Posts on Gordon Klingenschmitt

Last week Secular Coalition for America and Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers held a press conference to release a proposed "set of policy recommendations in a memo to President-elect Obama as he considers staffing and policies regarding the military" because the current regulations fail to adequately accommodate "the hundreds of thousands of atheists, agnostics, humanists and other nontheists currently serving in the U.S. Armed Forces."

We all know what this will lead to - the End Times:

Gordon James Klingenschmitt is a former naval chaplain who says, unfortunately, the Secular Coalition for America will eventually get its way. "There is a day coming in the end times when the military will be forced to be atheistic because, in order for the eventual man who is the man of sin -- the Anti-Christ -- as it is describe in the Bible, for him to come to power and to stamp out Christianity around the globe, he's going to need a good strong atheist military," he contends. "That is the first step toward Armageddon, and I'm concerned about that. And I pray that President (elect) Obama is not foolish enough to lead us down that road."

We wrote about Gordon Klingenschmitt's latest crusade to save Virginia police chaplains and his threats to hold a pre-election rally on their behalf earlier this month. Klingenschmitt is holding Gov. Tim Kaine presonally responsible for the decision made by State Police Superintendent Col. W. Steven Flaherty, despite Kaine's repeated explanations that Klingenschmitt's crusade is misguided and misleading and that nobody "has lost their jobs or positions because of this."

Of course, Klingenschmitt is not backing down and has now announced that a rally is planned for this weekend

News media are invited to cover the big crowds expected on Saturday November 1st, at the "Virginia, Stand Up For Jesus!" State-wide Prayer Rally outside the Governor's mansion, at the Capital Square Bell Tower (900 Bank St) from 10-11am (arrive 9:30), honoring the six Virginia State Police Chaplains forced to resign for praying "in Jesus name."

All pastors and news media are also invited to a PRE-RALLY PRESS CONFERENCE on FRIDAY, October 31st at 10am, at the same outdoor location, where event organizer Chaplain Klingenschmitt (and some pastors) will address the media one full day before the event.

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The free, non-partisan Virginia rally will include pastors, policymakers, political, civic, and church leaders, a praise band, and a time of prayer for the chaplains, our nation and our government.

According to a separate press release, he will be joined by the likes of Mat Staver and Rick Scarborough, as well as a bunch of people we've never heard of:

All reporters and media are invited to cover the big crowds expected at the Saturday rally. Event speakers include Mat Staver, Rick Scarborough, Gerald Glenn, Darryl Husband, Bill Carrico, Victor Torres, Jeff Ginn, Council Nedd, and several state-trooper chaplains.

That was the entirely predictable message at yesterday's press conference, organized by Chaps Gordon Klingenschmitt in Richmond, VA to protest the "forced resignations" of six police Chaplains who refused to deliver non-denominational prayers at department-sanctioned, public events:

The ministers and the Family Foundation of Virginia held a news conference yesterday to assail [state police Superintendent W. Steven] Flaherty's directive and Kaine for backing it.

"The recent decision by Superintendent Flaherty and its subsequent endorsement by Gov. Kaine is an act of anti-Christian hysteria based on a flawed decision by a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court that has yet to be upheld and is, in fact, in conflict with other circuit court decisions from around the country," said Victoria Cobb, Family Foundation president. "The policy clearly violates the First Amendment-protected rights of free speech and religious freedom."

Cobb and the ministers said that barring the state police chaplains from using the name Jesus Christ is, in effect, a violation of those chaplains' rights because their religion calls upon them to pray to Jesus Christ.

"In our belief, it's not even a complete prayer" without appealing to Jesus Christ, said Rev. Rob Schenck, of the National Clergy Council ... ["So how do we end a prayer unless in the name of Jesus Christ? We are pleading with the governor . . . to reconsider the magnitude of this thing."]

Former Navy Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, who said he was discharged from the Navy for praying to Jesus Christ, sent Kaine a letter signed by 86 ministers, asking him to revise the policy for state police chaplains.

Klingenschmitt told Kaine that the policy amounts to religious discrimination and "anti-Christian persecution."

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Hashmel Turner, the Fredericksburg councilman and minister whose prayers to Jesus Christ sparked the court case, attended yesterday's press conference.

He said he has given up leading prayers before council meetings because of the court's ruling.

"We as Christians, we are persecuted and oppressed," Turner said. "We have to support these chaplains that are being persecuted."

Those in attendance also announced that they intend to follow through on Klingenschmitt's threat to hold a pre-election rally that "could impact the national election" and will be doing so with a "statewide prayer rally" outside the Executive Mansion on Nov. 1.

Last week we wrote about Gordon Klingenschmitt’s – or, as he’s known to his allies, “Chaps” - latest crusade to save the jobs of several police chaplains in Virginia who, he says, were forced to resign by Gov. Tim Kaine after they refused to stop offering prayers in Jesus’ name.  Of course, that was not the case at all, as both Kaine and Virginia State Police Superintendent Steven Flaherty pointed out – but that doesn’t matter to Klingerschmitt who knows an opportunity for self-aggrandizement when he sees one and has now organized a press conference with a variety of other Religious Right C-list activists who are threatening to hold a rally and swing the election if they don’t get their way:  

PRESS CONFERENCE DETAILS:

WHO: Bishop Gerald O. Glenn (Apostle, Church of God in Christ, Who's Who In Law Enforcement), Victoria Cobb (The Family Foundation of Virginia), Mark Goodell (Christian Coalition of Virginia), Rev. Rob Schenck (National Clergy Council), Former Navy Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt (The Pray In Jesus Name Project), and all pastors in Virginia are invited to attend and briefly address the media.

WHEN: 1:00 pm EST, Wednesday, 1 October 2008.

WHERE: General Assembly Building, 1000 E. Broad St, Richmond, Virginia (First Floor Press Room near House Room C).

WHAT: Prominent Christian leaders in Virginia will address the media, revealing a letter they presented to Gov. Kaine last Friday in which 86 Virginia Pastors vowed to mobilize their people to vote, in response to the Kaine Administration’s verbal ban on public prayer "in Jesus' name," which forced 6 State Police Chaplains to resign.

Copies of the letter, with the names of 86 pledging Virginia Pastors, (and the details of what they want), will be available to all press or media personnel who personally attend on October 1st. All others may view the letter (on October 2nd) at www.PrayInJesusName.org. 

Depending on Gov. Kaine’s response to this letter, the unified Pastors are contemplating bringing their churches together for a state-wide prayer-rally to honor the chaplains, entitled "Virginia, Stand Up For Jesus," on November 1st at 10am at the Capitol Square Bell Tower, (900 Bank Street), Richmond, within earshot of the Governor’s Mansion, just three days before the election.

"This could impact the national election, since Virginia is such a close race," said Former Navy Chaplain Klingenschmitt. "These 86 Pastors pledged to mobilize their people to vote accordingly, so the courage of these six Police Chaplains who were forced to resign because they prayed 'in Jesus name,' could turn America's head on November 4th. Just imagine if all churches in Virginia united at a prayer-rally to Stand Up For Jesus on November 1st, near the Governor's mansion. But first, we'll wait to see how Gov. Kaine responds to our letter."

I can tell Klingenschmitt that Kaine will probably say what he’s been saying all along: that he “gave no directive to the state police; there is no mandate prohibiting police chaplains from mentioning Jesus Christ. No one has lost their jobs or positions because of this.”  

So Klingenschmitt, Schenck, and the others ought to just save themselves the trouble of hosting their little press conference and get right to work on planning their extremely influential rally.

Gordon Klingenschmitt is a D-list right-wing activist who made a name for himself by getting bounced from his position as a Chaplain in the Navy and parlaying that into a career as a right-wing martyr. Since then, he's hooked with various right-wing groups to warn that pastors will face prison is any sort of hate-crimes legislation is enacted and joined Rick Scarborough for several of this one-day crusades to save America.

But through it all, Klingenschmitt's primary mission has been to serve as the Tom Joad to the oppressed chaplains on this nation, constantly on the look-out for any situation he can exploit to serve his own ends ... and here he rides to their rescue once again: 

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine is defending why his administration forced the sudden resignation of five Virginia State Police Chaplains because they prayed publicly "in Jesus' name."

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Former Navy Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, who was also fired in 2007 for praying "in Jesus name" in uniform (but won the victory in the U.S. Congress for other military chaplains), weighed in:

"Governor Kaine campaigned like a Christian to get our votes. But now, instead of governing like a Christian, or respecting his own chaplains' First Amendment rights, his administration forced the resignation of five police chaplains, simply because they prayed publicly 'in Jesus' name.' These five chaplains lost their jobs for honoring Christ. They're heroes of the faith, because they refused to deny Jesus when ordered to by the Kaine administration. If they contact me, they will be honored through my web-site: www.PrayInJesusName.org. And now Governor Kaine pretends he's the martyr, because we question why his administration forced them to resign for praying to Jesus? He's still got a job, they don't. Governor Kaine isn't the martyr, he's the persecutor."

Of course, if you bother to actually read any of the coverage of this, you quickly find out that Kaine in no way forced anyone to resign and that the policy was actually implemented by the Superintendent of State Police:

In a statement, Col. W. Steven Flaherty, the State Police superintendent, said he asked chaplains to offer nondenominational prayers at department-sanctioned public events but that the request does not apply to private ceremonies or individual counseling.

Flaherty said his decision was in response to a recent federal appeals court ruling that a Fredericksburg City Council member may not pray "in Jesus's name" during council meetings because the opening invocation is government speech.

"While the executive staff and Col. Flaherty are highly respected and provide great leadership, this is just a policy several of us could not agree with when it comes to the issue of individual prayer," said Trooper Rex Carter, who resigned as a chaplain in August ... Since August, six of 17 chaplains have resigned.

Want to know what Klingenschmitt thinks of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit's ruling on the Fredericksburg City Council case? Well,, he's helpfully released a version of the decision interspersed with his own erudite legal reasoning: "KLINGENSCHMITT COMMENT: THE WORD ‘JESUS’ IS NOW ILLEGAL RELIGIOUS SPEECH, BANNED BY O’CONNOR’S TWISTED READING OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT. ‘GOD’ IS PERMITTED, BUT ‘JESUS’ IS BANNED. THAT’S NOT FREEDOM. YOU MUST ‘LEAVE JESUS OUTSIDE’ IF YOU WANT TO SPEAK IN A GOVERNMENT FORUM. O’CONNOR IS WRONG, AND SO IS THE CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG."

Nearly a year after Rick Scarborough began his ambitious “70 Weeks to Save America” to sign up thousands of “Patriot Pastors” and voters at church rallies across America, only to have it peter out due to money, mechanical problems, slim turnout, and Alan Keyes, and nearly three months since announcing the project’s triumphant comeback, Scarborough is finally holding a “Patriot Pastor” rally in Nashville, Tennessee, featuring disgruntled ex-chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, “National Statesman/Evangelist Dr. Rick Scarborough,” and a singer billed as the “Pavarotti of gospel.”

This “One-Day Crusade” will be held at Two Rivers Baptist Church, home of Rev. Jerry Sutton, who is no stranger to church-based politicking. In 2005, he hosted a rally in support of President Bush’s controversial judicial nominees (including future Chief Justice John Roberts). Billed as a protest against “activist judges” supposedly trying to “silence” people of faith, “Justice Sunday II” brought together some of the biggest names on the Religious Right, such as Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, and then-National Evangelical Association President Ted Haggard, along with Robert Bork, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, Bishop Harry Jackson, and then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Sutton himself boiled down the message he hoped the audience would take home:

Number one, it's a new day.

Number two, liberalism is dead.

Number three, the majority of Americans are conservative.

Number four, you can count on us showing up and speaking out.

And number five, let the church rise.

Sutton, who is a research fellow with Richard Land’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and ran for president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2006, has been involved in an imbroglio at his own church recently, when 71 members sued the church over financial mismanagement (along with Sutton’s “lavish lifestyle” and “authoritarian” leadership).

Just because Mike Huckabee has dropped out of the presidential race doesn’t mean Janet Folger is done campaigning for him, penning an open letter to John McCain urging him to tap Huckabee as his VP:

I'm not telling you whom to pick, but if you want the vice presidential candidate who in addition to winning the "must win" states in the primary, who has the best cost/vote ratio, who has proven he can energize the base of the party, who defended (not attacked) you even before you won the nomination, who is honest, consistent and according to Rasmussen, has the least opposition among American voters, Mike Huckabee is your guy.

Ask him, I'm sure he would be honored to be your vice president, and I'm sure millions more would be honored to vote for you if you do.

While Folger has already made peace with her principles by deciding to throw her support behind McCain, her one-time comrade-in-arms Gordon Klingenschmitt is having none of it, taking to the pages of WorldNetDaily to chastise Folger for selling out:

In a recent WND column, Janet Folger begs social conservatives to vote for John McCain. She believes McCain will rescue "most everyone" from our political "burning building" – when in fact McCain has already locked arms with the Kennedys, Feingolds and liberal Democrats to keep social conservatives "out" of politics while they burn our constitutional republic to the ground.

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McCain not only refused to participate in Janet Folger's Values Voter Presidential Debate, he has repeatedly distanced himself from religious groups. He won the Republican nomination without faith-based voters. So, if he wins the White House, will he suddenly listen to our pleas? No chance! Only by treating ourselves with respect can we demand respect from others. Have we no dignity?

Klingenschmitt and Folger have a long history together, as she was one of his staunchest defenders when he was fighting to keep his job as a Chaplain in the Navy, with Folger regularly citing Klingenschmitt’s legal fight as evidence of the on-going “criminalization of Christianity."

After being discharged from the Navy, Klingenschmitt linked up with Vision America’s Rick Scarborough and Alan Keyes for their “70 Weeks To Save America Crusade” and then quickly lined up to support Keyes’ own vanity run for President (he’s currently listed at the top of the “Honor Roll” on Keyes’ website for his efforts to secure 104 pledges to support his campaign.)  

But it looks as if now Klingenschmitt and Folger are on the outs.  In fact, it looks like Klingenschmitt is on the outs with the Republican Party altogether, announcing that Keyes is reportedly leaving the GOP and that he intends to follow suit so that he may “continue to support Dr. Keyes wherever he leads our Exodus”:

Abandon McCain's sinking ship! Man your lifeboats! I cannot violate my conscience in November. I'll make a statement with my vote, instead of wasting it on Clinton, Obama or McCain. Faith-minded people cannot tolerate evil, whatever its degree, since Christ taught us, "Be ye perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect." Show some self-respect and have faith in God. America needs principled leaders who have borne the battle for liberty and are unashamed of the wounds received in doing so. I'll vote for Alan Keyes, writing in his name if necessary. Join us, and someday you'll stand before God with your head held high, blameless and unashamed of your vote.

Rick Scarborough, a pioneer in organizing churches around partisan politics, has seen his national stature rise dramatically in the last few years—the Texas ex-pastor even starred on CNN’s “God’s Warriors” series—but he’s also faced some setbacks. His “Patriot Pastors” strategy was dealt a blow last November when voters in South Dakota rejected an abortion ban and Missourians voted in favor of embryonic stem cell research, despite non-stop church-based organizing by Scarborough in both states up to Election Day. He also discovered the fact, known by most other political advocacy groups, that full-time lobbying or organizing for or against legislation is not tax-deductible—a sad day for him.

And his latest “Patriot Pastors” campaign—the ambitious “70 Weeks to Save America” tour that was to culminate on Election Day 2008—has apparently suffered from a lack of media coverage, spotty participation, and finally abandonment by Scarborough’s partner, Alan Keyes, who is running for president again. “Needless to say, this created a serious reevaluation of our whole program to register voters and to educate Christians through our Seventy Week campaign,” wrote Scarborough, who announced that sparser church events would be “augment[ed]” by voter registration drives and rallies at state capitols, “followed by an all out effort to move Values Voters to vote their values on Election Day '08.”

But sometimes opportunity knocks. Joining Randy Brinson, head of the embattled Christian Coalition of Alabama as well as a voter-registration outfit, Scarborough is bringing his “Patriot Pastors” act to the Iowa caucuses:

Beginning December 6, Vision America will be joining forces with RedeemtheVote.com in an effort to mobilize thousands of Values Voters all over Iowa as we barnstorm the state for ten days. We have been offered the use of a bus that has been especially designed for rallies, complete with a roll out stage, satellites on the roof to connect with the worldwide media, loud speakers and spotlights.

We will be working with the Iowa Family Policy Institute as well as the Iowa Christian Alliance, two very aggressive and effective pro-family organizations. Our goal is to host three rallies a day as we crisscross the state, registering thousands of voters and mobilizing tens of thousands to vote their values during the Iowa caucuses in January.

"Fox News," "US News and World Report," and other national media have expressed interest in covering this groundbreaking event as we travel the length and breadth of this important state.

Scarborough’s “One Day Crusades” this year have so far been focused on next year’s general election. Why the sudden interest in the Republican presidential primary? Well, Scarborough has heartily endorsed his former seminary classmate, Mike Huckabee, as has Brinson. And media are reporting that Huckabee has a shot of winning the Iowa caucus.

While Scarborough’s help may or may not push Huckabee over the edge in Iowa, the activist is still hedging his bets. After all, Rudy Giuliani still leads in national polls, and some have speculated that Huckabee’s surge ultimately benefits Giuliani by siphoning off far-right support for Mitt Romney. Scarborough has publicly waffled over whether he would support Giuliani were he nominated, but while he’s said Giuliani’s stance on abortion is unacceptable, he’s also been giving himself some wiggle room. Radical Islam, he said recently, is “the ultimate life issue."

No doubt there were a handful of people scattered among the audience at the Values Voter Summit who supported Alan Keyes for president, or were at least aware that he is a candidate, so it must have ruffled one or two feathers when the M.C. boasted several times that “all 9 major Republican candidates” were speaking. Third-time GOP presidential candidate Keyes, who has appeared at two debates which the frontrunners skipped, was not invited.

Most of Keyes’s erstwhile friends have been silent, but one man has spoken out: Gordon Klingenschmitt, a.k.a. “Chaps,” the discharged Navy chaplain who has gone on tour with Keyes on Rick Scarborough’s “70 Weeks to Save America,” claiming that he was prohibited him from praying in the name of Jesus (though in reality he was discharged for violating rules against wearing his uniform at political or partisan events). “Some of you know I've endorsed Ambassador Alan Keyes for president, because I believe he's the most Christ-like candidate we have in the Republican primary,” Klingenschmitt writes.

Alan bears the political scars to prove his deep commitment to the cause of righteousness and freedom in America. Nobody can dispute his decades-long sacrifice of personal fortune and reputation to fight tirelessly beside pro-life protestors, pro-marriage families, Minutemen border guards, Ten-Commandments judges, tax-cut conservatives, strict Constitutionalists and, yes, chaplains who pray in Jesus' name.

So why did the Family Research Council, or FRC, intentionally exclude Alan Keyes from their "open invitation to all candidates, even Democrats" event this weekend in Washington, D.C.? While giving the prime-time speaking slot to Mitt Romney, FRC not only excluded Alan Keyes from the speaker's podium, even after repeated requests to include him, they didn't even list him as a choice in their straw poll. …

Was Alan's schedule already booked? No, he flew across the country from California to Washington ready to speak at FRC anytime this weekend.

Below are short biographies of those who have been mentioned as participating in tonight's "Values Voter Presidential Debate" in Fort Lauderdale, Florida:

The name Danny Harvey will probably start showing up in a lot of right-wing outlets, as he is claiming that he was fired by the Leesburg Regional Medical Center in Florida for praying "in Jesus name." The hospital says it was because he refused to be "respectful of the different religious beliefs of our patients and ... lead them in their faith in their time of need." In what comes as a surprise to absolutely nobody, former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt is already on the case and will be joining a march in protest of Harvey's firing this weekend.

Rick Scarborough, president of Vision America, writes that the recent Democratic presidential forum sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign and Logo TV was “the latest reminder of how far we have fallen from the exalted purposes upon which this nation was founded”: a “homosexual sponsored debate carried live on a homosexual television network.”

So far this political season we have had Frosty the Snowman asking questions over YouTube and now the "Gay Debates" to see just which candidate is willing to grant the most favor to a lifestyle which historical Christianity calls sinful. What’s next? The Cross Dresser Debates? Or perhaps the NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Lovers Association) Debates? Or here’s one for the ages -- The Bestiality Debates. Not possible? That’s what I thought about our leaders attending a debate sponsored by homosexuals twenty years ago.

Scarborough, a former Texas pastor, was a pioneer in developing the “Patriot Pastor” model of church-based electoral organizing, and he’s currently touring churches with Alan Keyes and ex-Navy chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt to build up a “base” for November 2008. As he explained, quoting his “Rick Scarborough Version” of the Bible at his first “One Day Crusade” last month (of a planned 70): “He who hath the most votes wins."

So far, turnout – and press coverage – has been slim for Scarborough’s events, and although reports aren’t in yet for yesterday’s scheduled rally in Sulphur Springs, Texas, organizers claim the project is “gaining momentum.” Unfortunately for them, the effort is running low on financial support.

Somehow, over the course of the last several years, loud voices on the Right have managed to convince huge numbers of Christians in thriving congregations that they are somehow under attack by all things secular -- from progressives, feminists and the culture in general to the government and the courts.

A key technique in this bogus "us-against-them" rabble-rousing is planting the idea that Christians are victimized on every front. Right-wing activists, pundits, and leaders seek to spin any and all developments in a manner that suggests they and all Christians in America are being constantly discriminated against and harassed.

At Vision America’s “The War on Christians and Values Voters” conference in 2006, right-wing activists spent two days telling one another horror stories about how people were supposedly being arrested simply for sharing their faith or losing their jobs for standing up to a government hostile to Christianity, citing ousted Ten Commandments judge Roy Moore and ousted Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt as the two most high-profile examples – Klingenschmitt ever went so far as to compare himself to Abdul Rahman, the man who faced a potential death sentence for converting to Christianity in Afghanistan.

Since then, the idea that Christians are under attack has been a standard rallying cry for the Right, cropping up most recently in their opposition to hate crimes legislation which they claim will lead to “open persecution” of Christians and pastors being dragged from the pulpit and thrown in jail.

So ingrained has this idea become on the Right that they are always on the look-out for new evidence that Christians are being victimized – and columnist, pundit, and blogger Michelle Malkin claims to have found the latest example in the group of South Korean Christians being held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan:  

Across Asia, media coverage is 24/7. Strangers have held nightly prayer vigils. But the human rights crowd in America has been largely AWOL. And so has most of our mainstream media. Among some of the secular elite, no doubt, is a blame-the-victim apathy: The missionaries deserved what they got. What were they thinking bringing their message of faith to a war zone? Didn't they know they were sitting ducks for Muslim head-choppers whose idea of evangelism is "convert or die"?

I noted the media shoulder-shrugging about jihadist targeting of Christian missionaries five years ago during the kidnapping and murder of American Christian missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham in the Philippines. The silence is rooted in viewing committed Christians as alien others. At best, there is a collective callousness. At worst, there is outright contempt -- from Ted Turner's reference to Catholics as "Jesus freaks" to CBS producer Roxanne Russell's casual insult of former GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer as "the little nut from the Christian group" to the mockery of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Mormon faith.

So the fact that media coverage has been round-the-clock in Asian nations but not round-the-clock here in the US has less to do with the fact the victims are, you know, from South Korea than it does with the fact that US media is openly hostile to Christians? 

You really have to marvel at the Right’s ability to use the kidnapping and murder of South Korean Christians in Afghanistan in order to suggest that it is really Christians here in America that are under attack.  

Vision America is carrying out a "70 Weeks to Save America" Campaign leading up to the 2008 election. So far, they've only held three of their "One Day Crusades" but they are already losing money: "Our first three crusades have been a success, but they have not been fully self supportive--meaning that we have had to subsidize them from our ongoing operational budget. We could really use your help at this time. If God has blessed you and you can afford to help us, I would be most grateful ... Gifts there are not tax deductible but they are God-Blessable."