Pass the Salt Ministries (yes, you read that right) has big news for right-wing activists in Ohio - a bevy of second and third-tier Religious Right leaders will be gracing their fair state later this month for "A Gathering of Eagles":
"A Gathering of Eagles" is taking place in Coshocton, Ohio on December 14-15 as some of America's finest Christian leaders are gathering for a Leadership Summit and Biblical Worldview Conference. Dr. Alan Keyes is confirmed as the keyniote [sic] speaker and will be joined by the likes of Rev. Flip Benham, Chaplain E. Ray Moore Jr. , Rev. Rick Scarborough, Peter Labarbera, and Pastor Ernie Sanders and others. This NON-POLITICAL event is designed to educate Christians about the great moral issues facing this country. Learn the truth from the front lines in the cultural war regarding issues such as The Gay Agenda, Abortion, Individual Liberty, Hate Crime Legislation, and the religion of Secular Humanism.
This doesn’t really sound like a “non-political” event at all. In fact, it sounds likes a distinctly political event designed to rally right-wing voters heading into the Republican primaries and general election. After all, Rick Scarborough has endorsed Mike Huckabee and is currently in the midst of an “all out effort to move Values Voters to vote their values on Election Day '08” while Alan Keyes is currently running for President (though you’d be forgiven for not knowing that.)
As for Pass the Salt, it is the brainchild of Dave Daubenmire:
[A] veteran 25 year high school football coach, [Daubenmire] was spurred to action when attacked and eventually sued by the ACLU in the late 1990’s for alledgedly [sic] mixing prayer with his coaching. After a two year battle for his 1st Amendment rights and a determination to not back down, the ACLU relented and offered coach an out of court settlement. God honored his stand and the ACLU backed off. Coach’s courageous stand, an inspiration to Americans everywhere, demonstrated that the ACLU can be defeated. As a result of the experience, Coach heard the call to move out of coaching a high school team, to the job of coaching God’s team.
Of course, the claim that ACLU “relented and offered coach an out of court settlement” is accurate only if you ignore the fact that Daubenmire was ordered to stop leading religious activities at school and the school board agreed to pay an estimated $18,000 settlement.
Daubenmire is also the head of something called Minutemen United, which is not to be confused with the anti-immigration Minutemen groups:
Minutemen United is a group of men and women dedicated to creating an environment where Christian thoughts, ideals and leaders can get traction in the marketplace of ideas. We hail from New York to California and are headquartered in Ohio " the heart of it all" … [Our mission is] to unite and mobilize God-fearing Americans as an effective, recognized force dedicated to restoring and upholding our Judeo-Christian values as the bedrock of this distinctly-American culture. America is at the crossroads. The enemies of God are relentless in their attack.
Earlier this year Minutemen United decided it was necessary to disrupt church services in order to carry out their mission of defending this nation from the “enemies of God”:
A conservative Christian values group has been interrupting services at two central Ohio churches to protest their support for homosexuality.
Minutemen United vowed to attend services every Sunday.
The group started its crusade when First Baptist Church in Granville hosted "Love Makes a Family," a traveling exhibit by the Family Diversity Project showing photos of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families.
If you are tempted to think of Daubenmire as just another God-fearing, gay-hating, right-wing rabble-rouser, rest assured that he is not homophobic … he’s just homo-nauseous:
I'm not homo-phobic. I'm not homo-hateful. I'm not homo-latent. I'm homo-nauseous. I really couldn't care less where a man desires to put his appendage.
But I'm sick of hearing about it. I'm sick of talking about it. I'm sick of it being force fed to me on TV.
In all of my life I have never seen such deviancy so openly celebrated. They are deviant, you know? No matter how many names they will try and call me, no matter how many "sensitivity" classes they try and send me to, no matter how much tolerance they try and cram down my throat (sorry), the fact remains homosexuals are deviant.
…
Homosexual behavior is a deviant lifestyle. Everyone knows that. So in order to make themselves look "normal" the "homosexual movement" is doing everything that it can to change "social standards." They can't feel good about themselves, so they must make sure WE feel good about them.
Well, I'm sick of it. I'm homo-nauseous. The homo-sexual movement is making me sick.
