The separation of church and state

Last week, founder of the so-called American Renewal Project David Lane spent $250,000 to underwrite a two-day forum for 800 Iowa evangelicals.  The clergy and their wives were treated to the all-expenses paid event in Des Moines featuring U.S. Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas. Pastors were urged to mobilize and advocate political action in Iowa churches, in addition to holding voter registration drives this September.

In a recent Des Moines Register article, Lane proclaimed that “our country’s going to hell because pastors won’t lead... The goal is to lead an army.” He went on to say that he was not a preacher, rather a “political mechanic,” and the weapon he believes was given to him by God is the “pastors policy briefings” model which he uses to fire up pastors against reproductive health, LGBT equality and government spending. “And the Lord has given me this weapon,” Lane says.

I can’t help but get a little nervous whenever an anti-equality leader like David Lane describes his programming as a weapon given to him by God. It also makes me nervous when someone like Lane has millions of dollars to spend, working against LGBT Americans and against women’s rights to reproductive health.  He says that he wants to “re-establish a Christian culture,” but it’s unclear exactly what this would look like.  Most troubling of all, I am concerned that he will continue to rail against the first amendment, which states clearly, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

David Lane, this “political mechanic,” has already spent millions disparaging the LGBT community and our families.  Iowans may remember his support of the campaign that ousted three Iowa Supreme Court judges over the unanimous Varnum v. Brien decision that paved the way for marriage equality in our state. The American Renewal Project also supported the discriminatory marriage ban Proposition 8 in California, which was recently dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court for lack of standing, allowing marriages to resume in that state. 

Not surprisingly, Lane has close connections to the American Family Association, a national group that works against marriage for gay and lesbian couples.  He is very clear about his intent to politicize pastors despite the boundaries that separate church and state. He is already looking at the 2014 elections and he is targeting states across the Midwest like Iowa, Colorado, Iowa, Montana, and more.