Christian Voice (United States)
Christian Voice is an American conservative political advocacy group, known as part of the Christian right within U.S. politics. In 1980, Christian Voice claimed 107,000 members including 37,000 pastors from 45 denominations.[1] Christian Voice was headquartered at The Heritage Foundation in the 1970s and 1980s and is currently located in Alexandria, Virginia.[1]
Founded
Christian Voice was among a group of four prominent Christian Right groups formed in 1978 and 1979.[2] Christian Voice, Moral Majority, The Religious Roundtable and the National Christian Action Coalition all enjoyed considerable popularity during Ronald Reagan's Presidency.[2]
Christian Voice is best known as the originator and developer of the Moral Report Cards[2] the "Congressional Report Card" and the "Candidates Scorecard" that were issued mainly between the years 1980 and 1984.[3] It helped organize grassroots action through use of its "Church Networking Guide".
Decline[edit]
The group's bare-knuckle politics angered many Christian Voice supporters, including some of the Congressmen on the board of directors.[2] Christian Voice's primary legislative objective, a constitutional amendment to allow prayer in public schools, failed near the end of Reagan's first term. After Reagan's second term began, Christian Voice shifted its activities away from lobbying and toward the publication of campaign literature, especially the aforementioned "report cards."[2] The group claimed to have distributed some 30 million report cards during the 1986 election cycle.[2] However, funding and leadership flagged after the 1986 elections,[2] which saw Republicans lose control of the US Senate,[2] and many of the key members of Christian Voice fled to form the American Freedom Coalition with funding from Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon.[2]
As of 2012, the Christian Voice was still maintained by the American Service Council as a vehicle for direct mail campaigns both the targeting of voters and contributors and the delivery of petitions to the U.S. federal government.[6] The American Service Council no longer lists the Christian Voice on its own web site nor maintains a separate Christian Voice web site.[7]