If, indeed, we are known by the company we keep, Ralph Reed hassome serious explaining to do to the Catholics he so ardently courted lastelection season. One of Reed's most recent endeavors as self-appointed arbiter ofsociety's morals was an endorsement of a screwy and, in places, viciousanti-Catholic tract calledEarth's Two-Minute Warning. Even more in need of accounting for themselves are the Catholics-- cardinals included -- who shared the same podium with Reed and advanced atreasured invitation to his boss, the televangelist Pat Robertson. By ratherhigh-profile and enthusiastic association, they, too, might give the appearanceof endorsing the wackiest teachings of the extreme, fundamentalist Christianright. Earth's Two Minute Warning, subtitled "Today'sBible-Predicted Signs of the End Times," was written by John Wheeler Jr.,founding editor ofChristian American, the flagship publication of theChristian Coalition. Reed is head of the coalition, which is the political armof Robertson's 700 Club. Wheeler also helped found several other publicationsand is currently listed as "contributing writer and editor" on the magazine'smasthead, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, agroup that tracks activities of the religious right. The messy web of association grows, but first a few notes aboutWheeler's book. On page 58, in a chapter headed "False Religion in the LastDays," is a subheading, "The Vatican Connection." Wheeler starts by repeating the belief of some that the Vaticanand the World Council of Churches eventually will merge. Those who areconcerned "cite the famous statement by Pope John Paul II that the Protestant'wayward children will come back to the fold.' Thus the WCC will be controlledby the papacy at the time of the Tribulation, when the false religious systemthey represent will be revealed as the 'Great Whore.' "Some Bible scholars ... do not endorse this identification of theVatican as part of the 'Great Whore,' " he writes, "although thisinterpretation remains common in Fundamentalist, Pentecostal and Seventh-dayAdventist doctrine, as well as in some evangelical theology. The identificationof the pope with the Antichrist has been a recurring theme for Protestantssince the Reformation." Wheeler concedes that there are some Roman Catholics who mightqualify as good Christians and that the church does "affirm vital biblicaldoctrines." But he still worries, because "there is legitimate cause forconcern that the Vatican may one day run amuck, and this possibility has beenarticulated by the pope himself [no mention of where] and chronicled by afaithful Jesuit, Malachi Martin." How intriguing: the pope worrying that theVatican will lose its way. And all the time we thought it was the Vaticanworrying that the rest of the church would run amuck. All this insight is gleaned from the illustrious Malachi Martin,who may once have been a faithful Jesuit but no longer belongs to the order andwhose scholarship is, at best, suspect. In normal circumstances, it would be reasonable to dismissWheeler's views as fundamentalist evangelical Protestantism at its worst, arelatively self-contained fraternity that feeds on medieval conceptions ofCatholicism and every classic error one could read into apocalypticliterature. What makes this different, however, are the overtures that havebeen made toward the Catholic constituency by Reed in his political pursuitsand the credibility that he and Robertson have garnered through their contactswith Catholic leaders. Last November, Reed was one of the principal speakers at anational meeting of the Catholic Campaign for America, a group that numbered onits board of directors Cardinals John O'Connor of New York and James Hickey ofWashington. Hickey, in fact, opened the Washington conference and was shortlyfollowed at the podium by Reed. O'Connor, meanwhile, made sure Robertson received an invitation toa reception with national religious leaders who met Pope John Paul II duringhis visit to New York in 1995. The cardinal earlier had invited Reed'sChristian Coalition into the archdiocese to distribute political materialsduring a local school board election. Other bishops, to their credit, have denounced Reed and hisCatholic Alliance's attempt to appropriate the name Catholic and attach it to avery narrow political agenda. The next time high-profile members of the hierarchy are tempted toalign the U.S. church with the likes of Ralph Reed for some short-termpolitical benefit, they should sit for a few minutes with Wheeler's analysis.On the back cover they'll find among the blurbs the one by Reed, who calls thebook "a compelling look at the controversial subject of the end times ... animportant contribution to this vital discussion." The blurb is just below a list of questions that includes, "Wasthe 1989 World Series earthquake in San Francisco just a chance calamity or adivine warning to America? ... Is there a diabolical plot by 'space aliens' inUFOs to infiltrate the human race? ... Will the touted 'Republican Revolution'renew our decadent American civilization, as Newt Gingrich believes?" Beneath the respectable Washington sheen of Reed and the group heruns with are characters who ought to inspire deep skepticism. They should notbe invested with trust and introduced as someone Catholic voters shouldheed. | 
