Bill Gothard's frightening neopente dominionist group--one which no less than Rick Ross Institute and expert Isaac Bonewits consider to be a dangerous coercive religious group--has been in the headlines quite a lot lately; between his paramilitary training camp for "God Warriors", Gothard's horrible "Bible-based child abuse" being brought to light with shooter Matthew Murray who was subjected to a textbook Gothardite upbringing. to the revelation that Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was revealed to be a member of the Gothard cult, almost none has been "good news".
Now, a county commissioner for Hamilton County, OH--whose largest city, Cincinnati, was one of the "demo cities" for Gothard's program--may be one of first to stand up for real character.
Cincinnati, OH is targeted for "Gothardisation"...
As I've touched on with my article a few days ago (in regards to Mike Huckabee apparently being a faithful Gothardite), Gothard has as one of his front groups a program called "Cities of Character"--this being a program where city governments dedicate themselves to running their towns under Gothardite principles (including the use of the Character Counts! curriculum in public schools, a very lightly stripped version of the "Basic Course" taught in Gothard seminars).
Some very good exposes of this program include the Talk to Action article "Developing Dominionist Cities" and especially Silja Tavli's Cult of Character. (Huckabee, of note, also attempted to push this program throughout the whole of the state of Arkansas.)
One of the earlier "scores" for Gothard was in 2000, when the city of Cincinnati, OH passed a formal resolution declaring itself a "City of Character"--an officially Gothardite Town. (Cincy was also a focus of "Cult of Character"; the Queen City, along with OKC, were pretty much the "demonstration cities" for Gothard's programs.)
Part of the resolution showed how Gothardite training would become mandatory for law enforcement, fire departments, and public schools and that promotion of Gothard's "character" programs would be done on TV and in the business world:
WE MOVE THAT the city support the principles of the International Association of Character Cities by issuing a resolution pledging to become known as a City of Character. This should be modeled on the resolution passed by Indianapolis on November 29, 1999 (Attachment A).
WE FURTHER MOVE THAT the city implement character training for its police and fire divisions, as approved by Chief Streicher and Chief Wright.
WE FURTHER MOVE THAT the city accept a contribution from the Character Council of Cincinnati to pay for all training costs.
. . .
The Character Council of Cincinnati (CCC) has developed an extensive program of character training which will be implemented as follows:
* Cincinnati Public Schools have endorsed the citywide initiative for Charater training. Superintendents, principals, and teachers from public, private, and parochial schools will attend an introductory meeting on teaching character principles to our children. Follow-up training for implementing the program in their schools will take place later this summer and fall.
* All four local television stations have agreed to donate airtime to broadcast public service announcements on monthly character qualities featuring Anthony Munoz.
* To date, 20 business leaders and corporations have committed themselves and their employees to the Character First! (R) business curriculum. Over 50 corporations have expressed interest in implementing this program in their business.
One wonders, in all seriousness, if some of the "character" promoted is not unlike the "character adjustment" at the infamous Indianapolis-area model "Gothard reform school"--the "Bible-based boot camp" which was ultimately shut down by the city after multiple reports of horrendous abuse in 2002.
At any rate, what is going on here would be roughly akin to a city government falling for a spiel by Scientologists to make "Dianetics" and Scientology courses mandatory in public schools, city government, and businesses and having the city declare itself a "Clear & Free City".
And yes, "Character First!" does operate a lot like a Scientology frontgroup. We don't even see the links to Gothard (for those who are unaware that "Character First!" and the "Cities of Character" group are Gothard frontgroups) until a clipping from the "Police Dynamics Institute" on page 18 of the resolution:
This past October 8-10 marked an unparalleled event in American law enforcement. The first ever law enforcement conference focusing exclusively on the importance of character was held in Indianapolis. Hosted by the Institute in Basic Life Principles at their Indianapolis Training Center, the conference was attended by over 150 police and correctional officials from 28 states and 7 foreign countries{...}
The conference featured many powerful speakers including:
Sheriff Ray Nash, President of the Police Dynamics Institute
Franklin Smith, President of Character Focus
. . .
Bill Gothard, President of the Institute in Basic Life Principles.
The resolution also had a lot more references to Ray Nash in other clippings attached; as it turns out, Police Dynamics Institute is yet another Gothard frontgroup (as revealed in the final page of clippings in the resolution, where it's pretty much revealed the whole purpose of PDI is to "Gothard-ise" police departments worldwide). "Cult of Character" also has more info regarding PDI as a Gothard front:
According to Gothard’s interpretation, first century Roman Centurions were admirable figures of authority who followed their orders without question—the prototypes for the kinds of police officers that CTI instructor Ray Nash, the sheriff of Dorchester County, South Carolina, wants to create in his state and elsewhere.
Nash has conducted "Police Dynamics" training for numerous U.S. and international police departments.
"Really, what Police Dynamics is, in a nutshell, is biblical wisdom that’s been packaged into a law enforcement message," Nash told Rev. Mark Creech in a November 2004 article for Alan Keyes’ RenewAmerica Web site.
The Cincinatti Beacon, which has been one of the most influential papers in "Gothard-watching", notes more on the specific material that was part of mandatory training for Cincinnati cops that promotes the Gothardist mentality of coercive "discipling and shepherding" taken to the extreme:
When Silja Talvi at In These Times published "The Cult of Character," she pointed the national spotlight on Cincinnati, Ohio—specifically the role County Commissioner Phil Heimlich has played in bringing Bill Gothard’s organization to Cincinnati politics, education, and policing. Today, The Cincinnati Beacon has new documents in this developing scandal.
In 2000, and in 2002, the Character Council of Greater Cincinnati brought Sheriff Ray Nash to town to give an extensive "character training" seminar to the police and fire departments. Public records are sparse on this training, but we did acquire a packet entitled "Police Dynamics Institute Conference Workbook." It consists of some original writing, and then reprinted newspaper articles about the Character First! program.
To your right, you can see an image representing one page from the training materials. (We apologize for the low resolution.) The page is labeled "Dynamic of Discretion," and it starts by naming "Five Types of Fools":
1—Believes anything, needs instruction
2—Out for a good time, needs discipline
3—Immoral, impure, needs court supervision/intervention
4—Mocks authority, gets simple fool in trouble, needs public punishment
5—Set on evil, needs prison
As you can see, underneath these definitions is a diagram. It places a stick figure labeled "authority" at the top of a pyramid. Under the figure’s feet the block is labeled, "under authority," and all the steps on which this authority stands have each been labeled "Fool."
I find all of this rather troubling, and strange. First, I don’t like the definition of Fool #3. I don’t like the simple idea that courts are in charge of supervising those who are "immoral" or "impure." These terms cross wires in terms of private religious beliefs and public policy.
. . .
The Character training here for our police and fire was overwhelmingly well received, but there were some noteworthy "minority reports" in some unsigned evaluations of the program. My favorite: "Sometimes I got the feeling I was at a Promise Keepers meeting. Kept waiting to get baptized in the name of Jesus Christ."
Of course, this isn't all that surprising. From "Cult of Character":
Although legally and fiscally independent, the CTI is for all intents and purposes a "secular" front group for Gothard’s IBLP. In the last decade, the CTI has quietly gained entry into hundreds of elementary, middle and high schools, state and city offices, corporations, police departments and jails.
Though he never uses the term, Gothard’s ideology fits into the framework of the burgeoning "Christian Reconstructionist" movement, which aims to rebuild society according to biblical mandates. Within the Christian Reconstructionist worldview, modern-day chaos is directly attributable to the division of church and state and the consequent degradation of individual character.
For Gothard, the solution is restoring the United States—and then the rest of the world—to something that he calls "The Sevenfold Power of First-Century Churches and Homes."
The concept of obeying God-granted authority runs through virtually all IBLP-published materials. "The key to understanding authority is identifying four areas of God-ordained jurisdiction: parents, government, church leaders, and employers," reads an introductory passage to Basic Life Principles Seminar. "When a decision is to be made, we must ask, ‘Whose jurisdiction is this under?’ God gives direction, protection, and provision through human authorities. If we rebel against them, we expose ourselves to the destruction of evil principalities. ... This is why ‘rebellion is the sin of witchcraft.’"
...and the new County Commissioner is fighting back
The Gothardisation of Cincinnati, however, was not completely unopposed. One person definitely opposed was no less than former City Councilman Todd Portune--and now as County Commission President of the specific county that Cincinnati is located in, he has some definite questions for the Gothard frontgroup:
Hamilton County Commission President Todd Portune has written a letter to the International Association of Character Cities about their connections to Bill Gothard. Locally, the Character Cities have football hall-of-famer Anthony Munoz as a front-man.
Portune's concerns were in part sparked by a letter from Midwest Outreach to the Conference of Character Cities concerning whether city governments may be getting kickbacks from Gothard for their "Character First!" programs, and requesting a full list of cities that may have received donations in that regard. (Midwest Outreach is a mainstream Christian group fighting coercive groups, including coercive neopente organisations; Midwest Outreach also has one of the more detailed exposes available of the actual content of Gothard training materials.)
In particular, it seems Midwest Outreach had particular concerns about how things were being handled in the Queen City:
- I am requesting your immediate response regarding a specific public official, Phil Heimlich, former Cincinnati City COuncilman and current Hamilton County (OH) County Commissioner. Mr. Heimlich was a keynote speaker at your organization's September 2005 national conference.
Mr. Heimlich was responsible for establishing your organization's program in Cincinnati in year 2000 when he was a city councilman. There is no indication in the public record that Mr. Heimlich informed other city council members that your organisation is closely affiliated with evangelist Bill Gothard and that your training materials closely mirror Gothard's evangelical training materials.
Cincinnati businessman Mike Daly was another speaker at your 2005 national conference. In his speech, Mr. Daly explained how he was responsible for introducing your program to Mr. Heimlich:
After that, there was so much enthusiasm in Cincinnati to do something that I called a few friends together--and I made a donation to Phil's campaign--Phil Heimlich, the politician you'll meet tomorrow. First time we met he called me up, and I gave him a domation and we had lunch together. And he said, "Is there anything on your heart that I should do for you?" And he was expecting me to ask for something from the government for business. Instead, I shoved all these materials at Phil and said, "Yeah, get this into our city."
Is that correct, Phil? Is that pretty much a recount of what happened? Phil's back there in the last row. Stand up for a second, Phil, so I can--there's Phil Heimlich, as I told you the influential politician, and Ray, stand up, too. Ray and I--we taught the whole (Cincinnati) police force.
So I'm just trying to show you how one city worked. This is how one city got together.
Given what appears to be a quid pro quo between Mr. Daly and Mr. Heimlich, I am re-iterating my request that you promptly answer whether Mr. Heimlick has ever received commissions, other payments, and/or gifts from your organization or any affiliated organizations or individuals.
One thing that jumps out at me with this quote--the phrase "do you have something on your heart to tell me?" is some classic "code phrasing". Pretty much the only place I've ever heard phrasing like that is neopente dominionist churches, and generally this phrasing means "Is God bothering your conscience for you to do something for me?". Very clever phrasing, and one which would be just seen as weird phrasing to someone outside the neopente dominionist community who is not familiar with that particular style of guilt-tripping.
Well, after Mr. Portune got that nastygram, he started having a lot of questions himself, culminating with the letter sent to Gothard HQ on January 22nd 2008--in particular in regards to "Cities of Character" and whether the sort of "Bible-based child abuse" that Gothard promotes is in fact a character trait to be promoted:
On or about August 22, 2006, I along with Hamilton County Commissioner Pat DeWine received a copy of the attached correspondence from L. L. (Don) Veinot, Jr., President of the Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc. I do not write as a follow-up to the specific question raised in Mr. Veinot's correspondence. Instead, I write to you because subsequent actions that I have led as President of the Board that reformed our County Job and Family Services Department require that I write to you.
In Hamilton County, Ohio all county operations and affiliates must assess their contractual relationship with any entity that is or has been under such a review, faced such a charge or has ever been the subject of any kind of inquiry or investigation for issues of child abuse and neglect.
I have been advised that there is a connection between the IACC Program and the 49 Character Principles and the mission and ministry activities of evangelist Bill Gothard. It has further been alleged that Gothard ministries have been the subject of official reviews and investigations about child abuse and neglect in other areas of the country.
Given the strong outreach and official connection and implementation of the IACC Program with various public institutions in Cincinnati and Hamilton County Ohio including, without limitation, the Cincinnati Public Schools and the Cincinnati Police Division, I am asking that you reply and either affirm or refute such a connection and allegations. I will then be able to better determine whether there is any reason to continue to look into the matter on our local level.
I write this letter painfully insamuch as I was a Member of the Cincinnati City Council who voted in favor of bringing the Character Cities program into our community. At the time the Sponsor of the legislation was former Cincinnati Councilman Phil Heimlick. Councilman Heimlich did not raise these issues and also did not disclose any connections he had with Gothard; nor with the Character Cities program or IACC. It distresses me that such allegations exist and hope you may shed some light on the matter. Accordingly, I respectfully request that you reply within two weeks from teh date of this letter.
I expect Gothard is going to pretty much blow smoke up the bum of our commissioner, but at least someone is finally starting to ask questions--and that's progress.
And how this applies to the presidential race?
If such things are going on in Cincinnati...they are probably going on elsewhere, including Indianapolis...and including the state of Arkansas, which Mike Huckabee tried to "Gothardize" during his term as Governor.
As noted a few days ago, Mike Huckabee is apparently a True Believer as far as Gothard's programs go, and seems to have been as far if not farther into the Gothard cult than Phil Heimlich was in Cincy.
I would also not be a bit surprised to find there to be a similar pattern of, shall we say, not-entirely-in-the-clear dealings in regards to Huckabee's attempts to "Gothardise" Arkansas.
Needless to say, information about similar misdeeds would be quite useful. Among other things, hopefully we can prevent the Gothardisation of America--if (Gods forbid) Huckabee does end up the GOP nominee (and there is a risk of this--we still have Texas and Florida to go, and they still have a lot of nominees, and Huckabee is especially concentrating on Texas for his GOTV drives), we can be forearmed...no matter who ends up the Democratic candidate.
Got any scoops or info on potential misdeeds of this sort by Gothard in other states? Post links here (and if you aren't comfy with sharing in public for whatever reason, drop a message and I'll let you know an email address you can send it privately to).