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Pastor Rod Parsley at World Harvest Church in Ohio. | (Photo: Facebook/World Harvest Church)Televangelist Rod Parsley, who leads the Columbus, Ohio-based World Harvest Church, has come under fire for a recent message he shared on social media in which he urged people not to hate America’s slaveholding founding fathers as a national conversation rages around the removal of confederate monuments.The message appeared to have been shared by Parsley on Facebook last week but the content is now restricted according to Facebook. Gospel recording artist and songwriter Ted Winn ll reposted the message on his Facebook page and it has since...

Over the past year I have been going over articles about Asperger's syndrome. Asperger's syndrome is considered to be a highly functioning form of autism yet it is also considered to be a disability. Members of the autism community have worked for years trying to downplay the severity of the disorder. I first heard about Asperger's in 1998 while watching a documentary. Asperger's disorder was first invented by a German doctor named Hans Asperger. (the disorder was named after him.) Asperger did study on children who though they were bright were considered awkward. The world health organization began to use...

CULVER CITY, Calif. — The video blasted across the Internet, drawing political blood from Senator John McCain within a matter of days. Produced here in a cluttered former motel behind the Sony Pictures lot, it juxtaposed harsh statements about Islam made by the Rev. Rod Parsley with statements from Mr. McCain praising Mr. Parsley, a conservative evangelical leader. The montage won notice on network newscasts this spring and ultimately helped lead Mr. McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, to reject Mr. Parsley’s earlier endorsement.

Rev. Rod Parsley withdraws McCain endorsement Saturday, May 24, 2008 10:08 PM THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH After saying Friday that he would not withdraw his endorsement of Sen. John McCain, pastor Rod Parsley has changed his mind. The pastor of World Harvest Church, in the Canal Winchester area, issued a statement almost identical to one he had sent late Friday night, but with one key change: the addition of the sentence “Therefore I withdraw my endorsement.” Spokesman Gene Pierce wouldn’t shed light on Parsley’s decision, saying only “this statement is a clarification on (Friday’s) statement.” McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for...

America was founded in order to destroy Islam? Statements like that give the anti-jihad movement a wingnut patina that, of course, ABC is happy to perpetuate in this anti-McCain hit piece, which breezes by the fact that his campaign has strongly disavowed these statements. But when McCain's campaign strongly disavows these statements, is he disavowing them all -- including the manifestly true statement that some Muslims quite obviously intend to conquer and Islamize the world? Is McCain completely unaware of the 1991 Muslim Brotherhood document, An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America," in...

Senator John McCain hailed as a spiritual adviser an Ohio megachurch pastor who has called upon Christians to wage a "war" against the "false religion" of Islam with the aim of destroying it. On February 26, McCain appeared at a campaign rally in Cincinnati with the Reverend Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, a supersize Pentecostal institution that features a 5,200-seat sanctuary, a television studio (where Parsley tapes a weekly show), and a 122,000-square-foot Ministry Activity Center. That day, a week before the Ohio primary, Parsley praised the Republican presidential front-runner as a "strong, true, consistent conservative."...

(Reuters) John McCain described Rod Parsley, a televangelist who urged a Christian war on Islam, as his spiritual guide Hannah Strange John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has been called upon to renounce a church leader he considers his spiritual guide for urging a Christian war to destroy the “false religion” of Islam. A number of prominent US weblogs demanded he reject the support of Reverend Rod Parsley, of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, an influential televangelist and political figure who campaigned alongside him in the run up to the Ohio primary. On February 26, a week before...

The "War on Christmas" has morphed into a "War on Christians." Last December, some evangelical Christian groups declared that the religious celebration of Christmas -- and even the phrase "Merry Christmas" -- was under attack by the forces of secularism. This week, radio commentator Rick Scarborough convened a conference in Washington on the "War on Christians and the Values Voters in 2006." The opening session was devoted to "reports from the frontlines" on "persecution" of Christians in the United States and Canada, including an artist whose paintings were barred from a municipal art show in Deltona, Fla., because they contained...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A group of religious leaders from nine denominations have accused two evangelical churches of improperly promoting an Ohio candidate for governor and want the Internal Revenue Service to investigate. The 31 leaders from central Ohio met on Jan. 15 and signed a letter asking the IRS to determine if the churches should lose tax-exempt status because of their support for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, one of three Republicans seeking the nomination. The Rev. Rod Parsley of World Harvest Church in Columbus and the Rev. Russell Johnson of Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster improperly used their churches...

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,"...

The Rev. Rod Parsley’s World Harvest Church and two affiliates always have obeyed federal tax laws, and an accusation to the contrary by 31 area pastors is "baseless and without merit," World Harvest said yesterday. The 31 complained to the Internal Revenue Service on Sunday, accusing the church, its Center for Moral Clarity and a related group, Reformation Ohio, of violating IRS regulations by engaging in partisan politics. They asked for an IRS investigation of the three as well as two allied entities, Fairfield Christian Church of Lancaster and the Ohio Restoration Project. But in a statement issued by Parsley’s...

Ohio Televangelist Takes to Politics By Andrew Welsh-Huggins Evangelist Rod Parsley wants to gather voters as he wins souls, a mixture that’s causing a stir in the state that put President Bush back in the White House. The televangelist opposed to gay marriage and critical of Islam hopes the effort he calls Reformation Ohio will convert 1 million people to Christianity, help the poor and register 400,000 new voters. “We just seek to be a voice in the public arena,” said Parsley, who has a TV ministry seen around the country and a 12,000-member church. “For some reason, it has...

Columbus, Ohio -- A new coalition dedicated to converting thousands to Christianity and getting thousands more on voter registration lists got its start Friday with a tightly scripted rally that resembled a revival meeting. More than 1,000 people gathered outside the Statehouse for the launch of Reformation Ohio. The group, founded by the Rev. Rod Parsley, a television evangelist and pastor of the World Harvest Church in suburban Columbus, vehemently opposes gay rights, and Parsley has written that the teachings of Islam were inspired by demons. The group's formation comes after last November's election in which Christian conservatives helped pass...

KING: Touch another base on guy marriage. If gays -- we have a gay say on this show, they want to enter the world of your world. They support family. They don't want to jump from one partner to another, they want marriage. Why deny it to them? They want what you have. What's wrong with it? LAURIE: Because I don't think it's God's natural order that he created, Larry. The Bible says that God created men and women in his image. And not good is the aloneness of men, and he brought the woman to be the companion to...

Worship as Higher PoliticsPolitical priorities for citizens of the kingdom.A Christianity Today editorial | posted 06/23/2005 09:00 a.m. George W. Bush is not Lord. The Declaration of Independence is not an infallible guide to Christian faith and practice. Nor is the U.S. Constitution, nor the U.N. Universal Declaration on Human Rights. "Original intent" of America's founders is not the hermeneutical key that will guarantee national righteousness. The American flag is not the Cross. The Pledge of Allegiance is not the Creed. "God Bless America" is not the Doxology. Sometimes one needs to state the obvious—especially at times when it's less...