« Russell Johnson
February 5, 2008
Easy Targets
The infamous Dred Scott Supreme Court decision—declaring enslaved blacks to be property and presaging the Civil War—is often invoked by opponents of abortion rights, who make the analogy that Roe v. Wade is to fetuses as Dred Scott is to African Americans. Rod Parsley does them one better, arguing that Roe v. Wade is to African Americans just as Dred Scott is to African Americans.
Last week, the Ohio televangelist used his TV show to claim that reproductive health-care providers were trying to “exterminate” African Americans. On Sunday he aired a sermon version of the same argument—and paired it with a get-out-the-vote message for his viewers in Super Tuesday states. Warning that a candidate victorious in today’s primaries will likely become president, and will appoint Supreme Court justices and sign or veto abortion legislation, Parsley’s show told viewers, “Our democracy is too important for Christians to be silent any more.”
Parsley appears to have largely abstained from campaigning around the presidential election so far, but it’s hard to imagine him being apolitical in the coming year. In 2004 and 2006, Parsley and Russell Johnson, another Columbus-area megachurch pastor, teamed up to run a church-based political machine driving the successful anti-gay marriage initiative and the unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign of Ken Blackwell. Calling themselves “Patriot Pastors,” they vowed to wage war against their political opponents—“secular jihadists,” the “forces of darkness,” and the “hordes of hell.”
The Cleveland Plain Dealer caught up with Parsley’s comrade Johnson, who headed the Ohio Restoration Project alongside Parsley’s Reformation Ohio. The groups promised to save souls while moving hundreds of thousands of voters to the polls, all while hosting candidate Blackwell at events around the state. Johnson promises more “Patriot Pastor”-style organizing—but without being so blatant about it:
Johnson said he expects that Ohio's Christian leadership will become more active once primary season is over, with varying emphasis on social issues, economics and national security from a conservative point of view. …
Johnson said political activity among preachers might look a little different than it did in the past, when he and the Rev. Parsley and their Patriot Pastors movement drew accusations of violating their churches' tax-exempt status by campaigning for Blackwell. (The pastors denied that they officially backed any particular candidate.)
In any case, leaders don't want to become "an easy target," Johnson says, so they are unlikely to give themselves a moniker. But they will be spreading information through e-mail networks, creating discussion groups and voter guides, and urging people to "get registered, get informed, go vote and take somebody with you."
Posted by Ezra at 5:46 PM | Permalink
June 14, 2007
CBN Buys 'Patriot Pastors' Spin on Electioneering
In the past year, the IRS has investigated some churches over whether their political advocacy exceeded their non-profit parameters in the tax code -- in which contributions are private and tax deductible – and pushed into the realm of regulated political action committees that give up some of the subsidies for charity and are required to disclose their work on behalf of candidates for office. Yesterday, reporter Michael Haverluck of Pat Robertson’s CBN looked at this complex issue, and whittled it down to its corresponding far-right talking point:
Will pastors' ability to speak to their congregations about social and moral issues erode, or will their appeals to the First Amendment protect this right?
Haverluck cited as an example the activities of World Harvest Church of Ohio, led by televangelist Rod Parsley. Parsley, along with fellow Columbus-area megachurch pastor Russell Johnson, partnered with Ken Blackwell for a series of church “policy briefings” and political rallies, encouraging pastors across the state to mobilize their members to “vote their values” – all while Blackwell was running for governor. At issue was not “speak[ing] … about social and moral issues” so much as the pastors’ apparently brazen use of their churches to campaign for a candidate. Their efforts to build a new church-based political machine are described in People For the American Way’s report on these so-called “Patriot Pastors.”
In Haverluck’s telling, Parsley just happened to bump into Blackwell a couple of times:
Though Pastor Rod Parsley invited Republican and Democratic candidates to World Harvest Church's events, only Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell showed up.
Blackwell is a conservative Christian who opposes abortion and gay marriage. His stance on these issues with Parsley motivated 56 liberal clergy to call for in an IRS investigation.
One complaint accuses Parsley of supporting Blackwell's run for governor by letting him speak at events. Another claims that Parsley planned on having Blackwell on his radio spots, a baseless allegation denied by the pastor and the politician.
It is also contested without evidence that Parsley's "Reformation Ohio" project, aiming to register 400,000 new voters, seeks only conservatives.
In fact, Parsley and Johnson hosted Blackwell as the featured guest speaker at numerous events, in which the candidate was honored with some award or endorsed explicitly from the stage. Parsley even flew Blackwell to one “Patriot Pastor” function on a church-owned plane. This campaign was only part of a broader agenda to promote Blackwell at bigger and bigger rallies featuring famous religious-right leaders, leading up to the primary election and beyond, and indeed including radio spots featuring Blackwell. The radio spots and the rallies with James Dobson never materialized, but far from being a “baseless allegation,” this plan was posted publicly on Johnson’s “Ohio Restoration Project” web site in 2005: you can read it here.
Blackwell’s lopsided loss in 2006 was certainly a major setback to Parsley’s efforts to build a “Patriot Pastor” political machine, but don’t count the charismatic pastor out: His new book, “Culturally Incorrect,” is currently 15 on Publisher’s Weekly’s bestseller list.
Posted by Ezra at 4:55 PM | Permalink
October 11, 2006
'Values Voters' Failing Blackwell in Ohio Governor's Race
Bread-and-butter issues take center stage, reports The Washington Post. And apparently in Ohio’s black churches as well, despite common ground with white evangelicals on social wedge issues.
Posted by Ezra at 11:59 PM | Permalink
October 10, 2006
Patriot Pastors Continue to Rally “Values Voters”
Russell Johnson says “The forces of darkness … should never silence people of faith.”
Posted by Kyle at 4:39 PM | Permalink
October 9, 2006
Influential Arlington Group and Others Call on 'Values Voters' to Look Past Foley
AFA’s Don Wildmon says sitting out election is “precisely what the liberals” have “orchestrated.” Dobson, citing Supreme Court, says this election may turn country’s direction, “maybe forever.” FRC’s Perkins and Ohio “Patriot Pastor” Russell Johnson predict strong turnout anyway.
Posted by Ezra at 11:59 PM | Permalink
October 4, 2006
In Ohio Gov. Debate, Strickland Says Parsley, Johnson the 'Backbone' of Blackwell’s Campaign
‘Patriot Pastors’ cited in GOP rift. Also, Blackwell says there’d be “very few” African Americans if there had been a rape exception to an abortion ban in slavery times.
Posted by Ezra at 11:59 PM | Permalink
August 1, 2006
Ohio "Patriot Pastor" Leader Endorses Whisper Campaign Against Democrat
Last week an Ohio GOP "social conservative coordinator" and erstwhile director of the Ohio Restoration Project launched an Internet-based rumor campaign against Ted Strickland, the Democratic candidate for governor. The operative, Gary Lankford, suggested that Strickland and his wife are gay and that he is sympathetic to child molesters. The GOP fired Lankford, who also runs a Christian homeschool program, and the spokesman for Republican candidate Kenneth Blackwell's campaign, which had employed Lankford during the primary, denied involvement.In an editorial, Columbus Dispatch political reporter Joe Hallett excoriates the Ohio GOP for its "Houdini act" in denying the effort, which he describes in detail:
On July 17, Lankford launched an e-mail titled "10 Things to Know About Ted Strickland." The e-mail noted that Strickland married his wife, Frances, at 46, they have no children and they live apart, which, in truth, is the case when Strickland is tending to his congressional duties in Washington. Lankford linked readers to an Internet blog written by Scott Pullins, who questioned the sexual orientation of both Stricklands.
Pullins is best known as the former anti-tax crusading head of the Ohio Taxpayers Association. He lost his credibility around the Statehouse when he gave the green light to corporate-tax increases in a budget-balancing bill and later attacked GOP lawmakers for tax increases.
In addition, Hallett reports that Russell Johnson, the megachurch pastor who created the Ohio Restoration Project as a way to organize so-called "Patriot Pastors" around selected causes and candidates like Blackwell, is standing by his former lieutenant.
In an interview Thursday, Johnson perpetuated the rumor by suggesting that the Stricklands file a lawsuit and go to court to prove they are heterosexuals. If Lankford’s claim is untrue, Johnson said, "It’s slanderous and they’ve got a case. I’m withholding judgment until the facts are in."
Unlike the Ohio GOP, which eventually fired Lankford and issued Strickland an apology, Johnson wants Strickland to prove he is not gay.
Posted by Ezra at 3:08 PM | Permalink
July 28, 2006
"Patriot Pastor" Manager and GOP Operative Looks to Whisper Campaign
As of last week, Gary Lankford was listed as state director of the Ohio Restoration Project, an obstensibly nonpartisan organization based out of Russell Johnson's Fairfield Christian Church. The ORP has played a critical role in Republican Kenneth Blackwell's campaign for governor, honoring the candidate at meetings of "Patriot Pastors" across the state. "This is to elect values candidates," said Johnson of his group.But as the Columbus Dispatch reports, that's not the only role Lankford has been playing in Ohio politics. Acting as the Ohio GOP's "social conservative coordinator," Lankford recently distributed an e-mail to spread rumors about Blackwell's Democratic opponent, Ted Strickland, and his wife.
The e-mail, obtained by The Dispatch, was sent to an undisclosed group of GOP supporters — with instructions to forward it to others — by Gary Lankford, whom the party hired in July as its "social conservative coordinator." He was paid $16,000 as a "voter contact consultant" for the primary-election campaign of GOP gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell before taking the party job.
Among other things, the e-mail says Strickland married his wife, Frances, at 46, has no children and lives apart from her. It also links readers to an Internet blog that directly questions the sexual orientation of both Stricklands and notes accusations he is "soft on those who sexually assault children."
Blackwell and ORP chairman Johnson often insinuate that their political opponents are something akin to enemies of Christianity in America, and recently, Blackwell said that Democrats like Strickland "believe government is God." Standing by the remark, his spokesman added that Strickland's allies believe "God and faith have no place in the public square." Early polls suggest that charges of anti-Christian sentiments may not stick against Strickland, himself a United Methodist minister. Perhaps the rumor campaign started by Lankford--an operative of both the Republican Party and the church-based Ohio Restoration Project--portends a blunter approach in the next three months.
UPDATE: The Ohio Republican Party has fired Lankford, the AP reports.
Posted by Ezra at 2:34 PM | Permalink
July 21, 2006
Christian Coalition Loses Chapter in Ohio
The day after former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed lost the Republican primary for Georgia lieutenant governor amidst Abramoff-related charges of corruption and hypocrisy, the Christian Coalition of Ohio severed ties with the national group, renaming itself the Ohio Christian Alliance. The realignment is just the latest event in years of decline for the Christian Coalition, founded by Pat Robertson in 1989 and influential in the Republican takeover of the House in 1994. The national group's budget has sunk from $26 million in 1996 to $1 million, and finds itself $2 million in debt with creditors bringing lawsuits against it. The Iowa chapter split off in March, saying, "We believe, our board believes, any Christian organization has an obligation to pay its debts in a timely fashion."
Steve Scheffler, president of the newly-christened Iowa Christian Alliance, told The Washington Times that the CC of America no longer has grassroots support -- and he cites the national group's support for a tax reform measure in Alabama, championed by a Republican governor but opposed by the state chapter. "When a faith-based group can't get it right on a tax increase, how do you motivate the base?" wondered Scheffler.
Such an unabashed synthesis of "faith-based" issues and an issue like taxes may serve the now-independent Ohio Christian Alliance well in a state that has seen the rise of such groups--such as the "Patriot Pastors" of Rod Parsley and Russell Johnson--whose agendas seem fortuitously suited to the Republican platform.
For her part, CC of America President Roberta Combs responded, "We're not $2 million in debt. A lot of debt has been paid off. We have a budget of more than $1 million now, and we're still here."
Posted by Ezra at 10:00 AM | Permalink
July 19, 2006
Ohio "Patriot Pastors" Bite Back on Politicking Criticism
Columbus, Ohio area megachurch pastors Rod Parsley and Russell Johnson have been at the center of the race for governor, having organized a network of so-called “Patriot Pastors” through rallies and events starring the Republican candidate, Ken Blackwell. At one point, the web site of Johnson’s Ohio Restoration Project featured detailed plans for a statewide rallies and voting registration drives featuring Blackwell and timed to influence the primary and general elections, and even a 30-second radio spot also featuring Blackwell.
In January, a group of more than 30 religious leaders from the Columbus area signed a letter accusing Parsley and Johnson of “flagrant political campaign activities” and asking the IRS to investigate whether they are using their churches’ tax-exempt status unfairly in the governor’s race. Parsley, Johnson, and even Blackwell immediately fired back, accusing the other ministers of launching a “secular jihad against expressions of faith,” as Johnson put it. “You tell those 31 bullies that you aren’t about to be whupped,” Blackwell said at a “Patriot Pastors” meeting organized by Johnson.
Parsley, Johnson, and Blackwell appeared Monday in a CBN news segment on “ACLJ This Week,” the television show of Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice, to reiterate their claims of innocence and persecution. “We have never in any way endorsed a candidate for any public office,” said Parsley, apparently referring to an act of explicitly saying something like “I endorse Ken Blackwell.” Similarly, Johnson said, “We do not endorse candidates. We do not give money to candidates. This is not a political PAC. But nothing in the Constitution says that Christians have to check their citizenship at the door.” Johnson added that “These people, candidly, are trying to intimidate people of faith” – even though “these people” are also ministers and rabbis, presumably “people of faith” themselves.
Blackwell, the beneficiary of Parsley’s and Johnson’s attentions, cites the First Amendment – not the part about freedom of expression, but rather the clause on freedom of religion, suggesting that Blackwell sees rallies and events railing against gays and abortion and honoring Blackwell with awards as somehow a form of worship.
Watch the video: Broadband or Dial-Up.
Posted by Ezra at 3:43 PM | Permalink