McCain Rejects Right-Wing Preacher Rod Parsley, TooJohn McCain has now publicly rejected the support of yet another powerful right-wing preacher, Rod Parsley of Ohio, after rejecting the endorsement of John Hagee earlier today.
McCain said of Parsley, a self-proclaimed "Christocrat" who has declared that America was founded with the mission of destroying Islam: "I believe there is no place for that kind of dialogue in America, and I believe that even though he endorsed me, and I didn't endorse him, the fact is that I repudiate such talk, and I reject his endorsement."
Parsley is in many ways a different case from Hagee, who at the end of the day can only deliver votes in what is already the safe Republican state of Texas. Parsley controls an evangelical vote operation that was pivotal in President Bush's 2004 Ohio victory. If Parsley were to view this as anything more than a pro forma rejection for the sake of appearances, it could have very real consequences down the road.
More about Reverend Parsley of the Patriot Pastors.
Rod Parsley 2005: Ohio will be a training ground to launch a national reformation....a theocracy.``The vision of our country's founding generation and the inspiration of great reformers of the past are colliding with unprecedented moral decay and cultural decline,'' Parsley told the crowd. ``Today we come to declare a new movement that is an answer to the crisis of our times.''
Ohio will be a training ground that will launch a national reformation, he said. At his call, the crowd repeated several times the Ohio state motto, ``With God, all things are possible,'' with a volume that reverberated against the tall buildings surrounding the Statehouse. He brought with him his own security, a media relations firm, singers, rappers and television cameras. A big-screen television near Parsley played a three-minute video on the effort to save Ohio, including the institution of marriage.
Parsley said he has a three-fold plan: evangelize at least a million people, one in 10 of whom will become converts; help the disadvantaged; and register up to 400,000 new Ohio voters over the next four years.
Bill Moyers segment on the Patriot Pastors.
The Ohio Restoration Project is spreading. In one month alone last year in the president's home state of Texas, a single Baptist preacher added 2000 "Patriot Pastors" to the rolls. On his website he now encourages pastors to "speak out on the great moral issues of our day.to restore and reclaim America for Christ."
And from the Texas Republican Party.
Highlights
Tax Cuts, p. 17 - "The Party urges the IRS be abolished," and the following taxes eliminated: "income tax, inheritance tax, gift tax, capital gains, corporate income tax, payroll tax and property tax."
Tax cuts are accompanied by Downsizing the Federal Government on p. 19 -
We support the abolition of ... the Bureau of Tobacco and Firearms, the position of Surgeon General, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Departments of Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Education, Commerce and Labor. We also call for the de-funding or abolition of the National Endowment for the Arts, and Public Broadcasting System.
Deregulation - Adherents of Dominion Theology support deregulation of industry. They use terms such as "unfettered" or "unhampered" by regulation. The first three agencies listed in the above paragraph are all regulatory agencies. The Texas GOP Platform calls for business to be "unencumbered by excessive government regulation." (p.1, preamble)
Biblical Law - Dominion theology calls for a government based on Biblical Law, relying on the Ten Commandments as its guiding source. Therefore, posting of the Ten Commandments in public buildings has great symbolic value.
Who's next?