Patriot Pastors
Marilyn H. Karfeld
Cleveland Jewish News

Evangelical clergy seek to save America through the ballot box

America is a Christian nation, at least if you’re counting noses. An overwhelming majority of Americans - 77% or 159 million people - identify themselves as Christians, a recent study shows. Jews, who only comprise 1.3% of the population, rely on the First Amendment’s ban on the state’s endorsing any religion to protect their minority status.

Thus, the Ohio Restoration Project (ORP) has stunned many Jews with its plan to identify and train 2,000 so-called “Patriot Pastors” to get out the evangelical vote for the Ohio primary in May 2006.

The Rev. Russell Johnson, ORP head and senior pastor of Fairfield Christian Church, an evangelical congregation in suburban Columbus, casts 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. He exhorts evangelical clergy to get off the sidelines and lead America away from secularism and godlessness through the ballot box.

Before the 2004 presidential election, 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.”

Most important, he 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,” he writes on his church website.

In the 2004 presidential election, conservative evangelical Christian voters found a national candidate who shared their values. Thus, they turned out in record numbers to vote for President George Bush.

Wielding Christian power at the polls

ORP hopes to capitalize on that newfound evangelical political fervor. There will be Patriot Pastor policy briefings in eight targeted cities, including Cleveland and Canton/Akron. The pastors are expected to host voter-registration drives in their churches. They will distribute voter guides provided by the Christian Coalition and the Center for Moral Clarity, to “clarify the positions of various candidates, who at times, would like to remain vague and noncommittal,” the ORP website states.

Their goal is to register 500,000 new conservative voters, spreading the church’s view from the pulpit on “values” issues. Ohio for Jesus advertising in 30-second radio spots would feature Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, Republican candidate for governor.

White House adviser Karl Rove has acknowledged that one of his main strategies for the 2004 election was to turn out the white, evangelical Protestant vote. On Election Day 2004, four million more evangelicals voted than in 2000, when Bush lost the popular vote to Democrat Al Gore. (Bush won that race in the Electoral College.)

Ballot issues banning gay marriage, including one in Ohio that amended the state constitution to limit marriage to a union between one man and one woman, drew large numbers of rural and suburban conservatives to the polls.

Buoyed by such success, ORP has new plans to wield conservative Christian influence at the polls.

The Patriot Pastors would help build a database of 300,000 postal addresses and 100,000 e-mail addresses to recruit a network of like-minded Christian voters to be 21st-century Minutemen. These volunteers would help transport the elderly to the polls, provide childcare so parents can vote, and assist with voter registration drives and rallies.

As a nonprofit organization, ORP hopes to raise $1 million for a campaign war chest. The immediate goal is to elect conservative Blackwell as Ohio’s next governor in 2006. A charismatic speaker, Blackwell will be invited to address a statewide Ohio for Jesus rally in late February to mid-March 2006.

Also invited to address the rally are conservative Christians such as the Rev. Franklin Graham, Dr. James Dobson and the Rev. Rod Parsley. Republican politicians expected to attend include former U.S. Rep. Bob McEwen of Hillsboro, Ohio, and former Amb. Alan Keyes. Former Democratic Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia, keynote speaker at the 2004 Republican National Convention, is also on the schedule.

Rallies like the above notwithstanding, ORP insists it is nonpartisan and complies with IRS rules that bar nonprofits from endorsing political candidates.

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http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/articles/2005/08/01/news/loca l/acover0729.txt