LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY wyldraven)

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and the new "I Voted Today" stickers

So apparently Blackwell slid a reference to evangelical character building programs into the stickers without anyone's knowledge, and he seems to be catching a bit of heat over it. At first blush, this looks like a lot of furor over a very little thing. On the other hand, the old saw says, "when you give them an inch, they'll take a mile."

Voter sticker's intent debated
Wording has roots in program with ties to evangelist's tenets
By Lisa A. Abraham
Beacon Journal staff writer

The "I Voted Today" sticker -- the seemingly innocuous emblem that voters slap on their chests after casting their ballot -- has been changed by Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.

Since last November, voters have emerged from polling places with a new sticker that says: "I Voted Today -- Change Our World, Vote Your Conscience."

While those words may seem equally innocuous, they have roots in what Blackwell calls a "character-building" program that has ties to a national "character-building" movement founded by Chicago-area evangelist Bill Gothard.

When "Vote your conscience" appeared last year, it received little attention.

But in a heated gubernatorial election year in which religion has become a hot issue, suspicious Summit County Democrats have called for a vote of the Board of Elections on Monday to determine whether voters here will get those stickers in November.

Election boards are not required to give out the stickers.

"It's not an issue that has routinely come before our board to review those stickers," said board member Russ Pry, a Democrat, who questioned whether some kind of religious agenda was behind the phrasing.

"I would prefer to go with just 'I Voted Today,' " he said.

Blackwell, the Republican gubernatorial candidate who never shies from his evangelical Christian beliefs, launched the Ohio Center for Civic Character from the secretary of state's office in 2001.

The center has a prominent position -- top right corner -- on Blackwell's official state Web site, and a picture of the Earth is the same one that appears on the sticker.

The 20 tenets of his character program are in a treatise known as "Uncommon Sense" and include such phrases as "submission to truth," "seeking wisdom" and "promise-keeping and trustworthiness."

Many state lawmakers and some business leaders are listed on the Web site as endorsing the ideals.

When someone incorporates a new business or becomes a U.S. citizen in Ohio, Blackwell's office delivers a copy of Uncommon Sense.

Blackwell, touting the benefits of the document, said it can help shape the character of new Americans.

Blackwell said he is not a student of Gothard's and is not familiar with his teachings, but supports the movement of cities that have agreed to enter into a "character covenant."

Controversial figure

Gothard is one of the key figures behind that movement. His detractors have accused him of forming the secular character arm of his ministries as a way of proselytizing his beliefs in a public domain.

And Blackwell's Web site offers a link to the International Association of Character Cities, which falls under the umbrella of Gothard's ministries.

Gothard is a controversial figure who founded the Institute in Basic Life Principles, a seminar-based multimillion-dollar ministry headquartered in Oak Brook, Ill.

His theology includes a list of what he calls the 49 general commands of Christ and their 49 corresponding character qualities.

Those qualities form the basis of programming known as Character First! from the Oklahoma City-based Character Training Institute, which includes the International Institute of Character Cities.

Is religion involved?

John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, said that while building character is not required of the Ohio secretary of state, there's nothing in the law to prevent him from taking the initiative.

"One could argue that the two things that the secretary of state does -- administer elections and administer business incorporations -- both have to do with the question of character in the broadest sense," he said.

Green said Blackwell's program "takes that a step farther and encourages developing character for its own sake. I think the key issue is the question of God. If God is involved... a lot of people would find that such a program would cross the line, if it was very explicitly religious," he said.

Character First! programming -- offered nationwide to businesses, schools and governments -- is scrubbed free of Biblical or God references, but its moral message is identical to Gothard's 49 commands of Christ.

Blackwell said if there are similarities between his center's Uncommon Sense and Character First! it's only because they both are founded on basic character ideals -- truthfulness, fidelity and honesty -- that predate either organization.

Blackwell said Assistant Secretary of State Monty Lobb and Columbus business consultant Chip Weiant wrote Uncommon Sense for use within Blackwell's office when he was state treasurer. It was later incorporated into the secretary of state's office, from where Blackwell decided to use it as a basis for a statewide character project.

'Principles are universal'

Blackwell said the document is nonreligious and was developed to appeal to all faiths, as well as the business community. He has no concerns with its public use or the use of taxpayer money.

"People I deal with in the marketplace setting have not a clue that a lot of our great economic thinkers were first and foremost moral philosophers," Blackwell said.

"The 20 principles are pretty universal and we crafted it and said that anyone who wants to use it, as long as they understood where it came from, they were free to use it," he said.

Both Lobb and Blackwell said they had no ties to Gothard. Lobb, however, did fill in for Blackwell in 2004 as a keynote speaker at a Character Cities conference.

"Gothard wasn't there," said Lobb, who runs the character center in Blackwell's office.

But even the "Ohio candidate character-builder commitment" on Blackwell's Web site asks candidates to strive to practice character ethics, "as defined by Character First, Character Counts, and Uncommon Sense."

Lobb said it was his decision to include the Character First! ethics in the pledge.

He noted that there are other links on Blackwell's Web site, although none to religious-based organizations.

However, the Web site does not provide a link to Character Counts!, perhaps one of the best-known character-building organizations in the country, which counts Akron and Toledo public schools among its membership.

Character First!

It does link to the Character Council of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky -- a group that embraces the Character First! ideology and boasts its ties to the Character Cities organization.

Joseph Conn, spokesman for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, said his organization typically hears complaints about Character First! when an effort is made to use the programming in public venues.

"Wherever it pops up, it becomes a controversy. People don't like the idea of instituting a controversial minister's program into the public schools or government," he said.

Conn's organization is a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog organization that monitors the mixing of any particular religious views into government activity.

He said while Character First! is not overtly religious, "It's clearly based on the teachings of Bill Gothard, who is a fundamentalist minister. This is a guy who thinks Cabbage Patch Dolls are satanic, and he thinks married women shouldn't work outside the home and that there should never be divorce under any circumstances. Those are ideas that even most evangelicals would disagree with."

Green said simply because Gothard's religious ideas may be controversial, that doesn't mean his character-building principles are without merit. But he said any time a government agency attempts to define character in one particular way, it's an invitation for controversy.

Which comes back to issue of the "I Voted Today" sticker.

Democrats complain that Blackwell is using the sticker "to send a subliminal message," said Brian Rothenberg, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party.

"I don't think there's anything subliminal about it. It's pretty obvious to me," Green said. He said people base their votes on a variety of interests -- political, business, their personal values -- and because ballots are secret, people are comfortable to vote those interests without repercussions.

What's troubling to Green is that the sticker, "suggests to people the basis of their vote should be on one topic and not on another, and one of the virtues of voting is that we get to vote the interest we want."