Inside a service at Rod Parsley's World Harvest Church

Last Thursday I attended an event of the ACLU of Ohio, featuring speakers from Equality Ohio. I wrote just a bit about it here, but haven't had a chance to write up much of it until now. I was particulary interested to hear Adam Leddy of Equality Ohio describe the experience of attending a service at Rod Parsley's World Harvest Church. He recomended, as you'll see at the end of his remarks, that we go and experience it for ourselves. But I don't imagine that I'm going to do that. Neither are most of you, I imagine. So I thought you might appreciate whatever insights Adam's description can offer.

Click for more.

Update: From the responses I've gotten elsewhere, people seem to think I am somehow impressed with Parsley's healing abilities. I'm not. I find the whole package rather disturbing. But at the same time, I see the benefit in trying to understand how he can hold such sway over so many people.

This man wields a lot of power, and he's one of the people who, at least initially was a very public booster of Ken Blackwell. He probably still is, but not as overtly. Adam guessed that Parsley and Russell Johnson have backed off from their very public support either because of the IRS complaint against them, or because Blackwell has seen some polling indicating that appearances with these religious leaders do not benefit him politically. (May even hurt his chances.) Those are just guesses, but both seem plausible.

I think Ken Blackwell is a scary dude, and I sure don't want him to be our governor. (It's not like we can afford to move if he is elected.) I am also pretty dismayed at the success these folks had statewide in passing Issue 1, the so called "same sex-marriage ban" that was much more far reaching than just banning already illegal same-sex marriages. Rod Parsley was also a big supporter of that, and he considers the passage of the bill quite a feather in his cap, along with the re-election of George Bush in 2004.

More about Rod Parsley and what he believes can be found in this Kos diary

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