Religious Right Applauds New House Speaker Hastert.

Religious Right groups are excited about the selection of Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) as the new speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Hastert was vaulted from obscurity to the speaker's chair in December after Rep. Robert Livingston (R-La.) turned down the post following revelations that he has had several extramarital affairs. Livingston had been tapped to replace Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who resigned from Congress after the Republicans' poor showing in the November elections.

Hastert has a solid right-wing voting record and is rated at 100 percent by the Christian Coalition. He opposes legal abortion, supports religious school vouchers and last year voted for the so-called "Religious Freedom Amendment," a measure introduced by Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.) that critics said would have effectively erased churchstate separation from the Bill of Rights. He also voted for a Religious Rightbacked plan to defund the National Endowment for the Arts.

Several Religious Right leaders hailed Hastert's selection. Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum called his appointment "a wonderful turn of events. We want a new face, and Denny Hastert is it."

Randy Tate, executive director of the Christian Coalition and a former one-term GOP member of Congress, told Focus on the Family's Citizen Issues Alert fax bulletin that Hastert is "a true conservative.... He will be able to get the day-to-day business of the pro-family agenda passed."

Former Coalition director Ralph Reed took a slightly different view, saying of Hastert, "He's not somebody who religious conservatives view as hostile. He's friendly. But he's not someone who's going to be a lightning rod ... as proprietary property of the movement."

Anti-abortion groups were ecstatic. Hastert has received a 100 percent approval rating from the National Right To Life Committee and a 98 percent rating from the Republicans for Life Political Action Committee. Steven Ertelt, director of the anti-abortion GOP PAC, hailed Hastert's appointment in a press statement, saying, "[T]he pro-life community can be assured that one of their own will lead the House." (Hastert has been a cosponsor of the so-called "Human Life Amendment" a constitutional amendment that would make abortion illegal.)

In various congressional guides, Hastert's religion is listed as "Protestant." He describes himself as an evangelical Christian and is a graduate of Wheaton College, an evangelical school in Illinois.

The New York Times reported last month that, "Religion has always been a strong force for Mr. Hastert, from his involvement with his church's youth groups to his days at Wheaton College, an evangelical Christian school near his hometown. In his professional life, Mr. Hastert says little about his religious beliefs, but it is not unusual to find a Bible open in his Capitol Hill apartment or to see him thumbing through Scripture before important votes."

Remarked U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), "Religion is in his heart and mind, and not on his sleeve. We need a little more of that kind of religion."