Christian Right has no leis for gays in Hawaii
Bill Berkowitz printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Wed Dec 09, 2009 at 12:53:46 PM EST
Conservative Christian evangelicals organizing massive voter registration drive to derail legislation in support of Civil Unions in Hawaii  

Last week I learned two things about Hawaii: First, thanks to The New Yorker's Sam Tannenhaus, I found out just how much Sarah Palin couldn't stand the place during her brief stay there; and, Second, my much-trusted Hawaii-based religious right watchdog informed me of a move afoot by the state's Christian Right to put the kybosh on any possibility the state legislature might pass a Civil Unions bill next year.  

According to The New Yorker's Tannenhaus, Chuck Heath, Sarah's father, told Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe, authors of "Sarah from Alaska" (PublicAffairs; $26.95), that the reason that his daughter dropped out of the college she was attending in Hawaii - the first of four colleges she ultimately went to - was because she was uncomfortable in the presence of so many Asians and Pacific Islanders. "They were a minority type thing and it wasn't glamorous, so she came home," her father said.

Enough Sarah Palin for now; on to the state of Civil Unions in the state of Hawaii, or the lack there of.

Yes, Virginia there is a functioning Christian Coalition in Hawaii

Next year, the Hawaii state legislature is expected to once again consider legislation allowing gay and lesbian couples to  form Civil Unions. The last time the legislature considered such a measure was in 1998, when it failed. According to an October 10, Associated Press report, "the measure, which is [now] on hold in the state Senate, generated some of the largest rallies [by conservatives] ever seen in the normally placid Capitol earlier this year."

"Conservatives (almost) never win here," said Garret Hashimoto, chairman of the Hawaii Christian Coalition. (Yes Virginia, there is still a functioning Christian Coalition in some parts of the country.) However, he added, "we won big in 1998, and this issue is coming up again in 2010. So hopefully, 1998 will again surface in 2010."

"We don't want to tell people who to vote for," said Bishop Larry Silva of the Catholic Diocese of Hawaii. "But we do want to talk about moral principles and lead them through that discussion of moral principles to decide who best then can express those principles for us as a leader."

According to the AP, "Catholic and evangelical Protestant leaders hope to push Hawaii politics rightward, preparing an election-year effort in 2010 to organize their parishioners into voting blocks that can help elect like-minded candidates. And they are hoping to use the issue of civil unions to get them there."

Hashimoto's Christian Coalition and a number of other Christian conservative organizations do not intend to leave hope to chance.    

The 'I VOTE' voter registration drive

After years of relative silence, the religious right has launched a campaign they're calling the "I VOTE" voter registration drive; a campaign aimed at convincing 80 percent of Christian churchgoers to register to vote and then once registered, to convince 80 percent of them to vote their "Christian values" on abortion, gay rights, euthanasia and other issues. Earlier this year for example, according to my trusted correspondent, legislation to require hospitals to provide information about Emergency Contraception to rape victims and to provide Emergency Contraception when requested failed (HB423 and SB604).

"If successful," the AP pointed out, "the bloc will be instrumental in a state where 456,000 voted last November, said Frances Oda, chairman of Hawaii Family Forum, a nonprofit research group with ties to the Hawaii Catholic Conference." In addition, "The Voice of Truth ministry at Honolulu's First Assembly of God church was organized last year and hopes to prod parishioners next year into registering to vote and provide them with information on candidate positions, much of it from Oda's group."

In mid-October, Andrew Walden reported in the Hawaii Free Press ("The untold story, the unspoken opinion, the other side"), that the Honolulu Star-Bulletin had editorialized against the registration drive. Given that Hawaii has a dismal record regarding voter turnout, Walden was convinced that the editorial was motivated by the newspaper's animus toward the Republican Party and evangelical voters.  

'Transformation Hawaii' conference draws hundreds

In a late-October piece, Walden reported on the "Transformation Hawaii" conference held in early November, which would, amongst other things appraise conferees about the "I VOTE" campaign. This conference followed an International Institute on Nation Transformation held a few days earlier.

Walden reported that organizers define "Transformation" as: "PRISONS transformed, GHETTOS revitalized, CORRUPTION removed, SCHOOLS renewed, GOD-HONORING governments, KINGDOM businesses, and SYSTEMIC HUNGER stamped out" (http://www.transformationhawaii.org-a.googlepages.com/).  Group 70 CEO and New Life Church Honolulu Pastor Frances Oda pointed out that "This is not so much a conference as a radical transformation experience."  

If the "I VOTE" campaign is successful, it could play a significant role in the upcoming gubernatorial race, in which Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, the leading contender for the Republican nomination, while U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie intends to run for the Democratic nomination.

Aiona, according to the AP, "has made no secret of his strong religious convictions nor his conservative views on social issues, including opposition to civil unions, gay marriage and abortion. He has attended religious rallies and in 2004 told a prayer gathering that `Hawaii belongs to Jesus.' He also has insisted his faith will not interfere with his duties."

In mid-November, Aiona attended a rock concert sponsored by a group called "Stand for Life Hawaii (http://www.standforlifehawaii.org/default.html)." My Hawaii source reported that a couple of the music groups, "The Kry" and "Driven Cure" flew in from California for the event.

Abercrombie supports abortion rights, civil unions and gay marriage.  

As of this writing, it is unclear whether the "I VOTE" campaign is related in any way to iVoteValues.org (http://ivotevalues.org/), a website aimed at encouraging conservative Christians to: Register to Vote;   * Register Your Friends; Vote Your Values; and Pray. On the iVoteValues website, the organization notes that it is a "collaborative effort of Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, and was originally developed by For Faith & Family, a ministry of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention."  




Display:
Francis Oda of the Hawaii Family Forum is also the same Francis Oda who leads International Transformations Network (ITN) with Apostle Ed Silvoso, head of Harvest Evangelism, Argentina. Silvoso is one of C. Peter Wagner's original partners in the development and promotion of spiritual mapping and spiritual warfare, and Silvoso currently serves on the council that approves apostles for the International Coalition of Apostles.

Oda and Silvoso have been developing an extensive network in Hawaii for some time, complete with the usual ideology and "Transformations" and  "7-M" campaigns.  In addition to "Transformation Hawaii" and the accompanying prayer networks, ITN has also held international conventions in Hawaii such as the one last month endorsed by Jack Hayford, John Dawson, and C. Peter Wagner: http://www.harvestevan.org/assets/files/iint09/iint09flyer14lg.pd f
Aiona has spoken at Tranformation Hawaii conferences and events. http://www.transformationhawaii.org/files/th_conference2008_sched ule.pdf

ITN Global's exec council includes Graham Power of Transformations Africa/Global Day of Prayer.  http://www.itn-global.com/history-and-structure.html  In Ed Silvoso's collection of prototypes for "transformation" there is this example of Hawaii, complete with pictures of Silvoso with Aiona.  http://www.harvestevan.org/proto_hawaii-1.html

by Rachel Tabachnick on Wed Dec 09, 2009 at 03:21:08 PM EST



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