By John R Brakey
September 27, 2006
In Ohio, May 2005 the Rev. Rod Parsley pastor of the World Harvest Mega Church said at a gathering of 1,070 "Patriot Pastors" that the issues transcend partisan politics. The Reverend then declared:
"We're not Democrats. We're not Republicans. We're Christocrats."
Secretary of State of Ohio Ken Blackwell is their man and he is running for Governor in 06. His Patriot Pastors buddies are fond of saying, "As Ohio goes, so goes the nation."
In Arizona we also have a Christocrat running for Governor. Len Munsil, a Republican, and his campaign manager, Nathan Sproul, both are Christocrats. Sproul is former head of the Christian Coalition and in 2002 was the head of the Arizona Republican Party when Secretary of State Jan Brewer was first elected. Brewer then spent $60 million plus on highly questionable voting equipment which is hackable and that is the real sin!!
Much can be drawn and compared from the races for Governor in Ohio and Arizona, and the connections to the Christocrats.
Excerpts from Stealth Strategy by Rob Boston, of Americans United for Separation of Church and State
In Arizona, in 1995, at a Christian Coalition (CC) caucus, Guards were posted at the door with orders to remove anyone not personally approved by the caucus leader. During the session, Nathan Sproul, Arizona CC field director, coming off a victory getting Senator Strangelove Jon Kyl elected, urged attendees to become precinct committee chairs in the Republican Party but not to let anyone know the CC was behind the move. Sproul told the audience that the CC needs precinct committee chairs so they can elect delegates to attend the GOP National Convention and chose the presidential nominee.
At breakout sessions, conference participants were schooled in the art of concealing their ties to the CC, in a continuing pattern of "stealth politics." During a session titled "Religious Conservatives in the Republican Party," Bernice Roberts, chair of the Maricopa County, Ariz., Republican Party, urged CC supporters to work within the GOP with the goal of being appointed a precinct committeeman, but recommended keeping a low profile at the beginning.
"I want to give you some don'ts to do when you decide to go to your first Republican meeting," Roberts told the crowd. "Do not go with your Bible in your hand. Some would say to me, 'Does that mean you're ashamed of the Gospel?' No. CC has a statement, 'we're involved in the party, but we don't seek to become a party.' A political party is not a church. Its job is not to propagate a doctrine of faith and save souls. Its job is to choose candidates and win elections."
Roberts continued, "Do not attend your first Republican function with a pro-life sticker on your lapel." She also recommended against "passing out leaflets inviting people to your church" and cautioned attendees not to sit with "others whom you know to be the outspoken right wing of the Republican Party. That's a sure way not to get appointed." She also warned, "Do not pass out Gospel tracts."
After becoming a precinct committeeman, Roberts said, "Then you begin to recruit other Christians and before long, when you attend a Republican meeting you'll look around and realize, 'There's a whole lot of Christians here.' After that, the legislators in your state will take on a new face. The more Christians that are involved, the more you change the course of how your state runs.
"You can help keep the Republican Party on the right track by your involvement," Roberts continued. "The only way for the Republican platform to become liberal is for good people to not be involved in the process. When there are enough Christians involved in the party, we won't have to worry about the platform changing, because we'll be the ones writing the platform."
(The session on working within the GOP drew a big crowd, leading to a packed room. By contrast, a similar workshop on working within the Democratic Party attracted only a handful of people.) [Ed note.
Brief History; The CC plan is by "stealth" tactics, forged from Pat Robertson's presidential campaign of 1988, including his "surprising" second place finish in the Iowa caucus, over Vice President George H. Bush's weak third place. This victory set the stage and became the most politically significant technique within the CC and had three essential parts: (i) targeting low-profile elections that normally attract few voters, (ii) focusing get-out-the-vote efforts on certain conservative churches, (iii) instructing the candidates to hide its views from the public by avoiding public appearances and refusing to fill out questionnaires.
Excerpts from Right Wing Watch, by People for the American Way; Christian Coalition's History.
In 1992, Ralph Reed told a Coalition gathering, "The first strategy, and in many ways the most important strategy, for evangelicals is secrecy."
The CC's strategy first attracted national attention in 1990, when a coalition of right-wing groups, led by the Christian Coalition, helped candidates in San Diego win 60 of 90 races for a variety of offices, from school to hospital board.
Ralph Reed boasted of their early success with a few choice comments that helped make him famous. "... stealth was a big factor in San Diego's success," he said. "But that's just good strategy. It's like guerrilla warfare. If you reveal your location, all it does is allow your opponent to improve his artillery bearings. It's better to move quietly, with stealth, under cover of night." He expanded the metaphor elsewhere, "I want to be invisible. I do guerrilla warfare. I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag. You don't know until election night." Later, under intense pressure, Reed has since renounced covert tactics and now denies the group ever used them. [Ed note.
However, the elections of 2000, 2002 and 2004 show that to not be true. From 2001 to 2002, Reed went on to be the State Chairman of GOP of Georgia and focused attention on federal races, including the campaign of Congressman Saxby Chambliss, who unseated Senator Max Cleland.
In 1996 the CC did not fully support Robert Dole; Arizona went to Bill Clinton by 2.2% 46.52%-44.29% over the right to life issue. This is not a mistake that Bush II & Rove would let happen again. Dole faced "a major political dilemma" as his record was consistently "hard line against abortion rights [which would] alienate moderate Republicans as well as strongly pro-choice voters, the same voters whose defection most likely cost George H. Bush the presidency in 1992." Moderating that position would "infuriate the religious conservatives who are the single-issue anti-abortion voters ... ".
To understand this dangerous complex movement you need to spend a few hours on several internet sites. One of the best is www.TheocracyWatch.org, a project run by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy (CRESP), located at Cornell University. It was founded by Joan Bokaer, an educator.
On this site there's a page with two short internet videos, on which you can hear the radical Christian Right in their own words.
1. Taking Over the Republican Party TheocracyWatch, The Rise of Dominionism" Recorded October 11, 2004, 44 minutes Play the Real Video version or (Windows) WMV Video version.
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