http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Berkowitz1022.htm
Ohio Players
by Bill Berkowitz
www.dissidentvoice.org
October 22, 2005

[excerpt]
[ The Rev. Barry Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for
Separation of Church and State, told the New York Times that the Ohio
Restoration Project might have a significant impact: "This represents
a new wave in organizing on the part of conservative evangelicals.
From my standpoint, as someone who doesn't agree with their
conclusions, this is a more dangerous model." ]
[end excerpt]


[ exceprt ]
Despite the subsequent controversy over widespread abnormalities on
Election Day 2004, late in the evening of November 2, Ohio voters had
delivered the final dart to the heart of the presidential hopes of
Senator John Kerry. Since then, Christian evangelical ministers in
Ohio have teamed up to form a network that will build on their
constituency's extensive contribution to President Bush's victory, as
well as the passage of Issue 1 -- an amendment to the state
constitution banning same-sex marriage. The goal: help Christian
conservatives take over the state's Republican Party.

The Rev. Rod Parsley and the Rev. Russell Johnson are key players in
the effort to wrest control of the GOP from so-called Party moderates.
Their job has been made easier by the fact that Republican Party
officials have been enmeshed in a series of political scandals,
including the state's Republican Governor, Bob Taft. (For more on the
governor's troubles, see, MoveOnTaft.org, a website jointly
established by the conservative American Policy Roundtable and the
liberal Ohio Citizen Action.)

Americans must be "Christocrats" -- citizens of both their country and
the Kingdom of God -- the Rev. Rod Parsley told his congregation at
the World Harvest Church, located just outside Columbus, Ohio. "And
that is not a democracy; that is a theocracy," he said. "That means
God is in control, and you are not."

Headed by Rev. Parsley, a 48-year-old televangelist and author, the
World Harvest Church, described by The Columbus Dispatch, as "a
nondenominational congregation with a regular weekly attendance" of
between 10,000-12,000, is one of many politicized megac66hurches
popping up all across the country.

The World Harvest Church's Center for Moral Clarity has launched a
three-year project called Reformation Ohio. "Its goals," according to
the Columbus-based newspaper, "are to register 400,000 new voters,
organize black Ohioans who share conservative views on issues such as
gays and abortion, and conduct get out-the vote rallies, all while
leading 100,000 Ohioans to Jesus."

In suburban Columbus, the Rev. Johnson, the senior pastor of the
evangelical Fairfield Christian Church, was busy recruiting 2,000
"Patriot Pastors" to get out the evangelical vote for the Ohio primary
in May 2006.

According to the Cleveland Jewish News, the Rev. Johnson sees "the
2006 election as an apocalyptic clash between a virtuous Christianity
and the evildoers who oppose Christianity's values."

"This is a battle between the forces of righteousness and the hordes
of hell," says the Rev. Johnson on his church's website, urging other
evangelical clergy to get into the political fray and get involved
with the electoral process.

"Before the 2004 presidential election," the Cleveland Jewish News
reported that the Rev. Johnson "denounced tax-supported schools that
have banned the teaching of creationism, Bible reading and prayer. He
blasted the `pagan left' for its warfare against the very definition
of marriage. He decried `homosexual rights' that will come with `a
flood of demonic oppression.'"

Rev. Johnson envisions a Christian America. "Reclaiming the teaching
of our Christian heritage among America's youth is paramount to a
sense of national destiny that God has invested into this nation,"
Johnson wrote on his church website.

Both the Rev. Parsley and the Rev. Johnson are close to J. Kenneth
Blackwell, the controversial Ohio Secretary of State, himself
entangled in a series of controversies revolving around the November
2004 presidential election. Since Governor Bob Taft cannot run for
re-election due to term limits, Blackwell has declared himself as one
of several Republican candidates for the state house.

"Health and Wealth" Theology

The Rev. Parsley is not a newcomer to politics; "in the late 1980s,
his church picketed the Bexley Art Theater" because they were showing
"what Parsley said were obscene films . . .[and] World Harvest members
protested when the gay advocacy group Stonewall Union was allowed to
hand out literature at the Ohio State Fair," The Columbus Dispatch
reported.

During the November 2004 election, the Rev. Parsley "took a leading
role in the push to pass Issue 1."

"Parsley advocates what some call `health and wealth' theology," The
Columbus Dispatch reported. His theology "emphasizes that the Bible
teaches that God wants people to prosper financially and physically.
The latter is tied to belief in the power of God's word to heal."

Rev. Parsley is certainly prospering financially.

Operating on an annual budget of $38.5 million, Rev. Parsley's
ministries include his nondenominational church; a school and Bible
college; his television show, Breakthrough; the Center for Moral
Clarity; a mission program and a ministerial fellowship. According to
The Columbus Dispatch's survey of the auditor's records of Franklin
County, "the church/school complex has been appraised at about $26
million, and the nearby Bible college campus is worth nearly $2
million." In addition, according to Fairfield County auditor records,
Parsley's estate, which "also includes the home of his parents," is
appraised at nearly $2 million.
[end excerpt]



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The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
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American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm

The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
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[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
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. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
. . .
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THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

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