'Patriot pastors' hold first meeting

[Algorem]

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1124942043169760.xml&storylist=cleveland

8/25/2005, 12:59 a.m. ET
The Associated Press

MASON, Ohio (AP) — ...

A group of more than 300 pastors planned to gather on Thursday for a luncheon sponsored by the project. It's the first of six meetings planned before next year's elections. The project's immediate goal is to register 400,000 new voters by then...

Religious conservatives in Texas are working on their own version of the project, modeled after Ohio's. Other states are watching too, Johnson said. The project was the result of large congregations of Baptists, Roman Catholics, Pentecostals and other faiths working together to achieve common goals, he said...

Religious conservatives are organized in other states, but Ohio conservatives had a major effect getting the amendment passed. The groups also take credit for helping President Bush win Ohio, giving him the electoral votes he needed for re-election.

"There does seem to be more (activity) here in Ohio, dating to the 2004 election. Ohio has paralleled the involvement of religious conservatives nationally, but hadn't been as active," said John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute for Applied Politics at the University of Akron who tracks religion in politics. "The Ohio Restoration Project stems in large part from this."

___

On the Net: http://www.ohiorestorationproject.com

[Mari333]

1. Tax em. Tax them all.

patriot? Im sick of these yahoos being described as patriots. christofascists. Thats what they are.
Why are they worried? Diebold has their backs.

[ixion]

2. agreed...

if they're going to be political, they shouldn't be allowed to be tax exempt, at the very least.

[slay]

5. They must lose their tax-exempt status NOW!

And I mean ASAP! :mad:

[saigon68]

14. HATEFUL RIGHT WING FUNDY NUT-JOBS ORGANIZE

TO TAKE OVER YOUR LIFE

[SpiralHawk]

3. The Crusade comes home

Repent Now !

[SpiralHawk]

4. Radical Clerics Call for Fealty to Flag and "God"

Believe us. We would not tell a lie. Honestly. Believe us or be CONDEMNED. We have the Absolute Truth (tm). Really. We are double super positive about it, we think. Wish we could agree. But that's beside the point. Believe in us and what we SAY or die.

[thecrow]

6. I agree...

Call your senators NOW

[Stand and Fight]

7. Revoke their TAX EXEMPT STATUS --- NOW! n/t

[Megahurtz]

23. Yeah! Revoke Their Tax Exempt Status Now!!!!

All of them!!!:grr:

[bribri16]

24. Shouldn't Judicial Watch file a suit about their tax-exempt status?

[goodboy]

8. I'm in the vortex of that sacreligious toilet, Columbus. Wherever they go

we'll be there. I'm thinking of starting a group to go after them.

[BR_Parkway]

9. We're fighting religious extremists over there so we don't have to

fight them here? uh huh

[Supersedeas]

13. Irony of ironies

[progressivebydesign]

10. Paging the IRS!!! Helloooooooo??????????

Can we please get some REAL American patriots back in office so we can go after these sham artists and collect the taxes owed to us by these faux churches?

[gratuitous]

11. Some more folks confuse the flag with the cross

There's a reason that the old formulation is "for God and country" and that God comes first. It's quite disappointing to see so many people get these identities mixed up. You'd think the stories in the Bible about the oftentimes rocky relations between God and the Chosen People would suffice so that folks wouldn't get the two confused.

[brentspeak]

12. The link to the news article isn't working (n/t)

[David Zephyr]

15. Memo to Pro-War Pastors: Invite Military Recruiters into your churches!

Yep. As Jesus said, show your faith by your works. Invite the Recruiters from the Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy to set up a staffed recruiting desk right at your church so that they can have access to the sons and daughters of your parishioners.

That's the best way for you "Patriot Pastors" to really show your church congregations that you are really behind this war, that you really believe in it: Help the military recruiters by arranging face to face meeting with the teens in your congregation.

Otherwise, anything less than what I have described is merely emotional, yet meaningless nonsense. These pro-war pastors can help relieve our soldiers from two and three tours in Iraq by assisting the recruiters right there in their churches.

But, don't hold your breath for this to happen. Because, these "patriot pastors" are fair-weather Republicans and like the President...chickenhawks.

[FlemingsGhost]

16. Pssst ... The harder they push, the harder the backlash.

Shhhhhhhhh ...

What we are seeing is organized religion's last gasp for relevancy. While its death will be messy, it is necessary for our collective survival.

[indigo32]

18. oh I DO hope you are right -nt

[Gregorian]

17. Could the White House be funding this?

I would bet anything they are.

With a name like Patriot pastors...

[LittleWoman]

19. Rod Parsley is one of the people behind this in Ohio

He is the pastor of the World Harvest Church here in Columbus and he has

"unleashed the Reformation Ohio initiative, a 10-point plan to energize religious conservative voters in the state while converting new ones-both spiritually and politically-to his brand of evangelical Christianity. His political group, the Center for Moral Clarity, would register new voters, form individual chapers in all 88 Ohio counties and keep members active ain informed with alerts about legislation in the Statehouse and Congress." This is part of an article in August 2005 Columbus Monthly which is unfortunately not available on-line. However, there was also an article about him in the Sunday, August 21, 2005 which is on-line thru their archives. <http://shop.dispatch.com/newsarchive/ArchiveDisplay.asp?DBLIST=cd05&DOCNUM=34918&TERMV=285:3:288:7:5502:3:5505:7:10678:7:26311:7:41732:7:46814:7:51945:7:62068:7:77326:7:82543:7:87700:7:92908:7:103333:7:108582:7:108675:7:124089:7:134204:7:144641:7:144745:7:155017:7:170658:9:175817:3:175820:7:2&md=dir> Note: this is the longest link I have ever seen.

I am very active in my United Methodist church and this guy makes me so angry and upset I can hardly stand it. He is a big supporter of Ken Blackwell and George Bush and he preaches what a friend of mine has called a gospel of 'I've got mine and you can get yours". In other words, he preaches the antithesis of the teachings of Jesus. The Columbus Monthly article quoted him at the opening of a meeting of 1000 clergy and politicians, "...Sound an alarm! A spiritual invasion is taking place. Man your battle stations, ready your weapons, lock and load, let a revolution begin!" His book, which he touts at all these meetings, is called Silent No More. In it he unloads on Muslims and homosexuals in what I consider particularly vile terms, especially for someone who claims to be preaching the word of God. In the New Testament Jesus tells us the first commandment is to love God and the second is to love your neighbor and the Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians that of faith, hope and love the greatest is love. I think that Parsley is so busy furthering his political agenda that he has not taken the time to actually read his Bible. Note: sorry if this seems too theological for some of you, but I have been simmering about this guy for quite a while. I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore. Ten years ago I would have been somewhat reluctant to criticize other peoples' religious beliefs because I feel they are private, but these new Pharisees are going from the personal to the political and it is time to take a stand. I will not allow anyone to push this garbage anymore and I will answer with as much scripture and theology that I can muster. I probably will not be able the change the minds of the Parsleyists, but maybe others will hear me and see the light.

[mmonk]

20. Instead of being attacked

it's time to go on the offensive. Let's start a petition drive to remove the tax exempt status of churches that both receive tax revenues from this government and are politically active in this government and take it to someone in Congress that believes separation of church and state should stand. If at some point we don't start fighting, what's left will even be less.

[VegasWolf]

21. Why does God hate America? nt

[Megahurtz]

22. What?

"The groups also take credit for helping President Bush win Ohio,
giving him the electoral votes he needed for re-election"???:eyes:

Something stinks!:thumbsdown:

[proud patriot]

25. churches + politics = Time 2 tax churches

seriously

[drduffy]

26. where the hell are the left-leaning,

liberal and moderate christian churches? Why aren't they organizing to fight this conservative, fundamentalist bullshit? If the Christians in the middle or left of the middle allow this to happen and undermine the last remnants of our republic......then I guess they deserve what happens.

And while on a rant, screw the American Legion as well. Goddamn pissant totalitarians. They supported Mussolinni and the fascists back in the thirties and they are stupid enough to support the fascist neocons now. They have no idea of what it means to be American. Or to support the constitution and bill of rights.

[banana republican]

27. DO YOU MEAN "AMERICAN RADICAL CLERICS???" N/T

[Algorem]

28. Update-Conservatives shower praise on pastors

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1125035482305460.xml&storylist=cleveland

8/26/2005, 1:36 a.m. ET

MASON, Ohio (AP) — ...

"People think that November 2000 was an accident of history. They deny your will," Blackwell said. "I plead with you to continue to show up, stand up and speak up."...

The Rev. John Putka, a political science teacher at the University of Dayton who delivered the closing prayer, said later that the meetings will serve to keep the thousands of volunteers who worked for the gay-marriage ban engaged...

He said the ban in the U.S. tax code keeping nonprofit churches from endorsing candidates didn't bother him.

"For me to say I can't support a candidate from the pulpit doesn't mean I can't support a candidate in the parking lot," Brooks said.

___

On the Net: http://www.ohiorestorationproject.com

[DoYouEverWonder]

29. Look how they spin this story

"A group of more than 300 pastors planned to gather on Thursday for a luncheon sponsored by the project."

300 pastors PLANNED to gather. That does not mean that many actually showed up for the meeting. However that is the implication that they are intentionally trying to convey.

I would assume since they avoid reporting the actual number that the turnout was considerably less.