Making Hay on a New Hero

UPDATE

Efforts to secure a pardon for Oliver North give the Religious Right a lucrative cause.

With the Iran-contra trial on the horizon, Oliver North is getting a boost from some of his most loyal fans—conservative Christian activists.

The forces of the Religious Right have spent the summer garnering hundreds of thousands of names for a petition drive to win a presidential pardon for North. His trial—on charges related to the diversion of Iran arms’-sales profits to the Nicaraguan contras—is due to begin soon after the November elections.

Jerry Falwell, through his television and political ministries, has garnered approximately two million names, according to spokesman Mark DeMoss (CT, May 13, 1988, p. 40). Falwell plans to deliver five million names—gathered mostly by way of a toll-free telephone number—to the White House by the time the trial begins.

Also generating pro-North signatures has been the American Freedom Coalition (AFC). Led by Robert Grant of Christian Voice, the year-old group has been controversial because of its acknowledged ties to Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church. Concerned Women for America, another conservative Christian group in Washington, has also spearheaded a campaign.

While enthusiastically behind him, the pro-North activists are not doing it simply for “Ollie,” as he is known by them. Leaders of the Religious Right have counted on the North cause to help put them back in the political spotlight and raise sorely needed funds.

“There haven’t been many issues on which to galvanize the Religious Right in the past year or so,” said Richard Viguerie, known as the direct-mail marketing whiz of the conservative movement. “Ollie is a certified five-star hero in a movement that is particularly short on heroes at this time.”

According to the AFC’s Grant, the exmarine has also been a big—and timely—fund-raising issue for the Religious Right. Like others in the movement, Grant declined to give a bottom-line figure. But he did say his group has sent out approximately eight to nine million pieces of direct mail emphasizing the plight of North, attracting 300,000 contributors. He added that the coalition has sold 100,000 copies of a videotape documentary on North, at $25 each.

More Than A Cause

But to activists like Grant, North is more than a way to raise money. He is a fellow born-again Christian.

Raised in a devout Roman Catholic family in upstate New York, North embraced Pentecostalism in the late 1970s while stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Journalist Ben Bradlee writes about this in his recent biography, Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Ollie North. Bradlee tells how North was led away from Catholicism by a commanding officer who—according to several fellow marines—helped cure him of a slight limp and back pain by way of faith healing.

North is now a member of the Church of the Apostles, a charismatic Episcopal parish in Fairfax, Virginia.

While some conservative Christians hope to secure a presidential pardon for North by the time Reagan leaves the White House, many Americans, including evangelicals, do not believe the lieutenant colonel did the right thing in his unauthorized campaign to aid the contras. There is one sign of an uphill battle: The National Association of Evangelicals is keeping a safe distance from the pro-North activities.

By William Bole.

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