GOT THEOCRACY? What happened to me today at a pastor's breakfast>>>

[goodboy]

My company set up a booth for a Pastor's Breakfast at the Hilton at Easton in Columbus OH. I was conscripted into attending. So I get there at about 600AM, grab some coffee and wait for the pastors to enter at 630. 630AM rolls around, and here they come, 500 of them, strutting sancimoniously, bibles in hand, hair neatly parted on the right, glad-handing PRAISE JESUS etc. The initial flood of piety began to break up once the doors to the banquet halls opened for breakfast, so I stood at the door listening for the list of businesses participating in the event. The first speaker was a pastor who introduced, "A great man..."


NONE OTHER THAN, ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?!?!?!?


SECRETARY OF STATE KEN FUCKIN' BLACKWELL!!!

to ROARING APPLAUSE! (except for you know, the representatives of the black churches, who feigned approval by politely, albeit nearly silently, going through the motions of clapping)

and this is the best part:

"...and I hope he can count on your vote for GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF OHIO!"

Excuse me while I

Whitewell just stood up and soaked it in. He didn't speak, at least not while I was there. I left shortly afterword.

Here's the real kicker? Ever heard of the "Patriot Pastors"???
I found this on Kos: (thanks Rene'in Ohio)
"Rising from the vacuum of prophetic witness, is the ultra-right wing politics of intimidation and hate. A movement calling itself "Patriot Pastors" is now mobilizing (mostly rural Christians) to gather thousands of " Ohio for Jesus" pastors and tens of thousands of lay people calling themselves "Christian Minutemen."

Called the Ohio Restoration Project, this group intends to take over the Republican Party in Ohio . Once they have done this through electoral primaries, they will also run all Democrats off the state map.

Their plan is to run good people out of office if they are pro-choice or supportive of equal rights for gays. In their website, these so-called Patriot Pastors will "shoot down" any politicians or candidates who they deem "vague or noncommittal on issues of abortion and gay rights."

They have transportation set up for the elderly and child care for the young to attend their "God Rallies." Rod Parsley of World Harvest Church in Canal Winchester is their leader. In his book Silent No More, Parsley outlines which issues will either drive people from office or put them in office. Republicans who were once considered right-wing radicals in Ohio , like Sen. Jim Jordan of Champaign County , are moving into key leadership positions in our statehouse five blocks west of First Church . These "Patriot Pastors" are a scary lot. Issue #1, which they say restored "Biblical marriage" to Ohio , was step one in their politics of fear and (so-called) "Family values." Issue #2 says Parsley is to take back the state."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/5/14/10582/0454
Well they were there in FULL FORCE, recruiting these poor saps for the Christian Taliban.
I left my booth and went home. My company is upset that we weren't told this was a Christo-Fascist-Political event. We're in the process of getting to the bottom of it right now. *shakes head* I'm telling you now, we gotta watch out for these people.

rant off/

[PDittie]

1. 'Patriot Pastors" was started by a guy named

Rick Scarborough. He was on the CBS newscast just a few minutes ago.

He's a butt buddy of Tom DeLay.

Here's their site:

http://www.visionamerica.us

We're in deep shit with these Godpeople, and we'd better start fighting back ...

[JitterbugPerfume]

2. Scary Stuff

mt ex- daughter in law (nut cake) gave me a book by Rod Parsley so I could "see the light" a couple of years ago

it scared the poop outta me

I threw it in the trash

[Maat]

3. Dang it, JitterbugPerfume!

I research Constitutional Law and the Religious Right (I write about them). I could have used that book. Oh, well.

By the way, DUers:

if you find a possible tax violation (a church-state thing), a good idea would be to contact Americans United for Separation of Church and State ( www.au.org) and report it.

If you send it to: [e-mail], then it will get forwarded to the proper place; they will investigate and make a complaint if necessary. One does this if one observes politicking on the part of a 501(c)(3) organization (the actual church itself). The pastors individually may participate in politicking, but not on behalf or with the resources of the church.

[mongo]

4. Ohio Restoration Project

is headed by Phil Buress. Same guy that spearheaded the Ohio anti gay marriage ballot initative.

asshats, all of them.

[KaliTracy]

5. Blackwell has been on this road for awhile I think -

In 2003 he gave a speech on: Topic: Religious Liberty: The Most Precious of our Liberties (Sept 10, 2003)

Beginning of speech:
We Americans are touchy about our rights. Sometimes it seems that we think anything that’s good—from clean water to good housing—is a right owed us. These are "rights" many think government should provide. In all our talk about rights, we often tend to forget the more fundamental rights. The rights we have by virtue of our humanity. The rights we have against government. The inalienable rights endowed to us by our Creator. We forget, in other words, both the moral basis of human rights and our responsibility to protect those rights.

Why have we forgotten? Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once noted that the most significant trait of the 20th Century was that "Man has forgotten God." He went on to say "A tree with a rotten core cannot stand." Can a nation without a moral foundation respect human rights? Can those who cannot recall the source of human rights encourage their protection around a dangerous world?

In 1948, just fifty-five years ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The achievement was momentous and lasting. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights set enduring standards for the entire international community, standards to which each nation could be held so the devastation and cruelty the world had seen just ten years prior to the adoption of the Declaration might not ever be repeated.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is more than just a proclamation. It is an ideal to which all nations have at least agreed to aspire. It is a guide for emerging nations as they make the often-difficult transition from tyranny and poverty to democracy and prosperity. It is the founding document of the human rights movement, its Ten Commandments and its Declaration of Independence.

<snip> further transcript http://www.ashbrook.org/events/lecture/2003/blackwell_speech.html




A blurb about his accomplishments:


<snip>
He holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Education degrees from Xavier University (OH) where he later served as a vice-president and member of its faculty. In 1992, he received Xavier’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. He has been a Fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, the Aspen Institute, the Salzburg Seminar in Austria and the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University (British-American Project). His continuing education has included executive programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard.

Among his awards are honorary doctoral degrees from several institutions of higher education in Ohio, including Ashland University, Cincinnati Technical College, Urbana University, Wilberforce University, and Wilmington College, as well as from Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire. He is a recipient of the Veritas Award from Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Connecticut.

In 1998, Mr. Blackwell delivered the Beckett Lecture on Religious Liberty at Oxford University. He has also lectured at Harvard, the University of Newcastle in England, the Moscow State Institute for International Relations in Russia, and the International Academy of Public Administration in Paris. Several of his speeches and lectures have been published in "Vital Speeches of the Day."


<snip> --

Further Bio http://www.ashbrook.org/events/lecture/2003/blackwell.html



edit: left off words

[Kolesar]

6. Supposedly, the gop has succeeded in Ohio by being *moderate*

These theocratic ambitions sound anything *but* moderate. The GOP is surely overreaching here and they may just be handing the Ohio government back to us.

[realisticphish]

8. yeah

i have met a LOT of small town people who vote republican, but have said "i am christian, but this stuff is scary." unlike the GOP, they really DO hate bigger government, and many see this theocracy as that very thing

[KaliTracy]

7. Look at this article posted on Blackwell's Govenor Site

Conservative churches to flex muscle; Pastors statewide organizing effort to elect candidates.



One goal for the group is to help Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell win the governor`s office in 2006.

Christian conservative leaders from scores of Ohio`s fastest-growing churches are mounting a campaign to win control of local government posts and Republican organizations, starting with the 2006 governor`s race.

In a manifesto that is being circulated among church leaders and on the Internet, the group, which is called the Ohio Restoration Project, is planning to mobilize 2,000 evangelical, Baptist, Pentecostal and Roman Catholic leaders in a network of "Patriot Pastors" to register half a million new voters, enlist activists, train candidates and endorse conservative causes in the next year.

The initial goal is to elect Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, a conservative Republican, as governor in 2006. The group hopes to build grass-roots organizations in Ohio`s 88 counties and take control of local Republican organizations.


http://www.kenblackwell.com/news.asp?formmode=release&id=61


Question of the day....is this legal??

[POAS]

9. Answer of the day

They OWN the government, they decide what is legal.

</sarcasm>

[KaliTracy]

10. Not to the IRS, I would gather.... n/t

[bobbieinok]

11. I've seen Rod P on TBN.....he is wild and scary...I think World Harvest

now has a college....or maybe just a Bible School