Perhaps some of you have heard of a local “christian restoration” movement in Ohio known as The Ohio Restoration Project. Perhaps you know that their “movement” hopes to enlist 2000 evangelical pastors and register 500,000 new voters to, in effect, take control of the Ohio Republican Party. Perhaps you may have even heard that their overt political activities on behalf of the Republicans have gotten them into a little hot water regarding their claim of tax exempt status with the IRS. Perhaps you’ve even seen the logo they display at their “rallies” which by the way looks exactly like this:
But did you know they were holding political rallies for the former Ohio Secretary of State, the same man who was deeply involved in the “voter irregularities” during the last presidential election? In other words, that bastion of “fair play” and honesty in government, Ken Blackwell:
But does all that really justify my title? Well take a gander at this story from the January 18th edition of the Akron Beacon Journal about a Patriot Pastors rally held this week, and you tell me if I’ve been guilty of overstatement:
HARTVILLE – About 330 Christian faithful rallied at the Hartville Kitchen to sing praises of America, to remind themselves of the dangers of complacency, and to hear gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell preach on God’s call to action.
Against a large U.S.-flag backdrop and flanked by large projection screens, Ohio Restoration Project founder Russell Johnson brought his 10-city Patriot Pastors tour to the Akron-Canton area Tuesday.
A choir and a gospel quartet brought the audience to its feet with praise songs as images of American landmarks, heroes and troops moved across the screens.
Johnson warned that Christians have allowed a “secular jihad” to remove prayer, the Ten Commandments and the Bible from public places.
He likened it to Nazi Germany, where church congregations would sing so that they could not hear the passing of trainloads of crying Jews headed for a nearby concentration camp.
Too many Christians lead “Neville Chamberlain lives,” Johnson said, referring to the British prime minister who signed a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
A picture of Hitler and Chamberlain flashed on the screens.
“We’re calling God’s people to pray, to serve, to shine and to be salt and light,” he said.
Johnson criticized the “handful of our religious friends on the left who have formed an unholy alliance with the secular left” to challenge the religious exemption of his organization.
The Restoration Project and a separate organization — Reformation Ohio, headed by the Rev. Rod Parsley of Canal Winchester — are strong supporters of Blackwell, who often is the keynote speaker at their events.
Perhaps this doesn’t worry you that much, however. These people and they’re silly rallies are harmless you might say. It doesn’t mean we need to get all in a lather over a few religious extremists.
Perhaps. But for further edification, I direct your attention to this story in today’s edition of the Cleveland Plains Dealer, regarding a hearing before the State Board of Education that the teaching in Ohio schools about evolution is filled with inaccuracies and promotes “intelligent design” (i.e., the claim that life is too complex to have evolved without the aid of some independent and intelligent designer):
Education board members lash back at public evolution supporters
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — State Board of Education members lashed back at audience members who criticized the state’s lesson plan for questioning evolution, reading a personal e-mail from one speaker and reading newspapers as another person spoke, a newspaper reported Friday. […]
The board by a 9-8 vote on Jan. 10 rejected an attempt to reopen debate on whether the state’s lesson plan for science include inaccuracies about evolution and promotes “intelligent design,” the idea that life is too complex to have evolved. Member Martha Wise had sought to remove the evolution lesson plan because of a federal court ruling in Pennsylvania rejecting intelligent design as an unscientific form of creationism.
Ohio State University graduate student Keith Morris said the plan was full of lies pointed out by “many honest board members.”
Board member Michael Cochran, a pastor from Blacklick, shot back with high ratings of the board from an education think tank and magazine.
“So half the board is dishonest? How do you square your comments with the ratings from (Thomas B.) Fordham Foundation and Education Weekly which gave us an A- and a B?” Cochran said. “How do you analyze that? They are probably dishonest, aren’t they?”
Jeffrey McKee, an Ohio State anthropology professor representing the University Senate, said the panel of faculty, administrators and students opposed the lesson plan. Elected member Deborah Owens Fink then read a private e-mail by McKee ridiculing a supporter of intelligent design.
“My point is that Dr. McKee has a very unprofessional way in dealing with colleagues who do not agree with him,” said Fink, of Richfield.
McKee responded: “What I say as a joke to my colleagues when relieving stress is not the business of this board.”
Another man who had signed up to speak declined to do so, citing how others had been treated. Cochran and appointee Richard Baker also read newspapers as others spoke.
These are not the tactics of people who favor honest and open debate. Instead these are the actions of bullies and extremists, all too willing to shout down and ridicule views which dissent from their own theologically pure vision of what society should be.
In the past, many voices cautioned us that if fascism ever arose in the United States it would cloak itself in the guise of religion (Sinclair Lewis) and wrap itself in the American Flag (Huey Long). And Robert Heinlein (no liberal, he) once warned that “It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.”
I choose to call what’s going on in Ohio’s conservative political circles (with all due apologies to sincere and devout christians) a form of “Christian Fascism.”
These are not true christians who take Jesus’ message of forgiveness and salvation to heart, but mean-spirited, hateful people who call themselves christians. The employ the tactics of intimidation, and, in the case of homosexuals, the tactic of scapegoating. They seek to use the pulpits of their churches as the means to assume power and then keep it. With all that has gone on in Ohio over the last few years, they bear close watching, as well as exposure of their true “agenda” to grab and exercise power both in the state of Ohio, and ultimately beyond. For rest assured, this movement is not restricted to one state, and one group of fundamentalist preachers and politicians.
Let me close with an excerpt from an article by Chris Hedges, entitled The Christian Right and the Rise of American Fascism (which I heartily recommend you read in its entirety):
All debates with the Christian Right are useless. We cannot reach this movement. It does not want a dialogue. It cares nothing for rational thought and discussion. It is not mollified because John Kerry prays or Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday School. These naive attempts to reach out to a movement bent on our destruction, to prove to them that we too have “values,” would be humorous if the stakes were not so deadly. They hate us. They hate the liberal, enlightened world formed by the Constitution. Our opinions do not count.
This movement will not stop until we are ruled by Biblical Law, an authoritarian church intrudes in every aspect of our life, women stay at home and rear children, gays agree to be cured, abortion is considered murder, the press and the schools promote “positive” Christian values, the federal government is gutted, war becomes our primary form of communication with the rest of the world and recalcitrant non-believers see their flesh eviscerated at the sound of the Messiah’s voice.
The spark that could set it ablaze may be lying in the hands of an Islamic terrorist cell, in the hands of the ideological twins of the Christian Right. Another catastrophic terrorist attack could be our Reichstag fire, the excuse used to begin the accelerated dismantling of our open society. The ideology of the Christian Right is not one of love and compassion, the central theme of Christ’s message, but of violence and hatred. It has a strong appeal to many in our society, but it is also aided by our complacency. Let us not stand at the open city gates waiting passively and meekly for the barbarians. They are coming. They are slouching rudely towards Bethlehem . Let us, if nothing else, begin to call them by their name.
Chris Hedges, a reporter for The New York Times, is the author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning . He holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School . His next book , Losing Moses on the Freeway: America ‘s Broken Covenant With The Ten Commandments is published by The Free Press.
