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 Area:    Feminism
  Msg:    #350
 Date:    01-18-95 22:08 (Public) 
 From:    Rex Bennett              
 To:      All                      
 Subject: Serious Women's Issues   
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
    According to Ralph Reed, Director of the Christian Coalition, the
    religious right is going to use Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, and the new
    wave of right wing victories in a major attempt to seize power for
    the Christian Coalition and other christian groups.  He is asking
    members of his 1.5 million group to ease off abortion issues for a
    while and direct all their energies to achieving a major
    stranglehold on government through right wing legislation.

    Their strategy is to replace government with organized religion
    where ever possible.  One major objective is to weaken non-right
    wing media availability by undermining the public broadcasting
    networks while funneling government taxes into religious coffers,
    and thereby increasing the propaganda and control potential for the
    religious right.  Reed says that Gingrich's 10-point Contract With
    America is the perfect plan for achieving this and that he intends
    to rally the full strength of his organization and its members to
    pressure congressmen to pass the legislation required.

    Public Broadcasting does not promote christian values and is too
    humanistic in nature according to Reed.  The wide availability of
    science programming also weakens religious faith.  The presentation
    by public broadcasting of social and cultural information on those
    not in the religious mainstream confuses the public and leads them
    away from the church and true christian values.  Reed says that he
    wants religious programming to place its own imprint on the public
    knowledge base and that the recent Republican victories have given
    him "faith that they can attain what they have always sought, a
    sense of legitimacy, and a voice in the conversation the we call
    democracy."

    Besides the elimination of public broadcasting, Reed stated that
    it is crucial to gain control of education and school systems by
    using tax dollars to underwrite their efforts.  He wants to
    abolish the Education Department and give states grants for
    scholarships or vouchers for public or private schools including
    religious institutions.  He indicates this is where their real
    efforts will pay off and will cause a massive influx of capital
    into the christian network.  Every effort will be made to replace
    inefficient public schools with more effective private ones, and
    that means primarily religious organizations since they already
    have the structure and the power to do so.  Profitability will
    allow the christian network to enlarge and expand religious
    programming on television and radio as well as in the print media.
    He also wants to reinstate public prayer in all public schools.

    Reed says that it is crucial that they abolish funding for the Legal
    Services Corp. since they represent an alternative power base for
    the poor.  Reed said that the proper place for the poor to seek help
    is in the church.  He also said that the Legal Services Corp. has
    helped poor people with over 200,000 divorces annually.  He wants
    divorce to be far more difficult to attain and would like to see
    it made expensive.


    Reed says that we must "dismantle the federal welfare system and
    shift responsibility for the poor back to the church."  Public
    welfare has made poor people too independent of organized religion,
    and he feels that this is not healthy.  He says "the poor should
    be dependent on God and not the state."

    Reed claims that Newt Gingrich's Contract With America is a god-
    send that will take power away from the state and give it back to
    the church where it belongs.  This is the opportunity that they
    have been waiting for and he indicates that his membership must
    bring all the power and influence that they can to force passage
    of the republican contract.

    He says that his organization plans to pressure every congressman
    and senator and that they will launch a massive public media
    campaign in favor of passage.  "We want to pull everyone in that
    we can."
    ---------------------------------------------------------------

    This information needs to be disseminated widely.  Everyone should be
    informed about what is about to take place.  Please distribute this
    on every net including internet where possible.  Public knowledge of
    matters and events regarding vital economic, educational,
    scientific, and communication freedoms are of interest to everyone.

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