10/4: Students storm stage at Columbia University; Minuteman Project founder forced to flee
READ THIS NOW: MINUTEMAN MOBBED
http://www.bwog.net/index.php?page=post&article_id=2265
October 4, 2006
bwog7After a 45 minute long diatribe by a preachy opening speaker, during which a packed crowd inside Roone Arledge grew increasingly irate, main event Jim Gilchrist was rushed by a large group of students, in what descended into a free-for-all on the stage. Scroll below for the blow-by-blow and photos.
1:56 AM: Chicano Caucus press release at the bottom of the post.
1:23 AM: YouTube is down at the moment. Bwog is working to provide an alternative, so stay tuned.
CTV's video of the protest:
http://www.bwog.net/index.php?page=post&article_id=2265
7: 30 PM: In the biggest old-fashioned activist shindig Broadway has seen since Chris Kulawik's last guest arrived in November 2005, hundreds of students and community members yelled and picketed outside Lerner to protest the arrival of Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minutemen. They had catchy slogans.
minutemen"Workers of the world unite! Same struggle, same fight!"
"Minutemen, Nazis, KKK! Racists, fascists, go away!"
8:10 PM: A little Miles Davis music on overhead in Roone Arledge Auditorium strikes Bwog as ironic. Opening speaker Marvin Stewart steps up to the podium, and begins by thanking Jesus Christ and Chris Kulawik. "ARE YOU READY to surrender your liberties?" he demands of the crowd.
8:35 PM: Stewart is 30 minutes into a free-associative rant, ranging through scripture and America's Consitutional Republican form of government (NOT Democratic). People in the increasingly restless crowd shout: "You don't know shit about god! Black white supremacist!" "Go home! "
to which Stewart counters: "I am home! God bless America!
to which the crowd replies: "BOOOOOOOOOOO!"
It's getting more surreal by the minute.
Update 8:41 pm: Someone yells, "In Spanish, please!" The crowd bursts into a thunderous applause, which spirals into a full-out protest, complete with students wearing Mexican wrestling masks. The students are now standing up one by one, with their backs to the man, who has asked, "Are you standing with your backs to me? Why'd you come, no wonder you don't know anything." Repubs cheered, others sneered.
Update 8:45 pm: Some white-shirted students were just escorted out of the auditorium by security.
kulawikUpdate 8:47 pm: Man at the podium is still ranting, despite the beads of sweat trickling down his forehead and his voice-cracks... "Religion and morality are necessary for government." Students chanting: "Wrap it up! Wrap it up!" Some guy just came out to try to get him to stop, and he said, "Let me finish..." he's sweating, and looks angry. "All of you who are doing your chanting in here are the very ones that need this the most. But guess what, I'm not deterred."
Update 8:51 pm: "I'm going to wrap this up because time is an issue." With Kulawik looking uncomfortable, Stewart stops talking with a boisterous "God Bless America, and America Bless God!" Taking the podium, Kulawik chastens the crowd. "I was under the false assumption that this was an Ivy League School," he says.
Finally the Minuteman himself enters. "Now who're you calling racist?" he shouts, putting his arm around Stewart, who is black. "I love the First Amendment. As soon as you graduate, you'll all be investment bankers. I've been where you at. I know you hate yourselves."
bwog5Update 9:00 pm: BWOG IS SHOCKED. STUDENTS WITH A BIG YELLOW SIGN JUST CAME ONTO THE STAGE. The sign says, "There are no illegals." Students rise en masse from the audience and rush the stage. The Minuteman and the students engaged in a tug of war with the banner. More people rush the stage, prompting a fist-fight. One female student is kicked in the head. A guy in a pony tail (definitely not a student) rushes the stage and fights with students (several witnesses saw him kick a student) and then banded together with the Minuteman to shout the pledge of allegiance as the rumble spun out of hand, "One nation! Under God! Indivisible!"
There was at least two minutes of chaos between students, other students and the Minutemen. Bwog took cover.
security Update: 9:01 pm: Security comes out, now the curtain is down. Students are still chanting, now everyone's filing out.
Update: 9:15 pm: Students outside shouting, "They say, 'get bent,' we say, 'let's fight!'"
Update: 9:22 pm: A Bwog correspondent calls in a tip. A student defending the Minuteman right outside the gates on 115th was encircled by a group of protesters after a heated personal fight with just one of the protesters. The protesters then shouted, "Racist, go home!" Security showed up, and they started breaking up. Student last seen laughing on phone with friends. A mosh pit of triumphal students and community members dance and chant, "Asian, Black, Brown and White, we smashed the Minutemen tonight!"
OK, Bwog edited this since the initial transcription. We're excitable.
Press release from the Chicano Caucus, one of the main organizers of the protest:
On behalf of the Chicano Caucus Executive Board, I would like to clarify for the Columbia community any misunderstandings that may have arisen from tonight's chain of events. While we were the chief organizers of the protest outside Roone Arledge, we were not responsible for any of the actions that led to the termination of the event. It is unfortunate that the series of events escalated to a point of violence. We feel that it is important to discuss and bring to light important issues concerning immigration, though they should be done in a peaceful manner. While we do not agree with Mr. Gilchrist and his organization's views, we respect everyone's right to freedom of speech and regret that his opinion was not heard.
Sincerely,
Adhemir Romero
Chicano Caucus President
At Columbia, Students Attack Minuteman Founder
By ELIANA JOHNSON - Staff Reporter of the Sun
http://www.nysun.com/article/40983
October 5, 2006
Students stormed the stage at Columbia University's
Roone auditorium yesterday, knocking over chairs and
tables and attacking Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the
Minutemen, a group that patrols the border between
America and Mexico.
Mr. Gilchrist and Marvin Stewart, another member of
his group, were in the process of giving a speech at
the invitation of the Columbia College Republicans.
They were escorted off the stage unharmed and exited
the auditorium by a back door.
Having wreaked havoc onstage, the students unrolled a
banner that read, in both Arabic and English, "No one
is ever illegal." As security guards closed the
curtains and began escorting people from the
auditorium, the students jumped from the stage,
pumping their fists, chanting victoriously, "Si se
pudo, si se pudo,"Spanish for "Yes we could!"
The Minuteman Project, an organization of volunteers
founded in 2004 by Mr. Gilchrist, aims to keep illegal
immigrants out of America by alerting law enforcement
officials when they attempt to cross the border.The
group uses fiery language and unorthodox tactics to
advance its platform. "Future generations will inherit
a tangle of rancorous, unassimilated, squabbling
cultures with no common bond to hold them together,
and a certain guarantee of the death of this nation as
a harmonious ‘melting pot,'" the group's Web site
warns.
The pandemonium that ensued as the evening's keynote
speaker took the stage was merely the climax of
protest that brewed all week. A number of campus
groups, including the Chicano caucus, the
African-American student organization, and the
International Socialist organization, began planning
their protests early this week when they heard that
the Minutemen would be arriving on campus.
The student protesters, who attended the event clad in
white as a sign of dissent, booed and shouted the
speakers down throughout.They interrupted Mr. Stewart,
who is African-American, when he referred to the
Declaration of Independence's self-evident truth that
"All men are created equal," calling him a racist, a
sellout, and a black white supremacist.
A student's demand that Mr. Stewart speak in Spanish
elicited thundering applause and brought the
protesters to their feet. The protesters remained
standing, turned their backs on Mr. Stewart for the
remainder of his remarks, and drowned him out by
chanting, "Wrap it up, wrap it up!" Mr. Stewart
appeared unphased by their behavior. He simply smiled
and bellowed, "No wonder you don't know what you're
talking about."
"These are racist individuals heading a project that
terrorizes immigrants on the U.S.-Mexican border,"
Ryan Fukumori, a Columbia junior who took part in the
protest, told The New York Sun. "They have no right to
be able to speak here."
The student protesters "rush to vindicate themselves
with monikers like ‘liberal' and ‘open-minded,'
but their actions, their attempt to condemn the
Minutemen without even hearing what they have to say,
speak otherwise," the president of the Columbia
College Republicans, Chris Kulawik, said. On campus,
the Republicans' flyers advertising the event were
defaced and torn down.
The College Republicans expressed their concern about
the lack of free speech for opposing viewpoints on the
Columbia campus in the wake of the evening's events.
"We've often feared that there's not freedom of speech
at Columbia for more right wing views — and that was
proven tonight," the executive director of the
Columbia College Republicans, Lauren Steinberg, said.
The Minutemen's arrival at Columbia drew protesters
from around the city as well. An hour before Messrs.
Stewart and Mr. Gilchrist took the stage, rowdy
protests began outside the auditorium on Broadway,
where activists chanted, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, the
Minutemen have got to go!"
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Hastert Told Of Foley 3 Years Ago
Hastert Told Of Foley 3 Years Ago
by The Associated Press
October 4, 2006 - 5:00 pm ET
(Washington) A senior congressional aide said Wednesday he told House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office about worrisome conduct by his former boss, Rep. Mark Foley, toward teenage pages more than three years ago, long before officials have acknowledged becoming aware of the issue.
Kirk Fordham made his comments to The Associated Press in an interview as a Kentucky Republican canceled a campaign fundraising event with Hastert. Rep. Ron Lewis said he wants to know the facts behind a scandal that has roiled Republicans since last week.
"I'm taking the speaker's words at face value," Lewis said in an interview. "I have no reason to doubt him. But until this is cleared up, I want to know the facts.
"If anyone in our leadership has done anything wrong, then I will be the first in line to condemn it."
Taken together, the comments by Fordham and the actions by Lewis added to the political uncertainty surrounding Hastert and fellow Republicans five weeks before midterm elections in which their control of the House will be tested.
Hastert's office did not immediately respond to either development.
Foley, 52, a Florida Republican, resigned last Friday after he was confronted with sexually explicit electronic messages he had sent teenage male pages. He has since entered an alcohol rehabilitation facility at an undisclosed location and, through his lawyer, has denied having had any sexual contact with minors.
His abrupt departure left behind a virtual sex scandal and a string of unanswered questions -- about what senior lawmakers knew, when they learned and what they did about it.
Fordham said he was serving as Foley's chief of staff when he was told about the lawmaker's inappropriate behavior toward pages more than three years ago. He said he had "more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives asking them to intervene" at the time.
Fordham declined to identify the officials in Hastert's office he spoke with.
Two members of the GOP leadership say they told Hastert this past spring they had heard Foley had sent overly friendly e-mails to a page. Hastert said over the weekend he does not recall those conversations, but has not disputed they took place.
Fordham resigned Wednesday as chief of staff to Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y., and said: "I never attempted to prevent any inquiries or investigation."
He said he would fully disclose to the FBI and the House ethics committee "any and all meetings and phone calls" regarding Foley's behavior that he had with senior staffers in the House leadership.
Fordham said one staffer he spoke with remains employed by a senior House Republican leader, but he declined to identify the person.
"Rather than trying to shift the blame on me, those who are employed by these House leaders should acknowledge what they know about their action or inaction in response to the information they knew about Mr. Foley prior to 2005," Fordham said.
At the time of his resignation, Fordham was serving as chief of staff for Reynolds, a member of the GOP leadership who has struggled to avoid political damage in the scandal's fallout.
Lewis, the Kentucky congressman, had arranged for Hastert to appear at a $50-per-person fundraiser next Tuesday. Hastert is one of the GOP's most sought-after speaker for campaign events, and the decision to scrap the appearance reflected concern over sharing a stage with a man suddenly struggling with a scandal.
©365Gay.com 2006
by The Associated Press
October 4, 2006 - 5:00 pm ET
(Washington) A senior congressional aide said Wednesday he told House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office about worrisome conduct by his former boss, Rep. Mark Foley, toward teenage pages more than three years ago, long before officials have acknowledged becoming aware of the issue.
Kirk Fordham made his comments to The Associated Press in an interview as a Kentucky Republican canceled a campaign fundraising event with Hastert. Rep. Ron Lewis said he wants to know the facts behind a scandal that has roiled Republicans since last week.
"I'm taking the speaker's words at face value," Lewis said in an interview. "I have no reason to doubt him. But until this is cleared up, I want to know the facts.
"If anyone in our leadership has done anything wrong, then I will be the first in line to condemn it."
Taken together, the comments by Fordham and the actions by Lewis added to the political uncertainty surrounding Hastert and fellow Republicans five weeks before midterm elections in which their control of the House will be tested.
Hastert's office did not immediately respond to either development.
Foley, 52, a Florida Republican, resigned last Friday after he was confronted with sexually explicit electronic messages he had sent teenage male pages. He has since entered an alcohol rehabilitation facility at an undisclosed location and, through his lawyer, has denied having had any sexual contact with minors.
His abrupt departure left behind a virtual sex scandal and a string of unanswered questions -- about what senior lawmakers knew, when they learned and what they did about it.
Fordham said he was serving as Foley's chief of staff when he was told about the lawmaker's inappropriate behavior toward pages more than three years ago. He said he had "more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives asking them to intervene" at the time.
Fordham declined to identify the officials in Hastert's office he spoke with.
Two members of the GOP leadership say they told Hastert this past spring they had heard Foley had sent overly friendly e-mails to a page. Hastert said over the weekend he does not recall those conversations, but has not disputed they took place.
Fordham resigned Wednesday as chief of staff to Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y., and said: "I never attempted to prevent any inquiries or investigation."
He said he would fully disclose to the FBI and the House ethics committee "any and all meetings and phone calls" regarding Foley's behavior that he had with senior staffers in the House leadership.
Fordham said one staffer he spoke with remains employed by a senior House Republican leader, but he declined to identify the person.
"Rather than trying to shift the blame on me, those who are employed by these House leaders should acknowledge what they know about their action or inaction in response to the information they knew about Mr. Foley prior to 2005," Fordham said.
At the time of his resignation, Fordham was serving as chief of staff for Reynolds, a member of the GOP leadership who has struggled to avoid political damage in the scandal's fallout.
Lewis, the Kentucky congressman, had arranged for Hastert to appear at a $50-per-person fundraiser next Tuesday. Hastert is one of the GOP's most sought-after speaker for campaign events, and the decision to scrap the appearance reflected concern over sharing a stage with a man suddenly struggling with a scandal.
©365Gay.com 2006
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Mr. Hastert: Do you hate more immigrants than potential child molesters?
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, ignored a call by a conservative Washington newspaper for him to resign as fallout continued from the political scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley and his explicit instant messages.
"The Speaker has and will lead the Republican conference to another majority in the 110th Congress," Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean said in a statement that comes a little over a month ahead of midterm elections.
"Mark Foley has resigned his seat in dishonor and the criminal investigation of this matter will continue. The Speaker is working every day on ensuring the House is a safe, productive environment for members, staff and all those who are employed by the institution." (Watch Hastert express his disgust about Foley messages -- 2:25 Video)
The call for Hastert's resignation came in an editorial that appeared in Tuesday's edition of the Washington Times, which was available online late Monday.
"House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once," the editorial says.
"Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations -- or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away."
The FBI, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the House Ethics Committee are investigating Foley's conduct -- and whether there was any attempt to cover it up.
Foley, a six-term congressman and co-chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, was undergoing treatment for alcoholism and mental illness, his lawyer said Monday. (Full story)
The Times editorial could be a signal that conservative Republicans are growing tired of the moderate Hastert.
The editorial page editor of the newspaper is Tony Blankley, who served as press secretary for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich during the Contract With America era after Republicans won the House in 1994.
With control of the House up for grabs in November, Hastert went before in Washington Monday to blast Foley, calling his behavior "vile" and charging that he had "deceived" his colleagues. (Watch what's at stake in the upcoming election Video)
Hastert insisted that top Republican leaders did not know about sexually explicit instant messages Foley allegedly sent former male pages in 2003. The messages surfaced Friday in an ABC News report shortly after Foley resigned.
"No one in the Republican leadership ... saw those messages until last Friday, when ABC News released them to the public," Hastert said. He added that if Foley had not resigned, "I would have demanded his expulsion from the House of Representatives." (Watch how the scandal threatens to snowball and hurt the GOP -- 2:19 Video)
Two Republican Congressmen -- Rep. John Shimkus, chairman of the House Page Board, and Rep. Tom Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee -- have acknowledged knowing about an "overly friendly" exchange between Foley and a former male page.
The e-mails, which occurred in 2005 between Foley and a page from Louisiana, were not sexually explicit. (Watch a timeline of how the scandal unfolded -- 2:05 Video)
Shimkus, of Illinois, has said Foley assured him nothing inappropriate had taken place with the page, and Foley was then told not to have any further contact with the teen and to watch his conduct around pages.
In a news conference Monday night, Reynolds said that Rep. Rodney Alexander, a Louisiana Republican who sponsored the page e-mailed by Foley in 2005, informed him about the notes earlier this year. Reynolds said he did not actually see the e-mails.
Reynolds said he then informed Hastert because he thought it was appropriate to tell his "supervisor" about allegations of possible sexual misconduct. (Watch GOP leaders try to contain the fallout -- 2:1 Video)
Reynolds insisted that he, too, did not know about the more explicit messages from 2003. Once he saw them Friday, he said he began working "swiftly and immediately" to get Foley to resign.
CNN's Susan Candiotti, Andrea Koppel and John Zarrella contributed to this report.
"The Speaker has and will lead the Republican conference to another majority in the 110th Congress," Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean said in a statement that comes a little over a month ahead of midterm elections.
"Mark Foley has resigned his seat in dishonor and the criminal investigation of this matter will continue. The Speaker is working every day on ensuring the House is a safe, productive environment for members, staff and all those who are employed by the institution." (Watch Hastert express his disgust about Foley messages -- 2:25 Video)
The call for Hastert's resignation came in an editorial that appeared in Tuesday's edition of the Washington Times, which was available online late Monday.
"House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once," the editorial says.
"Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations -- or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away."
The FBI, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the House Ethics Committee are investigating Foley's conduct -- and whether there was any attempt to cover it up.
Foley, a six-term congressman and co-chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, was undergoing treatment for alcoholism and mental illness, his lawyer said Monday. (Full story)
The Times editorial could be a signal that conservative Republicans are growing tired of the moderate Hastert.
The editorial page editor of the newspaper is Tony Blankley, who served as press secretary for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich during the Contract With America era after Republicans won the House in 1994.
With control of the House up for grabs in November, Hastert went before in Washington Monday to blast Foley, calling his behavior "vile" and charging that he had "deceived" his colleagues. (Watch what's at stake in the upcoming election Video)
Hastert insisted that top Republican leaders did not know about sexually explicit instant messages Foley allegedly sent former male pages in 2003. The messages surfaced Friday in an ABC News report shortly after Foley resigned.
"No one in the Republican leadership ... saw those messages until last Friday, when ABC News released them to the public," Hastert said. He added that if Foley had not resigned, "I would have demanded his expulsion from the House of Representatives." (Watch how the scandal threatens to snowball and hurt the GOP -- 2:19 Video)
Two Republican Congressmen -- Rep. John Shimkus, chairman of the House Page Board, and Rep. Tom Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee -- have acknowledged knowing about an "overly friendly" exchange between Foley and a former male page.
The e-mails, which occurred in 2005 between Foley and a page from Louisiana, were not sexually explicit. (Watch a timeline of how the scandal unfolded -- 2:05 Video)
Shimkus, of Illinois, has said Foley assured him nothing inappropriate had taken place with the page, and Foley was then told not to have any further contact with the teen and to watch his conduct around pages.
In a news conference Monday night, Reynolds said that Rep. Rodney Alexander, a Louisiana Republican who sponsored the page e-mailed by Foley in 2005, informed him about the notes earlier this year. Reynolds said he did not actually see the e-mails.
Reynolds said he then informed Hastert because he thought it was appropriate to tell his "supervisor" about allegations of possible sexual misconduct. (Watch GOP leaders try to contain the fallout -- 2:1 Video)
Reynolds insisted that he, too, did not know about the more explicit messages from 2003. Once he saw them Friday, he said he began working "swiftly and immediately" to get Foley to resign.
CNN's Susan Candiotti, Andrea Koppel and John Zarrella contributed to this report.
Religious groups are the masters of hate.
Churches Demand Fiji Abolish Gay Protections
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
October 2, 2006 - 9:00 pm ET
(Suva) Leaders of 20 denominations in Fiji are demanding the repeal of constitutional protections for gays and lesbians in the South Pacific islands
Fiji's constitution provides civil rights in housing and some other areas but a law, still on the books from colonial days, makes gay sex illegal, punishable by a lengthy prison sentence.
Now church leaders say it is time to amend the constitution to allow for the public shunning of gays and to discourage foreign gays from coming to the pristine islands.
The Assembly of Christian Churches in a letter to Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase said that providing employment and housing rights to gays encourages "immoral" sexual behavior.
Last year Fiji's High Court overturned the convictions of two gay men, ruling that the South Pacific island's sodomy law was unconstitutional. (story)
The court released Thomas McCoskar, a 55-year-old Australian, and Dhirendra Nadan, a 23-year-old native man, telling McCoskar he was free to leave Fiji and return home.
Despite the court ruling the government has refused to repeal the sodomy law and has continued to lay charges,
The churches say that the only way to force the courts to uphold the law is amend the constitution.
"It is only a matter of time before same sex marriages, ordination of gay person as church ministers and other unacceptable practices will be enforced here because of the rights protected (under the Constitution)," the letter to Qarase said.
"The Government is duty bound to remove this abomination from our laws. The consequences of not removing such evil laws can only be devastating to Fiji as a nation."
Qarase said he would be prepared to meet with the church leaders.
Fiji is a popular destination for gay Australians and New Zealanders. Recently a company said it was preparing to build a gay resort in Fiji but has not provided details of the venture.
©365Gay.com 2006
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
October 2, 2006 - 9:00 pm ET
(Suva) Leaders of 20 denominations in Fiji are demanding the repeal of constitutional protections for gays and lesbians in the South Pacific islands
Fiji's constitution provides civil rights in housing and some other areas but a law, still on the books from colonial days, makes gay sex illegal, punishable by a lengthy prison sentence.
Now church leaders say it is time to amend the constitution to allow for the public shunning of gays and to discourage foreign gays from coming to the pristine islands.
The Assembly of Christian Churches in a letter to Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase said that providing employment and housing rights to gays encourages "immoral" sexual behavior.
Last year Fiji's High Court overturned the convictions of two gay men, ruling that the South Pacific island's sodomy law was unconstitutional. (story)
The court released Thomas McCoskar, a 55-year-old Australian, and Dhirendra Nadan, a 23-year-old native man, telling McCoskar he was free to leave Fiji and return home.
Despite the court ruling the government has refused to repeal the sodomy law and has continued to lay charges,
The churches say that the only way to force the courts to uphold the law is amend the constitution.
"It is only a matter of time before same sex marriages, ordination of gay person as church ministers and other unacceptable practices will be enforced here because of the rights protected (under the Constitution)," the letter to Qarase said.
"The Government is duty bound to remove this abomination from our laws. The consequences of not removing such evil laws can only be devastating to Fiji as a nation."
Qarase said he would be prepared to meet with the church leaders.
Fiji is a popular destination for gay Australians and New Zealanders. Recently a company said it was preparing to build a gay resort in Fiji but has not provided details of the venture.
©365Gay.com 2006
Monday, October 02, 2006
Is this actually legal? (Are these activist pastors illegals?)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-churchvote1oct01,0,
7208299,full.story
Los Angeles Times
October 1, 2006
Pastors Guiding Voters to GOP
The Christian right seeks out members who might not go to the polls. The
focus is issues, but some leaders don't oppose endorsement.
By Stephanie Simon
Times Staff Writer
With a pivotal election five weeks away, leaders on the religious right
have launched an all-out drive to get Christians from pew to voting
booth. Their target: the nearly 30 million Americans who attend church
at least once a week but did not vote in 2004.
Their efforts at times push legal limits on church involvement in
partisan campaigns. That is by design. With control of Congress at stake
Nov. 7, those guiding the movement say they owe it to God and to their
own moral principles to do everything they can to keep social
conservatives in power.
Preachers "ought to put their toe right on the line," said Mathew D.
Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit law firm that supports
conservative Christian causes.
The Rev. Rick Scarborough, a leading evangelical in Texas, has recruited
5,000 "patriot pastors" nationwide to promote an agenda that aligns
neatly with Republican platforms. "We urge them to avoid legal
entanglement, but there are times in a pastor's life when he needs to
take a biblical stand," Scarborough said. "Our higher calling is to
Christ."
The campaign encourages individual pastors to use sermons, Bible studies
and rallies to drive Christians to the polls - and, by implication or
outright endorsement, to Republican candidates. One online guide to
discussing the election in church, produced by the Focus on the Family
ministry, offers this tip: If a congregant says her top concerns are
healthcare and national security, suggest that Jesus would make abortion
and gay marriage priorities.
At a recent rally in Pennsylvania, Focus on the Family founder James C.
Dobson told a crowd of 3,000 that it would be "downright frightening" if
Republicans lost control of Congress. If there's a good Christian on the
ballot, he said, failing to vote "would be a sin."
The law restricting political activity of churches and charities dates
to 1954, when then-Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson pushed it through in a pique
of anger over a nonprofit's effort to derail his reelection. Tax-exempt
organizations, including churches, may not participate or intervene in
political campaigns on behalf of any candidate. Intervention is broadly
defined as "any and all activities that favor or oppose one or more
candidate for public office," according to the Internal Revenue Service.
That sounds straightforward. In practice, though, there are many ways
around the restriction, as the faithful recognize.
"If the pastor is doing the right job, the people will automatically
vote for the right person," said Gale Wollenberg, who belongs to a
conservative evangelical church in Topeka, Kan.
Perhaps the biggest loophole is that churches can campaign on policy
issues - even if that effort benefits a particular candidate.
Scarborough, for instance, has spent a great deal of time far from his
Texas parish, rallying Christian voters against an initiative promoting
embryonic stem-cell research in Missouri. At his events, Scarborough
makes a point not to mention Missouri's Republican Sen. Jim Talent, who
is in a tight fight for reelection.
But in private, he says candidly that he expects - and hopes - his
efforts will give Talent a boost. "If a pro-life candidate benefits from
Christians being involved, to God be the glory," Scarborough said.
Pastors can further help their favored candidates by distributing
"issue-oriented" voter guides in church, a tactic used for years among
secular (often left-leaning) groups such as the National Assn. for the
Advancement of Colored People and adapted to faith communities by the
Christian Coalition in the 1990s.
The voter pamphlets are supposed to be neutral, but often present issues
through a distinctly partisan lens. A guide distributed by a
conservative group in Minnesota in 2004 laid out the candidates' views
on aborting "unborn babies." One produced this year by the liberal
evangelical group Sojourners describes immediate withdrawal of U.S.
troops as the only way to bring peace to Iraq.
Pastors have a right to work directly for candidates on their own time,
as long as they don't use church resources. In a recent article aimed at
evangelical preachers, Staver wrote that they "should feel free" to go
even further and endorse a candidate from the pulpit because he thought
the IRS law was unconstitutional. He repeatedly noted that the IRS had
rarely sanctioned churches. The Church at Pierce Creek in Binghamton,
N.Y., is the only one ever to lose its tax-exempt certification, for
sponsoring newspaper ads that opposed presidential candidate Bill
Clinton.
Far more often, IRS agents resolve complaints by training church leaders
to avoid future missteps, said Lois G. Lerner, who directs the IRS unit
for tax-exempt groups. In 2004, the IRS resolved dozens of complaints
this way, including such blatant violations as churches donating to a
candidate's campaign or placing political signs on their property.
Given the slim chance of serious sanction, "I encourage pastors to
exchange their muzzles for megaphones," Staver wrote in the Rev. Jerry
Falwell's monthly newspaper, the National Liberty Journal.
Political preaching has been particularly fervent this season in Ohio,
where two conservative mega-churches have promoted the Republican
candidate for governor, J. Kenneth Blackwell. They've featured him in at
least six rallies that blended patriotic appeals with Christian revival.
Yet the latest poll shows Blackwell trailing by 19 points. In part,
that's because Ohio voters seem to be in an anti-Republican mood, after
scandals involving state GOP politicians. It also shows that a pastor's
influence only goes so far.
Many on the Christian right credit their aggressive mobilization,
similar to this fall's campaign, with securing President Bush's
reelection. And turnout among evangelical voters did jump 9% from 2000
to 2004.
But two religious groups that heavily back Democrats also came out in
droves: Turnout was up 15% among Jews and 13% among mainline Protestants
who attend liberal churches, according to surveys conducted by John C.
Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Overall turnout was up 4 points.
"It's really difficult to parse out" the effectiveness of the religious
right's mobilization in 2004 "because it was such an intense campaign,"
Green said. "It does seem to bear fruit, but it varies a great deal from
congregation to congregation."
Church-based campaigning may have been most influential in voters'
choice of candidate. Bush won 78% of the evangelical vote in 2004, up
from 68% in his first presidential bid. And evangelicals were far more
likely than any other group of voters to say that religion was the most
important factor in their political thinking.
Voter education from the church "can be enormously effective," said
Colin Hanna, who directs the Pennsylvania Pastors Network. The group of
850 seeks to mobilize voters against "abortion and other evils,"
according to its website.
Some of this fall's efforts are aimed at energizing politically active
but disillusioned Republicans who might otherwise stay home. But Hanna
is particularly eager to reach the 30 million regular churchgoers, and
an overlapping group of 19 million evangelicals, who did not vote in
2004. Their indifference to politics is "either a tragedy or a scandal,"
he said, but he's certain it can be overcome.
Liberals, too, see potential in mingling faith and politics. Black
churches have a long history of political activism from the pulpit,
dating to the civil rights movement - but their efforts did not boost
voter turnout in 2004. This time around, other Christians, including
liberal Catholics, are jumping in to try to energize the religious left.
They plan to distribute more than 1 million voter guides urging
Christians to evaluate candidates based on issues such as poverty and
global warming. A new consulting firm, Common Good Strategies, aims to
help Democratic candidates make stronger pitches to communities of
faith.
For the most part, however, the left is far behind the right: "They've
got organization and discipline that we don't really have yet," said
Jack Pannell of Sojourners. "It may take us a generation."
With both the left and the right pursuing faith-based strategies, the
IRS issued a warning in February that churches may be in danger of
becoming "arms of political campaigns and parties." Agents are looking
into about 40 reported violations by churches and other tax-exempt
nonprofits. A few are holdovers from 2004, including the high-profile
probe into an antiwar sermon at a liberal Pasadena church. But new
allegations continue to come in at a brisk clip.
Liberal clergy in Ohio have filed a protest about the pastors' efforts
on behalf of Blackwell. On the right, the website
http://www.ratoutachurch.org is recruiting volunteers to report partisan
activity from the pulpit that favors Democrats.
Melissa Rogers, a visiting professor of religion and public policy at
Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., says she expects more
complaints as the election approaches. In their zeal to bring politics
into the pews, some religious leaders "have made a decision to walk on
the razor's edge of the law," she said. "Or over the edge."
stephanie.simon@latimes.com
7208299,full.story
Los Angeles Times
October 1, 2006
Pastors Guiding Voters to GOP
The Christian right seeks out members who might not go to the polls. The
focus is issues, but some leaders don't oppose endorsement.
By Stephanie Simon
Times Staff Writer
With a pivotal election five weeks away, leaders on the religious right
have launched an all-out drive to get Christians from pew to voting
booth. Their target: the nearly 30 million Americans who attend church
at least once a week but did not vote in 2004.
Their efforts at times push legal limits on church involvement in
partisan campaigns. That is by design. With control of Congress at stake
Nov. 7, those guiding the movement say they owe it to God and to their
own moral principles to do everything they can to keep social
conservatives in power.
Preachers "ought to put their toe right on the line," said Mathew D.
Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit law firm that supports
conservative Christian causes.
The Rev. Rick Scarborough, a leading evangelical in Texas, has recruited
5,000 "patriot pastors" nationwide to promote an agenda that aligns
neatly with Republican platforms. "We urge them to avoid legal
entanglement, but there are times in a pastor's life when he needs to
take a biblical stand," Scarborough said. "Our higher calling is to
Christ."
The campaign encourages individual pastors to use sermons, Bible studies
and rallies to drive Christians to the polls - and, by implication or
outright endorsement, to Republican candidates. One online guide to
discussing the election in church, produced by the Focus on the Family
ministry, offers this tip: If a congregant says her top concerns are
healthcare and national security, suggest that Jesus would make abortion
and gay marriage priorities.
At a recent rally in Pennsylvania, Focus on the Family founder James C.
Dobson told a crowd of 3,000 that it would be "downright frightening" if
Republicans lost control of Congress. If there's a good Christian on the
ballot, he said, failing to vote "would be a sin."
The law restricting political activity of churches and charities dates
to 1954, when then-Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson pushed it through in a pique
of anger over a nonprofit's effort to derail his reelection. Tax-exempt
organizations, including churches, may not participate or intervene in
political campaigns on behalf of any candidate. Intervention is broadly
defined as "any and all activities that favor or oppose one or more
candidate for public office," according to the Internal Revenue Service.
That sounds straightforward. In practice, though, there are many ways
around the restriction, as the faithful recognize.
"If the pastor is doing the right job, the people will automatically
vote for the right person," said Gale Wollenberg, who belongs to a
conservative evangelical church in Topeka, Kan.
Perhaps the biggest loophole is that churches can campaign on policy
issues - even if that effort benefits a particular candidate.
Scarborough, for instance, has spent a great deal of time far from his
Texas parish, rallying Christian voters against an initiative promoting
embryonic stem-cell research in Missouri. At his events, Scarborough
makes a point not to mention Missouri's Republican Sen. Jim Talent, who
is in a tight fight for reelection.
But in private, he says candidly that he expects - and hopes - his
efforts will give Talent a boost. "If a pro-life candidate benefits from
Christians being involved, to God be the glory," Scarborough said.
Pastors can further help their favored candidates by distributing
"issue-oriented" voter guides in church, a tactic used for years among
secular (often left-leaning) groups such as the National Assn. for the
Advancement of Colored People and adapted to faith communities by the
Christian Coalition in the 1990s.
The voter pamphlets are supposed to be neutral, but often present issues
through a distinctly partisan lens. A guide distributed by a
conservative group in Minnesota in 2004 laid out the candidates' views
on aborting "unborn babies." One produced this year by the liberal
evangelical group Sojourners describes immediate withdrawal of U.S.
troops as the only way to bring peace to Iraq.
Pastors have a right to work directly for candidates on their own time,
as long as they don't use church resources. In a recent article aimed at
evangelical preachers, Staver wrote that they "should feel free" to go
even further and endorse a candidate from the pulpit because he thought
the IRS law was unconstitutional. He repeatedly noted that the IRS had
rarely sanctioned churches. The Church at Pierce Creek in Binghamton,
N.Y., is the only one ever to lose its tax-exempt certification, for
sponsoring newspaper ads that opposed presidential candidate Bill
Clinton.
Far more often, IRS agents resolve complaints by training church leaders
to avoid future missteps, said Lois G. Lerner, who directs the IRS unit
for tax-exempt groups. In 2004, the IRS resolved dozens of complaints
this way, including such blatant violations as churches donating to a
candidate's campaign or placing political signs on their property.
Given the slim chance of serious sanction, "I encourage pastors to
exchange their muzzles for megaphones," Staver wrote in the Rev. Jerry
Falwell's monthly newspaper, the National Liberty Journal.
Political preaching has been particularly fervent this season in Ohio,
where two conservative mega-churches have promoted the Republican
candidate for governor, J. Kenneth Blackwell. They've featured him in at
least six rallies that blended patriotic appeals with Christian revival.
Yet the latest poll shows Blackwell trailing by 19 points. In part,
that's because Ohio voters seem to be in an anti-Republican mood, after
scandals involving state GOP politicians. It also shows that a pastor's
influence only goes so far.
Many on the Christian right credit their aggressive mobilization,
similar to this fall's campaign, with securing President Bush's
reelection. And turnout among evangelical voters did jump 9% from 2000
to 2004.
But two religious groups that heavily back Democrats also came out in
droves: Turnout was up 15% among Jews and 13% among mainline Protestants
who attend liberal churches, according to surveys conducted by John C.
Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Overall turnout was up 4 points.
"It's really difficult to parse out" the effectiveness of the religious
right's mobilization in 2004 "because it was such an intense campaign,"
Green said. "It does seem to bear fruit, but it varies a great deal from
congregation to congregation."
Church-based campaigning may have been most influential in voters'
choice of candidate. Bush won 78% of the evangelical vote in 2004, up
from 68% in his first presidential bid. And evangelicals were far more
likely than any other group of voters to say that religion was the most
important factor in their political thinking.
Voter education from the church "can be enormously effective," said
Colin Hanna, who directs the Pennsylvania Pastors Network. The group of
850 seeks to mobilize voters against "abortion and other evils,"
according to its website.
Some of this fall's efforts are aimed at energizing politically active
but disillusioned Republicans who might otherwise stay home. But Hanna
is particularly eager to reach the 30 million regular churchgoers, and
an overlapping group of 19 million evangelicals, who did not vote in
2004. Their indifference to politics is "either a tragedy or a scandal,"
he said, but he's certain it can be overcome.
Liberals, too, see potential in mingling faith and politics. Black
churches have a long history of political activism from the pulpit,
dating to the civil rights movement - but their efforts did not boost
voter turnout in 2004. This time around, other Christians, including
liberal Catholics, are jumping in to try to energize the religious left.
They plan to distribute more than 1 million voter guides urging
Christians to evaluate candidates based on issues such as poverty and
global warming. A new consulting firm, Common Good Strategies, aims to
help Democratic candidates make stronger pitches to communities of
faith.
For the most part, however, the left is far behind the right: "They've
got organization and discipline that we don't really have yet," said
Jack Pannell of Sojourners. "It may take us a generation."
With both the left and the right pursuing faith-based strategies, the
IRS issued a warning in February that churches may be in danger of
becoming "arms of political campaigns and parties." Agents are looking
into about 40 reported violations by churches and other tax-exempt
nonprofits. A few are holdovers from 2004, including the high-profile
probe into an antiwar sermon at a liberal Pasadena church. But new
allegations continue to come in at a brisk clip.
Liberal clergy in Ohio have filed a protest about the pastors' efforts
on behalf of Blackwell. On the right, the website
http://www.ratoutachurch.org is recruiting volunteers to report partisan
activity from the pulpit that favors Democrats.
Melissa Rogers, a visiting professor of religion and public policy at
Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., says she expects more
complaints as the election approaches. In their zeal to bring politics
into the pews, some religious leaders "have made a decision to walk on
the razor's edge of the law," she said. "Or over the edge."
stephanie.simon@latimes.com
Mark Foley (R-FL)... The Congress should focus on more important issues, like protecting kids from potential predators.
Foley To Resign Over Sexually Explicit Messages to Minors
September 29, 2006 3:02 PM
Brian Ross and Maddy Sauer Report:
Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) planned to resign today, hours after ABC questioned him about sexually explicit internet messages with current and former Congressional pages under the age of 18.
A spokesman for Foley, the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, said the congressman submitted his resignation in a letter late this afternoon to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
THE BLOTTER RECOMMENDS
· Sixteen-Year-Old Who Worked as Capitol Hill Page Concerned About E-mail Exchange with Congressman
· Rep. Foley's Opponent Calls for an Investigation into Allegations of Inappropriate E-mails with Former Page
· Click Here for More of the Brian Ross Page
Hours earlier, ABC News had read excerpts of instant messages provided by former pages who said the congressman, under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, made repeated references to sexual organs and acts.
The full details will be included in a report tonight on ABC World News with Charles Gibson.
Click here for the previous report on the e-mails sent by Rep. Foley.
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