[Mpls] Urban Ventures' Duane Coleman Featured in article about Myth of Separation of Church and State

[Eva Young]

http://lloydletta.blogspot.com/2005/06/vultures-preying-on-state-capitol-rake.html

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Vultures Preying on the State Capitol

The Rake has an excellent article in the current issue: Church and State: 
The myth of separation crumbles in the halls of the Minnesota State Capitol.

http://www.rakemag.com/stories/section_detail.aspx?itemID=5997&catID=146&SelectCatID=146

It talks about Dan Hall of Midwest Chaplains who has had a prayer 
"ministry" at the state capitol for the last three years. Lloydletta's Nooz 
broke the story about Urban Ventures and the Colin Powell Youth Center 
signing on to the Midwest Chaplains Day of Prayer for the Bachmann Amendment.

http://lloydletta.blogspot.com/2005/03/urban-vultures-and-colin-powell-center.html

Image of this is here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41619803@N00/7022461/

Well here's some more background on this ministry:

Chaplain Dan Hall's Wednesday prayer meeting attracts a range of 
high-powered guests, including lobbyists, but the group is most animated 
when legislators stop in to visit and pray. Thus, when Republican 
Representative Larry Howes of Walker was introduced, everyone straightened 
in their seats. "What you re doing makes a difference here at the Capitol," 
Howes began. "It may not always seem that way, but I can assure you that 
your prayers are heard."

"What's your passion?" Hall asked.

"Politics," Howes answered, before transitioning into a detailed policy 
discussion about what s really on his mind namely, a nursing home in his 
district that is in danger of losing its state funding. "It's a big 
payroll, and the loss of that would devastate our local economy," he said.

The formerly gay man raised his hand. "Should we pray that the governor 
will sign the bill for the nursing home?"

"Sure," Howes replied. "Yeah."

He then launched into another passion, concerning a letter someone had sent 
to Republican Representative Paul Gazelka, which disapproved of his support 
for a measure that would ban gay marriage. According to Howes, the author 
works for the Crow Wing County Human Services Department. "And I want you 
to know that I've already looked into de-funding that agency," he announced 
with a pointed look at Hall.



A constituent writes a letter that the representative disagrees with. So 
the representative tries to defund the agency for whom the constituent 
works. Chilling.

According to an online resume, Dan Hall has no formal religious training 
nor even a formal ordination, despite serving as an assistant pastor, 
administrative pastor, associate pastor, and senior pastor to four 
congregations dating back to 1982. This is not unusual. Among some 
Pentecostals and members of other independent, evangelical denominations, 
there is an institutional suspicion of formal religious training, and many 
of their church leaders are not ordained, at least not in accredited 
seminaries or divinity schools. Instead, they are accepted as spiritual 
leaders on the basis of their faith, leadership, and charisma. Hall, a 
married father of eight, seems to have established himself in that 
tradition and done quite well. In addition to being founder and executive 
director of Midwest Chaplains and its Capitol Prayer Network, he is city 
chaplain of Burnsville, where he ministers to police and emergency services 
personnel.

Hall claims his voluntary ministry at the Capitol began after House 
Chaplain Lonnie Titus told him "he couldn't handle it all on his own." In 
contrast, Titus claims that Hall approached him about getting involved at 
the Capitol. Regardless of whose idea it was, nobody disputes that Hall's 
Capitol ministry began in the fall of 2001, when he stationed himself 
outside the Senate chambers and introduced himself to members.


Hmm...  Who is more likely to be telling the truth on this one?

Four years later, his routine hasn t changed much. "I come down to the 
Capitol after the traffic," Hall explains. "And I begin my route." He 
starts on the top floor of the State Office Building. "I peek my head into 
offices, say hello to staff and legislators and just see where that goes. I 
see what I can do to help, and I always try to bring God into it." When he 
is not busy with the individual needs of legislators and staff, Hall 
conducts "prayer tours" of the Capitol for groups interested in praying at 
the usual tour stops, such as the Senate chambers.

Hall also maintains an email list of "Capitol intercessors" whom he 
contacts with specific prayer requests when a "moral or spiritual issue" 
such as abortion, gay rights, or methamphetamine use arises. "I've been 
told that because I'm a chaplain I must be a Republican," Hall admitted. 
"I'm more conservative, yes, but really what I'm doing is based on Biblical 
truth. I call it 'political evangelism,' but it's not politics."

Lonnie Titus disputes Hall's depiction of his ministry. "I serve as a 
chaplain to all of the people [at the House of Representatives]," Titus 
explained. "But Dan, he's the front guy if you're pro-life, pro-marriage." 
The distinction is important and legal. For Dan Hall's ministry to be 
granted federal 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status as a nonprofit organization it 
must meet several criteria, one of the most important being that it "may 
not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its 
activities" even, presumably, if that means influencing God to influence 
legislation. Bluntly, the regulations prohibiting religious organizations 
from explicit political advocacy do not allow for much interpretation, and 
Hall otherwise a literalist in Scriptural matters knows it. "A lot of 
pastors don't stand up for issues and that s how we got into the mess that 
we re in today," Hall said. "They're all worried about losing their 
'tax-exempt.'" Intentionally or not, Chaplain Dan Hall and his supporters 
at the Legislature may be redefining the boundaries of religious political 
advocacy in Minnesota.



There needs to be complaints filed with the Minnesota Department of Revenue 
and the IRS about this organization.

But look who walks in for a prayer:

The last guest at Chaplain Dan Hall's Wednesday prayer meeting was Duane 
Coleman, vice president for Development at the Colin Powell Youth 
Leadership Center in South Minneapolis. Supported by organizations like 
Best Buy, ADC, and General Mills, the center is a $12.6 million South 
Minneapolis project designed to help inner-city youth acquire 
secondary-school educations. Duane Coleman has been a repeat guest at Dan 
Hall's prayer gatherings, and when he arrived on this day, Hall encouraged 
him to describe the results of the prayers he d received the week before.

Coleman said that, before last week, only the Senate version of the new 
bonding bill included cash for the Colin Powell Youth Leadership Center. 
"So I came last week and we prayed over this," Coleman explained. "And 
somehow, through divine favor, the money ended up in the House bill, too."
A late arrival, a woman in the back of the room, raised her hand. "Is your 
group Christian?"

Coleman nodded vigorously. "Yes."

"So what are we praying for today?"

"Success in conference committee!" Coleman replied.

Like many before him, Coleman stood before the group with his eyes closed 
as the Cannon Falls ladies and Myrna Howes prayed for him. "Lord, my 
husband is a legislator and I know he received a lot of letters on behalf 
of this saying it won't do anything," Howes intoned. "Well, I hope those 
letters to turn to dust."
With that, the meeting was over. The group quickly dispersed into dimly lit 
Capitol hallways filled with legislators on their way to lunch. Charlotte 
Herzog, however, stopped to tell me how much she appreciates Dan Hall s 
ministry at the Capitol. "You know," she said. "Prayer is just so much more 
effective than all those committee hearings and meetings."



I guess on this one, my prayers were answered. The taxpayers were saved 
from subsidizing the Colin Powell Boondoggle. It was stripped from the 
conference committee.

posted by lloydletta | 
<http://lloydletta.blogspot.com/2005/06/vultures-preying-on-state-capitol-rake.html>link 



Eva Young
Near North
Minneapolis
lloydletta at yahoo.com
http://lloydletta.blogspot.com

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