Running Against Sodom and Osama

Americans United to Preserve Marriage

Gary Bauer, this group’s President, has been associated with a number of Christian Right organizations since he served in the Reagan administration. Assuming the post of President of the FRC in 1988, Bauer led the group through a major growth stage, leaving to run for President in 2000. Less successful in attracting popular support as a candidate than as a voice of Christian social conservatism, Bauer withdrew after faring poorly in the early primaries.

In 1996 he founded the Campaign for Working Families (CWF), a political action committee, directing individual campaign contributions to the group’s endorsed candidates. The organization claimed credit for helping many conservative victories in 2002. Positioning itself as “Pro-life, Pro-family and Pro-growth,” the CWF reassured contributors that, “Supporting CWF takes the guesswork out of identifying the true conservatives from the pretenders.”

Bauer’s own American Values organization was started to provide a forum for his personal views. It hosts his End of Day Report email and reprints his frequent op eds in places like the conservative Washington Times. The American Values slogan is the model for the summit’s slogan, which is a shorter version of Bauer’s “Life, Marriage, Family, Faith, and Freedom,” reflecting the centrality of Bauer’s vision for America in the formation of the summit. Americans United to Preserve Marriage shares a street address, a web appearance, and much content with American Values.

Additional resources on the Christian Right:

• Christian Right: Introduction
• The Christian Right, Dominionism, and Theocracy
  by Chip Berlet
• The Christian Right Seeks Dominion
  by Sara Diamond
• Christian Reconstructionism
  by Frederick Clarkson
• Behind the Culture War to Restore Traditional Values
  by Chip Berlet & Margaret Quigley
• Who's Behind the Culture Wars?
  by Mark Schapiro
• Bibliography
  on the Christian Right

• Dances with Devils
  A PRA report
• Christian Zionism
• MP3 audio lecture
  by Chip Berlet

• Directory of Groups undermining democracy and equality:
• Directory of Groups defending democracy and equality:

Political Research Associates:

PRA is an affiliate of: 
Center for Democratic Renewal
BuildingEquality

Please read our Terms and Conditions for copyright information regarding downloading, copying, printing, and linking material on this site; our disclaimer about links present on this website; and our privacy policy.

Updates and Corrections