[Disclaimer: Whether or not this of any interest, I don't know. I did try and find diaries on specific topics on PropaGannon to which to add this but was unable to do so. I also did a search for diaries containing this information and was again unsuccessful. If this is repetitive information, please let me know and I'll happily delete it. Not sure how coherent this will be anyway since it's 3:00 a.m.]
Buzzflash directed me to an post on Max Blumenthal's website about Gannon's connection to Operation Rescue co-founder, Rob Schenck.
Rob Schenck and his [evil?] twin brother, Paul now head a group called Faith and Action whose mission statement begins
Faith and Action is a Christian outreach whose mission is to to reintroduce the Word of God into the public debate surrounding legislation and policy matters. Our mission field spans Pennsylvania Avenue, from the White House to the U.S. Capitol and the U.S. Supreme Court.
[snip]
[And, gotta love its location.]
From its mission base at the National Ministry Center, immediately across the street from the U.S. Supreme Court, Faith and Action is uniquely positioned to minister to individuals in all three branches of the Federal government.
Jeff Gannon was a featured reader at the four-day annual Bible-reading marathon in front of the Capitol in May 2004.
As Mr. Jeff Gannon of Talon News Service reads at the podium, other readers wait their turn bundled in thick rain coats. [As stated below this picture on the Faith and Action website for the event]
Schenck was described thusly by Blumenthal:
The organizer of the Bible marathon, Rob Schenck, is a fringe player who set up shop on the Hill after his anti-abortion "Spring to Life" protests in 1992 in Buffalo provoked the assassination of Dr. Barnett Slepian by James Kopp. Schenck also gained ignominy (or fame, depending on whom you ask) by dangling an aborted fetus in Bill Clinton's face. Oh, and then there's the time he threatened Clinton's afterlife at the National Cathedral, which led to his temporary detention by Secret Service.
A little more on Schenck...
From this article by Blumenthal in Washington Monthly, it seems Schenck was influenced by
Francis Schaeffer, a theologian credited with mobilizing evangelical action against abortion. His best-selling 1980 book, A Christian Manifesto, advocated abortion protest as a means to undermine the credibility of a secular law. "Schaeffer showed us [evangelicals] that these Biblical truths apply to all of culture and society," Schenck explained. "He taught us the responsibility--and I use this very guardedly--to enforce those truths in the sense that we should be confident enough about them to know that they are good for us and other people.... Ultimately, this should be reflected in the highest law of the land."
After Dr. Slepian was murdered by one of Schenck's followers, his Operation Rescue group fell from favor. Fortunately, things began looking up for the good reverend.
Again, from the article in Washington Monthly:
Meanwhile, Schenck was making inroads into Washington. He had first met John Ashcroft during the 1980s, while taking part in a fellowship at a Pentecostal church outside Buffalo; the two reconnected in 1994, when Ashcroft moved to Washington to serve as the junior senator from Missouri. Meeting at Ashcroft's home, a small apartment above a garage on Capitol Hill, the two would sing hymns and pray for the country with a small group of other ministers. A year later, Schenck "planted," as he puts it, the National Community Church, a charismatic Pentecostal congregation, in order to "reach out to the subculture on Capitol Hill." Beginning, Schenck recalls, in a dilapidated building in a crime-ridden neighborhood of Southeast Washington, lack of air conditioning during the capital's notoriously sultry summers prompted the congregation's relocation to an even more unorthodox location--the AMC movie theatre in Washington's Union Station. The congregation soon came to include Ashcroft and his family, as well as a number of congressional.
So, we have a tie to Ashcroft. Wonder if there is anyone else on the far right with whom Reverend Schenck is close? No surprise here, the winner is Rick
...Santorum--who in a May commencement speech urged grads of Christendom College to "be a radical, be a rebel, to rebel against the popular culture"--is a close associate of Schenck, serving with him on the board of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, a conservative think tank. Santorum was instrumental in advancing recent legislation to ban late-term abortions, legislation which was signed into law this year--a dream come true for Schenck, who was so upset by Clinton's veto of a similar bill in 1996 that he confronted the president during a Christmas Eve service at the National Cathedral and whispered in his ear, "God will hold you to ac-count, Mr. President." (He was then removed from the chapel and interrogated by Secret Service.)
What does this have to do with any Gannon motivations concerning this administration? I can't say that I know the answer to that. It might just be another direction in which to look. We all know what big players the religious right are in this administration. There just don't seem to be too many degrees of separation between Gannon and the president's closest advisors and associates.
