Group Aims to Bring God Into Politics

Saying that the United States is a Christian nation suffering from a “tyrannical government,” a new Texas-based organization will hold a rally Saturday at a Tyler church to “draw a line in the sand and aggressively and publicly defend those certain unalienable rights endowed by our creator.”

God and Country was formed in response to the protest of a Nativity scene display on an Athens, Texas, courthouse lawn in December. Leaders say that because the nation was founded on Judeo-Christian values, it is completely within their constitutional right to mix religion and government. Also, they argue that Christian pulpits have been bullied in recent decades into political silence, for fear of losing their nonprofit status. They plan to change that.

Among those scheduled to speak at Saturday’s rally, which will be at Lakeview Church of the Nazarene, is state Rep. Wayne Christian, R-Center.

Ray Myers, one of the founders of the organization and chairman of the Kaufman County Tea Party, said he got involved when he saw a local pastor, Dr. Nathan Lorick, speaking about the Nativity scene controversy on Fox News. He said he helped create the organization, not as a political move, but to “wake up the 50 percent of people in churches who are not registered to vote.”

Myers said God and Country is “an organized team of like-minded patriotic, conservative, Judeo-Christians united together to save our country from a tyrannical government whose mission is to destroy the Constitution and erode the very foundation of our economy and traditional American values.”

The organization’s bylaws are made up of the Ten Commandments and the U.S. Constitution, minus the amendments. 

Leaders believe that the separation of church and political activism is unconstitutional, and they intend to assert their right.

A rally was held in December in Athens after a Wisconsin-based group, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, objected to the display because "our founders adopted an entirely godless and secular constitution, whose only references to religion are exclusionary," said a spokeswoman from the group. The group plans to hold another Texas rally in September.