Blackwell tells pastors to ignore complaint

Group doesn’t invite other gubernatorial candidates to meeting Wednesday, January 18, 2006 Joe Hallett THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

BOB ROSSITER | THE ( CANTON ) REPOSITORY Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, left, greets Supreme Court Justice Terrence O’Donnell, center, and the Rev. Bill Lavely, president of Ohio Restoration Project, after a luncheon of Christian conservatives in Hartville, Ohio.

HARTVILLE, Ohio — Republican gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell told conservative religious leaders yesterday not to be deterred from political participation by a federal complaint filed by 31 Columbus-area pastors.

"You tell those 31 bullies that you aren’t about to be whupped," said Blackwell, the secretary of state, who said that "political and social and cultural forces are trying to run God out of the public square."

Blackwell was the only candidate for governor invited to address 450 pastors and Christian conservatives at a luncheon north of Canton sponsored by the Ohio Restoration Project two days after it and several allied religious entities were accused of illegally engaging in partisan politics.

Blackwell and the Rev. Russell Johnson, pastor of Fairfield Christian Church and chairman of Ohio Restoration Project, denied allegations in the complaint filed Monday by the 31 ministers who said they were acting individually and not on behalf of their churches encompassing nine denominations.

Johnson accused the complaining pastors of launching a "secular jihad against expressions of faith" and said, "We are not going away. We will not be intimidated."

The rancor expressed by Blackwell and Johnson punctuated growing fallout from the complaint accusing the Rev. Rod Parsley’s World Harvest Church in Columbus and two affiliated entities — the Center for Moral Clarity and Reformation Ohio — along with Johnson’s church and organization of sponsoring voter registration and education drives to bolster Blackwell’s candidacy for governor.

Along with seeking an Internal Revenue Service investigation into whether the entities headed by Parsley and Johnson should lose their tax-exempt status, the 31 pastors also asked the IRS to seek a court injunction "if these churches’ flagrant political campaign activities do not cease immediately." The IRS does not comment on investigations.

Before speaking at yesterday’s luncheon, Blackwell called the complaint "bogus" and cited at least one instance when Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman, as a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, was invited to speak at a Parsleysponsored event.

He called the complaint "not only a deliberate spread of misinformation, it was, in fact, a double standard that borders on being slanderous."

Blackwell said he was invited to events sponsored by Parsley and Johnson, including yesterday’s lunch, because of his vocal support for a successful 2004 ballot issue to constitutionally ban same-sex marriage and because of his long opposition to abortion rights.

"The last time I checked, there was not anything (in the IRS code) that prohibited them from recognizing my leadership in the public square," Blackwell said.

Johnson said that yesterday’s lunch at the Hartville Kitchen was the fourth of 10 planned meetings across the state by the Ohio Restoration Project to enlist "Patriot Pastors" and register voters who share its values, particularly its opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.

He accused the 31 complaining pastors of "spiritual adultery" for aligning with the American Civil Liberties Union, adding: "On the day we celebrated Martin Luther King’s accomplishments as a leader and minister, the religious left sent people to the back of the bus. They wanted to muzzle people of faith."

Although the organizations run by Parsley and Johnson have continually featured Blackwell as a speaker at their events, Johnson said that "every statewide officeholder who supported" the ballot issue to ban same-sex marriage was invited to yesterday’s meeting.

A spokesman for state Auditor Betty D. Montgomery, who supported the ban, said Johnson’s group did not invite her.

Attorney General Jim Petro, a GOP candidate for governor who opposed the ban in 2004, and U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, also weren’t invited, according to their spokesmen.

Among politicians who attended yesterday’s event were Republican Ohio Supreme Court Justice Terrence O’Donnell and Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien, a GOP candidate for Ohio attorney general, both running this year.

Eric Williams, senior pastor of North Congregational United Church of Christ in Columbus and spokesman for the 31 pastors, said the Hartville meeting appeared to provide evidence for the complaint.

"What they’re saying is that they selectively invited candidates who agree with their issues," he said. "That sounds like electioneering to me."

Williams refused to release the names of the 31 pastors because "some have a fear that there could be acts of retribution against them."

Blackwell said other clergy members have backed Democratic candidates, pointing to a February 2004 photograph in yesterday’s Dispatch showing John Edwards — then a North Carolina senator and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination — being blessed by two bishops during an appearance at First Church of God on Refugee Road.

But Timothy J. Clarke, senior pastor at the church, said yesterday that any candidate who asks to appear at the church may do so — but that no candidates are specifically invited or endorsed from the pulpit.

Clarke said he will pray for candidates, as seen in the photo, and that he will endorse issues. But he never uses the church to back specific candidates, he said.

"Whenever candidates of any party worship with us, my statement always is, we do not endorse candidates from this church," Clarke said. "I encourage my members to vote; I do not tell them how to vote."

Blackwell will make an excellent gov. in Ohio as will Swann in PA. Two states, side by side, with black, pubbie govs. That'll give the demonRATS heartburn. Once the blacks get off the demonRAT plantation {using her thighness' favorite word} the RATS will be winning only in several cities.

If those churches lose their not-for profit designations, the ACLU and a thousand other leftist organizations had better be prepared to lose theirs too.

And if Mike Steele is US Senator from Maryland the Demo lies about the GOP being the party of racism will be even more ludicrous.

If you want to keep the politicians out of your church then keep your church out of politics.

"And if Mike Steele is US Senator from Maryland the Demo lies about the GOP being the party of racism will be even more ludicrous."

You're right, another state that borders PA. It would really give the RATs another case of heartburn.

Democrats openly campaign in churches all the time. We shouldn't copy that - we should stop it.

The only time I've seen Blackwell speak in person was many years ago. He spoke about a flat tax system with only a simple per dependent standard deduction.

We need to get rid of the IRS.

The IRS should have no ability to limit free speech, especially the free speech of a church.

We need to go to a low flat tax and get rid of all the IRS power plays. That would mean that charitible contributions would not be tax deductable. However, I don't think the government has any business determining what is charitible and what is not anyway.

I signed up today to volunteer for Ken Blackwell's campaign.

Also, Joe Hallett (Columbus Dispatch) is a fat sack of crap and a democrat shill. He and Ben Marrison have ruined a once good newspaper. Of course they were recruited from Pravda on the Lake (Cleveland Plain Dealer).

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