Voting

One thing I find fascinating about the Religious Right is how seemingly every major new organization or effort that it launches is literally the same as every other organization or effort it has ever launched.

Just today I noted how yet another group was calling for 40 days of prayer heading into the mid-term elections, as if all the other calls to 40 days of prayer and fasting were not enough.

Similarly, it seems like every few weeks, some new Religious Right group is formed that does exactly the same thing all of the other Religious Right groups are doing.

And now we have Glenn Beck announcing the formation of his Black Robe Regiment:

Apparently, the idea began with Beck's favorite historian, David Barton. When Beck told Barton he wanted to "get religious leaders together," Barton suggested forming a Black Robe Regiment -- named after what Barton had said was a group of preachers who supported the American Revolution from their pulpits. Beck decided that was "exactly" what he was looking for because it was a movement supposedly like his that was "not about politics."

Beck then described the first meeting he held with "the largest evangelical leaders in the country" some of whom had been involved in the Christian Coalition. ... Beck elaborated on his call to "mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes," calling on his listeners to "tithe 10 percent" and encouraging them to "sacrifice our fortunes so our children don't have to pay for our lifestyle." Beck implored his listeners: "You must tithe because these people [the Black Robe Regiment] are going to be in trouble. They're going to come under attack."

So Beck's brilliant idea is to bring together a bunch of Religious Right leaders in an effort to motivate pastors to play a bigger role in politics and the culture?

Has Beck never heard of the Patriot Pastors?

Fellow pastor Russell Johnson lacks [Rod] Parsley's charisma, but he has mastered the art of organizing. His group, the Ohio Restoration Project (ORP), recruited nearly 1,800 churches with "Patriot Pastors" and deputized them to draft new "values voters."

The ministers signed 410,000 Ohio homes onto Johnson's mailing list, and the ORP can tap 100,000 prayer warriors through e-mail in a moment's notice. This is more than just a group of voters ready to punch some ballots. According to ORP outreach materials, it is a "mighty army" ready to do battle.

While Johnson reaches white evangelicals and fundamentalists, Parsley appeals to both African Americans and Pentecostals. Together, the two men have forged a political machine that aims to remake Ohio politics—and the nation.

Or what about the US Pastor Council?

The mission of the Houston Area Pastor Council and sister councils in USPC is to empower pastors and their congregations across racial and denominational lines to impact the culture and community through concerted prayer, to equip our congregations for effective citizenship and to provide a unified voice on spiritual, cultural, social and moral issues from a Biblical perspective. The AMERICA Plan was developed as a Purpose Statement of how pastors and churches can and must enage in godly citizenship.

HAPC has become a respected voice on front line cultural and political issues from a non-partisan perspective, holding elected officials of both major parties and non-partisan offices to a Biblical standard. The Pastors' Declaration of Godly Citizenship was developed to clarify the core values of this coalition.

HAPC has conducted numerous luncheons, workshops, rallies, elected official summits, Pastors' Day At the Capitol and many other activities bringing pastors together, proving top quality Biblical, historical, legal and public policy information as well as standing in the gap for our nation.

Or what about the Pulpit Initiative:

Historically, churches have emphatically, and with great passion, spoken Scriptural truth from the pulpit about government and culture. Historians have stated that America owes its independence in great degree to the moral force of the pulpit. Pastors have proclaimed Scriptural truth throughout history on great moral issues such as slavery, women’s suffrage, child labor and prostitution. Pastors have also spoken from the pulpit with great frequency for and against various candidates for government office ... It is time for the intimidation and threats to end. Churches and pastors have a constitutional right to speak freely and truthfully from the pulpit – even on candidates and voting – without fearing loss of their tax exemption.

Or the Watchmen on the Wall:

Watchmen on the Wall" is a powerful conference in the nation's capital especially designed for pastors and ministers, based on Isa. 62:6: "I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem. They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent..." FRC launched the Briefing in May 2004 to:

* Remind spiritual leaders of our nation's Judeo-Christian heritage.
* Inform them about the moral issues being debated in the public square.
* Ignite their passion to become watchmen who will sound the alarm.
* Inspire them to encourage their churches to engage the culture.

Our hope is that you will return home encouraged and educated about the issues of the day that affect faith and family and that you will be inspired to share with your congregations what they may do to take a more active role as salt and light in your community and government.

Or what about the Patriotic Pastors, or Pastors for Family Values, or even the Patriot Pastors’ T.E.A. Party?

And those are the groups I can think of just off the top of my head. 

Obviously, none of the previous efforts have accomplished their goals - if they had, there would be no need to keep launching new groups with the exact same mission over and over again. 

But apparently Beck believes that Beck thinks that he (with the help of the very Religious Right leaders behind all these other efforts) has finally found the key:  getting pastors more engaged in the political process. 

Gee, why has nobody ever thought of that before?  

At regular intervals, the Family Research Council sends out updates to its "Prayer Team" listing a variety of political issues that team members should make the target of their prayers.

A recent update called upon FRC's prayer activists to focus on the upcoming election because for too long America has elected politicians who lead "flagrantly godless personal lives" and "pass ungodly laws":

The American electoral process has the potential to produce qualified candidates, yet year after year we elect men and women who enter public office and pass ungodly laws. Some lead unwholesome, even flagrantly godless personal lives. Yet far too many of our pastors and Christian leaders have remained uninvolved, failing even to teach and preach about responsible Christian citizenship ... It is our duty to select leaders who respect the sanctity of human life, traditional marriage and family, and religious liberty and who oppose pernicious efforts to advance abortion, sexual immorality, socialism, profligate government spending, and now, Muslim Sharia law. Praying, fasting, speaking out and taking extraordinary action during the next 81 days, Christians must follow biblical principles (e.g., Exodus 18:21) in voting their values.

And FRC listed a specific set of issues on which the prayer team was to concentrate in order to reverse this trend - namely the Values Voter Summit, the Prop 8 ruling, Rifqa Bary, and Park 51:

- Pray that God will pour out his Spirit upon this year's [Values Voter Summit]; that it will be the best yet -- life-changing and nation-shaking.

- May God give our lawyers wisdom and may He superintend a complete reversal to vouchsafe Biblical marriage in U.S. federal judicial precedent.

- May God protect Rifqa's health. May U.S. officials help her along the road to citizenship. May God guide her education and her promising and needed ministry!

- May America reject this Mosque and the wider Islamist political agenda! May the Church stand against all false religion, while reaching out to Muslims with love.

Jim Garlow played a central role in the passage of Proposition 8 and was, not surprisingly, outraged by the court decision striking it down, claiming that it would lead to polygamy and bestiality.

Alan Colmes had Garlow on his program on Friday night to discuss that claim and Garlow stood by it, claiming that the language in the decision could ultimately be used to defend polygamy though he seemed to back off from the bestiality language a bit, claiming that Colmes had taken half of a quote and presented it out of context (of course, Colmes did nothing of the sort, as Garlow made the same bestiality comparison on more than one occasion.)

Eventually, the debate turned to the topic of religious freedom, with Garlow insisting that gay marriage would mean that doctors, businesses, and everyone else would have to recognize them under penalty of law, which prompted Colmes to ask Garlow if he was saying that people ought to be able to freely discriminate, which is exactly the view that recently got Rand Paul in trouble, to which Garlow replied "racism is wrong, and marriage is a good thing" and insisted that he has every right to take his religious views into the voting booth and "vote from a Biblical standpoint the same way that you have a right to vote from an anti-Biblical standpoint":

Those who want to know more about Garlow's opposition to the ruling can read this lengthy blog post he wrote slamming it or watch this eleven minute video he released doing the same thing:

Jim Garlow, pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church, was a key leader in the effort to pass Proposition 8 and earlier this year explained how he brought Lou Engle in to lead their prayer and fasting effort; an effort which paid off where somewhere between 4:20-4:50 pm on November 1 during TheCall rally in San Diego they felt that "something had snapped in the Heavenlies" and "we knew God had moved":

Garlow's Prop 8 success led Newt Gingrich to tap to him to head his new Renewing American Leadership organization ... and so it is not particularly surprising to see Garlow (and Engle) reacting with alarm to the court decision striking down their handiwork:

"The next court case could conceivably say that if three people wanted to marry or four people or five people or if someone wanted to marry their dog or their horse, they have a right to that because no longer do we have a right to ‘discriminate' based on equal protection," Garlow said.

Proposition 8 advocates argue that same-sex marriage is not ideal for child rearing, but they say it also has serious implications on religious freedom.

"It's a chilling moment," said TheCall founder Lou Engle, who organized a prayer rally in support of Proposition 8 in September 2008. "Democracy is crumbling, and I believe, again, we're going to see the persecution of the church. ... Across the board, religious freedom now is being trumped by gender freedom."

Garlow said in several areas where gay marriage has been legalized, Christians have lost personal and religious liberties. He points to Swedish pastor Ake Green, who was jailed after preaching that homosexuality is a sin, and to a Christian camp in Ocean Grove, N.J., that lost a discrimination lawsuit filed after it refused to allow a lesbian couple to hold a commitment ceremony at its facility.

"If we lose on this one, we lose the capacity to be able to proclaim the gospel as we know it," Garlow said.

And, as we've noted before, Garlow and Engle are planning to dust off their Prop 8 playbook heading into the 2010 midterm elections: 

The case could take years to reach the Supreme Court, but conservative observers believe Wednesday's ruling could impact the upcoming midterm election. Garlow said voters with conservative moral values "are going to rise up and say enough is enough."

He and Engle are encouraging that kind of activism through Pray & Act, an initiative calling for 40 days of prayer and fasting in the run up to Nov. 2. The effort begins Sept. 20 and ends with a webcast event at the Lincoln Memorial Oct. 30.

Garlow said he believes there is a 27-month window to "turn" the nation toward biblical values. "I'm not trying to deadline God, but my sensing is we have a short window left after which it will be too late to see America ever return to any sense of God-honoring truths," he said. "That being the case, prayer and fasting is critical."

Engle, too, is urging prayer and political activism. He believes the timing of TheCall Sacramento, being held Sept. 3-4, is strategic.

"God, in times of crisis, calls for solemn assemblies when there is no hope and there's no remedy," Engle said. "I think this is an incredible opportunity for people to gather from all over America to say: ‘God, we have no recourse ... We are coming to You for help in the time of trouble, to ask forgiveness for treating so lightly marriage in the church.'

"We [will] come together and ask God for some kind of sovereign intervention," he added. "We need to pray for a great awakening."

In his latest column, Bishop Harry Jackson explains why he has been so focused on fighting marriage equality in Washington DC.

First, it is because marriage equality "will create conflict between people who fervently believe in traditional marriage and the law" and people like Jackson will inevitably lose.

But Jackson's primary reason is because his father was once threatened by a racist, Southern cop who sought to prevent him from voting ... which is exactly what politicians and judges in Washington, DC are trying to do to Jackson and company today:

In the early ’50’s my father, a World War II veteran, got involved in the struggle for national voter rights. Blacks were being systematically excluded from the prize right of our constitution - the right to vote.

In 1954, he was threatened at gunpoint by a state trooper in a blood-drenched southern state, who shot a live round just over my father’s head as a threat. He was told that if he did not stop rabble rousing, the next time the trooper would not miss. I was told this story over and over again as the reason my family migrated north to Cincinnati, Ohio and later Washington. Once in Ohio, my father made a pledge that he would remain actively engaged in grassroots politics. Dad was one of tens of thousands of blacks abused, threatened, or treated worse under “the terrorism” of the Jim Crow days.

In many ways, I feel that I am reliving family history. The idea that heavy-handed politicians can still steal the people’s right to vote amazes me. Like my father, I say, “Not on my watch!”

• Rick Santorum is seriously considering running for President in 2012.  Awesome.  He and Newt Gingrich can battle it out for those voters looking to support failed former politicians.
• Joseph Farah pretty much loses it over the fact that Lindsey Graham and Richard Lugar are supporting Elena Kagan.
• The Susan B. Anthony is launching a $100,000 campaign to get Hispanic voters to support Carly Fiorina.
• Peter LaBarbera declares the Gay Liberation Network to be a "homosexual hate organization."
• Cindy Jacobs is launching her own 40-day fast before the election that will overlap with the one being launched by Pray and ACT.
• Finally, religious families raise better children. So now you know.

Cindy Jacobs reports that on July 17, God spoke to her and warned that America was on the verge of slipping into "another Great Depression" and the only hope of stopping it was for massive prayer, fasting, revival, support for Israel ... and, of course, proper voting: 

A few days ago as I watched the financial news, the Lord clearly spoke these words to me, "The nation is teetering!" I then had a vision of the economy of the United States, on what looked like a "scale of justice." He then went on to show me that we must fast, pray and cry out to the Lord for mercy and solutions that will balance righteousness and justice.

In praying to the Lord for wisdom about this word, I realized what must be done—it is time for the Church in America to stand up and take her place once again in the nation. I mulled over the fact that we have already lost so many of our liberties and this is what I heard, "If the Church doesn't fast and pray for a faster acceleration of revival and awakening, the iniquitous sin structures in the nation will tip the scale that is teetering and there will be another great depression."

Of course, this word shook me to the core of my being. Many of you may be aware that the Holy Spirit spoke to me almost a year before the September 2008 economic melt down, that there would be "no more business as usual."

The balance of the economy is fragile and depending on the way we fast, pray, and how we cast our votes in the next election will depend on which way the scale tips. We must pray and do. We must pray and act. We must awaken the Church to the state of the nation without fear of pleasing man or fear for our reputation.

God is watching to see which way the die will be cast. If we shift the nation to Biblical values in the arenas of righteousness and justice, the economy will follow. If we continue in our stance of support for Israel, the Stock Market will stabilize and prosper, and that which is fragile will become strong. Supernatural solutions will be sent from Heaven that our natural minds could never reason, nor grasp and they will heal the land.

If we do not heed in this hour there will be a tumbling of our economy and dark days will be ahead to such a degree that our nation will possibly never fully recover from and have the greatness as a nation that God has favored us with for generations.

God have mercy. God send an awakening. God send salvation.

Perhaps you remember Bill Keller, who calls himself "the world's leading internet evangelist," from his campaign during the 2008 GOP primary to make it known that anyone who voted for Mitt Romney was really voting for Satan.

Romney, you see, is a Mormon and Mormonism is a "cult founded by a murdering polygamist pedophile named Joseph Smith" and so any vote for Romney was a vote for Satan.

You know who is also a Mormon? Glenn Beck. 

And so Keller is back to warn all those Christians who have been flocking to Beck that his false religion is leading them all to Hell: 

Keller states, "Beck likes to call out people for their lies and deception, yet he portrays himself daily as a Christian. The fact is, the beliefs of the satanic Mormon cult are totally inconsistent with Biblical Christianity. He uses the words "god" and "jesus," yet the god and jesus of the Mormon cult are NOT the God and Jesus of the Bible!"

Keller continues, "The 'god' of the Mormon cult used to be a human who rose to god-like status, just like Beck and all Mormons believe they will too after their death. The 'jesus' of the Mormon cult is the natural offspring of their 'god' Elohim who had sex with Mary, meaning their jesus is a created being and NOT a deity as the Bible teaches, and is the brother of Lucifer."

Keller concludes, "I could care less what Beck chooses to believe, but I do care that he lies to people by stating he is a Christian when a person who believes in the lies of the Mormon cult is no more a Christian than a Muslim is. Most appalling are prominent Christians who have sold out the faith to associate with Beck, more worried about what financial gain they will get from that association than helping him lead ignorant souls to hell for following his cult's beliefs."

The last time we wrote about Dave Welch, executive director of the US Pastor Council, he was apologizing for having let the "enemy" triumph in Houston when openly gay candidate Annise Parker was elected mayor and warning that Parker's election was a evidence of the "cancer of the soul" of America.

Now Welch is back to dispute the idea that one can be a Christian and vote for Democrats and to offer up a plan for defeating the "Fourth Reich of the Obama/Pelosi/Reid":

The political awakening birthed by the Fourth Reich of the Obama/Pelosi/Reid regime has inspired tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of Americans to step up and get involved. That is a good thing and may result in a major political shift in one branch of Congress as well as state legislatures and more governors – again.

The bottom line is that the pulpits of this nation had better get back to the business of preaching the undiluted, uncompromised word of God as applied to all vital current issues and then demand that Christians vote those principles.

If just 10 percent of our moderate- to large-size churches will effectively execute the AMERICA Plan in their churches, we not only will make temporary political changes, but will have pumped the bilgewater out of the hold and set the ship back on the right course.

Don't get mad at politicians for failing on border security, immigration, fiscal responsibility, sanctity of life, defense of marriage and family, etc., if you don't vote in every election and vote God's values, not yours.

In addition to his AMERICA Plan, Welch has unveiled a Pastors’ Declaration of Godly Citizenship [PDF] through which religious leaders vow to get every member of their church to vote and to do so in accordance with the values set out in the declaration:

We believe that the Holy Bible is inerrant, infallible and inspired by God; it is the only revealed source of all truth relevant to the governing of the person and of nations.

We believe that all authorities are subordinate to God, including family, church and government authorities, therefore the actions and decisions of each will be accountable to Him.

We believe that the primary agent for transforming personal lives, society and culture is a clear presentation and acceptance of the hope found exclusively in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

We believe that Jesus’ prayer to the Father for oneness within the body is an absolute necessity for us to endeavor to fulfill, transcending all racial, cultural and ethnic barriers in order to receive His on-going presence and guidance.

We believe that the church has a unique and sacred role in proclaiming God's principles to leaders of a city, state and nation, with government limited to its Biblical and Constitutional purpose as protector of the innocent, punisher of the evildoer and NOT provider of our wants or needs.

We believe that all innocent life from conception to natural death must be protected and valued by the people and our government to the fullest extent of the law as the highest priority of government.

We believe that marriage is a God-created relationship as the lifetime union of one natural man and one natural woman for the blessing of both, the good of the people and the foundation of the family for legitimate procreation.

We believe that the traditional, nuclear family of a married father and mother raising their biological and/or adopted children in a nurturing and protective environment is the essential building block of a stable community and a nation; it therefore must be promoted and protected by both church and state.

We believe that equal justice based on God's eternal standards - not the 'will of the majority' - to punish evil and protect the innocent regardless of color, gender or creed is fundamental to legitimate government.

Accordingly, I commit my role as Senior Pastor to lead my congregation by training them in these principles to apply them in their homes, workplaces and voting decisions at all levels; to actively seek 100% levels of voter registration and turnout, and finally to stand with all other pastors in my community who join me in this declaration.