News Intelligence Analysis
From the CentreDaily.com
Posted on Sat, Apr. 15, 2006
Pair of Pastors Emerge in Ohio Politics
Ministers are faces, voices of movement
With differing styles, evangelical Christian leaders can sway
many in pews around state
by Doug Oplinger and Dennis J. Willard
COLUMBUS - On the Sunday before Ohio voters re-elected George W. Bush to a second term, the Rev. Russell Johnson took to his pulpit in Lancaster to make sure the faithful knew he was not neutral on the outcome of the votes they were about to cast.
Terrorists, he told them, ``don't need Tokyo Rose'' -- the radio personality who tried to demoralize American troops in World War II. ``The terrorists,'' he said, ``have Michael Moore.''
It was a reference to the producer of the Hollywood documentary that created a political firestorm that year by questioning Bush's invasion of Iraq.
Last fall, likewise, when the Rev. Rod Parsley unveiled his four-year plan to evangelize a million Ohioans and register at least 400,000 of them as voters, he didn't do it at his suburbanColumbus base in the new, state-of-the-art World Harvest Church.
He did it on the steps of the state Capitol.
To many Ohioans, Parsley and Johnson are just two more names leading two more movements on the political front. But they cannot be dismissed as mere preachers with lofty ambitions who momentarily have captured the media spotlight. For this year, they have emerged as the face and voice of a deep-rooted conservatism in Ohio that is fervent, politically active and spreading.
Parsley leads Reformation Ohio, and Johnson heads the Ohio Restoration Project -- both calling for Christian witness, service and political activism. Their real power, though, lies in their ability to influence thousands of Christians through member churches who care deeply enough to take their beliefs into the voting booth.
Their flocks are willing, welcoming an infusion of hot-button political issues in their sermons along with a healthy dose of skepticism toward secular ideals.
Pulpits have become the launching grounds for the war on homosexuality, pornography and abortion. Passion reigns in the pews for school choice and limited government, while resentment rages against the public school system, with its talk of evolution and sex education.
At the fore stand Parsley and Johnson, the so-called Patriot Pastors -- anointed or self-anointed, it doesn't matter -- and they are expected to play large roles in picking Ohio's next governor.
Their followers give comfort to Republicans and engender angst among Democrats because they attend church regularly and vote religiously.
Nonetheless, Johnson said: ``We do not endorse candidates. We endorse convictions... Having a Democrat or a Republican is not an issue.''
And Parsley said: ``We've just determined to not be silent any longer... We feel strongly that we are in the majority.''
So, on May 2, those followers are expected to turn out in force in the Republican gubernatorial primary to help decide whether Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell or Attorney General Jim Petro will take on Democratic Congressman Ted Strickland, poised to be his party's nominee.
And they will be there again in November.
No one on either side is taking the Reformation and Restoration voters for granted. They have already played pivotal roles in altering America's history and its political landscape.
In 2004 -- fired up by a proposed ban on homosexual marriage -- evangelical Christian voters turned out in record number to amend Ohio's Constitution and to deliver the state -- and the election -- to Bush.
This year, Johnson and Parsley are leading the call for action in God's name, while opponents paint them as intolerant crusaders who abuse their tax-exempt status for partisan politics.
Oddly -- although they are united in their cause and speak in nearly identical phrases on almost every issue -- Johnson and Parsley are very different, and their paths seldom cross.
Russell Johnson
In Lancaster -- a town of 36,000 about 20 miles southeast of the Columbus beltway -- a church the size of Fairfield Christian takes on immense proportions.
The high-tech worship center is surrounded by a private school with preschool through 12th grade.
Johnson came to town in 1986, when the church had a congregation of a few hundred. Today, $1,000 or so a day goes out the door for local missions. Teams go into the community to fix homes or to camps for work with the disadvantaged. A satellite church is 15 minutes away.
Every hour, there are members praying for people, the community, the state, the nation.
Pray, serve, engage -- that is the mission, Johnson said.
``I want to make sure I keep a balance of pray, serve, engage,'' he said, pausing between each word to stress equal importance.
He's not tall, he's not flashy. He speaks in slow, deliberate sentences, and takes pride in his humble office, carved from a classroom of the old church.
``Yes, we're at war with a secular world system,'' he said. ``But we're ever ready to pick up the wounded and the broken -- the drug addict, the divorced, the homosexual.''
`Freedom of speech'
Johnson makes no apologies to newspaper editorial boards and pastors who say he has crossed the line between tax-exempt preaching and politics.
``The Constitution doesn't muzzle our freedom of speech,'' he said. ``Freedom of speech is something the newspapers ought to be celebrating, instead of saying, `Get behind your stained-glass windows and quit talking like you are a citizen.' As a Christian, I don't have to check my citizenship at the door.
``No one attacks us for praying, and no one attacks us for serving, but when you start talking about being informed and registered to vote, it's almost like the left says: `They can pray all they want, they can serve all they want, but if they come try to take our courts, if they come try to take our schools for intelligent design, we'll show them.''
The nation was founded on God's principles, he said, and removing the Ten Commandments, prayer and the Bible from schools violates those principles.
Who is to blame
He blames America's bad behavior on three groups: the secular left, the religious left and passive Christians who are more interested in ``being loved'' than speaking truth.
``A culture that has facilitated secularism to the point where you can talk about every person in history but Jesus, you can't talk about the impact of the Bible, you can't sing Silent Night -- those kinds of tentacles around the heart of faith can choke out the life of the community.
``I think that faith needs expression,'' he said, noting that in Lancaster and surrounding Fairfield County, there is no abortion clinic.
``It's the only city of our size on a four-lane highway that does not have a smut shop,'' he said. ``And as a result, at the end of the day, what happens is I think it makes it easier to farm the garden, to plant the seeds of God's truth.''
His 17-year-old Fairfield Family Association -- a church-based advocacy organization -- changed its name last year to become the statewide Ohio Restoration Project. Hundreds of ``Patriot Pastors'' gather every month or so in towns around Ohio.
Johnson brings the choir, a video presentation and a message, and invites prominent politicians. Blackwell, the candidate for governor, is often a speaker.
Representing a majority
The media and his critics, he said, don't know that the Restoration Project represents the majority. Critics are out of touch.
Some of the pastors who accuse Johnson of violating his tax-free status, he said, ``could hold church in a phone booth.''
``If at times I appear hard, it's not that I claim to have all the answers,'' he said, ``but the things I am convinced of, I am passionate about.''
Among those passions are abortion, body parts for research, God in the classroom, homosexuality, Hollywood, teachers' unions, frivolous lawsuits and government waste.
``A lot of good parents are losing their ability to raise children of faith in a culture with temptation on steroids,'' he said.
``The teachers' union has an agenda of social engineering,'' he said. If children are taught they come from monkeys, they act like monkeys, he said. ``I believe children are created and designed with purpose and meaning and value,'' he said.
His relationship with Blackwell is misunderstood, he said.
``This is a much longer view. This is not just Ken Blackwell. We do not endorse candidates. We endorse convictions about life, marriage.... Having a Democrat or a Republican is not an issue -- (it's about) having convictions about things that matter to us.''
Christians should be undeterred, he said. ``From my standpoint, in the New Testament, wherever Christians went, there was either a revival or a riot. I hope and pray we have revival.''
Rod Parsley
Parsley is an independent. He is on television, sponsors world missions and heads a multiracial congregation, and his image dominates the multitude of multimedia Web sites and pop-ups affiliated with his organizations.
When he unveiled his Reformation Ohio before the television cameras at the Statehouse last fall, Parsley told the crowd the vision of the country's founders and the inspiration of its great reformers ``are colliding with unprecedented moral decay and cultural decline.''
And he predicted ``Ohio will be a training ground that will launch a national reformation.''
His home base, the new 138-acreWorld Harvest Church in Canal Winchester -- where the floors glisten at the school entrance and the administrative offices require a security card -- is just down the road from his Bible college.
Parsley said his ministry is ``still a local church at heart,'' yet with membership of about 12,000, it reaches most of the United States and 120 nations. ``We say we speak to the world from this pulpit,'' and serving others is the foundation.
``The first thing I seek is for God to allow me to be an expression of his character to hurting people. We have a society that is in a lot of distress right now, and my role is to be as much `Balm in Gilead,' if you will (an Old Testament reference to medicine for a hurting generation), to as many people as I possibly can; to reach hurting families and to help them understand that the love of Jesus Christ is the most compelling force on earth.''
`Silent too long'
He is frustrated that the news media focus on his public-square involvement and pay little attention to the church missions.
But he is steadfast, and he said evangelical Christians have been ``silent too long'' on moral issues.
``We've just determined to not be silent any longer, to lift up our voices in these arenas.
``We feel strongly that we are in the majority,'' he said. ``Every time these moral issues are put before the people, conservative Judeo-Christian moral values win the day. Every time. So let their voices be heard. Let everyone's voice be heard.''
Parsley acknowledged that there is disagreement among Christians about the role of the church and what an ideal world would look like.
In fact, an ecumenical pastoral group, We Believe, complained to the Internal Revenue Service that Parsley and Johnson are abusing their nonprofit status by supporting candidates and issues.
Parsley and Johnson both deny their efforts violate any federal laws.
Issues to debate
Parsley, speaking of disagreements with other Christians, said: ``We're not going to agree on homosexual marriage, we're not going to agree on abortion rights, and probably in finality we're not going to agree on the government's role in poverty and education.''
But these are issues, Parsley said, that should be debated.
``In all frankness, we have an educational system in this country that I believe indoctrinates young people with an anti-God, anti-Judeo-Christian worldview,'' he said.
And after spending billions of government dollars on welfare for 40 years, he said, ``there are more poor Americans than ever, there are more disadvantaged than ever, there are more of our children going to bed hungry every night than ever.''
But Parsley said there are ways to unite.
``If they say they care about poverty, if that is one of their major platforms, then I invite them to join me.''
Within hours of race riots in Toledo, Reformation Ohio was there preaching, feeding and registering voters.
He is excited that so much attention is being paid to religion. Newsweek had a cover story on Jesus. The Mel Gibson movie The Passion of the Christ was a hit. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Strickland is a former United Methodist minister.
``I think people are hungry for God,'' he said. ``I believe we are ready for a spiritual revival that produces a moral reformation.''
© 2006 Beacon Journal and wire service sources. All Rights
Reserved.
Doug Oplinger can be reached at 330-996-3750, or doplinger@thebeaconjournal.com.
Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com.
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Pastor Acknowledges
Making Political Contributions
To Blackwell
ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A pastor with ties to
one of three GOP candidates for governor said
Friday a complaint filed with the IRS over those
connections is off base and part of a liberal
political
agenda.
Laws of man, God obeyed,
World Harvest Church says
Parsley spokesman: ‘Left-leaning’
critics
ignore group’s work with poor, hungry
The Rev. Rod Parsley’s World
Harvest Church
and two affiliates always have obeyed federal
tax laws, and an accusation to the contrary by
31 area pastors is "baseless and without merit,"
World Harvest
said yesterday.
Church leaders seek more
influence in Ohio state government
By CHARITA M. GOSHAY Repository
staff writer
September 4, 2005
The Rev. Russell Johnson says he doesn’t
want to take over Ohio; he just wants to
improve it based on his Christian faith.
The way that he’s going about it is making
some people nervous. Bolstered by a
pivotal role in President Bush’s re-election
and passage of a state constitutional
amendment banning gay marriage, some
Ohio conservative evangelicals are working
to ensure they have an impact in the
2006
elections.
Blackwell's Citizens for Tax Reform
Citizens for Tax Reform’s
Tax Expenditure Limitation
(TEL) Amendment limits state and local government
annual spending growth to 3.5 per cent or the sum
of the rate of inflation plus population growth. Any year-
end unspent revenue over 10 per cent of the budget
is to be refunded to taxpayers. Local governments
receive a guaranteed five per cent of the previous
fiscal year’s aggregate state expenditures, and
unfunded mandates are forbidden. The Attorney
General has approved petition language and circulation
has begun. Citizens for Tax Reform will collect the
necessary 322,899 signatures by the state mandated
August 10 deadline to qualify
for the November 8 ballot.
J. Kenneth Blackwell:
There He
Goes Again
By Edith Earle Fonder
(With Apologies to Eudora Welty)
Now just look what’s happenin’
in the great state
of Ohio! Here comes this little pip squeak Ken
Blackwell runnin’ for governor before he’s learned
how to supervise one single honest election in that
state! How do you figure these folks? Now, I don’t
want anyone getting the wrong idea. I am a southerner,
and to me, Ohio will always be southern! They had the
good sense to name Ohio State after the best football
team
in America!
Blackwell’s Un-American Scheme:
Under the Guise of “Character
and Civic
Renewal” Ohio State Foists a Religious
Moral Code upon Its Citizens
by Katherine Yurica
J. Kenneth Blackwell has stepped
to the forefront of
the American culture wars. He has posted his
official endorsement of a 20-point religious moral
code claimed to be “a shared vocabulary of
character-building ethics” on Ohio’s official
Secretary of State web site. Blackwell wrote,
“Character is the cornerstone of American
citizenship. And good citizenship is the foundation
of community. But to a lot of people, civic renewal
means the opportunity to not only religionize our
government, but, as we shall see, to create a new
religion that is decidedly not Christianity. Instead,
it is an opportunity to convert our citizens into
docile followers of a new authoritarian rule.
Includes a linked glossary of definitions of terms
plus parallel columns that compare the text.
Cult of Character
How the 'secular' Character
Training
Institute is working to build evangelist
Bill Gothard's vision of a First-Century
Kingdom of God--one city, one state,
one school board, one police force
and one mind at a time.
By Silja J.A. Talvi January 9, 2006
From the outside the bland, unmarked
exterior of the Character Training Institute's
headquarters blends remarkably well into
its immediate surroundings. This is a
section of Oklahoma City that hasn't yet
benefited from the nearby, upscale urban
development intended to draw both tourism
and business to the area. Both the downtown
Greyhound Station and the county jail are
situated a few blocks from here, which explains
the number of forlorn, transient men and women
wandering down West Main Street. For the most
part these folks seem to have more immediate
priorities than paying attention to the dozens of
foreign-looking visitors entering and exiting the
10-story Character Training Institute (CTI), which
also serves as the headquarters of the International
Association of
Character Cities (IACC).
Church leaders seek more
influence in Ohio state government
By CHARITA M. GOSHAY Repository
staff writer
September 4, 2005
The Rev. Russell Johnson says he doesn’t
want to take over Ohio; he just wants to
improve it based on his Christian faith.
The way that he’s going about it is making
some people nervous. Bolstered by a
pivotal role in President Bush’s re-election
and passage of a state constitutional
amendment banning gay marriage, some
Ohio conservative evangelicals are working
to ensure they have an impact in the
2006
elections.
Can Democracy Be Christian?
An
Interview With Katherine Yurica
Questions
by Terri Murray
Posted October 10, 2005
It depends on how we define “democracy.”
If we
limit it to mean: rule of the majority, then I see
an inherent conflict between democracy and
the great principles of the Judeo-Christian tradition,
because there is such a thing as the
“tyranny
of the majority.”
Read All the Articles
on Dominionism:
Directory
of the Rise of Dominionism
in America
Bloodguilty Churches
Why Bush’s Agenda Is
Immoral
and an Abomination to God
By Katherine Yurica
This is a
stunning major analysis of Mr.
Bush's agenda.
Updated January
25, 2005
Did you know the Bible prohibits:
deregulation;
vote rigging; privatization of Social Security; tax
cuts for the wealthy; invading Iraq; oppressing the
Hispanics who cross our borders; cutting Medicaid
services; cutting Medicare services; hurting the
environment; failing to answer all the questions
from the 9/11 families; Tort Reform; torture; lying
to congress; bribes; tampering with the justice
system; appointing prejudiced nominees to the
bench; tipping the scales of justice to favor big
corporations? Read Bloodguilty Churches.
Don't miss
this hard hitting new report.
Bloodguilty
Churches is now available
in paperback. Click here to see the book.
Dominionist Bill Limits the
Supreme
Court's Jurisdiction
The Constitution Restoration Act
of 2004 and Now 2005
by Katherine Yurica
You read it here first. The Yurica
Report published
articles revealing the intentions of Dominionists to
revamp the American Federal Court system. The first
major attempt has been placed before both houses
of Congress in two nearly identical bills. Drafted by
Herb Titus, the first Dean of Pat Robertson's
School
of Public Policy and a known Dominionist, our
question is: What is actually intended by the
Constitution Restoration Act of 2004? If the bill
passes, the Supreme Court will be placed under the
Dominionists' thumb.
The Despoiling of America
by
Katherine Yurica
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