May 2011 – Editor’s note: Ed Vitagliano attended the American Policy Summit and filed this report.

When the Tea Party movement began to arise in American politics in the spring of 2009, the mainstream media questioned its origins and intentions, with many claiming that it was a mirage created by desperate Republicans.

After the movement unquestionably altered the political landscape by impacting the November 2010 midterm elections, many are now asking if the Tea Party has staying power.

The first big gathering of movement supporters after the election – the Tea Party Patriots American Policy Summit, held in Phoenix in late February – seems to indicate that the Tea Party will be around for a while.

Nearly 2,500 enthusiastic delegates from across the U.S. attended the summit to hear ideas about restoring America’s greatness. The gathering was sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots, an organization that is home to 3,000 local groups representing millions of Americans.

For two days the crowd was vocal in response to the speakers who came to the podium in rapid fashion, addressing the crowd in small segments of about 15 minutes at a time. Speakers included former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty; radio talk show host Herman Cain; Media Research Center president Brent Bozell; Wall Street Journal political analyst John Fund; author and Fox news analyst Dick Morris; and a handful of congressmen, including Ron Paul (R-TX).

Founding documents
You can tell a lot about the thrust of a conference by the free stuff you get when you register. In the case of this summit, the contents of the tote bag handed out to attendees included three copies of the U.S. Constitution and one copy of the Declaration of Independence.

Such founding documents – but especially the Constitution – were front and center for summit organizers, speakers and those in attendance.

Joe Oliver and Wayne Blair, who are friends and retirees living in Sun City, Arizona, attended the summit. Oliver is a self-described “retired chicken farmer.” He and his wife left the California education field in the 1970s (when it became unionized) and bought a farm in Arkansas. Blair retired from a career at Caterpillar, Inc.

“We aren’t elites,” Oliver told AFA Journal. “We’re just regular people who want to see the Constitution restored to its proper place” and the government restrained by that same Constitution.

That refrain was repeated by many attending the summit, people who seem to have lost all patience for a government that has transgressed the limits established by the Founding Fathers.

The economy and big government
Most of the frustration toward that runaway government centered around three main issues: the bloated size of government, the national debt and ObamaCare – the health care system overhaul passed by Democrats in 2009.

Eric O’Keefe, chairman of the Sam Adams Alliance, summed up the feelings of frustration with the size of the federal government, saying, “We have lost control of our lives because we have lost control of our government.”

A handout issued by the Ayn Rand Center, one of the exhibitors at the summit, complained about the emergence of “today’s massive regulatory welfare state, which taxes away nearly half our income, tells us what medicines we can take, what kind of light bulbs to buy, and is rapidly consolidating control over America’s banks, insurance companies, and industrial giants like General Motors.”

The passionate and sometimes abrasive nature of the Tea Party movement, which has been apparent in town hall meetings with members of Congress over the last two years, was evident again at the summit.

When Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX) spoke of the $70 billion targeted for cuts from the federal budget by the House of Representatives, he was greeted by a chorus of boos and shouts of “That’s not enough!” and “More!” One loud voice rang out: “That’s not what we sent you up there to do!”

And Barton is considered by fiscal conservatives to be one of the good guys.

Impatience was clearly among the emotions on display at the summit. Tea Party Patriots cofounder Mark Meckler said the movement had a message for members of Congress: “You either do the job [of cutting the size of government], or we’ll find hundreds of other people who will.”

In it for the long term
For those who hope the Tea Party movement is a mere flash in the pan, Jenny Beth Martin, the national coordinator and cofounder of the Tea Party Patriots, has a clear message: We’re in this for the long haul.

In an interview with AFA Journal, Martin said it would “take a full generation to instill Constitutional principles again.”

That’s why the Tea Party Patriots organization has embarked on an ambitious 40-year plan to rebuild the constitutional foundations of our republic. Specifically in six areas – education, the legislative process, the judiciary, the electoral process, economics and culture – the group aims to reverse the devastation that began in the 1960s.

The Tea Party, Martin said, is “not something that’s going to dwindle and fade away over the next two years or right after the next election. This is about much more than who occupies Congress or who occupies the White House. It’s about restoring our Constitution to our country.”

The Tea Party movement may provide a unique opportunity for true restoration by teaching the next generation to steady our tottering republic on its proper constitutional foundations. The passion for this long-term project was well illustrated by one speaker, U. S. Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ).

“If you love your children and grandkids, you have a moral obligation to be involved in the Tea Party movement,” said Schweikert, a freshman congressman from Arizona’s 5th District. “It’s not you and I we’re trying to save.”

Avoiding social issues
However, since the Tea Party movement is not explicitly Christian, some caution should be exercised by those Christians who are involved in it.

For example, at the summit there was a glaring lack of attention paid to social issues like abortion and traditional marriage. This was no accident.

While Martin said the culture is important for Tea Party Patriots, for her organization the emphasis on “culture” meant a conservative renaissance in the arts and entertainment to bring the love of country back to prominence.

As for the culture war battlegrounds like abortion, Martin said, “We don’t take on social issues one way or another. There are plenty of very good organizations on either side of any social issue you care about. [Those groups] already exist and serve those social issues well, so we just stay away from the social issues altogether.”

There is a struggle within the Tea Party movement as a whole over this precise question. (See AFA Journal, 2/11.) Should the movement limit its focus to constitutional and economic issues or incorporate social concerns as well?

An argument could be made for the latter – and is being made by social conservatives. They argue that the attempt to separate our civic life – including education, government, and the economy – from religion and morality is what got us into this jam in the first place. Continuing the dichotomy not only won’t help – it will undoubtedly make matters worse.

‘Rational selfishness’
There is also a libertarian strain within the Tea Party movement that is antithetical to biblical Christianity.

That strain was exemplified at the summit by the Ayn Rand Center, which promotes the teachings of author and philosopher Ayn Rand. An outspoken atheist, Rand argued that the individual should be free from government-imposed restrictions to pursue his or her own good – even to the exclusion of the general welfare. The proper motivation for a free individual is a “rational selfishness.”

Yaron Brook, the group’s current president and executive director, asserted to summit attendees that this view of individualism was foundational to the American Revolution. He said that the patriots of the founding era asked the question: “Who does my life belong to?” Brook’s answer: The individual is sovereign.

The “rational selfishness” expounded by Rand and her followers attempts to piggyback on the Tea Party movement’s frustration with an increasingly collectivist culture in America. In a socialist society individuals are asked – or, more accurately, told – by their government to sacrifice for the common good.

Power to transform
The answer to our problems, however, is neither Rand’s egocentric individualism nor liberalism’s centralized bureaucratic monstrosity, reaching its tendrils into every area of life.

Christians should take great care not to fall into the ditch on either side, carefully observing the direction of the Tea Party movement to make sure they’re not aboard a stagecoach that has gone off course.

Believers in Christ understand that the answer for our nation is the gospel’s power to transform individuals so that they are willing to serve both God and neighbor for the sake of love and righteousness. Then those individuals should demand that their government uphold God’s laws, stay within its constitutionally authorized limits, and protect the freedoms and inalienable rights outlined by America’s founding documents.

Naturally, there is a mixture in everything fallen men and women do, regardless of how high and lofty their goals may be. In the founding of our nation there was always a mixture of Plymouth and Jamestown – i.e. religious fervor and mercenary endeavor. As a whole, Western Civilization represents the same mixture: It has never been solely about Christianity, but is equal parts Jerusalem, Athens and Rome – that is to say, religion, philosophy and power.

But religion is a part of the mix, and the Judeo-Christian worldview has historically been the religion. Christians must continue to remind their fellow citizens of this fact, and be wary of any movement that attempts to ignore it or alter it.

If the Tea Party movement can reconcile itself to this truth, it can be a historic force for the reestablishment of our founding principles.

If the movement cannot, however, it will inevitably fail to preserve the republic because the movement will, ironically, overthrow the foundation stone of religion just as surely as socialism – the Tea Party’s sworn
political enemy.