By Matt Friedeman
October 13, 2005

(AgapePress) - In the face of crisis, there is a way to act. The way not to act, of course, was exemplified by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco -- lack of preparedness, shifting blame, losing composure.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour was, in most respects, the precise opposite. He was "can-do," confident, compassionate, composed, a team player with the feds, promising his place on the Gulf Coast would soon be "bigger and better."

So remarkable was his performance that none too few political pundits started the "Haley for President" talk.

The religious right of Mississippi might differ.

The "better" of "bigger and better" was not going to be debated in Mississippi. Just like it was barely debated over a decade ago when the Mississippi Senate, without giving the public a say in the matter, decided by two votes (with only 80 percent of the Senate voting) to allow off-shore boats for casinos. The "boats," of course, were barely off-shore, and the gamblers actually got a sweetheart deal: while a county on the Gulf Coast or Mississippi River water could vote gambling in, they could never vote it out. (See related story)

An incredible slice of pie for the gamblers in one of the most churched states in the nation.

After Hurricane Katrina, gambling interests saw an opening. Haley Barbour, crisis-manager, decided to do a little political calculus and figured that he was too important to social and religious conservatives for them to take a hike on him. He threw every bit of power and prestige of his office behind allowing Mississippi casinos to come on-shore.

Some would argue that they only came 800 feet onshore. But anybody familiar with the "industry" knows that sooner or later they will push to come further and further in until the state capital itself, hours away from the coast, has a casino within its borders.

At any rate, religious leaders in the state were up against all odds -- the governor, the lieutenant governor, the speaker of the House, the business community and, of course, the legislators.

Probably the "point man" for the religious right in the state, by virtue of his long-term activism, e-mail and mailing lists, and radio stations scattered across Mississippi, is Don Wildmon. Dr. Wildmon is not happy.

"I won't vote for him," says Wildmon regarding Barbour’s future gubernatorial reelection campaign (in 2007). "Our governor was the ringleader, the cheerleader and the arm-twister for the gambling industry. The question now is, who controls whom? Do the people of the state control the gamblers, or do the gamblers control the state? No question -- Mississippi is now owned by the gambling industry."

"The real Haley Barbour just stood up."

There are other issues for social conservatives besides gambling, of course. But on the pro-life front, for instance, Barbour had convinced Mississippi's cultural conservatives that he was one of them, as he had suggested during the campaign. He had noted to the American Family Radio audience that he was born again and a five-point Calvinist.

He then acted like one on the major issue for the religious right -- the right to life.

But instead of helping Barbour draw a "bye" on gambling, it only served to heighten the expectations of evangelicals; expectations that he wasn't willing to deliver on. The religious right wasn't prepared for betrayal. And to grant the casinos a better deal than they already had was, for many, unconscionable.

State politics aside, from time to time, prominent religious and cultural leaders call Mississippi to ask a question of Wildmon and others: "What do you think of Haley Barbour?" They want to know if the governor is really a credible, true-blue social conservative whom they should consider supporting for a White House run.

The answer probably isn’t going to be in the affirmative any time soon. A bridge, it seems, has been burned.