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Ken Blackwell, Trump’s Domestic Policy Advisor, is open about his faith in Jesus.  In fact, in campaigning for Ohio Attorney General, some years ago, those attending his rallies got a biblical message along with campaign promises.


From an article by Howard Wilkinson, The Cincinnati Enquirer

Republican Ken Blackwell has been seen often at campaign events toting the Bible under his arm, he delivers Sunday morning sermons at evangelical mega-churches and counts Ohio’s most high-profile pastors of the “religious right” among his closest friends…

In his GOP primary contest with Attorney General Jim Petro, Blackwell tailored his message to appeal to hundreds of thousands of evangelical Christian conservatives around the state, the same voters who came out in droves in the Nov. 2004 presidential election to vote for a gay marriage ban. In the process, those voters gave George W. Bush Ohio’s electoral votes and a second term in the White House.

Blackwell has been a speaker at meetings of the Ohio Restoration Project, the brainchild of the Rev. Russell Johnson, pastor of a 2,500-member evangelical church in Southeastern Ohio. Johnson set out to create an army of more than 2,000 “patriot pastors” around the state who would, in turn, build a force of “values voters” to dominate Ohio politics, starting with the 2006 gubernatorial election.

“Both parties know that the values voters made the difference in Ohio in re-electing Bush,” said Phil Burress, founder of the pro-family Citizens for Community Values.

Burress, who supports Blackwell, defines “value voter” as “people of faith, who have the values import to evangelical Christians, whether it is a pro-life belief or believing gay marriage is wrong.”

Blackwell… attends his church regularly and has been known to speak from the pulpit at churches around the state.

On the Sunday before Independence Day, Blackwell laid out his “belief system” in front of the congregation of the Springdale Church of the Nazarene, where he was the featured speaker for the 9:30 and 11 a.m. services and delivered a 20-minute sermon.

There was no campaign pitch; Blackwell was introduced as Ohio’s secretary of state, not the GOP candidate for governor. Standing onstage in front of the church’s 25-member orchestra and a giant TV screen, Blackwell said that human rights “are not grants from any government but gifts from God.”

“There is not any government on the face of the earth that can give you your human rights,” said Blackwell, to a chorus of amens from the congregation.

“Our nation is built on God’s law,” he said. “Our way is the way God has designed for us.”

And he shared his grandmother’s advice on prayer, which provoked a laugh from the church-goers: “She said prayer is like bathing. Once in a while is not good enough. It has to be a daily routine.”

In an interview with The Enquirer, Blackwell said his belief in “God on the public square” is “part and parcel of who I am.”

“As a political leader, I bring my total person to the job,” Blackwell said. “And, yes, my religious beliefs do influence my decisions.”

But, Blackwell said, those Ohioans of different faiths – or no faith – have nothing to fear from him.

“I’m not interested in creating a theocracy,” Blackwell said.

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