
Freedom Writer - March 1996

Phillips sets tone for strategy briefing

By Skipp Porteous

About 3,000 activists attended the National Affairs 
Briefing in Memphis on January 19th and 20th, 1996. 
More than 50 conservative leaders participated. Organizers 
predicted a conference attendance of 10,000, but were 
disappointed with a meager 1,500 on the first day, 
and 3,000 on the second and final day.

Ed McAteer, founder of the National Religious Roundtable 
and chairman of the event, said, "We believe that 1996 
is a defining moment in America's five-century journey 
in democracy and freedom. America's destiny is at issue. 
The time-tested Judeo-Christian road map, set out by 
America's early leaders and embraced in the Mayflower 
Compact and other founding documents, is still a valid 
guide to be followed if America is to survive and prosper."

Howard Phillips, founder and president of the Conservative 
Caucus and the U.S. Taxpayers Alliance, delivered Friday 
night's keynote address. Here are some of the highlights:

"The issue in politics today is not Republican versus 
Democrat, or conservative versus liberal. It is rather, 
under what authority, and by what standard shall we 
live? As individuals, as families, as communities, 
and as a civil polity, the laws of God are fixed for 
all generations. His law is unchanging; it cannot be 
altered or amended by a two-thirds vote of Congress, 
by a presidential executive order, or even by a unanimous 
decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Abortion is always wrong, and no statute, no edict, 
no court order which approves the destruction of God's 
handiwork can contradict the Biblical injunction: 'the 
first duty of the law is to prevent the shedding of 
innocent blood.'

"Homosexual conduct is not merely a threat to public 
health; it is an abomination in God's sight.

"If America is to be blessed by God, if our nation 
is to be approved by God, we must not exalt, subsidize, 
or accept the legalization of that which He declares 
to be an abomination. A crime against the law of God 
is, after all, more serious than the violation of a 
government regulation. The judgment of God overrides 
the opinions of men. The Bible instructs that 'whosoever 
sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.' 
That means capital punishment must be the policy. 

"Public opinion may prefer parole, probation, or even 
building more prisons. But God's word prescribes execution 
for murder, and restitution, not prison terms, for 
offenses against property. The land cries out for retribution. 
It's time to stop letting those who've killed the poor 
kill again. We have capital punishment, but all too 
often that capital punishment is for the victims not 
for the criminal. We must sentence to death the guilty 
murderers so the law-abiding innocents may live. And 
at the same time, we must never let our politicians 
forget that we have a God-given right and duty to defend 
ourselves and our families, which cannot be delegated 
and must not be surrendered. The right to keep and 
bear arms must be preserved. 

"Today, our civil government is not accountable to 
the laws of God, because those of us who profess to 
honor God, and to accept Him as the Lord of our lives, 
have failed as stewards of God's justice to hold accountable, 
through us to Him, the officials of civil government 
who use our votes and our taxes to implement their 
anti-Biblical policies. 

"Let's take these politicians off the pedestal and 
recognize that elected officials are supposed to be 
our servants, not our masters. In that way, we may 
better obey our Master in Heaven. 

"The fundamental issue is this: What is the source 
of law? There are only three possible answers. Either 
the government itself is the source of authority, or 
B, it's our broad reason, or C, it's the Holy Bible. 
The correct answer is, of course, the Holy Bible. God's 
word is the source of truth and law. Only the Bible 
holds the true course; all other options are broad, 
false, and imperfect. 

"By appointing pro-life judges, vetoing funds for Planned 
Parenthood, and prosecuting abortionists and abortuaries 
for violation of federal law, we can end legal abortion 
in America.

"My friends, it's time for us to do our duty; it's 
time for us to put principle ahead of party; to put 
policy ahead of political personality, to put God and 
country before political correctness, and for us to 
recognize that the duty we owe God ought to be of greater 
concern or priority to us than any stigma we might 
acquire by reason of our rejection of conventional 
political wisdom."

Phillip's speech was interrupted numerous times by 
applause. Afterward, event organizer Ed McAteer said, 
"In my opinion, there is no greater constitutional 
authority in America than Howard Phillips. And, would 
you believe, he's an embracer of both books of the 
Bible; he is a son of Abraham. Some of you know that; 
he is my Jewish friend." (After Phillips' conversion 
from Judaism to Christianity, he came under the influence 
of the teachings of Christian Reconstructionist R.J. 
Rushdoony in 1975.)

In 1980, at a Dallas gathering, over 20,000 people, 
including 200 media representatives and 5,500 Christian 
ministers, attended the first National Affairs Briefing. 
One explanation for the lower turnout is that there 
are now several such conferences each year, and the 
Radical Religious Right is more organized at the grass 
roots than 16 years ago, thus focusing its energies 
on local politics.

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