God, Enron and the Christian Right

Bush campaign efforts to buy a way into the hearts and minds of Christian voters under scrutiny.

The New York Times reported last week that President Bush's leading political advisor, Karl Rove, engineered the hiring of Ralph Reed, formerly executive director of the Christian Coalition, by the Enron Corporation.

Reed went to work for Enron during the period when Bush was organizing his presidential campaign and Rove associates indicate that the high paying consulting job with Enron was a way of firming up Reed's support for the Bush candidacy at a time when other Republicans were trying to win the backing of key leaders of the Christian Right.

Reed's support for Bush during campaign 2000 is thought to have played an important part in the President's primary victories, as well as contributing to his success in the general election. Enron paid Reed as much as $10,000 to $20,000 monthly during the period between his hiring in September 1997 and the company's collapse late last year.

While Rove's efforts in getting Reed a cushy consulting contract may not involve a violation of the law, they do raise disturbing questions about the extent to which those who were trying to take and hold the high moral ground during campaign 2000 were actually selling conscience to the highest bidders, in this case, the now bankrupt Enron Corporation.

The first question that came to my mind when I learned about all this was what possible contribution a high profile leader of a Christian advocacy group could possibly make to an energy company like Enron? Was Reed's position at the company simply one more way in which Enron could skirt the law and contribute to the Bush campaign while keeping its politics "off the books," just as it tried to keep its massive debts hidden from public view? Was Rove's successful effort to have Enron hire Reed simply one part of an orchestrated effort to buy a way into the hearts and minds of voters who also happen to be Christian?

When asked about his relationship with Enron, Reed denied that his hiring was a form of political patronage. He won his contract with Enron purely "on merit," Reed told reporters. Further, said Reed, his work for Enron involved helping "with an Enron campaign in Pennsylvania to win a central role in the state's electricity market."

Since there is little in Reed's background to that qualifies him as an expert on electric power, one can safely conclude that his services with the company were primarily to cement Enron's connections at the highest reaches of governmental power. To date, Vice President Dick Cheney's refusal to disclose details about his contacts with Enron during the critical period when he was shaping Bush administration energy policy leaves large parts of this story yet to be told.

Whatever further details may emerge during Congressional investigation into the Enron scandal, the degree to which politicians and corporate executives work together behind closed doors to serve each other's interests rather than the interests of the publics they are legally required to serve is alarming. But the phenomenon of corruption in high places is nothing new.

What is new in this is the extent to which leaders of the Christian right have allowed themselves to become players in the power games rather than modeling the standard set by Jesus Christ, who put it plainly: "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

Enron employees and stockholders have taken a serious financial hit as a result of the shady accounting practices that kept them in the dark while those at the top walked away with millions. By the same token, those who placed their trust in certain public leaders who have put themselves forward as servants of God, while in fact, making secret deals with Mammon, have seen their trust betrayed and the name of God mired in scandal.

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