Commentary--Extremist Elements within Christian Right
by Sara Diamond,
copyright 1986

Fundamentalist Christians' crusade against homosexuals is
no
secret. But elements within the Christian Right--emboldened by
their
increasing political clout--are allowing other forms of
intolerance to take
hold within their ranks.

A minor scandal ensued back in 1981 when Bailey
Smith, then-
President of the Southern Baptist Convention, said that God

doesn't hear the prayer of a Jew. The fundamentalist community
seemed to
have cleaned up its act for a few years, but recent
events illustrate a
disturbing trend:

**The National Religious Broadcasters, a
professional
organization representing 1000 Christian media outfits,
allowed
anti-Semitic activists to distribute literature at their February
1986
convention.

Publisher Pat Brooks of New Puritan Library from North

Carolina gave away copies of The Six Pointed Star. "The Jewish
star is the
most evil of all symbols," Brooks said as she warned
conventioneers of the
"Zionist conspiracy" to deprive Americans
of their tax dollars. Washington
D.C. radio broadcaster Dale
Crowley, handed out pamphlets proclaiming
that "good Jews
accepted Christ" and urging his colleagues to shun
Christians
building alliances with Jews.

**Meanwhile, born-again
Superstar Jerry Falwell, in a forum
on Jewish-Christian relations, voiced
love and admiration for
the Jewish people, and unequivocal support for
Israeli policies
in the Mideast. Falwell received the Jabotinsky Award from
former
Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin in 1980. But no more than
five
minutes after his talk before the religious broadcasters, he
moved to another
room for a press conference on South Africa.
There Falwell taunted a black
reporter with "You're biased.
You're obviously with the Jewish media."


**Maranatha Campus Ministries , headed by Bob Weiner with
chapters at
about 50 U.S. universitites, distributes a booklet on
"Christian Dominion."
Its arguments is that God chose "English-
speaking Teutonic peoples" to come
to America and "administer
government among savage and senile peoples" and
to "establish a
system where no chaos reigned." One wonders what percentage
of
the current U.S. population can trace their ancestry back to this
"chosen
race."

**At a July convention sponsored by the Mountain View-based

Coalition on Revival, Concord TV-42 station President Ronald Haus
gave a
workshop on using the media to spread Biblical values.
Haus offered
advertising tips for Christian TV and radio station
managers in cities with
large Jewish populations. Just offer them
cheap ad rates, Haus quipped. "A good
Jew likes a good deal."

**TV-42 broadcasts throughout Northern
California from
stations in Concord and Fresno. One of the network's in-
house
produced programs is "Accent on Health," hosted by Maureen

Salaman, president of the 100,000 member National Health
Federation.
Aside from her leading role in the alternative health
movement, Salaman is
known nationally as a veteran activist in
Willis Carto's Liberty Lobby.
Carto has been described by civil
libertarians as the most notorious
anti-Semite and racial
supremacist in the U.S. Last year Carto's
Institute for
Historical Review lost a lawsuit to a Long Beach man whose
family
was gassed to death at Auschwitz. Carto claims the Nazi Holocaust
never
took place.

In 1984 Salaman campaigned as the Vice Presidential

candidate of Carto's electoral front, the Populist Party. Just a
few months
ago Salaman led an internal power struggle within the
Populist Party. She
came out on the side of Willis Carto against
the less extreme American
Independent Party faction. TV-42
President Ronn Haus apparently knows
Maureen Salaman only as a
health food expert.

Do these signs indicate
that the Christian Right--now
flexing its muscles in the electoral
arena--is broadening its
base by moving further toward the fringes
of political
acceptability? Historically, fundamentalism has been a
breeding
ground for opportunistic racists and anti-Semites, but one might
have
hoped that contemporary standards of tolerance would have
changed that
tradition.

It's possible that many zealous fundamentalist leaders are

simply too naive to recognize extremism within their own
movement.
But if they want to gain any degree of legitimacy
within mainstream
America, they're going to have to throw the
proverbial bad apples out of
their own barrel.


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