Council for National Policy

The Council for National Policy is the coordination layer most Americans have never heard of. Founded by Tim LaHaye in 1981, it brings together the major figures of the Christian right — televangelists, politicians, mega-donors, think tank heads — in regular private meetings with no press access and no public records. The CNP's membership roster has included Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Oliver North, Edwin Meese, and many major Republican donors. Anne Nelson documents members carrying shared priorities into Republican platforms and legislation. Its existence is documented, and its private format is deliberate.

Themes this entry appears in

• Christian Nationalism
• Anti-Democratic
• Political Strategy

Connections from Council for National Policy

• influenced → Republican Revolution (1994) (1994) — Sara Diamond describes the Council for National Policy as a coordination forum for the Religious Right coalition in the years leading up to the 1994 midterm elections that gave Republicans control of both houses of Congress for the first time in forty years. The CNP's private meetings allowed major donors, evangelical leaders, think tank directors, and Republican politicians to align on messaging, resource allocation, and candidate support without public disclosure of the deliberations. In the early 1990s, as Ralph Reed built the Christian Coalition into a mass membership organization with sophisticated voter guide distribution and church-based get-out-the-vote operations, the CNP provided the coordination layer connecting those ground operations to major donor networks and Republican leadership. The 1994 'Contract with America' and the evangelical mobilization that helped deliver it operated on organizational infrastructure and strategic relationships cultivated through CNP networks. Sara Diamond documented the CNP's coordination role across this period in 'Roads to Dominion' (1995).

Connections to Council for National Policy

• Steve Bannon influenced (2016) — Steve Bannon addressed the Council for National Policy in August 2016, shortly after being named Trump campaign CEO. The CNP address signaled to the network's evangelical leaders and major donors that the Trump campaign understood their priorities and would serve them — specifically on Supreme Court appointments, religious liberty executive orders, and social conservative policy. Anne Nelson's 'Shadow Network' argues the meeting helped consolidate evangelical establishment support for Trump.
• Joseph Coors influenced (1981) — Joseph Coors was among the early members of the Council for National Policy (he is listed among deceased members in its 2014 directory) when it was established by Tim LaHaye and others in 1981. His participation was natural: Coors had already funded the Heritage Foundation and Paul Weyrich's Free Congress Foundation, and the CNP was the coordination layer that brought together the donors, politicians, and Religious Right leaders whose institutions he had been funding since the early 1970s. Coors's presence in the CNP connected its network to his broader portfolio of conservative institutional investment.
• Richard DeVos Sr. influenced (1981) — Richard DeVos Sr. was a member and past president of the Council for National Policy (2014 directory). The CNP served as the meeting ground where DeVos's financial capacity intersected with the political and theological leadership of the movement — the organization where major donors, politicians, and evangelical leaders could align strategy without public disclosure. DeVos's CNP involvement was consistent with his broader pattern of funding organizations that combined Christian conservative values with practical political organizing, including Focus on the Family, the school voucher movement, and the Republican National Committee.
• Michael Farris influenced (1990) — Farris is listed as a member of the Council for National Policy in its 2014 directory, connecting his educational infrastructure (HSLDA, PHC) to the CNP's broader Religious Right political coordination network that also includes Dobson, Robertson, and Falwell Sr.
• Tim LaHaye founded (1981) — LaHaye co-founded the CNP to create a private coordination infrastructure for the Christian right.
• Paul Weyrich founded (1981) — Paul Weyrich was a co-founder of the Council for National Policy in 1981, alongside Tim LaHaye and other key figures of the Religious Right. The CNP was designed as the coordination layer above the public-facing organizations like the Moral Majority — a private, invitation-only forum where major donors, politicians, think tank leaders, and evangelical figures could meet regularly to align strategy, share intelligence, and coordinate resources without public disclosure or press access. Weyrich's role in founding the CNP reflected his consistent strategic instinct: he understood that durable political power required coordination infrastructure that operated behind the scenes, insulated from the pressures of public accountability that shaped the behavior of mass membership organizations. The CNP formalized and institutionalized the relationships Weyrich had been building since the early 1970s.

Sources

• Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right — Anne Nelson (2019)
• Jesus and John Wayne — Kristin Kobes Du Mez (2020), pp. 122-130