Group Starts Move to Get Converts, Voters

[highplainsdem]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/14/AR2005101401631.html


Group Starts Move to Get Converts, Voters

By JOHN McCARTHY
The Associated Press
Friday, October 14, 2005; 8:17 PM

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A new coalition dedicated to converting thousands to Christianity and getting thousands more on voter registration lists got its start Friday with a tightly scripted rally that resembled a revival meeting.

More than 1,000 people gathered outside the Statehouse for the launch of Reformation Ohio. The group, founded by the Rev. Rod Parsley, a television evangelist and pastor of the World Harvest Church in suburban Columbus, vehemently opposes gay rights, and Parsley has written that the teachings of Islam were inspired by demons.

<snip>

Speakers included U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, a Republican from Kansas who is considering a White House run in 2008; Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., and Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor next year.

<snip>

"Reformation Ohio is about history-making times, reforming the culture," Blackwell said. "We are a government that governs only with the consent of the governed."

<snip>

And besides that tidbit of GOP hypocrisy from Blackwell, you'll love the "Holy Ghost invasion" quote from Parsley. :sarcasm:

[...of J.Temperance]

1. Fuck...these slimeballs are like a disease, a cancer

Why won't someone rid us of this disease?

[sasquatch]

2. Why doesn't Rod Parsley go do that shit in Oozy Alley?

The world would be free of another religious fundamentalist.

[asjr]

3. Just what Ohio needs--a Christian Hate Movement.

This sickens me.

[frogmarch]

4. Yes, everyone!

Sound an alarm. A Holy Ghost invasion is taking place. Man your battle stations, ready your weapons, lock and load because the Parsley nutjobs are about to attack!

Disgusting.

[Vektor]

5. Just when you think these fuckbags can't get any more depraved...

This almost reads like an Onion story.

ROD PARSLEY? Sounds like vegetable porn.

[VegasWolf]

6. How many more crazy flock are left for these clowns to recruit? nt

[Erika]

7. Many Christians are totally turned off by these radicals

I have a dear Lutheran friend who is deeply ashamed of the right wing evangelists and their agenda.

[dkofos]

22. as all thinking Christians should be

[DebbieCDC]

8. Disgusting

Thank heavens I left that filthy state 25 years ago. Never regretted it once.

[Lexingtonian]

9. The Great Ingathering

By Jesus, they'll find and register every last moron in Ohio!

Somehow I think the bottom of the barrel was scraped during the last election. When this thing implodes it will be spectacular.

[Extend a Hand]

10. NPR

reported several hundred people at the rally-- not "more than 1000"?

(WMUB, Oxford)

[daleo]

11. Another radical cleric, and a loon

"...Parsley has written that the teachings of Islam were inspired by demons."

What can you add to that?

[Ellen Forradalom]

12. It's not like you need to present evidence

to back that statement up.

[Blaq Dem]

13. I see a backlash

If these dead head EVIL-angelists keep messing with folks head with their crap, pretty soon no one will want to be a Christian. These people are a CULT group. It's ashame they've abused religion just to get a few bucks and a couple of votes for the right-wingers.

[cassiepriam]

14. The American Taliban is running this country.

[depakid]

15. A new sucker born every minute

I have a really hard time feeling sorry for Ohians. Their communities are devistated- their employment base is hemorrhaging, their state government's hopelessly corrupt- yet so many still vote Republican.

[ok_cpu]

16. Pastor crusades for voters (Rod Parsley's Reformation Ohio)

COLUMBUS - Several hundred evangelical Christians rallied on the south steps of the Ohio Capitol on Friday to launch Reformation Ohio, a $30 million campaign to sign up souls for Christ and the voting booth.

Dropping such names as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Martin Luther and John Wesley, and with the techno wizardry of a political convention, the Rev. Rod Parsley declared he is launching a nonpartisan, evangelistic mission to properly reset the world's moral compass, beginning in Ohio.

...

He brought with him his own security, a media relations firm, singers, rappers and television cameras. A big-screen television near Parsley played a three-minute video on the effort to save Ohio, including the institution of marriage.

...

Also joining Reformation Ohio will be Youth With a Mission, a Kansas City organization that has committed $10 million to train and mobilize 60,000 young workers.

Stemen said Youth With a Mission chose Ohio because of its importance in the last presidential election. A printed statement said Youth With a Mission is launching a ``major evangelistic thrust in key states, specifically swing states such as Ohio.''

...

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/12910127.htm
(Akron Beacon Journal. Free Registration)

Didn't we already save marriage in Ohio? Well, at least they're nonpartisan...
:sarcasm:

[Botany]

17. did Rod mention his fondness for you girls?

The man is creep ...... Jesus wants me in these $2,000 suits.

[acmejack]

18. Ohio is indeed fortunate to be chosen to be the first saved.

Must be because of that city up there, Sinsinatti.

[WCGreen]

19. Is he gonna save us from the republicans....

Cause there the ones in power here doin' all that sinin'

He is a piece of shit, giving religious cover for people amassing huge amounts of wealth....

[belle]

20. Watch out for this one. He may be loony but he's got charisma.

They laughed at Hitler in his early days, too. This is exactly the kind of shit I've been worried about.

[pinniped]

21. Is the theocracy Rommney was warning about?

?

[truthpusher]

23. Group Starts Move to Get (Christian) Converts, Voters(for Ken Blackwell)

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1216315&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Group Starts Move to Get Converts, Voters
--------------------
Reformation Ohio Starts Effort to Get Converts to Christianity - and New Voters
--------------------
By JOHN McCARTHY
The Associated Press
--------------------
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A new coalition dedicated to converting thousands to Christianity and getting thousands more on voter registration lists got its start Friday with a tightly scripted rally that resembled a revival meeting.

More than 1,000 people gathered outside the Statehouse for the launch of Reformation Ohio. The group, founded by the Rev. Rod Parsley, a television evangelist and pastor of the World Harvest Church in suburban Columbus, vehemently opposes gay rights, and Parsley has written that the teachings of Islam were inspired by demons.

(snip)

Speakers included U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, a Republican from Kansas who is considering a White House run in 2008; Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., and Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor next year.

Blackwell, who also won Brownback's endorsement Friday, praised the efforts of Parsley and others to sign up new voters. Parsley's goal is to add 400,000 people to voter rolls.

"Reformation Ohio is about history-making times, reforming the culture," Blackwell said. "We are a government that governs only with the consent of the governed."

(snip)

"Sound an alarm. A Holy Ghost invasion is taking place. Man your battle stations, ready your weapons, lock and load," Parsley said to enthusiastic applause.

(snip)

On the Net:

Reformation Ohio: http://www.reformationohio.com

COMPLETE STORY: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1216315&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

[jasmeel]

24. I hope the Dems are working on building some coalition of their

own. The repubs are way too good at it.

[TheCowsCameHome]

26. Is Blackwell the guy that was always on TV in '04 re: voting problems?

[daleo]

28. This doesn't even make sense from his own point of view

""Sound an alarm. A Holy Ghost invasion is taking place. Man your battle stations, ready your weapons, lock and load," Parsley said to enthusiastic applause."

He makes it sound like "good Christians" should be on the ramparts, defending against a "Holy Ghost invasion". But when you talk illogical poppycock, you don't have to analyze your statements for logical consistency.

Monty Python was good at that. No matter how absurd the premise, they kept the skit internally coherent, which was what made it funny. These preachers could learn a thing or two from them.

[truthpusher]

25. Group Starts Move to Get (Christian) Converts, Voters(for Ken Blackwell)

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[drduffy]

27. the dem opposition needs to

reframe these folks as

christians for corruption

fundies for fraud

or some such to remind folks what kind of assholes they always support in office.

It doesn't matter if you are a crook, a bastard, bigot or a fool. It doesn't matter if you are a pedophile (actually it helps). As long as you love GEESUS, you're their boy... or gal

[MelissaB]

29. Info I posted a while back in 2004 ER&D about this group

'Patriot pastors' recruited
Churchgoers will be urged to vote

By Howard Wilkinson
Enquirer staff writer


KINGS MILLS - The luncheon Thursday at the Kings Island Conference Center could easily have been mistaken for a political party affair, with politicians, speaking over the clank of forks and knives, exhorting the guests to go out and register new voters and make sure they get to the polls.

...snip

They were, for the most part, men and women of the clergy - evangelicals, Pentecostals, Baptists and a smattering of Catholic clerics and laymen.

They were being recruited for the Ohio Restoration Project, the brainchild of the Rev. Russell Johnson, pastor of a 2,500-member evangelical church in the southeastern Ohio town of Lancaster. He wants to build a force of Christian conservatives - the "values voters'' who oppose abortion, want to protect traditional marriage and oppose higher taxes - to dominate Ohio politics, starting with the 2006 gubernatorial election.

...snip

And he plans to do it by recruiting an army of more than 2,000 pastors - "patriot pastors,'' as he calls them - to do the grassroots work.


More: http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050826/NEWS01/508260404/-1/CINCI

Since the Ohio Restoration Project is a non-profit organization it can't endorse candidates, but it was clear that their favorite candidates for governor is Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. Read how he quotes MLK, JR and Mother Teresa and gets a standing ovation as he strongly encourages Christian conservatives to "get involved in the political process."


Not concerned yet?

Christian group protests proposed amendments

MASON — Christian conservatives rallied Thursday against four proposed state constitutional amendments that would change how Ohio residents vote and how elections are supervised statewide.

The Ohio Restoration Project invited about 500 religious and political leaders to the Kings Island Resort and Conference Center, encouraging them to register voters and organize against the amendments proposed for the November ballot by Reform Ohio Now.

“I believe the hinges of history are turning on our watch,” said pastor Russell Johnson of Lancaster.

More: http://www.middletownjournal.com/hp/content/news/stories/2005/08/26/mj0826reform.html

About Reform Ohio Now

Link to their website: http://www.ohiocitizen.org/moneypolitics/ron/ron.htm

[progressivebydesign]

30. Are there that many ill people wandering the streets amongst us?

My God.. this is like the fucking MIddle Ages.