Janet Porter (née Folger)

After Rick Perry jumped into the presidential race, the Texas governor quickly took the lead among Republican voters nationwide and in surveys in critical states like Iowa and South Carolina. Analysts reasonably predicted that the nomination would come down to a choice between Perry and Mitt Romney as other candidates like Michele Bachmann fizzled and Tim Pawlenty dropped out. Perry, who announced his candidacy following his The Response prayer rally, courted and won plaudits from Religious Right luminaries including James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Richard Land, David Barton, Don Wildmon, David Lane, James Leninger and Jerry Falwell Jr.

However, a number of disastrous debate appearances, including a painful fifty-three second brain freeze, have derailed Perry’s candidacy as Herman Cain has risen in the polls. But Cain’s nonsensical and inconsistent responses to standard questions on abortion rights and marriage equality, along with his dysfunctional and mismanaged campaign, did little to endear him tp Religious Right leaders.

New polls now have Newt Gingrich surging to second place behind Romney nationally, and second to Cain in Iowa and South Carolina. Rick Perry’s support in Iowa and South Carolina, on the other hand, dropped to four and six percent, respectively.

During Gingrich’s calamitous rollout, Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association outlined why “social conservatives and all those in the pro-family movement must have grave reservations about his candidacy”:

But actions have consequences, and his pattern of infidelity is only made worse by the fact that he divorced diseased wives to whom he had pledged himself "in sickness and in health...til death do us part."

John the Baptist famously rebuked a politician of his day for his problematic marital history, and Mr. Gingrich rightly comes in for similar censure.

Even Gingrich’s answer to Fischer, who asked Gingrich how he would “slow down the homosexual agenda,” didn’t seem to satisfy him.

But with Perry’s collapse, Bachmann and Santorum’s single digit polling and Cain’s daily gaffes, does Gingrich have a chance at becoming Romney’s chief opponent and the Religious Right’s candidate by default? He has certainly tried to endear himself to social conservatives by participating in the “One Nation Under God” event and pastor policy briefings, and pledging to wage an all-out war on the judiciary, a favorite Religious Right punching bag. Gingrich has wooed activists and groups like John Hagee, Joseph Farah, Janet Porter, Liberty University, Liberty Counsel, The Family Leader and the Minnesota Family Council, and helped funnel money to the American Family Association’s campaign to defeat Iowa Supreme Court justices who favored marriage equality.

The Washington Times today trumpeted the new conventional wisdom that Gingrich is a top contender, emphasizing his potential to gain support among social conservative voters who are cold to Romney. The Times quotes California pastor Jim Garlow, who reporter Ralph Hallow accurately notes is “credited with organizing the evangelicals in the drive to pass a same-sex marriage ban in California,” to show Gingrich’s support in the Religious Right.

What the Times reporter does not mention is the fact that Garlow is a top spiritual adviser to Newt Gingrich and heads Gingrich’s Renewing American Leadership (ReAL). Garlow tells the Times that conservative evangelical voters are far more forgiving of Gingrich’s serial adultery and multiple divorces than of Romney’s Mormon faith and flip flops:

Contrary to the beliefs of many in the party, voters on the Christian right have not written off Mr. Gingrich despite a personal history that includes multiple marriages and admitted infidelities.

“Evangelicals will definitely go for Newt if he is the nominee,” insisted Jim Garlow, credited with organizing the evangelicals in the drive to pass a same-sex marriage ban in California. “I used to hear them say, ‘He’s the smartest one in the room, but he has personal issues.’ I’ve seen an enormous shift in the past four or five months. They no longer talk about personal issues, but about intelligence and capability of being president.”

Mr. Garlow, senior pastor of the Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, said if the nomination fight came down to Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich, “I’m guessing 80 [percent] to 90 percent of the evangelical vote in America would go to Newt. Romney’s Mormonism may be a factor, but the reason I hear most is they don’t trust Romney on abortion, marriage, economics and health care.”

“I think, no question, evangelicals will go for Newt if it comes down to him and Romney,” said Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition Director Steve Scheffler, credited with organizing support for Pat Robertson’s stunning second-place finish in the 1988 Iowa caucuses. “Evangelicals are concerned with personal conduct, but most will judge people on their present conduct, and they have concluded Newt’s present lifestyle is exemplary.”

Now that Gingrich is rising in the polls, will the Religious Right have to embrace him to stop Romney?

We have previously reported that far-right activists are hyperventilating over the prospect that President Obama will use the upcoming test of the Emergency Alert System on November 9 to take absolute control over the country. Now you can add Faith 2 Action’s Janet Porter to the list. Taking a break from trying to convince the Ohio State Senate to take up her radically anti-choice ‘Heartbeat Bill,’ Porter on her radio news bulletin today expressed her fear that if the government “can take control of radio, TV, cable, and satellite systems for this, what’s to prevent them from doing it in whole or in part whenever they want.” She cried, “The real test may be on our freedom!”

Listen:

“This is only a test.”

You have probably heard those words many times on radio and TV as they momentarily interrupt the program or game that you’re trying to hear.

Next Wednesday, the federal government will be testing a new emergency system. It will be different in at least three ways: (1) its nationwide, (2) it may last as long as three-and-a-half minutes, and (3) the feds will actually take temporary control of all the airwaves.

If they can take control of radio, TV, cable, and satellite systems for this, what’s to prevent them from doing it in whole or in part whenever they want. It’s another expansion of the government into our everyday lives.

The real test may be on our freedom!

Several weeks ago, the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins hosted a press briefing at the National Press Club to discuss just what it is that the Religious Right is seeking in a Republican presidential nominee.

During the Q&A, Perkins was asked to discuss the idea that the very positions that make a candidate appealing to the Religious Right are the same positions that make such candidates unappealing to the general voting population.

Not surprisingly, Perkins took issue with that assessment and asserted instead that without the support of the Religious Right, no Republican candidate can hope to win the general elections and pointed to John McCain as proof:

This idea that a candidate that would be supported by social conservatives that would win the Republican nomination would be unacceptable to the general populace is just not true. I think the opposite it true; we saw that in the last election cycle. There was a Republican nomination that was not acceptable to social conservatives. He did not have the enthusiastic support of social conservatives and, as a result, the Republicans lost the general election.

Now, obviously McCain and the Religious Right had a rather contentious history, but to say that the McCain campaign did not receive the "enthusiastic support of social conservatives" requires one to completely ignore the rapturous lovefest that exploded when McCain announced the selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate, which we chronicled at the time:

James Dobson, Focus on the Family: "A lot of people were praying, and I believe Sarah Palin is God's answer.”

Tony Perkins, Family Research Council: “Senator McCain made an outstanding pick.”

Connie Mackey, FRCAction: “I am elated with Senator McCain's choice.”

Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel: "Absolutely brilliant choice.”

Richard Land: “Governor Palin will delight the Republican base.”

Rick Scarborough, Vision America, “I’m elated. I think it’s a superb choice."

Ralph Reed: “They’re beyond ecstatic. This is a home run.”

Gary Bauer, American Values: "[A] grand slam home run."

Phyllis Schlafly, Eagle Forum: “She is the best possible choice.”

Janet Folger, Faith2Action: “[T]he selection of Sarah Palin is more than ‘Brilliant!’ ‘Electrifying!’ and ‘Energizing!’ The selection of Sarah Palin will lead to words like: ‘Rejuvenating!’ ‘Victory!’ and ‘Landslide!’"

Wendy Wright, Concerned Women for America: “Governor Palin will change the dynamics of the entire presidential race.”

Janice Shaw Crouse, CWA's Beverly LaHaye Institute: “She is an outstanding woman who will be an excellent role model for the nation's young people.”

David Barton, Wallbuilders: "The talk won't be about, 'look at Sarah Palin' as much as 'look at what McCain's choice of Palin says about McCain's core beliefs.”

Jonathan Falwell: “John McCain made it very clear that his administration was going to be a pro-life administration, and he proved that’s his belief and his passion today with the choice of Sarah Palin.”

Jerry Falwell, Jr.: “I think it’s a brilliant choice.”

Charmaine Yoest, Americans United for Life: “And then when [Palin] was announced — it was like you couldn’t breathe. [We] were grabbing each other and jumping up and down.”

Gary Marx, Judicial Confirmation Network: "I can tell you that this pick tells millions in the base of the party that they can trust McCain. More specifically that they can trust him with Supreme Court picks and other key appointments’"

David Keene, American Conservative Union: “The selection of Governor Palin is great news for conservatives, for the party and for the country. I predict any conservatives who have been lukewarm thus far in their support of the McCain candidacy will work their hearts out between now and November for the McCain-Palin ticket."

If social conservatives were unenthusiastic about the McCain ticket last time around, some apparently forgot to tell all of these social conservatives who were gushing about just how thrilled they were. 

Earlier we reported that Personhood USA is hoping to place its extrememe personhood amendnt on the 2012 ballot in Ohio, hoping voters there will back the amendment outlawing all abortions along with certain forms of birth control, in-vitro fertilization and the treatment of ectopic pregnancies. The group’s state affiliate, Personhood Ohio, even opposes Janet Porter’s “Heartbeat bill” because it does not go far enough in criminalizing abortion. The group needs over 320,000 valid signatures to place the amendment on the ballot, and is telling Ohioans that the consequences of failure would be devastating, warning, “God’s wrath abides on Ohio for the innocent blood that has been shed in our state”:

The Bible is clear that God's curse resides upon the land where innocent people are killed without justice. (See Numbers 35:30-34, Jeremiah 18:7-10, Proverbs 6:16-17, Psalm 9:17, Jeremiah 7:5-7, Isaiah 1:15-17.) God is longsuffering, but sooner or later, judgment will fall on a land that sheds innocent blood.

Numbers 35:30-34 tells us that when innocent blood is shed in the land, the land is "defiled" and "polluted" and only justice can cleanse it. In Deuteronomy 21:1-9, we are taught that the curse of innocent blood falls upon the community nearest the crime. This curse can only be lifted through the dissemination of justice. It is the local community where the assault has been committed that is ultimately responsible for punishing assailants to protect the innocent.

Ultimately, Ohioans have no business pointing our fingers at the Supreme Court, the U.S. Congress, or the abortion advocates entrenched in political parties for the shedding of innocent blood that Ohio allows. The federal government's jurisdiction is limited by the Constitution, which only grants the feds jurisdiction over three crimes: piracy, counterfeiting, and treason. Criminal justice is a local matter. God's wrath abides on Ohio for the innocent blood that has been shed in our state, and God obligates Ohio to do justice to protect the innocent from assault and murder, and thereby purge our land from the guilt of innocent blood. Until there is justice for the preborn, there will be no lasting mercy for us.

In 1857, the Supreme Court declared that an African American slave named Dred Scott was not a man, but the property of his owner. Over two million slaves perished on the ships headed for American ports. Millions were brutalized under the American slave trade. What followed soon after the 1857 Supreme Court decision was a Civil War that resulted in the deaths of 620,000 American lives.

The Nuremberg Laws were passed in Germany in 1935, declaring Jews to be non-persons. By the end of World War 2 in 1945, 6.5 to 8.8 million German civilians and soldiers had been killed in combat.

When Israel began to sacrifice innocent children to idols under King Manasseh, God promised judgment was coming. God was longsuffering, but within four generations of Manasseh, judgment finally came. Assyria conquered the Jews, slaughtered most of them, and carried off the survivors in chains to a life of slavery. Isaiah told them why: "Your hands are full of blood" and their cities were full of "murderers" (Isaiah 1:15, 21). Jeremiah told them why: they filled their land with "the blood of innocents" (Jeremiah 2:24 & 19:4). Hosea told them why: they were "polluted with blood" (Hosea 6:8). Joel told them why: "They have shed innocent blood in their land" (Joel 3:19). Ezekiel told them why: "Thou art become guilty in the blood that thou hast shed (Ezekiel 22:24). They continued to "slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live" (Ezekiel 13:19).

God promises judgment upon every nation that sins against him (Jeremiah 18:7-10; Psalm 9:17). For every two children conceived in Ohio, one is aborted. Almost half a million Ohioans have been slaughtered in Ohio's abortion clinics the first decade of this century.

Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it.

Jim Garlow of Renewing America’s Leadership (ReAL), Newt Gingrich’s Religious Right group, told activists at Janet Porter’s Heartbeat Bill rally last week that the end of abortion in America will be remembered just like the end of the Holocaust. Garlow told the crowd that after abortion is criminalized, people will tour shuttered abortion clinics in the same way that people now tour concentration camps in Europe. Garlow, who has also been organizing the “Pulpit Initiative” to convince pastors to use more partisan political rhetoric from the pulpit, also threatened that pastors will call out any elected officials that do not support the Heartbeat Bill or other anti-choice legislation.

Watch:

And as prophets of God, any senator or any house of representative, or any legislative person, who would dare stand for abortion, will be exposed from the pulpits for exactly what they are: this is sin, we must call it what it is, it’s wrong and it must stop now. I’m the out-of-stater so I can get by with more than perhaps you can, but any senator that would dare stand on this platform and lecture us about the inappropriateness of a bill that will block ninety-five percent of abortions must go! This is not going to be tolerated, it is wrong! It is morally, biblically wrong!

…

I have taken people on tours of the concentration camps in Germany on church history tours across Europe, and when I take them to Buchenwald, I say I want you to know that someday, someday in America, people are going to tour the abortuaries, and they’re gonna say: you’re not gonna believe what actually happened to other human beings in these places. And they’re gonna say, where was the church when this was going on? And we’re gonna say, we rose up, and we made a difference, and in Ohio we put a stop to it, this day!

Janet Porter continues to post videos from the Heartbeat Bill rally she organized earlier this week.  Yesterday it was Ducia Hamm of the Ashland Care Center who showed an ultrasound of a fetus waving to the crowd and today it is Julie Busby of Ohio Right To Life comparing the supporters of this legislation to Moses because they both have God on their side while those who don't support the bill are going to be judged by God:

And just like God was behind Moses to free his people, God is behind the people supporting this bill to stop the killing. How do I know that? Because God will never support a people or a nation that support the massacre of its children, okay? We've got fifty million children that have been legally murdered in this nation and the streets are crying out with their blood. We cannot be so arrogant as a nation to think we will not face the same fate as other nations that have cooperated with this type of evil.

This is what's going on, this is a reality, this is happening right now. We have a chance, in this moment in time, to stop the killing.

For those Senators who support this bill, you're already on the winning side. But those who don't, am I suggesting your fate is going to end up like Pharaoh? No, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is this: I have yet to see a man stand in the face of a hurricane and put up his hand and tell it to stop. If you do, you're a fool and not only are you a fool, but you are probably a dead fool. And when we thumb our noses at God and act like somehow we're beyond the reach of his judgement, it is like a man standing in the face of a hurricane and telling it to stop.

• Pamela Geller declares victory in the ten million dollar lawsuit filed against her.
• Richard Land explains how the death penalty is actually pro-life.
• Focus on the Family warns that liberals are using cute, fuzzy animals to brainwash kids into supporting homosexuality.
• Bryan Fischer explains that we have to support Israel because God said so.
• Janet Porter's "Heartbeat Bill" prayer rally reportedly drew hundreds of participants.

Tomorrow, Janet Porter is bringing self-appointed "prophets" like Lou Engle and Rick Joyner together with Religious Right activists like Wendy Wright and Rick Scarborough for a "Heartbeat Bill" rally in Ohio.

And for her efforts, she is being profiled by the Associated Press which, to its credit, actually mentions that Porter only ended up back in Ohio after her career as a Religious Right activist fell apart when her radio program was dropped due to her embrace of Dominionism:

Last year, Porter was let go by Milwaukee-based VCY America, a conservative evangelical radio network, for allegedly promoting radical "dominion" theology.

The network stated as much on the air at the time, but did not return calls for further comment. Porter said her show's cancellation stemmed from statements made during an 8-hour May Day Prayer Rally she staged at the Lincoln Memorial in May 2010, which the network believed promoted dominionism and its idea of strong Christian influence over government, to the point of theocracy.

"That was an accusation because (of) somebody they didn't like that prayed at the event," she said. "I had never even heard of that term. Somebody had explained it to me that everybody wants to build some sort of Utopia for Jesus to come back, and I said, 'Well, that's not how I read my Bible, because in Revelation, things are supposed to get really bad.' So if that's the definition of dominionism, I'm not one of 'em."

Porter called being let go "a blessing in disguise," as she's now recording a 60-second radio spot on more stations elsewhere and working on the heartbeat bill.

Porter's claim that her radio program was dropped because VCY didn't like somebody that prayed at her prayer rally is absolutely false, as the station made clear in its announcement that she had ignored the their repeated warnings about her embrace of Dominion Theology.

Likewise, the idea that Porter "had never even heard that term," is laughably false considering that she was writing columns for WorldNetDaily called "Stop whining and take dominion!," declaring that Christians are to "occupy until Jesus comes, to take dominion in every area," speaking at events entitled "Sovereignty & Dominion," and praying for God to give Christians control over the media and every level of government.

It sure is odd how all of these people who have been actively promoting dominionism for years have suddenly developed collective amnesia about it now that it is in the news.

Mississippi is set to vote this November on a patently unconstitutional personhood amendment that would criminalize abortion in their state, and ‘personhood’ advocates now strive to put a similar amendment on the ballot in Ohio in 2012. Personhood laws would not only prohibit abortion in all cases but also ban certain forms of birth control and the treatment of ectopic pregnancies by giving legal rights to zygotes. The anti-choice activists hope that Ohio will vote on it at the same time as the swing state’s closely contested presidential election. Right now Ohio is on the brink of passing Janet Porter’s ‘Heartbeat bill’ that would ban abortion in the vast majority of cases, but Porter has taken heat that her prized legislation doesn’t go as far as personhood laws.

The American Family Association, which is financing the personhood campaign in Mississippi, reports that Personhood Ohio, the state affiliate of Personhood USA, wants the amendment, if passed, enforced even if it is struck down by the courts. “There's a firm legal precedent that when the judiciary rules unconstitutionally and immorally, that we have no obligation to respect that law any more than if they would have ordered us to kill our wives,” said Patrick Johnston of Personhood Ohio, “We don't have to obey them:

A campaign is under way in Ohio to place a Personhood Amendment on the 2012 ballot.

Article 1, Section 1 of the Ohio Constitution currently reads: "All persons are, by nature, free and independent and have certain inalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life..." The Personhood Amendment would add that "the word 'person' or 'persons' applies to every human being at every stage of biological development of that human being or human organism, including fertilization."

The idea is to amend the state constitution to define that a person is a person when human life begins at conception or fertilization. Dr. Patrick Johnston of Zanesville, a family physician who heads the campaign, says the constitutional addition would protect all unborn babies in Ohio, without exception. Personhood Ohio volunteers must now obtain 380,000 signatures to call for the election.

"It's a good state to go directly to the voters to gather enough signatures, and then go to the voters and the ballot box and bypass the committees that end up corrupting good pro-life legislation in the House of Representatives and the Senate," Johnston explains.

That corruption, he sayts [sic], reaches the point where exceptions are made that result in abortions. But he believes Ohio's pro-life leaning is strong, so even if a court rules against it, it does not necessarily mean anything.

"There [are] several constitutional measures we can take," the physician asserts. "One is we can ignore it. There's a firm legal precedent that when the judiciary rules unconstitutionally and immorally, that we have no obligation to respect that law any more than if they would have ordered us to kill our wives. We don't have to obey them."