IV. Organizational Profiles

Council for National Policy
Mission: "CNP exists as a networking vehicle for right wing leadership."39
Address: 3030 Clarendon Boulevard, Suite 340, Arlington, Virginia 22201
Phone: 703-525-8822
Founded: 1981
Executive Director: Morton Blackwell40
President: Edwin Meese III (former U.S. Attorney General)
Membership: Membership is by invitation only, upon recommendation of another member. Due to the secret nature of membership, the following list of past and present members is incomplete. Total membership is estimated to be 500.41 "PA" indicates current or former Pennsylvania resident:
Howard Ahmanson (Christian right financier)
Linda Bean-Jones (L.L. Bean clothing retailer, director of Maine Christian Coalition)
Ben Blackburn (former segregationist member of Congress)
Pat Boone (entertainer and Christian right activist)
Judie Brown (American Life League, United States Taxpayers Party)
Anita Bryant (entertainer and anti-gay activist)
PA James N. Clymer (Constitutional candidate for Pennsylvania Lt. Governor, 1994)
Holland "Holly" Coors (Adolf Coors Foundation)
Jeff Coors (Free Congress Foundation)
PA T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr. (The S. M. Scaife Foundation and Intercollegiate Studies Institute)
PA Mrs. Arthur DeMoss (DeMoss Foundation)
PA Nancy DeMoss (DeMoss Foundation)
Richard DeVos (Amway)
Richard M. DeVos, Jr. (Amway)
Dr. James Dobson (Focus On The Family and Family Research Council)
Pierre S. Dupont, IV (Heritage Foundation)
Lee Eaton (Focus On The Family and Family Research Council)
PA Don Eberly (The Commonwealth Foundation)
Rev. Jerry Falwell (Moral Majority)
Senator Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina)
Thomas D. Hess (Focus on the Family)
Jack Kemp (former HUD Secretary)
Rev. D. James Kennedy (Coral Ridge Ministries)
Lee LaHaye (son of Beverly LaHaye, President of Concerned Women for America and Tim)
Rev. Tim LaHaye (Family Life Seminars)
John Lofton (staff writer, Chalcedon Foundation)
PA H. Spencer Masloff, Jr. (Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association)
Gary North (Institute for Christian Economics)
Oliver North (Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Virginia 1994)
PA John F. Perry, MD (anti-abortion rights political candidate)
Ralph Reed (Christian Coalition)
PA Robert R. Reilly (Intercollegiate Studies Institute)
Pat Robertson (Christian Coalition)
R.J. Rushdoony (Chalcedon Foundation, United States Taxpayers Party)
Phyllis Schlafly (Eagle Forum)
PA Hans Sennholz (formerly Chair of Economics Dept., Grove City College)
John H. Sununu (Pres. Bush's chief of staff)
Paul Weyrich (Free Congress Foundation, founder of American Life League)
John W. Whitehead (The Rutherford Institute)
PA Faith Ryan Whittlesey (Free Congress Foundation)
Rev. Donald Wildmon (American Family Association)

Finances: The Council for National Policy is registered with the IRS as a tax-exempt, educational foundation. The organization's primary source of income is dues, which are $2,000 per year for members and $5,000 per year for members of the Board of Governors

Author and columnist Sara Diamond describes the Council for National Policy as "a highly secretive coalition which represents the entire spectrum of New Right executives, TV preachers, legislators and former high-ranking government and military leaders. The Council for National Policy is considered the primary coordinating body and funding conduit for Christian Right projects."42 CNP business is conducted at a series of three or four two-day meetings each year where members formally discuss policy issues and strategy. One such meeting, October 22 and 23, 1993, was dedicated to a now familiar strategy for abolishing the public school system. According to the Institute for First Amendment Studies, "CNP members discussed the implementation of 'school choice' as a mechanism for the elimination of public education."43

CHRISTIAN COALITION
Mission: "The mission of the Christian Coalition is simple, to mobilize Christians - one precinct at a time, one community at a time - until once again we are the head and not the tail, and at the top rather than at the bottom of our political system." -Pat Robertson 44
Address: Box 1990, Chesapeake, VA 23327-1990
Phone: 1-800-325-4746
Internet, World Wide Web: http://www.cc.org/
Founded: 1989
Executive Director: Ralph Reed, Jr.
Selected or Known Board Members:45 Pat Robertson; Gordon P. Robertson (Pat's son); Dick Weinhold (Texas Coalition); Rev. Billy McCormack (Louisiana Coalition)
General Membership: claims 1.5 million in 1,425 local chapters 46
Finances: $20 million annual budget (Fiscal Year 1994)47 The Robertson presidential campaign laid the foundation for a new political movement. It was the beginning, not the end of a new wave of Christian involvement in public policy and politics.48

In the 1980's, Pat Robertson transferred $8.5 million from the non-profit Christian Broadcasting Network into the non-profit Freedom Council.49 The Freedom Council then engaged in political organizing activities, which former Freedom Council executives admit were intended to propel Robertson to victory in the 1988 presidential campaign, despite IRS regulations forbidding direct involvement in political campaigns by charitable organizations. When the Freedom Council came under IRS investigation in 1987, Robertson shut it down.50
    Having mobilized a large group of supporters, including former Freedom Council members, during his unsuccessful bid for president, Robertson sought to build a new organization. The Coalition's Leadership Manual notes that Robertson's failed campaign is one of four primary reasons the Coalition was formed.
   While the number of "Christian conservative" delegates, mostly Christian Coalition members or supporters, at the 1996 Republican convention will exceed the numbers at the 1992 convention, Robertson denies any intention of running. Barry Lynn, head of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told Esquire magazine, "Pat Robertson is never going to be president, and he knows it. But he does believe he can be the king maker."51
   In addition to their anticipated numbers at the 1996 convention, extremists led by the Christian Coalition control the Republican Party mechanism in at least eighteen states, elected 60% of "their candidates" in 1994, and provided Sen. Jesse Helms (R, North Carolina) with his narrow, come-from-behind electoral victory in 1990. According to Robertson, "We [Christian Coalition] have enough votes to run this country.... and when the people say, 'We've had enough', we're going to take over!"52
   Even if Robertson's dream of being president never becomes reality, he recognizes that he doesn't have to occupy the office to control it. He predicts "the Christian Coalition will be the most powerful political force in America by the end of this decade."53
Robertson maintains his high profile through his daily television show the "700 Club", which claims viewers across North America and in 84 other countries. The "700 Club" is part of Robertson's tax-exempt broadcasting company, the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), of which Robertson is Founder and Chairman. CBN's 1993 revenues were $140 million. Part of Robertson's vast media empire, CBN has a mission which echoes Reconstructionism:

CBN's mission is to prepare the United States of America, the nations of the Middle East, the Far East, South America and other nations of the world for the coming of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth.

We are achieving this end through the strategic use of mass communications, especially radio, television and film; the distribution of cassettes, films and literature; and the educational training of students to relate biblical principles to those spheres of human endeavor that play a dominant role in our world.

We strive for innovation, excellence and integrity in all that we do. We aim always to glorify God and His Son Jesus Christ.54

The Coalition is highly organized. It sets a national agenda, and then directs state and county level groups to advance the agenda. In 1993, the Christian Coalition held 65 two-day leadership training sessions in 35 states across the country -12 were held in Pennsylvania, twice as many as any other state. The Christian Coalition's Leadership Manual was distributed at these trainings. The manual reveals much about the organization and its political agenda. The goal is to achieve political control by targeting state and local elections and capitalizing on voter apathy. The Leadership Manual quotes from Pat Robertson's book The New Millennium:

With the apathy that exists in our nation, a small, well-organized minority can influence the selection of candidates of both major parties to an astonishing degree ... If we have as few as 75-150 people in each county we could become the most powerful political influence in the state.55 (emphasis in original)

Robertson's strategy, sometimes referred to as the "15% solution," relies on electoral apathy. About 60% of all people eligible to vote actually register and only about half of registered voters, 30% of the total electorate, actually vote. Candidates can win if they receive the support of as little as 15% of eligible voters plus one additional vote. In state and local elections, where the actual voter turnout is often even lower than 50% of registered voters, a very small number of voters can determine the outcome of county committee positions or school board elections. Local, lower-turnout elections serve as a point of entry for future state and federal candidates.
   In the Leadership Manual, the Christian Coalition presents a modified version of Reconstructionist-style Christian dominion. The document emphasizes organization, control, and submission to authority. Examples are found in Chapter Two of the Leadership Manual. The right of spiritual leaders to control others is addressed in depth. Using two quotes from the Bible, Hebrews 13:17 and I Timothy 5:17, the Leadership Manual explains that it is the duty of Christians to submit to the authority of those spiritual leaders who have been placed over them. Because "spiritual leaders" claim to be given mandates directly from God, their followers are told that God commands them to carry out the leaders' orders, even when those orders contradict biblical teaching. The Coalition also advises women, "It is also the Christian's duty to submit to the authority of the husband and the father in the family."56
   Another noteworthy aspect of the Manual's authority/control discussion is the inclusion of four biblical passages referring to the duty of slaves to obey their masters.57 The biblical passages included are Colossians 3:22-4:1, Ephesians 6:5-7,9, Timothy 6:1-2, and Peter 2:18-19. The following text from Peter is representative of the content of the other three citations.

Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God.

The biblical quotations are followed by this commentary:

Of course, slavery was abolished in this country many years ago, so we must apply these principles to the way Americans work today, to employees and employers.58 [God] also established His authority in the governments of the world: Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.59

In early 1994, the Christian Coalition launched a public relations campaign directed toward minorities, which included buying advertising on minority-owned radio stations and sending targeted literature to African-American and Latino churches. Ralph Reed, Jr., Executive Director, announced that the Christian Coalition would no longer "concede the minority community to the political left."60
   While the Christian Coalition publicly attempts to appear inclusive, several high level leaders and associates have well-known histories at odds with this image. These include the Rev. Billy McCormack, Christian Coalition Board member, Louisiana Coalition director and Louisiana state coordinator for Robertson's 1988 campaign; David Barton, executive director of WallBuilders, Inc.; and Paul Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation.
   The Rev. McCormack was a member of the Louisiana Republican Central Committee from 1988-1992, who used his power to help the candidacy of Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. "On September 23, 1989, McCormack and his followers helped to table a motion to censure then state legislator David Duke."61 At the time of the 1989 state committee censure vote, the Republican National Committee had already voted unanimously to censure Duke, because "the longtime Klan leader was selling Nazi and racist materials from his legislative office."62 McCormack also supported Duke's unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate in 1990. "Duke received 60 percent of the state's white vote and, reportedly, widespread support from Christian Coalition members."63 "With this record of dalliance with Duke," observed journalist Frederick Clarkson, "it was a quietly dramatic moment at the Christian Coalition gathering in September [1992 Road to Victory conference] when McCormack was seated next to President Bush on the dais during the presidential visit and address".64
   Another associate of the Christian Coalition is David Barton, an opponent of the separation of church and state. Barton, who spoke at a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Prayer Breakfast in 1994, was a featured speaker at the Christian Coalition's Road to Victory III, IV and V. Barton uses writings and paraphrases of the nation's founders to bolster his claim that America was founded and prospered as a Christian nation and that a national moral decline began in 1962, with the U.S. Supreme Court's rejection of mandatory school prayer. According to the Anti-Defamation League:

This ostensible scholarship functions in fact as an assault on scholarship: in the manner of other recent phony revisionism, the history it supports is little more than a compendium of anecdotes divorced from their original context, linked harum-scarum and laced with factual errors and distorted innuendo. Barton's "scholarship," like that of Holocaust denial and Atlantic slave trade conspiracy-mongering, is rigged to arrive at predetermined conclusions, not history.65

According to the Anti-Defamation League, "In July 1991, Barton addressed the Colorado summer retreat of Scriptures for America, the Identity Church group headed by Pete Peters." 66 Peters hosts a syndicated television show, "Truth for Our Times", which is part of the Keystone Inspirational Network, owned by John H. Norris, owner of WGCB-TV in Red Lion, Pennsylvania.67 The Anti-Defamation League describes the Christian Identity movement as "assert(ing) that Jews are the 'synagogue of Satan', that Blacks and other people of color are sub-human; and that northern Europeans and their Americans descendants are the 'chosen people' of scriptural prophecies."68
   At the Road to Victory IV Pennsylvania Caucus Meeting, Rick Schenker, former executive director of the Pennsylvania Christian Coalition, introduced Paul Weyrich as his "political mentor."69 Weyrich is at the forefront of radical right political and technological initiatives and has become famous, within the movement, for predicting trends -including pioneering the use of the abortion issue as a political organizing tool. With Judie Brown, he founded the American Life League, which opposes both abortion and birth control. Weyrich has served as faculty for Christian Coalition Leadership Schools and is a frequent speaker at the Christian Coalition's Road to Victory conferences. In addition to his political activities, Weyrich runs a cable and satellite television network, National Empowerment Television, that provides time for Christian Coalition teleconferences every month.70
   Given the views and associates of these individuals, the Christian Coalition's public relations campaign directed at minorities can be seen as an example of a strategy articulated by Ralph Reed on several occasions:

It's like guerrilla warfare ... It's better to move quietly, with stealth, under cover of night. It comes down to whether you want to be the British Army in the Revolutionary War, or the Viet Cong.71

PENNSYLVANIA CHRISTIAN COALITION
Mission: "The mission of the Pennsylvania Christian Coalition, is to train and mobilize Christians to obtain a decisive, political influence in the making of public policy."72 "The mission of the Christian Coalition is to stay simple. And simply to get organized... [S]tay clear of issues and focus on ORGANIZATION."73
National Affiliation: The Pennsylvania Christian Coalition broke its ties with the national organization on December 23, 1995, and now operates under the name Pennsylvania Coalition. In his January 1996 newsletter, Insider Report, Rick Schenker, formerly state director, wrote, "We will try to retain a loose relationship with Ralph Reed and the Christian Coalition, but we feel we can do more for the citizens of this state as an independent organization."
   The national Christian Coalition has set up an affiliate, the "Keystone Christian Coalition", under the direction of Clay Mankamyer, who holds the position of secretary of the organization and is an employee of the national Christian Coalition. Other officers of the Keystone Christian Coalition are O. Samuel Zeisloft of Erie County, president and John Detwiler of Dauphin County, treasurer. Mankamyer claims a database of 8,000 names, not all of whom are dues-paying members.74
   The information below applies to the Pennsylvania Christian Coalition and its successor, the Pennsylvania Coalition.
Address: 1313 West 38th Street, P.O. Box 7171, Erie, PA 16510
Phone: 814-864-2050
Founded: Corporate filing date: March 2, 1992
Executive Director, through 1995: Rick Schenker. Schenker had been on the national staff before being sent to Erie to run the Coalition's Pennsylvania operation. Early in 1996, he was named to a non-civil service position as regional spokesman for the Department of Transportation in their District 1 headquarters at Franklin.75
Selected or Known Board Members, 1992-4:76 Peter Vroon, President ; J. Gregory Moore, Secretary; John Agatson, Treasurer ; Clay Mankamyer (Northeast Regional Field Director), formerly
Pennsylvania Christian Coalition Educational Fund Selected or Known Board Members:77
Rick Schenker, President; J. Gregory Moore, Secretary; Terry Lynn Schenker, Treasurer
General Membership, 1994: "5,000 paying members but an estimated 50,000 activists, according to Schenker"78
Finances: The Pennsylvania Christian Coalition is not registered with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Charitable Organizations and therefore, not authorized to raise funds in Pennsylvania. However, the Christian Coalition's national office in Virginia is registered. The national organization has a budget of $20 million.
Publications: County Action Plan
The Pennsylvania Christian Coalition's best-known publication is the County Action Plan, which was first exposed by Frederick Clarkson in the magazine Church and State in 1992, and in 1993 received national attention in the New York Times Magazine and other well-known publications.79 In 1995, the Coalition claimed, "The 'County Action Plan' was a draft prepared by a local volunteer. It was submitted to the national office and rejected as inconsistent with the Coalition's policy of openness and inclusion."80 However, a March 7, 1993 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer quotes Pennsylvania Christian Coalition Executive Director, Rick Schenker, describing the County Action Plan as "a how-to manual for building a real grass-roots organization."81 The manual is clearly consistent with the Coalition's philosophy, echoing the Coalition's "15% solution" concept. The County Action Plan section on "How to Set up your County Organization, Part Three" states, "As few as eight of 100 people actually decide who is elected."82
   The Christian Coalition claims to be bi-partisan, but according to anti-choice, Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman Ron Klink, "They're [Christian Coalition] not looking for leadership, they're looking for Republican candidates."83

Stealth tactics are recommended in the County Action Plan:

Become directly involved in the local Republican Committee yourself so that you are an insider. This way you can get a copy of the local committee rules and a feel for who is in the current local Republican Committee. You should never mention the name Christian Coalition in Republican circles. (emphasis in the original)84

A telephone script published by the Christian Coalition suggests:

"Hi, my name is [__________], and I'm conducting an informal survey here in [your city or neighborhood]. Would you be willing to answer a few brief questions? (If someone asks you what group you represent, say 'A local group of concerned citizens.')85

The County Action Plan puts forth a design for a secret group to exert Coalition influence on local events. Called a "Roundtable", its stated purpose is to set priorities, establish strategies and coordinate action pursuant to specific policy objectives. The agenda of "action items" is set by the Roundtable chairman.86 "There are no votes at a Roundtable meeting. This is vital to the concept."87 Although the County Action Plan characterizes Roundtable members as "belonging to" the group, members are allowed only to "participate in" - not to control - its operations. Roundtable meetings are private meetings, by invitation only, and they are off the record. If participants wish to invite a guest, they must secure advance permission from the chairman. What is said at meetings is secret and not to be repeated to reporters or persons outside the Roundtable. The penalty for violation of this rule is exclusion from the meeting.88
   In addition to keeping their Roundtable membership secret, participants are expected to quietly implement the Roundtable action item agenda by using their employment, positions in the community and political office. The Coalition seeks Roundtable members who can bring business and public resources to bear, without the knowledge or approval of their constituencies. The recruitment strategy is outlined in the following County Action Plan excerpt:

WHO SHOULD BE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE ROUNDTABLE?
Friendly columnists and media commentators, provided they understand that their participation in meetings is not in their capacity as reporters but as supporters of certain policy objectives. For example, a friendly talk show host might be invited to participate, but he or she would be obliged to respect the confidentiality of the meeting. The type of action assignment this individual would be expected to take would be to use his show to move the agenda forward (e.g., to do a program on term limitations or to have someone on as a guest to discuss educational choice).

The specific questions you want to ask before deciding to invite a particular individual to participate in the Roundtable are:

Is this person authorized to commit the resources of his organization? A subordinate who has to check with his boss or his board of directors before making the decision is simply of no help in a Roundtable meeting, because he cannot make and keep Action Item commitments.89

The Pennsylvania Christian Coalition structure flows from an Area Field Representative for each of Pennsylvania's 67 counties down to neighborhood coordinators.90 During the Pennsylvania State Caucus meeting at the September 1994 Christian Coalition Road to Victory conference, Rick Schenker said, "Between November 10th of 1994 and May of 1996 we are going to concentrate on filling at least 6,000 neighborhoods with one of our neighborhood coordinators in each neighborhood of the state of Pennsylvania." Of the 9,500 precincts in the state, Schenker plans to control nearly two-thirds of them, "And then you guys [Pennsylvania Christian Coalition members] will be the leaders of the political process in Pennsylvania."91
   The 1994 legislative candidacy of Debra Cruel is an example of the type of political activity promoted by the Christian Coalition. Though unsuccessful, Cruel's candidacy is noteworthy. She is an African-American woman attorney with a history of association and employment with radical right organizations. Her campaign for the 103rd legislative seat coincided with the Christian Coalition's initiative to extend it's influence into minority communities. Having grown up in a working class family in Harrisburg, Cruel has been characterized as a role model for young people. As a candidate, Cruel was able to appeal to low-income urban voters and the African-American community as well as conservative Republicans. During the election, she talked about the need to create "positive changes in our community," work "to strengthen our families," and improve education. Her campaign literature included quotes from politicians and community leaders characterizing Cruel as a visionary, capable of making a "real difference in the community".92
   Cruel is the former Director of the Landmark Center for Civil Rights, part of Landmark Legal Foundation, a non-profit law firm founded to "advance a free market economy and individual rights."93 The "civil rights" work of Landmark Legal Foundation includes filing suit against a Kansas City judge to stop the implementation of a school desegregation plan. Other Landmark cases include law suits to force the implementation of a workfare program in Oregon and of school voucher programs in New Jersey and Wisconsin, and several lawsuits against government regulations and environmental protection legislation. 94 In her campaign literature, Cruel described the work of Landmark Legal Foundation as the "successful litigation of groundbreaking cases on education reform, entrepreneurship, welfare reform, tenant management and home ownership."95
   Landmark served as legal counsel for Council for National Policy member Edwin Meese during the Iran-Contra investigation. Landmark's board of advisors also included author, Charles Murray, who has argued that social programs do more harm than good and should be abolished. Both Murray and Landmark have received significant financial support from the Bradley Foundation. (Bradley, along with the John M. Olin, Sarah Scaife and Smith-Richardson Foundations dominate conservative funding, according to Barbara Miner, writing in Rethinking Schools, in Spring 1994.)
   Debra Cruel's 1994 campaign received $6,000 from Rep. Joseph Pitts, and $500 from Representative Jerry Birmelin, who formerly represented Pennsylvanians for Biblical Morality, a lobbying group associated with Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority. In a 1990 The Patriot-News article, Cruel said she "looks to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Chester County Republican Rep. Joe Pitts" as role models.96 Cruel also received an in-kind donation of campaign training from the Free Congress Foundation, whose president, Paul Weyrich, was claimed as a mentor by Rick Schenker, the former director of the Pennsylvania Christian Coalition at the 1994 Road to Victory convention.

1993 Christian Coalition Leadership Schools
    "Leadership Schools" are two-day workshops organized by the national office of the Christian Coalition. These sessions are designed to train local Coalition members to shape public policy, run grass-roots organizations, elect candidates, and run for public office. In 1993, the Christian Coalition held 65 trainings in 35 states. Twelve of those trainings, 18% of the national effort, were held in the following Pennsylvania cities:

Allentown, State College, Oil City, Philadelphia, DuBois, Altoona, Williamsport, Scranton, Pittsburgh, Lancaster, Beaver Falls, York97

REGIONAL AND COUNTY LEADERSHIP
    The following list was included in the April 1994 Pennsylvania Reporter, a monthly newsletter published by the Pennsylvania Christian Coalition. This listing of Christian Coalition leaders did not include Dick Orlemann (Northampton County) or James Clymer (Lancaster County), who had been listed in prior issues. In April 1994 Orlemann and Clymer were candidates in the Republican primary election. 98

North, Northeast, South      Clay Mankamyer
North Central                      Jason Gurbal
Northwest                           Lee Wishing
South Central                      Russ Hepler
Southwest                           Jason Anderson
Southeast                            Kathy Gettis

Adams Ted Koller     Allegheny East Alan Wakefield
Allegheny North Jim Ludwig     Allegheny South Al Hatala
Armstrong Mark Trimarchi     Beaver Len Weaver
Bedford Mike Herline     Berks Karen Fasig
Blair Clay Mankamyer     Bucks Gail Pedrick
Butler Larry Thompson     Cambria Gerald Whysong
Cameron/Elk Jason Gurbal     Carbon/Monroe Joan Nebel
Centre Jennifer Gurbal     Chester Robert Mergen
Clarion Diane Fagley     Clearfield Diana Snyder
Clinton Margaret Rothrock     Crawford/Venango Ed Franz
Cumberland Bill Stawitz     Dauphin John Detwiler
Delaware Barb Capone     Erie Jim Zbach
Fayette/Greene Scott Johnson     Forest/Warren Christine Werner
Franklin Judy Ost     Fulton Lanny Hoover
Huntingdon Robert Diehl     Indiana Allen Vay
Jefferson Jeff Kiser     Juniata/Mifflin Clay Mankamyer
Lackawanna Greg Laughner     Lancaster Lisa Flynn
Lawrence Terry Cook     Lebanon Brian Wolfe
Lehigh/Northampton Betty Garrison     Luzerne (Lower) Robert Stanziola
Luzerne (Greater) John Gibbons     Lycoming John O'Neal
McKean Charles Crooks     Mercer Jeff Peterson
Montgomery John Fielding     Perry Sonora Isaac
Philadelphia Kathy Gettis     Potter Tom Cole
Schuylkill Jeff Hardesty     Snyder/Union John O'Neal
Somerset Dale Custer     Washington Rick Dellacave
Wayne Cathy Coer     Westmoreland Don Thomson
York Linda Feo

COUNTY CHAPTER ACTIVITY

Allegheny, Fayette, Greene, Westmoreland, Washington and Beaver Counties
Bethel Park, PA
Coordinator Jason Anderson phone 412-835-6885
   According to an article in the October 30, 1994 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jason Anderson oversees "seven area field directors, including three assigned to Allegheny County. They in turn are being helped by dozens of others who are the personal links within churches, businesses and neighborhoods." The article also names Alan Wakefield as the east Allegheny County contact. During the 1994 election cycle, Anderson and his field directors distributed 344,000 Christian Coalition voters' guides in the six county region.99
   Pat Robertson was scheduled to lead a "God and Country Rally" in April 1994 in Beaver County. The event was publicized by Joyce Vild and Pat Baker, identified respectively as voter identification chairman and education chairwoman of the coalition. The rally was canceled due to low response, but a leadership seminar was held on the date at the Community College of Beaver County. 100

BUCKS COUNTY
   The Bucks County Chapter of the Christian Coalition sponsored a sign-holding anti-choice event called a "Life Chain" in Doylestown. Local supporters contacted the American Center for Law and Justice, a law firm associated with the national Christian Coalition, when Doylestown officials rejected a request that they waive their liability insurance requirement for street gatherings. Facing a threat of a lawsuit, Doylestown officials reversed their decision. 101
   Bucks County Christian Coalition co-chair Gail Pedrick ran unsuccessfully for both Republican State Committee and delegate to the Republican National Convention in the April 1996 Primary election.

DAUPHIN COUNTY
   Spring 1994 news reports indicate the Christian Coalition activated a chapter in Dauphin County, which announced monthly meetings open to the public, under the following leadership:
   Chairman Thomas Berry phone 717-657-0456
   Area Field Representative John Detwiler
   Public Affairs Representative Steve Jones phone 717-657-2618 102
   In response to litigation over the display of religious symbols on government property, Berry wrote, "In fact, 'separation of church and state' is not part of the Constitution, and the controversial 'establishment clause,' of which the ACLU is so fond, was illegitimately adopted by the 1962-63 Supreme Court ..."103

FRANKLIN COUNTY
   Roland and Judy Ost met with Waynesboro area residents in March 1993 in an effort to start a local Christian Coalition chapter. Then executive director Rick Schenker addressed the gathering, telling them that they should hold regular monthly meetings, called "pro-family forums". These meetings would include watching broadcasts of National Empowerment Television, which will be received by television satellite dishes which, according to Schenker, "already are paid for." 104
   Later, in a debate on the distribution of Bibles to public school students, Judy Ost stated, "There's nothing in the Constitution or Bill of Rights that says anything about separation of church and state." 105

LANCASTER COUNTY
Lancaster County ACTION
185 Stanley Avenue
Landisville, PA 17538
President: Robert D. Kettering
   Religious political extremist activity in Lancaster County has been conducted by Lancaster County ACTION (Americans for Christian Traditions In Our Nation), a political action committee which was formed at the time of Pat Robertson's 1987 presidential campaign. The agenda of the January 1990 Lancaster ACTION workshop featured elected local officials, state senator Gibson Armstrong, WDAC radio station owner Paul Hollinger and Commonwealth Foundation president Don Eberly.106
   Kettering is the Manheim Central GOP chair. Other Republican officials connected to Lancaster ACTION are Sheryl Eberly, a member of Republican State Committee; former GOP state committee member Paul Hollinger; Charles Trupe, Eastern Lancaster County Republican Chairman; and GOP State Committee member James Bednar. The group made campaign contributions to Republican state and local candidates, including Representatives Katie True, Thomas Armstrong, Jere Strittmatter and John Barley.107
   Another prominent Lancaster countian is James Clymer, who was the candidate for lieutenant governor on the Constitutional Party ticket in 1994. Clymer sits on the national board of the U.S. Taxpayers' Party (USTP), founded by Howard Phillips of the Conservative Caucus. Charles Trupe serves as treasurer for the USTP Pennsylvania organization. Speakers at a USTP meeting in Wisconsin in 1994 were videotaped urging the formation of militias and the arming of children.108 The USTP is holding a presidential nominating convention in San Diego, August 15 through 18, 1996. Pictured on the convention announcement are Clymer's 1994 running-mate Peg Luksik, as well as R.J. Rushdoony and Judie Brown, co-founder with Paul Weyrich of the American Life League.109
   Clymer and Trupe have founded several organizations, including the political action committees United Pennsylvanians and Voters for Accountable Representation. In October 1992, Trupe was replaced by Peg Luksik as chairman of United Pennsylvanians. United Pennsylvanians has supported an anti-gay rights group, Citizens for Pittsburgh, and the Libertarian campaigns of Clymer for Auditor General against Republican Barbara Hafer, and John Perry for U.S. Senate against Republican Arlen Specter.110

NORTHAMPTON COUNTY
   Richard Orlemann was listed as the Northampton County Field Director of the Christian Coalition in the May/June 1994 issue of The Pennsylvania Reporter.111 In April 1994, Orlemann won the Republican primary for the 136th legislative district, but was defeated in the general election.

TIOGA COUNTY
   Then director of the state Christian Coalition, Rick Schenker along with local Christian Coalition activists held a meeting attended by 20 Tioga County clergy in September 1994. His main message was education and political activation of their congregations. Several unidentified clergy at the meeting reportedly supported these aims. Tom Grady was identified as the chairman of the Tioga County Christian Coalition.112

YORK COUNTY
   Schenker came to the Christian School of York in May 1993, and met with 15 to 20 people in an effort to organize a county chapter under the leadership of Linda Feo, long-time religious-political activist. Schenker promised the group one of the $2,400 television satellite dishes so that the local group could watch "Family Forum Live" broadcasts. Feo reported that the York group had already distributed 40,000 voter's guides designed to fit into church bulletins.113
   In 1994, Feo banded together with Clark Focht, Christina Stoner, Bryan Sellers and Marilyn Gillespie as "family values" candidates for Republican State Committee, although only Feo publicly proclaimed her membership in the Christian Coalition. Russ Hepler, south-central regional coordinator for the Pennsylvania Christian Coalition said, "There is no conspiracy by the Christian Coalition to take over. Through meetings statewide, we've trained people on how the process of running for local and state committee runs, but nobody has gotten any marching orders." 114

    The Pennsylvania Christian Coalition County Action Plan directs its political operatives to work in conjunction with the groups listed below. We have provided information about the national organizations and their Pennsylvania affiliates. While the Christian Coalition may see these organizations as potential allies, they do not appear to be organizationally related or to act in concert. Our examination does give a broader view of groups who advance an agenda which includes limiting the right of individuals to choose when and whether to have a child or reducing government support for human service programs.

   Concerned Women for America of Pennsylvania
   Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation
   The Commonwealth Foundation
   Pennsylvania Family Institute
   Citizens for Excellence in Education
   The Rutherford Institute of Pennsylvania
   The American Family Association of Pennsylvania115

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