PATRICK JOHNSTON IN COLORADO

Imagine my surprise when I found an article about Patrick Johnston in the Colorado Independent--with a picture from Theoconia (the one on the left). The article, Colorado Personhood Law Backer Linked to Militant Anti-Abortion Groups, is one of a series on Colorado's proposed Amendment 48--the Human Life Amendment--which if passed would confer constitutional rights to fertilized human eggs. More precisely, it would add the following language to Section 1 of the Colorado State Constitution:

Section 31. Person defined. As used in sections 3, 6, and 25 of Article II of the state constitution, the terms "person" or "persons" shall include any human being from the moment of fertilization.

And who is up to his neck this campaign, but... Patrick Johnston.

I haven't followed the Amendment 48 campaign, so I shall refrain from commenting. I do, however, believe that for people who care about these things, we need to know that what happens in Central Ohio doesn't stay in Central Ohio. Dave Daubenmire and the Minutemen, Mark Harrington and the Center for Bio-ethical Reform, and GAP...and Dr. Patrick Johnson all have legs. And they travel.

The author of the article, Wendy Norris, has done her homework. I actually recognize where she has picked up most of her material. I disagree with her on a couple points, including the existence of the Army of God. It's 's such a treat, however, to find a homegrown theonomist featured in a publication half-way across the country, mucking around in somebody elses' business that I need to pass the word along, no matter what the quibble.

Here is an excerpt:

James Patrick Johnston, D.O., is, by all appearances, a polite country doctor in south-central Ohio, husband and father of six children under the age of 10 with a new baby on the way. A self-avowed "life, liberty, and jobs" guy, he lost his 2007 bid for a seat in the Ohio General Assembly, where he ran on a plank of cutting taxes, expanding homeschooling and "making Ohio the first state in the Union to defy Roe v. Wade with a statewide abortion ban."

Less obvious are his links to some of the most radical elements of the anti-abortion movement — the paramilitary groups Army of God, Christian Gallery and Minutemen United that have been at the forefront of advocating for and celebrating violent clashes between anti-abortion forces and clinics.

The path leading from Johnston's activism in poor Appalachian Ohio to the hotbed of wealthy religious conservatism in Colorado exemplifies the fluid interchange between the more radical anti-abortion movement and those seeking to shield their past associations in order to appear more mainstream.

The whole series is well worth the read. You never know when "theological" weirdness is coming our way.

The articles can also be found at Unbossed.com