[Peace-discuss] The next reformation?

[jandurl]

Two Christian Evangelists aim to take over the state's Republican Party

Christian evangelical ministers in Ohio are teaming-up to form a network intent on building on their constituency's extensive contribution to both President Bush's victory and the passage of Issue 1 -- an amendment to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage -- and help Christian conservatives take over the state's Republican Party. The Reverend Rod Parsley and the Rev. Russell Johnson are two key players in an effort to wrest control of the GOP from so-called Party moderates. Their job has no doubt been made easier by the fact that Republican Party officials have been enmeshed in a series of political scandals that even includes the state's Republican Governor, Bob Taft.

Americans must be ''Christocrats" -- citizens of both their country and the Kingdom of God -- the Reverend Rod Parsley told his congregation on a recent Sunday at his 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 recently by The Columbus Dispatch, as "a nondenominational congregation with a regular weekly attendance" of between 10,000 and 12,000, is one of many politicized mega churches popping up all across the country.

The World Harvest Church's Center for Moral Clarity recently 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 Reverend Russell Johnson, the senior pastor of the evangelical Fairfield Christian Church, is 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 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, "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's website.

Both the Rev. Parsley and the Rev. Johnson are close to J. Kenneth Blackwell, the controversial Ohio Secretary of State who was 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 governor's office.

by:Bill Berkowitz

Full article at website below:

http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=83





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/private/peace-discuss/attachments/20060118/92a650a8/attachment.htm