"When all else fails, the American politicians knows that a few well placed cries about 'taking god out of the schools' or the need for prayer or the posting of the Ten Commandments will accomplish what a lack of intelligent discussion on real issues cannot do," said American Atheist President Ellen Johnson in a media statement released last night.

   Johnson was referring to New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who is locked in a bitter campaign for the U.S. Senate against Hillary Rodham Clinton, and has turned to religion in hopes of raising money and fending off the first lady's political challenge.

   In a letter uncovered by the Village Voice newspaper sent to potential donors, Giuliani defends his actions last fall in trying to shut down a controversial exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. He described the content of the show as "aggressively hateful" and an "anti-religious exhibit ... which desecrates the Virgin Mary!"

   The reference was a program sponsored by the prestigious gallery as parts of its "Sensations" exhibit, which included the works of 42 artists loaned by collector Charles Saatchi. One of the more poignant displays was the painting "The Holy Virgin Mary," which depicted her with African features and dark skin. The work was accented with shellacked pieces of elephant dung and cutouts of naked buttocks.

   Artist Chris Ofili, who won the Turner Prize in 1998, pointed out that the dung was a reverential and "beautiful" symbol in many cultures.

   The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights branded the exhibit as "beastly," blasphemous and anti-Catholic. Giuliani then entered the fray, saying the museum exhibit was "disgusting" and "an insult to Catholics." He then launched an unsuccessful effort to terminate funding for the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

   According to documents posted by the Village Voice, Giuliani went even further, though, in pitching religion in his fundraising letter.

Criticizing Mrs. Clinton for "hypocrisy" on the issue of supposedly using government to attack religious belief, Giuliani cited his evidence of a "relentless 30-year war the left-wing elite has waged against America's religious heritage." The time frame is typically cited as beginning with key court decisions in the early 1960s which sought to end coercive prayer and other religious ritual in public school classrooms.

   "Liberal judges have banned the posting of even the Ten Commandments in our public schools," said the Giuliani letter. Without citing specific cases, the mayor added that "School children are harassed by school officials for praying on their own time ... because schools are terrified of lawsuits by the ACLU."

   Giuliani goes on to charge that courts have rendered it "difficult, if not nearly impossible, for parents to protect their children from the most vile forms of pornography on the internet..."

   Mrs. Clinton is also criticized for her position on public funding of religion. The mayor charged that the first lady "further revealed her hostility toward America's religious traditions when she attacked Governor George W. Bush's idea that we should look toward America's faith-based charities, more than government programs, to address social problems."

   Last summer while on the campaign trial in Indianapolis, Bush proposed a "partnership" between government and religious groups, and promised that if elected president he would direct up to $8 billion into the coffers of churches and other faith-based organizations to help them fight poverty and other social ills.

   The undated, eight-page letter urges supporters to help Mayor Giuliani assemble a $20 million war chest to defeat Hillary Clinton "in the Senate race of the decade." Although it is signed by Giuliani, the Voice reported this past week that the man behind the letter is Richard Viguerie, a direct mail wizard who has a long history of involvement with religious right groups.

   Viguerie began his fund raising enterprise in 1965, and in the next four years sent out over 20 million pieces of mail for various candidates and groups, including those fighting abortion rights. By 1980, he had raised an estimated $40 million for assorted Political Action Committees (PACs), as well as Rev. Sun Myung Moon's cultish Unification Church. Vigueri's name also came up in connection with a Congressional probe chaired by Rep. Donald Fraser (D-NM) looking into activities by the Moon church and the South Korean Central Intelligence Agency. Ties were uncovered linking the KCIA with the Korean Cultural Freedom Foundation, and the World Anti-Communist League which had been the recipient of some of Vigueri's fund raising largesse.

   Viguerie was a founder along with Rev. Jerry Falwell of the "Moral Majority" group, a precursor to the modern-day Christian Coalition. He was also a ground floor organizer in early attempts to energize fundamentalist and evangelical voters through groups like Christian Voice. He helped religious conservative patriarch Paul Weyrich organize one of the first militant antiabortion groups, the American Life Lobby.

   The Giuliani letter touches upon themes such as government spending, tax cuts and the legacy of Ronald Reagan. After a two-page fluff introduction, though, the Ten Commandments, school prayer and "blasphemous" art exhibits are at the top of the mayor's political hit list.

   In response to the expose about the mayor's fund raiser, Mrs. Clinton said that she was "appalled" by the letter, and called upon Giuliani to stop using "religion as a political weapon." She added that her campaign would be based upon issues and ideas, "not on insults."

   Political observers expect both sides in the New York contest, though, to play political hardball. Giuliani seems to have gotten the jump on coopting the religion issue, linking his campaign with proposals like school prayer and display of the Ten Commandments. The mayor also seems intent on sticking to the political agenda of groups like the Catholic League in hopes of wooing New York Catholics who are an important "swing vote" block in the Empire State.

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