MINUTEMEN UNITED: OUT AND PROUD IN COLUMBUS

Coach Dave Daubenmire, New Beginnings Church Pastor Bill Dunfee, and about 20 Minutemen United including Max Erwin, Sr, Jim Harrison, Jeff Cline, and a few wives, passed out bottled "Jesus Water" and The Word to the Local Lost at last Saturday's Pride parade. Joining them in their Living Waters project were three members of the Jehrico Riders an independent motorcycle ministry who rode in from Missouri, and a handful of freelance culture warriors. I hung out with them for several hours. Below are pictures from their event with commentary. For the Minuteman version go the their page here.

THE STATEHOUSE

The day starteda little after 11 AM with prayer and instructions at the Great Seal of the State of Ohio at the Statehouse. Pastor Bill laid out the logistics of the water distribution, walkabout, and protest. He admonished the gang to respond to critics, "not in the flesh but in the spirit." That is, don't get in a fight if anybody hassles you. Nobody did, and they didn't.

WALKABOUT

After the prayer service, those who hadn't already done so, slipped into hot chartreuse "I was born a sinner/Talk to me" tees. I joined them as they headed for Bicentennial Park to kill time and evangelize a little. For a $5.00 entry fee we could pick over merch and lit from the health department, banks, realtors, NARAL, sex phone lines, and ubiquitous "affirming" churches--and pass out water and minister. I doubted the Minutemen would pay $5.00 a crack to get in ( I wouldn't!) and wondered what they'd do when stopped at the toll table. Coach told me that he had a "letter from the lawyer" saying that the park is public space and they could walk in. I was unable to clarify if "the lawyer" was just any lawyer or the Columbus City attorney. Whatever, the walls tumbled temporarily when security disappeared, and the Minutemen walked through with no outstretched hands grasping or their wallets.

CALLING OUT THE SIN OF GLUTTONY

Coach Daubenmire rejecting trendy fashion opted for this tee. A member of the Local Lost gently remonstrated him on the sin of gluttony. Coach vowed to diet.

BICENTENNIAL PARK

Conversion was in the air. Once inside the park, the Minutemen broke into small groups. The ick factor remaining high, few went it alone, remaining attached to at least one buddy. No down low allowed. They passed out water and pink "Pride and Peace" bracelets, and attempted some low-key evangelizing. I overheard one person claim the Minutemen were a gay group. He was serious--not projecting.



Soon, of course, the preachers were being preached to by the preached at. Liberal affirming churchers cluelessly tried to talk the Minutemen into reading the Bible their way. Minutemen cluelessly tried to talk liberal affirming churchers into seeing Jesus their way. Each thought they gained points with the other. Bill Dunfee was laid back and seemed to enjoy the tete a tete. It's probably better than Saturday mornings standing with the homeless under the Broad Street Bridge or being yelled at by strangers driving by a clinic. And let's not even talk about The Fox Hole!







No doubt the boys were squicked, but they were troopers to the end.

HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE CHOICERS, QUEERS, SATANIC RELIGIONISTS, DELUSIONALS, REBELS, SHYSTERS, AND POSEURS

MEANWHILE BACK ON HIGH STREET...

At the New Beginnings Church truck, Minutemen traded their Talk to Me! shirts for "Little Lambs Protection Agency" tees, to gear up for the parade.

Coach handed out water...


Pastor Bill and the boys stirred it up...

JIM CARROLL CAME ALL THE WAY FROM MISSOURI WITH
THE JEHRICO RIDERS.
"WE ARE MEN WITH BACKBONE."

ANTI-CLIMAX

Pride is a social event. The parade is just a reason to get together. It reminds me of standing in a line three hours to get into a campus bar on Saturday night. This year was no different. After the run-up prayer service, Bicentennaial visiation, and "discussions" in the street, this year's parade was almost an afterthought. But the Minutemen didn't see it that way--nor did the police. Lined on both sides of HIgh Street, just south of theh Statehouse, the Minutemen let themselves be seen and heard as the cops grided them in (at least on the west side) with their bicycles.




When the Dykes on Bikes (surprisngly small is year) roared by, one Jehrio Rider shouted, "Get yerself a reak bike!"

Pastor Bill waved his Bible--when he wasn't wearing it.

Coach popped a cork when a young African American marched by in a leather thong, "Cover yourself up!"

Oops sorry! No picture!

Most energy was spent on "affirming churches," especially from the Minutemen sphere of influence, that marched by...like in Granville.

ACCORDING TO DAVE DAUBENMIRE:

2200 BOTTLES OF LIVING WATER WERE DISTRIBUTED DURING PRIDE

FLIP RETURNS: OSA IN COLUMBUS--THE SHORT VERSION

As reported earlier by me, Operation Save America's Flip Benham blew into town this weekend. Saturday morning (Aug. 5) I caught up with him and the gang, which included Minutemen United founder Coach Dave Daubenmire, New Beginnings Church pastor Bill Dunfee, a lot of regulars and some new faces, at Founders Clinic on E. Broad Street. Friday they paid a visit to CapCare's new clinic on Indianola where reportedly the gang moved illegally on to the parking lot. Flip and a couple others who were at the action told me "a baby was saved."

During our street interview Flip and I discussed various topics including OSA's Jackson, Mississippi event, anarchists, and Jean-Paul Sartre. I'll be writing about our interview after I transcribe the tape. Not surprisingly, I suffered a tape recorder malfunction (is their a law about that?) all the more frustrating since I had a digital recorder AND a standard backup recorder, both of which flaked.

In the meantime, I'm posting a couple picures here. (Pastor Bill Dunfee, right) Note: the sun was hot and high affecting the qualily of he pictures.

More to follow soon....as well as a group of reports on the World Can't Wait blitz through Columbus last week.

OSA RETURNS TO CENTRAL OHIO

The fourth annual Pass the Salt/New Beginnings camp meeting, Revival at the River, opened Wednesday at New Beginnings Church in Warsaw. Besides bon fires, horseshoes and worship, the revival features Operation Save America director Flip Benham, OSA operative and Ohio convicted sex offender Scott Heldreth, and of course, Minutemen United founder Coach Dave Daubenmire and New Beginnings pastor, Bill Dunfee. Dr. Patrick Johnston and his wife Elizabeth will lead family worship services on Friday and Saturday. Coach is scheduled to speak Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings, and Benham will speak Friday evening and Saturday and Sunday mornings. According to an announcement emailed this morning which included the roster of guests, they will deliver messages "guaranteed to motivate and inspire."

Friday and Saturday the camp meeting will pull up stakes temporarily and converge on Columbus "abortion mills."

Benham arrives in Central Ohio fresh from the OSA'a week-long occupation of Jackson, Mississippi. Dr. Johnston was arrested there for obstructing traffic and protesting without a permit at St. James Episcopal Church during a Sunday morning anti-abortion demonstration.

In 1992 Scott Heldreth, was charged with 1 count of kidnap and 2 counts of criminal rape of at 18-year old woman at the Ohio University golf course. He later pled down to 1 count of sexual battery and was granted shock probation from Pickaway Correctional Institute after only 6 weeks incarceration. He is a registered sex offender in Illinois. The Florida, registery lists him as "released." Heldreth currently lives in North Carolina but is not listed in that state's sex offender registry since North Carolina's law pertains only to convictions after January 1, 1996. (Note: type Heldreth's name in at registry sites to get data.) As far as I know his last visit to Columbus was in July 2004 for OSA's take-over of City Hall Plaza (and here).

Most recently Heldreth was in the news when his oldest son, Joshua, then 10, was arrested at the Good Friday 2005 Terri Schiavo Death Watch in Pinellas Park, Florida when he attempted to take water to Schiavo. Go here for my article on the Heldreths at Pinellas Park.

FLIP'S FUNDAMENTALIST JIHAD

This article appeared originally in the September-October 2005 issue of the Columbus Free Press. Phitos by the author.

*****

Operation Save America director Flip Benham returned to Central Ohio on August 12 without the dog, pony, and ass (and here ) to present what he called a series of "training sessions" during a week-long revival at Minutemen United headquarters church, New Beginnings, in Warsaw. The following day, he joined Minutemen founder Dave Daubenmire, New Beginnings pastor Bill Dunfee, and Ohio Constitution Party Vice Chair Dr. Patrick Johnston, his wife Elizabeth, and all the little Johnstons, along with assorted Minutemen and friends for their weekly fetus-saving crusade at Capital Care Women's Center in Clintonville. CapCare was the scene of several OSA protests a year ago during its "national event" here, which included the 6-day occupation of Columbus City Hall plaza.

Benham gave an exclusive interview to the Free Press discussing a number of topics: Ukraine's Orange Revolution (Jesus-based), the American Revolution (all about Jesus), the French Revolution (nothing about God), Thomas Jefferson (nearly wasn't elected President because voters questioned his Christianity although he held a Biblical world-view), his student days at Florida State (drunken and debauched), the Tao of Criminalization (Christianity was criminalized by the decriminalization of abortion and homosexuality), and the failure of conservatism.

Benham also looked back on last year's Columbus experience, not without a tinge of nostalgia, noting that The Answer Is No was much better humored than the protesters he encountered at last month's "national event" in Colorado, despite his contention that it was an "awesome" event that turned Denver and Boulder right side up in the name of Jesus. "Sure, last year there was Jesus Nazi stuff and foul language, but a lot of it was humorous, too." Not so in Colorado! He reported that "those paragons of Boulder tolerance" confronted OSA at the two "abortion mills" and "all of a sudden sprayed us with ketchup, threw rocks at us, mustard, sprayed us with water, tried to drive their cars into us, pointed guns at us. All we did was come out with another point of view, and they showed us they'd kill us if they could. They'd have strung every single one of us up." None of which seem to upset him too much, at least in the telling.

Benham also denied the recent buzz among Central Ohio theocon watchers. based in part on the decreased number of CapCare protesters. that OSA/Minutemen presence is waning here. He pointed out that about 100 people attended his talk at New Beginnings the previous evening. He also suggested that what hasn't been noticed is that the Minutemen are "taking theology to the people,or in OSA parlance "theology becoming biography in the streets." For instance, not only national OSA members but also a number of Minutemen and their wives attended the Schiavo deathwatch in Florida where Daubenmire and Dunfee were arrested. This personalized street theology or populist approach, is a critical component of the us vs them mentality that separates and isolates "true Christians" like them from the "church house" pew warmers and "evan-jellyfish" in mainstream, evangelical exburban mega-churches who don't walk their talk

Benham clearly believes that the current political system is a deadend that hinders the Biblical American tactical objectives of recriminalizing abortion and homosexuality, which although he didn't admit it, are simply a means to an end: Bibliocratic establishment of a desecularized and hegemonic state. While denying the statist model for his God-centered vision Benham speaks in statist terms that leave no room for doubt. "We insist that we're going to do it our way, and we want our government to make people do it our way."

Benham is particularly critical of the "failed strategy" of James Dobson (Focus on the Family),a belief that Republicans and conservatives can solve "the problem that only we (OSA and their fellow Bibliocrats) can solve." "Conservatism is not Christianity.the real stuff." Rejecting the political process, and by implication democracy, history, and the Constitution as we know it, Benham said" it (BA goals) won't be won from the top down by the Republican Party, or by stacking a bunch of judicial nominees in the Supreme Court. It isn't going to happen by Congress and it isn't going to happen by Executive Order by the President. It's going to happen as the Church of Jesus Christ wakes up and comes out of the church and lives out its faith. We win when we do that. We will win!"



Coach Dave Daubenmire, Minutemen United (left) broadcasts live by cell from CapCare during Benham's visit. Pastor Bill Dunfee, New Beginnings Church, Warsaw, OH (right)