Miers left the Valley View Church 3 weeks ago

[boston bean]

"Miss Miers left Valley View three weeks ago, when Mr. Key, 57, was ejected over what he termed "leadership differences."


Who is Mr. Key?

I think if we learn about him, it will tell us a lot about her.

This little nugget is on the second page of the article.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051005-122400-8922r.htm

[formercia]

1. Vote on the poll while you're there

I know, it's only a Moonie rag, but what the hey.

[moobu2]

2. That's pretty interesting

If we could find the reason for them leaving the Church, or more about Mr. Key, it could tell us a lot about her. "leadership differences" Is public relations for something very serious.

[boston bean]

3. Yes, i am very curious as to what this "leadership" issue means.

I hope some one can dig up the dirt!

[Oreo]

4. Here's info

I got it off Google cache... the live page has been removed

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:0-UWkp-81KwJ:vvcc.org/rongo.asp+%22Ron+Key%22+%2B%22valley+view%22&hl=en&lr=lang_en

Senior Minister at Valley View. He and his wife, Kaycia, have been at VVCC for 31 years. The next to youngest in a family of divorced parents, he was determined not to end up in ministry. God had another plan. While at Ozark Christian College for one year, he felt the call of God to specialized ministry and has been in ministry ever since. He became the youth minister at Valley View in 1972. In 1979, when the church was searching for a music minister, Ron took over those duties and the Holy Spirit blessed what he did in remarkable ways. That precipitated a change in direction for the church staff and resulted in the hiring of Weldon Gilmore as minister of Christian Education. A decision obviously blessed by God. Ron became the full-time Minister of Music until the retirement of Senior Pastor Emeritus, Dennis Slaughter, in 2001. Ron is the inspiration for many important ministries at the church. He has a passion for missions, and for encouraging and teaching the people of Valley View in order that they might seek and discover God’s will for their lives.

[boston bean]

5. So she left with the Music Director along with 200 others. Weird.

[FourStarDemocrat]

8. shades of Jim Jones.. (joking) n/t

[alcibiades_mystery]

16. These people are lunatics

"...seek and discover God’s will for their lives."

Oy. What utter nonsense.

[Fuzz]

20. I knew someone growing up who was in the "Music Ministry"

Friends of the family, (father is an ordained Assemblies of God preacher).

Anyway, they were always talking about how God was calling them to minister in such and such a place over the years. Every time I saw them, it was a new place.

I said to my father, "Did you ever notice that all the places so and so is being called by God to minister are these warm weather vacation spots?"

My father just looked away, paused, then laughed.

[Oreo]

6. Here's some interesting info

Interesting... this was removed from the wiki on her:
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:0aYVBdzw1BgJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Miers_Supreme_Court_nomination_and_hearings+%22Ron+Key%22+%2B%22valley+view%22&hl=en&lr=lang_en
Valley View Christian Church <3> in Dallas, Texas was Miers' church from 1980 until more recent years; it is a self-proclaimed mission-oriented "New Testament church" theologically evangelist and Bible-centered, but not tradition-centered nor affiliated with major mainline Protestant groups. When pastor Ron Key was asked about Miers' views on abortion, he said, "her personal views are consistent with that of evangelical Christians... You can tell a lot about her from her decade of service in a conservative church." <4> He also said, "We believe in the biblical approach to marriage." <5>

Here is the live version:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Miers_Supreme_Court_nomination_and_hearings

Here is more from Keys on Miers
http://www.worldmagblog.com/blog/archives/018821.html
Harriet Miers -- her pastor's view

I talked yesterday with Miers' pastor, Ron Key, who for 33 years (until a few weeks ago) was pastor of Valley View Christian Church in Dallas. “She started coming to church in 1980. She helped out with kids, made coffee, furnished donuts, served on missions committee. She worked out her faith in practical, behind-the-scenes ways. She doesn't draw attention to herself, she's humble, self-effacing." Key has still seen her in recent years because "her mother is 93. Harriet tries to get home as much as she can." When Key and Miers met in 1980, "I don’t know how strong her faith was at that time. She came to a place where she totally committed her life to Jesus. She had gone to church before, but when she came to our church it became more serious to her.... Our church is strong for life, but Harriet and I have not had any conversations on that…. We believe in the biblical approach to marriage."
Posted by Olasky at October 3, 2005 08:18 AM

[boston bean]

9. Why would wikipedia remove information? very fishy!

I thought they were a stand up site.

edit to add:

[Oreo]

10. A freeper probably didn't like it

God forbid we know anything about her beliefs!

Anybody can edit it

[Tesha]

21. Just go put it back in!

Wikipedia artciles about *ANY* hot political topic are whip-sawn
constantly between the various polarities.

Tesha

[FourStarDemocrat]

7. Calling people up and saying "Pray for Me!"...??? WTF?

I dunno.. maybe it's just me and just a cultural difference but how can someone who believes that EVERYthing happens because of God's Will, be charged with the responsibility of interpreting a country's constitution???

This is not a theocracy!

[antigop]

11. That's not what the local rag (Star-Telegram) leads you to believe

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/12821795.htm

>>
Late Sunday night, shortly after President Bush asked her to be his nominee to the Supreme Court, Harriet Miers called her longtime Dallas minister and his wife and -- without revealing why -- asked for their prayers to give her "grace under pressure."
>>

Her "longtime Dallas minister" -- leads you to believe she is still there, doesn't it?

[boston bean]

12. Well, yes and that is what we have all been fed, but if you look

at the second page, you will find that she left 3 weeks ago along with Mr. Key. Why?

[antigop]

13. I have no idea

I was just remarking that the Star-Telegram is the Fort Worth paper. The Star-Telegram is in the DFW area (Dallas Fort Worth). (The Dallas paper is the Dallas Morning News.)

I was just remarking that the local paper led the reader to believe she was still there. And if she left, why didn't they get the story right?

Don't know.

[boston bean]

14. I got you covered, I wonder why we are being fed the news

that she is still a member of that church.

I would love to know what "Leadership" problems there were at that church.

But i'm just a librul dem from MA and don't have the connections, only questions.

edit to add:

[Rose Siding]

15. The NYT article mentions it...

It isn't extremely unusual for protestant churches to split. -I know of a Baptist church that broke apart over whether to rip out the pews and switch to folding chairs or not -at least that was the biggest beef outside of personalities and power/loyalty struggles.


snip>
Apart from the questions about abortion and other issues Ms. Miers will face in confirmation hearings, the strong tie she and Justice Hecht have to their church is undergoing a test. The congregation at Valley View is in the middle of a schism, and Mr. Hecht said he and Ms. Miers are siding with the splinter groups that are forming a new church under Valley View's longtime pastor, Ron Key.

Church members said in interviews that Mr. Key was fired several weeks ago by the Valley View board of elders after he refused to take a less prominent role in the church's leadership. The members said that the pastor and the board members disagreed on several matters, including the appointments of new ministers and whether the church should adopt more contemporary forms of worship services to try to attract newer and younger members.

Dr. Barry McCarty, the Valley View pastor, said Ms. Miers has often asked the congregation to pray for her and the president, and he added that even if she is joining the roughly 150 members that have left to start a new church, he believes that the Valley View members will continue those prayers. "Our particular congregation is committed to starting new churches," Dr. McCarty said. "It's something they do with our blessing."

http://nytimes.com/2005/10/05/politics/politicsspecial1/05miers.html?ei=5094&en=7e04971063f63746&hp=&ex=1128571200&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

And in the Post piece, "Key" splinter is said to be more interested in mission work than the parent church...

snip>
Those beliefs were forged at Valley View, but Miers is breaking away from the church where she embraced Jesus. In recent years, church elders have moved to cut back on missionary work, sparking a split this summer among the parishioners. Key is forming a church that plans to donate half its revenues to mission work, and Miers plans to join him.

"These days so many of the churches have become Christian country clubs," Key said. "They are more about making you feel good about yourself than making you grow. Some of us, including Harriet, were uncomfortable with all this."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/04/AR2005100401765_pf.html

[alcibiades_mystery]

17. Great: She can now do her "mission work" from the bench of the USSC

There was reason that the pilgrims had to leave Europe: they were fanatics and and killjoys and nobody wanted them around...

[boston bean]

18. Thanks Rose!

[Rose Siding]

19. You're right on the big picture- someone's being fed. Like last time...

From US News,

Another Win for 'Friends & Allies'
When John G. Roberts is approved as chief justice of the United States, as expected, he can thank President Bush 's "Friends & Allies" program, which went to work on him immediately after he was nominated. The project, started by the Republican National Committee in the 2004 re-election campaign, is simple and effective: Give opinion makers, media friends, and even cocktail party hosts insider info on the topic of the day. How? Through E-mailed talking points, called D.C. Talkers, and conference calls. For Roberts, it worked this way: A daily conference call to about 80 pundits, GOP-leaning radio and TV hosts, and newsmakers was made around 9 a.m. On the other end were the main Roberts gunslingers like Steve Schmidt at the White House and Ken Mehlman and Brian Jones at the RNC. D.C. Talkers would then be distributed to an even larger list filled with positive info about Roberts and lines of attack on his critics. "The idea," said one of those involved, "is to feed them information and have them invested in us." It has even created addicts, he added. "Now they come to us before going on TV."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2099687

After a trip to the opium den, the big guns all ran Miers' 'faith' stories today.