Monster truck rally: the "activists" who defend the SUV.

• Author: Roth, Zachary
• Position: 10 Miles Square - Sport Utility Vehicle Owners of America

Over the past few years, sport utility vehicles have been accused of many sins. Environmentalists decry SUVs' pitifully low gas mileage while consumer safety advocates note their disproportionate propensity to kill the drivers of cars with which they collide. Still other critics observe that SUVs are, according to market research, the vehicle of choice for vain, self-centered jerks. But it wasn't until late last year that the SUV actually met its maker. "What Would Jesus Drive?" asked the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), a Christian conservationist outfit affiliated with Creation Care magazine, in a nationwide ad campaign that received widespread publicity. "Pollution from vehicles has a major impact on human health and the rest of God's creation," noted the group's Web site. "Obeying Jesus in our transportation choices is one of the great Christian obligations and opportunities of the 21st century."

In Washington, as in physics, every action has a reaction. So it came as little surprise when, last July, a new ad appeared in USA Today, funded by an outfit known as the Sport Utility Vehicle Owners of America (SUVOA). Critics were asking the wrong question, the ads suggested. The right question was "What Does Jesus Drive?" Jesus, in this case, was Jesus Rivera, a proud father and Vietnam veteran. He was also, the ad informed readers, one of 24 million who rely on their SUVs to "carpool friends and family; tow boats, campers and trailers; haul home improvement supplies; and"--lest SUV owners he accused of selfishness--"volunteer to take people to the hospital in snow emergencies." The new group, reported The New York Times, was "a fledgling association of owners of sport utility vehicles ... taking aim at their critics." The group quickly became Pat Buchanan to the EEN's Bill Press, its spokespersons available able to provide "balancing" quotes for the growing number of reports about SUVs' poor environmental and safety records.

Last October, I paid a visit to the organization's Washington, D.C., headquarters, hoping to get a glimpse of SUVOA in action. The headquarters turned out to be the offices of Stratacomm, a very successful Beltway public relations firm specializing in issues affecting the aura industry. Sitting in a plush leather chair in Stratacomm's state-of-the-art conference room, Ron DeFore, one of Swatacomm's "principals," explained that SUVOA's "main purpose is to educate, so that people know the truth." DeFore seems most...