Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura Mistakenly Proclaims `Christian Heritage Week'

Minn. Gov. Mistakenly OKs Proclamation Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura Mistakenly Proclaims `Christian Heritage Week'

ST. PAUL, Minn. July 31 — Gov. Jesse Ventura's office said Wednesday the state's staunchly secular governor mistakenly proclaimed a week in October to be "Christian Heritage Week."

Ventura's office tried unsuccessfully to undo the proclamation it accidentally submitted Wednesday along with 16 others to the secretary of state's office.

"Somehow it got in the wrong pile," Ventura's spokesman John Wodele said. "It would not have been approved."

It's too late to do anything about it now, said Kent Kaiser, spokesman for Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer.

"There is no deproclamatizing. Once it's filed, it's filed," said Kaiser. "It's not like every time they send something we call over and ask, `Did you mean it?'"

The new order cites comments and the writings of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and others, recognizing them as statesmen "who did not hesitate to express their faith."

The order, bearing Ventura's signature, runs counter to his long-standing opposition to mixing government and religion. Less than a month ago, Ventura riled religious Minnesotans by issuing a proclamation at the request of an atheist group.

Ventura used to personally review each proclamation request. But as requests mounted, Ventura delegated the duty to his director of citizen outreach, who considers them with the governor's principles in mind and uses an autopen to affix his signature.

In past years, the Virginia-based Christian Heritage Ministries received a certificate of recognition when it asked for the more formal proclamation, Wodele said. A certificate will be issued again this year along with an apology for the inadvertent proclamation, he said.

"Inadvertently, or providentially some might say, he's recognized the role of faith and religion in our society," he said. "We'll gladly accept that."

Here's this morning's story in the unapologetically liberal Minneapolis Star Tribune.

And here's part of the (Tribune-printed) text of Christian Heritage Week Proclamation.

. . .WHEREAS: Benjamin Franklin, and the Constitutional Convention of 1787 stated, "It is impossible to build an empire without our Father's aid. I believe the sacred writings which say that "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it"; and

WHEREAS: George Washington enunciated, "Animated alone by the pure spirit of Christianity, and conducting ourselves as the faithful subjects of our free government, we may enjoy every temporal and spiritual felicity"; and

WHEREAS: Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote, "Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed the conviction that these liberties are the gift of God"; and

WHEREAS: James Madison, father of the U.S. Constitution, advocated, "The diffusion of the light of Christianity in our nation" in his Memorial and Remonstrance; and

WHEREAS: Patrick Henry quoted Proverbs 14:34 for our nation, "Righteousness alone can exalt a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people"; and

WHEREAS: George Mason, in his Virginia Declaration of Rights, forerunner of our U.S. Bill of Rights, affirmed, "That it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love and charity toward each other"; and

WHEREAS: These, and many other truly great men and women of America, giants in the structuring of American history, were Christian statesmen for caliber and integrity who did not hesitate to express their faith."

NOW THEREFORE, I, JESSE VENTURA, Governor of Minnesota, do hereby proclaim that the week of October 13 through October 19, 2002, shall be observed as:

CHRISTIAN HERITAGE WEEK

In the state of Minnesota.

And here, I suspect, is God's humorous reation to the slip-up of a self-important governor who's perpetually shaking a puny fist in His face:

Psalm 2
1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people devise a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
3 "Let us break Their bonds asunder, and cast away Their cords from us."
4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the LORD shall hold them in derision.

[from the Star Tribune story]. . . Ventura will again send a certificate, despite the inadvertent signing of the proclamation, along with a letter of explanation and apology if the group is confused or embarrassed by the mix-up and resulting publicity. Kiffmeyer may send the group the formal proclamation if she decides to.

Let's encourage Secretary of State Kiffmeyer to do exactly that:

secretary.state@state.mn.us

The text of my family's email to Ms. Kiffmeyer reads:

Ms. Kiffmeyer, we encourage you not only to publicize Oct. 13-19 as the duly authorized Christian Heritage Week in Minnesota but also to send a formal proclamation to the Virginia-based group who authored it. We figure Minnesota has already suffered sufficient ignominy in boasting the only governor who disdained signing a National Day of Prayer proclamation last May. And since our religion-phobic chief executive has already placated his atheist constituency by honoring its request for an "Indivisible Day" proclamation, we think it's time to balance the score sheet by fully honoring his (inadvertent, but divinely wrought?) Christian Heritage Week proclamation.

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