"The left has chosen the courts as a major battlefield over social issues." -- Rod Parsley
Rodney Lee Parsley (born January 13, 1957) is a prominent American Christian minister, author, television host and evangelist. He is senior pastor of World Harvest Church, a large Pentecostal church in Columbus, Ohio and founder and president of The Center for Moral Clarity, a non-partisan Christian grassroots advocacy organization. He is also founder of Breakthrough (a media ministry), the Bridge of Hope missions organization, Valor Christian College, Harvest Preparatory School, World Harvest Ministerial Alliance, Metro Harvest Church (an inner-city and prison outreach), Latin Harvest Church (a Spanish-language church in Columbus) and The Women's Clinic of Columbus.
A sought-after commentator on church matters and moral issues, he has been a guest on many secular media programs, including CNN's Larry King Live.
"Gay sex is a veritable breeding ground for disease.""He has selected from a group of overwhelming candidates. This candidate was nominated to the Supreme Court because of his extremely overwhelming qualifications.""It was the courts, of course, that took away prayer from our schools, that took away Bible reading from our schools. It's the courts that gave us same-sex marriage. So it is quite a battlefield, and the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land.""No secular state ever existed and none would exist until the end of the French Revolution, and so we understand that America was built on the Judeo-Christian ethic and we believe that this nominee is going to see to it that those truths are upheld.""Realizing that they can't get their agenda across: against religious liberty, against a culture of life, they can't get those issues across through the legislature, as people respond and their elected officials represent them, so they attempt to do it through the courts.""This is a man who graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University in three years, editor of the Harvard Law Review, argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court.""We know that this man has a proven record of being a 'strict constructionist.' Our President has given us his word that he will interpret the Constitution rather than make new laws from the bench.""You know, there are only about 10 people in the United States that have ever argued 25 cases before the Supreme Court, this man has won 25 cases before the Supreme Court. He's an overwhelming choice."
The genesis of Parsley's church came in 1977, when as a Bible college student he began leading a Bible study in his parents' back yard. Seventeen people attended the first service. Soon it was decided that the Bible study should become a church. It originally became known as Sunset Chapel, and later Word of Life Church in Canal Winchester, Ohio, a southeast Columbus suburb.
The church's first permanent facility was built in 1979. It is now known as Alpha Hall, which is one of four buildings on what is now the campus of Valor Christian College. Growth soon required an addition to that building, and several years later the church built a bigger structure adjacent to Alpha Hall, which is now known as Dominion Hall. In 1986, ground was broken on to begin what is now the church's Columbus campus. When it was dedicated, it was re-named World Harvest Church in honor of Dr. Lester Sumrall, who had befriended Parsley years earlier and became the younger pastor's mentor.
World Harvest Church Columbus now includes a 5,200-seat sanctuary, children's and youth ministries, Ministry Resource Centers and administrative offices. Harvest Preparatory School, a private Christian school serving students in preschool through grade 12, also operates on the church grounds. About 10,000 people attend services at World Harvest on a weekly basis.
In 2009 Parsley established a second congregation in Columbus, this time on the city's North side. It is called World Harvest Church Polaris (it meets near the Polaris Fashion Place mall).
Breakthrough is an outreach of Bridge of Hope, an inernational missions organization that is perhaps the least recognized of Parsley's ministry activities. Over the past 20 years, Parsley has led numerous humanitarian projects around the world, supported by gifts from his church members, churches affiliated with the World Harvest Ministerial Alliance and television viewers.
Bridge of Hope has an exhaustive record of work in Sudan, where a civil war has persisted for years. Parsley's involvement with Sudan began with his lobbying for the federal Sudan Peace Act, and has encompassed the purchase of freedom for Sudanese Christian slaves as well as food, medical supplies and equipment for freed slaves. Bridge of Hope has purchased the freedom of more than 31,000 slaves and provided more than 16,000 "survival kits" -- aid packages consisting of a tarp, mosquito netting, a cooking pot and food to sustain a family for a month.
Bridge of Hope has also completed projects in the African nations of Zambia, Uganda, Kenya and Mozambique. The organization's history also includes projects in Europe, Asia, South America, Central America and the Caribbean. its most recent international projects have been in Haity (both before and after the January 2010 earthquake there) and Guatemala.
Domestically, Bridge of Hope has been involved in disaster relief, providing food, water, ice and cleaning supplies in the wake of disasters including Hurricanes katrina, Gustav and Ike. Following these disasters, Bridge of Hope was named a First Responder by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Valor Christian College was founded in 1990 as World Harvest Bible Institute, and was later known as World Harvest Bible College. It attracts students from across the United States and around the world for ministry training in pastoral leadership, missions, evangelism, music ministry, youth ministry, media ministry, advanced leadership and interdisciplinary studies. It is accredited by the Ohio State Board of Career Colleges and Schools to offer associate of applied science degrees. Online classes will be offered for the first time in the fall of 2010.
The Women's Clinic of Columbus opened in June 2008 across the street fro ma Planned Parenthood facility. It offers free pregnancy tests, free ultrasounds and counseling for women in unexpected pregnancy situations. Parslye has said that in its first two years of operation, it has documented more than 1,000 cases in which women who had intended to have abortoins chose instead to keep their babies as a result of the clinic's work.
Parsley was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and was raised primarily in the Columbus area. His parents grew up in eastern Kentucky, and traveled there often to visit relatives when Parsley was a young boy.
He was raised as a Free Will Baptist, and had a born-again experience at Christian Center Church in Gahanna, Ohio, in the 1970s. After high school, he worked in real estate and at a pet-food factory before enrolling at Circleville Bible College (now Ohio Christian University).
He came under the influence of Lester Sumrall, an Indiana-based evangelist, missionary and broadcaster, as a young pastor. Sumrall became Parsley's spiritual mentor, and the two traveled together often.
He is married to Joni Parsley. They have a son, Austin, and a daughter, Ashton, both young adults.
Parsley holds a Bachelor of Arts in Ministry from Ohio Christian University, a Doctor of Divinity (honorary) from Indiana Christian University and a Doctor of Humanities (honorary) from Liberty University.
Parsley is a political independent. He is a frequent critic of liberal positions on social issues, including abortion and the movement to expand the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples, but has tended to side with more liberal organizations on issues of social justice, such as poverty, racism, women's rights, human trafficking, pornography and prison re-entry.
Parsley became increasingly involved in U.S. politics following his work on the 2003 Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. During the summer of 2004, Parsley announced the establishment of the Center for Moral Clarity. He openly criticized Sweden for the conviction of Åke Green under Sweden's hate crimes legislation. The Mind Is Connected To the Spirit : Seminary for Apologetics
On October 3, 2004, Parsley gave a sermon titled "Uncensored: While Freedom Still Rings". In the two-part sermon, Parsley expressed opposition to the view that there is a separation of church and state in the U.S. Constitution; to same-sex marriage; to partial-birth abortion; to hate speech legislation in California, Canada, and Sweden; to sexual orientation themes in children's books; to racism; and to poverty. Parsley has said that the U.S. government, by funding Planned Parenthood, is complicit in "genocide" against African Americans, because Planned Parenthood performs abortions in the black community. YouTube - Rod Parsley: More on "Black Genocide"
A few weeks before the 2004 elections, Parsley encouraged his congregation and television audience to vote for Ohio's state constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The amendment passed by a wide margin of voters from both political parties. Parsley has also encouraged citizens of other states with similar marriage amendments on their ballots to vote similarly, and headlined the "Silent No More" tour to register Christian voters.
Parsley has called upon Christians to counter the claims of Islam, noting that it is an "anti-Christ religion" predicated on "deception" and "America was founded in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed." The Muslim prophet Muhammad, he writes, "received revelations from demons and not from the true God." And he emphasizes this point: "Allah was a demon spirit."
Parsley is an author of several books, including Silent No More, which was released in April 2005 by Charisma House. The book encourages Christians to participate in the political process, and especially to make sure their votes reflect their values. Concerning poverty, Parsley writes that government should "get out of the way," removing many constraints on capitalism. "If the government were to reduce the level of taxation, remove industrial restraints, eliminate wage controls, and abolish subsidies, tariffs, and other constraints on free enterprise," he writes, "the poor would be helped in a way that AFDC, social security, and unemployment insurance could never match."
The sequel, Culturally Incorrect: How Clashing Worldviews Affect Your Future, was published in June 2007 and soon appeared on the industry's best-seller lists. "Culturally Incorrect" identifies postmodernism - the believ that there is no such thing as absolute truth - as the cause of many of the culture's major ills, and calls upon Christians to impact the culture through prayer, service to the poor and activism.
Parsley's latest book, "Living on Our Heads: Righting an Upside-Down Culture," was released in August 2010.
Parsley personally endorsed the presidential campaign of Republican nominee John McCain, who called Parsley a "spiritual guide". McCain had actively sought Parsley's endorsement during his Republican primary battle with Mike Huckabee, who was drawing substantial support from the religious right.
McCain later rejected Parsley's endorsement based on Parsley's statements regarding Islam. Political Radar: McCain Rejects Parsley Endorsement Parsley was quoted as stating that he "do[es] not believe that our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed” and that Muhammad is "the mouthpiece of a conspiracy of spiritual evil".
In repudiating Parsley's comments, McCain stated, "I believe there is no place for that kind of dialogue in America, and I believe that even though he endorsed me, and I didn't endorse him, the fact is that I repudiate such talk, and I reject his endorsement." McCain further distanced himself from Parsley, stating, "I've never been in Pastor Hagee's church or Pastor Parsley's church. I didn't attend their church for 20 years, and I'm not a member of their church. I received their endorsement, which did not mean that I endorsed their views."
Thereafter, Parsley withdrew his endorsement of McCain's candidacy.
Parsley is identified as a prominent player in the dominionist movement by both TheocracyWatch and commentator Bill Moyers.
Some have also criticized Parsley for his recent book, Silent No More, because of the book's explanation of Islam and the view that the U.S. Constitution provides for a separation of church and state (among other social issues), and for his support of faith healing. Parsley has identified Islam as an enemy of the United States and Christianity.
In January 2006, a group of 31 Columbus, Ohio, area pastors charged that Parsley and another central Ohio religious leader had violated federal tax laws. The complaining clergy alleged that Parsley violated the tax-exempt status of his church by supporting various political causes.
Parsley has since publicly stated that the Internal Revenue Service notified him in September 2006 that Reformation Ohio, an evangelistic organization named in the complaint, was in no jeopardy of losing its 501 c-3 status, and in 2008 also notified World Harvest Church that nothing improper was discovered.
Author Chris Hedges' 2006 book The Christian Right and the War on America quoted Parsley as using militaristic metaphors in a sermon concerning his critics:
