When Southern Baptists Lie

"TheVanguard.Org" is a conservative consulting group. Its founder, Rod Martin helped presidential hopeful Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee by serving as his Director of Policy Planning and Research. The Vanguard's Christian bona fides are prominantly displayed on their website:

Our Statement of Faith is "The Abstract of Principles", the official doctrinal statement of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, adopted in 1858.

Vanguard's staff include a "grassroots director" named Tim Pope.

Tim Pope is TheVanguard.Org's Grassroots Director and President of the Oklahoma Republican Assembly. A seven-term member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, he served six years as Republican Whip, and won awards for legislative excellence from the Oklahoma Rifle Association, the National Federation of Independent Business and the Oklahoma Taxpayers Union. He has worked across Oklahoma and the nation teaching conservatives the nuts and bolts of how to win.

Wow, Tim is busy. And by busy I mean pulling shady strings behind the scenes as well.

From The Dallas Voice:

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma County Commissioner Jim Roth says he will ask for a determination on whether laws on elections and campaign finance were broken by the backer of an automated telephone call targeting him. Roth is the county’s first openly gay public official.

The recorded message accused Roth of “advancing the homosexual agenda in Oklahoma County” and mentioned a speech he was to give. The recorded female voice did not say who paid for the call or leave a return number. The number that showed up on caller ID was from a Michigan area code. The calls were made last weekend.

“I think it’s an outrage that they send those type of smearing, trashy phone calls to people on a Sunday afternoon and don’t have the courage to remove the white hood and show their face,” Roth said. “I’m concerned that it has the potential of violating a number of laws.”

Tim Pope, a Mustang resident and board member of the Oklahoma Republican Assembly, said he paid for the calls. Pope said he was not required to put a disclaimer claiming responsibility on the call because he was promoting an event at which Roth was scheduled to speak.

“It’s not a political call for a political candidate, so there is no requirement that there be a disclaimer,” Pope said.

“We just wanted to help him get a bigger crowd. It didn’t attack anybody.” The event mentioned in the call was a Monday evening program sponsored by GayOKC.com, called “The State of Our Community 2006.”

Yeah, Pope is hate-o-phoning people that Roth is "advancing the homosexual agenda" in order "to help him get a bigger crowd" at his talk. You believe him, don't you?

Pope's as crooked as a holler branch. This tactic is right out of Karl Rove's play book, though Rove wouldn't have shown his hand like Pope did. What is horrifying to me is that Vanguard is supposedly faith based. I guess the same "end justifies the means" approach used during the Crusades and the Inquisition comes in pretty handy for Southern Baptist policy wonks today. Somebody best be gettin' ready for the Holy Smackdown though. God typically frowns upon using faith-speak to cover lies.