Religion and Rightwing Politics: The Rhetoric at Prayer Rally / Tea Party Rally in Tampa Last Night
Rachel Tabachnick printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Mon Aug 27, 2012 at 02:45:02 PM EST
[Updated] Following is a short video highlight from the Tea Party and Religious Right pre-GOP convention rally held at the River Church in Tampa last night (Sunday, August 26).  The 5-hour live-streamed event began with a Prayer Rally for America's Future, featuring Michele Bachmann, David Barton, Phyllis Schlafly and other Religious Right leaders, and ended with  Tea Party Unity Rally 2012, headlining Bachmann, Herman Cain, Tea Party leaders and Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz representing Mitt Romney.  The Sunday night church service held in between the two segments of the rally was led by Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne, a controversial televangelist and major figure in the "Holy Laughter" movement.  The video below of the Tea Party Rally Master of Ceremonies, Rusty Humphries, captures the religio-political tone of the gathering.
Radio talk show host and Master of Ceremonies Rusty Humphries compares the Obama campaign to Mao Tse-tung, calls for taking the country upward towards God, and then immediately compares liberals to dogs. Note that the rally in the video clip is taking place in the church following the Sunday night service and immediately after Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne turns over the podium to the Tea Partiers.

I will follow up this post with an overview of the five-hour event. Right Wing Watch has also posted video clips from the event.

[Update]
Right Wing Watch has summaries of the major speakers from the five-hour live-streamed rally held at River Church featuring Religious Right and Tea Party leaders. In place of posting my own summary, following are links to what Right Wing Watch has already posted today and a summary at Alternet by Adele Stan and Peter Montgomery.

Prayer Rally Segment

Video highlights from the Prayer Rally for America portion of the program including:
-Rep. Michele Bachmann
-Rick Scarborough, Founder and President of Vision for America
-Jim Garlow, Chairman of Renewing American Leadership (founded by Newt Gingrich)
-Matt Staver, Vice President of Liberty University and Director of Liberty Center for Law and Policy
-Pam Olsen, Florida Prayer Network and International House of Prayer
-Harry Jackson, heads an apostolic network called International Communion of Evangelical Churches and CoChairs Affordable Power Alliance

Also speaking: John Stemberger, Florida Family Policy Council

Speakers not included in these clips include:
-David Barton, Christian nationalist pseudo-historian
-Tom Minnery, head of Citizen Link of Focus on the Family

Tea Party Unity Rally 2012

Neal Boortz - Radio Show Host
and more Neal Boortz

Judson Phillips, Tea Party Nation Founder

Also speaking were:
-Herman Cain
-Dustin Stockton, TheTeaParty.net
-Todd Cefaratti, Founder of TheTeaParty.net
-Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Revecca Kleefisch
-Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi
-Niger Innis, Co-Chairman of the Affordable Power Alliance (with Samuel Rodriguez and Harry Jackson)
-Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah

Conclusions

One would hope that this joint pre-GOP convention event held at River Church indicates that everyone is finally abandoning the myth that the Tea Party is separate from the Religious Right, or that it has a completely different agenda, as well as the myth that the Tea Party movement is nonpartisan. However, after watching live-streaming of this event for five hours, I would conclude that the right flank of the GOP is not particularly happy with the Republican Party hierarchy right now. They are also not very excited about Mitt Romney and will try to motivate voters based on fear and their animosity toward President Obama.

Also see coverage of the event in The Nation. The LA Times provides the following additional information.

In the lobby of the church, several groups handed out literature and hawked conservative-themed merchandise. The most eye-catching of the works was by painter Jon McNaughton. It showed a shadowy Obama figure holding copy of the Constitution, set aflame. In the flames the word "obey" appears and, in the crumpled document, one can discern a hammer and sickle -- symbol of the old Communist Soviet Union.

The print, a part of McNaughton's "Nation Under Socialism" series -- sold for $69. The artist's work comes highly praised in the eyes of the tea party crowd -- recommended by Sean Hannity and mocked by Stephen Colbert.




Display:
Insulting a group of people (liberals) by calling them "dogs" is likely to get the conservative dog-owners annoyed. ;)

I find it very interesting that Rodney Howard-Browne was tapped for leading the service. His "holy laughter" movement gets lambasted regularly on the widely syndicated and very popular Hank Hannegraaf (sic) radio show (call-ins about theological questions). I can't imagine that R H-B is very popular with Lutheran-MO Synod and the variety of Reformed churches either. I wonder if the service was kept sedate, as a diplomatic nod to the non-Pentecostal and quiet Pentecostal attendees.

by NancyP on Mon Aug 27, 2012 at 08:36:47 PM EST

... was a curious choice.  This caught my attention.  It would be hard to find many pastors more controversial than Rodney Howard-Browne.
 

by Rachel Tabachnick on Mon Aug 27, 2012 at 10:12:36 PM EST
Parent


Shame on this church for mixing politics, merchandising and faith so flagrantly...
 "It is written," he [Jesus] said to them, "'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'"

by AkronAndy on Wed Aug 29, 2012 at 06:17:49 AM EST


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