Bill Moyers: 9/11 And The Sport of God (More about The Ohio Rest. Project)

[MelissaB]

(We've posted about this before, now read what Bill Moyers has to say about this group.)





Published on Friday, September 9, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

9/11 And The Sport of God

by Bill Moyers

This article is adapted from Bill Moyer's address this week at Union Theological Seminary in New York, where Judith and Bill Moyers received the seminary's highest award, the Union Medal, for their contributions to faith and reason in America.

At the Central Baptist Church in Marshall, Texas, where I was baptized in the faith, we believed in a free church in a free state. I still do.

...snip

Let's take a brief detour to Ohio and I'll show you what I am talking about. In recent weeks a movement called the Ohio Restoration Project has been launched to identify and train thousands of "Patriot Pastors" to get out the conservative religious vote next year. According to press reports, the leader of the movement - the senior pastor of a large church in suburban Columbus - casts the 2006 elections as an apocalyptic clash between "the forces of righteousness and the hordes of hell." The fear and loathing in his message is palpable: He denounces public schools that won't teach creationism, require teachers to read the Bible in class, or allow children to pray. He rails against the "secular jihadists" who have "hijacked" America and prevent school kids from learning that Hitler was "an avid evolutionist." He links abortion to children who murder their parents. He blasts the "pagan left" for trying to redefine marriage. He declares that "homosexual rights" will bring "a flood of demonic oppression." On his church website you read that "Reclaiming the teaching of our Christian heritage among America's youth is paramount to a sense of national destiny that God has invested into this nation."

One of the prominent allies of the Ohio Restoration Project is a popular televangelist in Columbus who heads a $40 million-a-year ministry that is accessible worldwide via 1,400 TV stations and cable affiliates. Although he describes himself as neither Republican nor Democrat but a "Christocrat" - a gladiator for God marching against "the very hordes of hell in our society" - he nonetheless has been spotted with so many Republican politicians in Washington and elsewhere that he has been publicly described as a"spiritual advisor" to the party. The journalist Marley Greiner has been following his ministry for the organization, FreePress. She writes that because he considers the separation of church and state to be "a lie perpetrated on Americans - especially believers in Jesus Christ" - he identifies himself as a "wall builder" and "wall buster." As a wall builder he will "restore Godly presence in government and culture; as a wall buster he will tear down the church-state wall." He sees the Christian church as a sleeping giant that has the ability and the anointing from God to transform America. The giant is stirring. At a rally in July he proclaimed to a packed house: "Let the Revolution begin!" And the congregation roared back: "Let the Revolution begin!"

(The Revolution's first goal, by the way, is to elect as governor next year the current Republican secretary of state who oversaw the election process in 2004 year when a surge in Christian voters narrowly carried George Bush to victory. As General Boykin suggested of President Bush's anointment, this fellow has acknowledged that "God wanted him as secretary of state during 2004" because it was such a critical election. Now he is criss-crossing Ohio meeting with Patriot Pastors and their congregations proclaiming that "America is at its best when God is at its center.") .

The Ohio Restoration Project is spreading. In one month alone last year in the president's home state of Texas, a single Baptist preacher added 2000 "Patriot Pastors" to the rolls. On his website he now encourages pastors to "speak out on the great moral issues of our day...to restore and reclaim America for Christ."


Much more: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0909-36.htm

[valerief]

1. If only IQ tests were required to vote

[autorank]

2. Good, this puts them in bold relief...especially for the IRS.

This is great. Recommended.

[Melissa G]

3. Nominated! n/t

[MelissaB]

4. More info from another thread

here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4481794

[MelissaB]

5. Copied from this thread:

'Patriot pastors' recruited
Churchgoers will be urged to vote

By Howard Wilkinson
Enquirer staff writer


KINGS MILLS - The luncheon Thursday at the Kings Island Conference Center could easily have been mistaken for a political party affair, with politicians, speaking over the clank of forks and knives, exhorting the guests to go out and register new voters and make sure they get to the polls.

...snip

They were, for the most part, men and women of the clergy - evangelicals, Pentecostals, Baptists and a smattering of Catholic clerics and laymen.

They were being recruited for the Ohio Restoration Project, the brainchild of the Rev. Russell Johnson, pastor of a 2,500-member evangelical church in the southeastern Ohio town of Lancaster. He wants to build a force of Christian conservatives - the "values voters'' who oppose abortion, want to protect traditional marriage and oppose higher taxes - to dominate Ohio politics, starting with the 2006 gubernatorial election.

...snip

And he plans to do it by recruiting an army of more than 2,000 pastors - "patriot pastors,'' as he calls them - to do the grassroots work.


More: http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050826/NEWS01/508260404/-1/CINCI

Since the Ohio Restoration Project is a non-profit organization it can't endorse candidates, but it was clear that their favorite candidates for governor is Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. Read how he quotes MLK, JR and Mother Teresa and gets a standing ovation as he strongly encourages Christian conservatives to "get involved in the political process."


Not concerned yet?

Christian group protests proposed amendments

MASON — Christian conservatives rallied Thursday against four proposed state constitutional amendments that would change how Ohio residents vote and how elections are supervised statewide.

The Ohio Restoration Project invited about 500 religious and political leaders to the Kings Island Resort and Conference Center, encouraging them to register voters and organize against the amendments proposed for the November ballot by Reform Ohio Now.

“I believe the hinges of history are turning on our watch,” said pastor Russell Johnson of Lancaster.

More: http://www.middletownjournal.com/hp/content/news/stories/2005/08/26/mj0826reform.html

About Reform Ohio Now

Link to their website: http://www.ohiocitizen.org/moneypolitics/ron/ron.htm

[MelissaB]

6. .

kick