not interested in them may leave the church in search of a truly Christian church.
I find it fascinating that this article is being used to infer that churches are “under siege” — just look at the [b]first sentence[/b]. The biggest growth in lobbying dollars is from conservative organizations, with AIPAC, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Family Research Council leading the way, [url=http://pewforum.org/Government/Lobbying-for-the-faithful–exec.aspx#expenditures] and those reporting over $10M in expenditures, all explicitly conservative with the exception of Bread for the World, accounting for nearly half of the “business”[/url]. I don’t believe this serves as evidence that religious conservatives are “under siege”. Perhaps you’re just saying that conservatives need to lobby even more? Fine by me, but let’s be clear on who’s spending all this money. It’s not Integrity USA or TEC.
When I read the title on this post, for a moment I had the exhilarating reaction that religious groups were going to spare no expense bringing the Good News and the good will of the Christian Community to the streets of the Nation’s Capital – to address homelessness, helplessness, hunger, drug addiction, broken families, education, and all the dysfunctions of urban living that so badly afflict the District. Instead, I find politics and lobbying, as if that trough were not more than amply filled already. In this context $400 million is a disgusting statistic.
No, I do not believe that “conservatives need to lobby even more” we are not in a lobbying contest.
I just want lobbying groups to quit targeting churches for conversion to the beliefs of their particular special interests.
I simply want to belong to a Christian church that has not completely succumbed to the lobbying efforts of groups like the RCRC to the extent that the church officially supports a group which aggressively agitates for unlimited abortion.
I simply want to belong to a Christian church that protects children and young people from predators like Bede Parry, even though some special interest groups demand that the church portray all Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender activities as normal and healthy.
I simply want to belong to a Christian church which does not idolize activists to the extent that the church will revise its beliefs and actions in order to conform with whichever special interest group happens to carry the most political weight at the time.