The Reagan administration has offered three jobs to Religious Right heavyweight Ed McAteer, a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Tennessee. Retiring U.S. Sen. Howard Baker (R-Tenn.) has offered to pay McAteer’s campaign debt if he would pull out of the race. But despite these and other not-so-subtle hints, the founder of the conservative Religious Roundtable is determined to press on.
In May, nearly three months before the Tennessee primary election, the National Republican Senatorial Committee endorsed Victor Ashe, an opponent of McAteer. The party sealed its action with a $15,000 contribution to Ashe’s campaign. McAteer then announced he would stay in the race as an independent.
The party’s pre-primary endorsement of Ashe is almost without precedent. Nancy Bocsker, of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, conceded that it was “a very unusual move.” Defending the action, she said that in a statewide poll in April, Tennessee Republicans overwhelmingly supported Ashe (73 percent to McAteer’s 9 percent). She said the lone Democratic candidate, Albert Gore, has already raised more political action committee money than any other candidate in the country.
“We are committed to saving Howard Baker’s seat,” Bocsker said. “We waited a year before making the endorsement. We couldn’t flounder any longer.”
McAteer supporters question the validity of the April poll, saying their candidate is a victim of Tennessee’s political establishment. Howard Phillips, chairman of the Conservative Caucus, charged that Baker’s presidential ambitions have abridged proper political procedure. “The party establishment is interested in preserving control,” Phillips said. He added that McAteer is viewed as being more loyal to his own convictions than he is to the party.
Efforts to dissuade McAteer are based on fears that he will split the conservative vote, handing the election to Democratic candidate Gore. McAteer has received calls from Moral Majority president Jerry Falwell and from Paul Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation, urging him to pull out of the race. He did not budge.
McAteer acknowledged that he lacks name recognition, but he said his positions best reflect the views of Tennessee voters. Both he and Ashe favor a constitutional amendment banning abortion; both oppose gay rights legislation. McAteer favors tuition tax credits and abolishing the U.S. Department of Education. He opposes the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Ashe opposes tuition tax credits, favors an education department, and does not have a clear position on the ERA.
A number of well-known Christian leaders and organizations have supported McAteer, including Lee Roberson, chancellor of Tennessee Temple University; the fundamentalist newspaper Sword of the Lord; and the state chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Adrian Rodgers, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, has sent a letter endorsing McAteer to 10,000 Tennessee pastors. Singer Pat Boone has produced a fund-raising tape for the McAteer campaign.
The quest for Tennessee’s conservative vote has been characterized as a battle between Republicans and Christians. However, George Korda, a spokesman for the Ashe campaign, said Ashe also is a Christian. Korda said he expects Ashe to draw sizable support from Christian voters.
Congress Allows Churches To Opt Out Of Social Security Taxes
New tax provisions approved by Congress exempt churches from mandatory participation in the social security system. Some church groups had objected to reforms passed last year that required all private, voluntary organizations to pay into the system.
A suggestion from Forest Montgomery, legal counsel at the National Association of Evangelicals’ Washington office, provided a basis for the compromise accepted by Congress. Under the revised law, churches have one opportunity to refuse to participate. If they refuse, social security taxes will be assessed against individual church employees who must file as “self-employed persons.”
That option is more costly for the individual employee, but it lifts the burden of an unprecedented, required tax on churches. This year, the tax rate is 11.3 percent for self-employed individuals. For workers whose employers pay social security taxes, 7 percent is contributed by the employers and an additional 6.7 percent is withheld from the employees’ pay.
In testimony before a U.S. Senate committee in December, Montgomery pointed out that churches draw a clear-cut distinction between taxable, unrelated business income and money donated for carrying out church ministries. “Many churches believe that money put in the collection plate belongs to God, not Caesar, and hence cannot be paid to the government as a tax” (CT, Feb. 3, 1984, p. 38). He recommended treating church employees the same as ministers, who can file as self-employed. U.S. Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kan.) welcomed the compromise.
The agreement satisfied William Billings of the National Christian Action Coalition. Billings is a key lobbyist for independent churches. However, the American Coalition of Unregistered Churches opposed the amendment, questioning the constitutionality of levying any tax on churches.
