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Televangelist’s rally draws 2,000 to state capitol

The Plain Dealer, USA
Oct. 15, 2005
Ted Wendling
www.cleveland.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Sunday October 16, 2005

Columbus – Rod Parsley, central Ohio’s raging prophet, staged a multimedia extravaganza on the Capitol steps Friday, drawing an estimated 2,000 chanting and hand-waving disciples to what he called the launch of “the largest evangelical campaign ever attempted in any state in America.”

With music blaring, a Jumbotron in the background and a World Harvest Church camera crew filming panoramic shots from the top of the Hyatt on Capitol Square, Parsley whipped up the cheering throng. He said that the next four years would see his Reformation Ohio campaign convert 100,000 Ohioans to Christianity, register 400,000 “values voters” and guide the state through “a culture-shaking revolutionary revival.”

“We are not here to influence a political agenda,” Parsley said, repeating his mantra that he does not support any political candidate. “We are here to declare an agenda of our own.”

That agenda – which includes banning abortion and gay marriages and reversing what Parsley calls “the suppression of churches by the state” – tracks closely with the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Several Republican luminaries spoke at the kick-off, including Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a GOP candidate for governor in 2006, and Rep. Linda Reidelbach of Columbus, a member of Reformation Ohio’s board and one of Blackwell’s top choices as a potential running-mate.

Parsley and his mother, Ellen, donated the maximum $2,500 each to Blackwell’s campaign earlier this year.