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Plums of victory
Almost immediately after Bush's too-close-to-call victory, evangelicals in Congress were holding education sessions on how to read and use "the plum book," a compilation of more than 3,000 positions that an incoming president may appoint. By late November, some candidates for presidential appointments launched campaigns to garner endorsements. For example, one former congressman sent evangelist Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, a complete portfolio of letters and vita with a request for an endorsement.

While many people had lists of best appointments, the protracted court battles stalled their consideration. "It will be next September before they get around to considering people at my level," lamented one evangelical in Washington.

Some of the first signs of the new administration's nature will be what kind of executive orders Bush issues. When Bill Clinton took office, his first orders—issued during the annual Washington March for Life—reversed President George H. Bush's policies on abortion and sexual orientation.

"I think a lot of people should take a look at what President Bush will do through executive action," says Rich Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals. "There you will see the willingness of a new Bush administration to reverse Clinton policies. It will not come just through the budget and legislative proposals."

One senior Republican congressional aide says House leaders told Bush that they would like the new President to revive the executive order prohibiting federal foreign aid for proabortion programs and to eliminate federal funding for human embryo research.

The Bush staff sounded out Religious Right leaders about structuring a White House Office of Faith-based Action. Such an office, modeled on the work of Texas gubernatorial staffer Don Willet in systematically making the Texas government user-friendly for religious organizations, would replace the old Office of Liaison that threw religious groups together with other interest groups.

Bob Woodson, head of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, urged Bush "to use the White House as a bully pulpit to bring attention to leaders of faith-based organizations that have improved the lives of people [such as] drug addicts."

Some would also like to see such an office to test the relative effectiveness of the faith-based and therapeutic approaches. Such a test would also be a challenge to churches to get more effectively involved with helping the poor.

"It is a $24,000 question whether faith-based groups are ready to take this on. It is an amazing cultural moment that we have a man likely to become President who wants the nation to rethink our approach to church-state issues," said Joseph Loconte of the conservative Heritage Foundation before the election was resolved. "It is a moment for people of faith to step up to the plate and enter onto the secular turf."

Focus on religious freedom
"I am deeply interested in the persecuted abroad," says Bush national security adviser Condoleeza Rice. "After all, I am a Christian too." Rice, 45, was a Russia expert on the National Security Council during the elder Bush's presidency and was better known for her attention to strategic conflict than for her interest in human rights. Still, while serving as provost at Stanford University, Rice found time to devote to local charity programs helping poor youth. Rice says she strongly recognizes the importance of recent efforts to support religious freedom abroad.

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January 8 2001, Vol. 45, No. 1