The day the Patriot Pastor hijacked the Executive Council to lobby against Planned Parenthood
The minister who led the executive council in prayer before the vote to defund Planned Parenthood used his position to promote an anti-abortion agenda and lobby the councilors to reject the contacts that would have funded family planning and preventative health care services for 13,000 New Hampshire women and their families.
Rev. Garrett Lear, who is well known in Tea Party circles as the Patriot Pastor, warns his adherents that the country has been stolen by “liberal, leftist, globalist, communist, socialist, fascist, new age, atheist, anarchist, baby killer, pornographic, sex confused, drug demented, covenant breaking, robber” usurpers. “I want her back!” he says.
A moment of reflection
This year, the Executive Council reintroduced the sometime tradition of beginning each meeting with a moment of reflection. The council member hosting the meeting typically offers a poem, a reading or a prayer before proceeding with the day’s agenda.
Councilor Chris Pappas (D-Manchester) opened one meeting by reading a poem by Robert Frost; Councilor Colin Van Ostern (D-Concord) chose “The Prayer of St. Francis;” and Councilor Joe Kenney (R-Union) led the group in a personal prayer.
On the day the councilors were scheduled to debate whether to continue funding five Planned Parenthood health centers, Kenney asked Lear to provide the benediction. Lear responded by offering a prayer that effectively urged the councilors to reject the contract. “Let’s find a way to protect life, not take it away…” he said, “for if a baby is not safe in his or her mother’s womb, no one is safe anywhere:”
‘We will have no other King than King Jesus.’ That was said by our first president, George Washington, when they asked him to be King of America.
And he knew for sure this truth, there’s a God and he was not him. He also recognized how precious that life was from conception to natural death.Here as we stand in this hallowed hall today and very important things that are going on here today. Americans in general and New Hampshire people are recognizing that everyone’s life is precious. Let’s find a way to protect life, not take it away. […]
James Wilson, one of our Supreme Court justices signed the Declaration and also the Constitution said, ‘with consistency, beautiful and undeviating, human life, from its commencement to its close, is protected by the common law’ and of course we find that in our Declaration of American Independence. It is said often, for if a baby is not safe in his or her mother’s womb, no one is safe anywhere.
‘Subject: No to Planned Parenthood Contract‘
Lear’s broadside did not come out of the blue. The day before the executive council meeting, Lear emailed a personal plea to Councilor Chris Sununu (R-Newfields), widely regarded as the critical swing vote, in which he lobbied Sununu to reject the contract.
“We know you have a strong future in New Hampshire,” Lear wrote, “but voting for the Planned Parenthood contract will alienate you from your most enthusiastic base and it is just plain not right!” Sununu told the Concord Monitor that he does not recall seeing Lear’s message:
—–Original Message—–
From: Pastor Garrett Lear [thewell@thewelloflivingwater.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2015 12:07 PM Eastern Standard Time
To: Sununu, Christopher
Cc: VanOstern, Colin; Wheeler, David; Kenney, Joseph; Pappas, Christopher
Subject: No to Planned Parenthood ContractChris,
We have chosen not to call you as we know how busy that you are right now…
Please know that we appreciate you but are VERY CONCERNED (if the news reports are true) that you are undecided about the Planned Parenthood contract….
We know you have a strong future in New Hampshire but voting for the Planned Parenthood contract will alienate you from your most enthusiastic base and it is just plain not right!
Thanks. We are praying.
Garrett
Van Ostern: ‘I was very disturbed’
At the conclusion of the meeting, Van Ostern expressed his concerns. "I was very disturbed this morning that the prayer was used as an opportunity to lobby politically on one of the items in front of us,” he told the councilors.
“I think the purpose of that moment should be about shared reflection and inclusion,” Van Ostern explained, “and so my request is that as we use that time moving forward, that we really use it not to lobby about capital items but to have that as a moment of shared reflection and inclusion and meditation about our purpose in life.”
Kenney denied Lear’s prayer was political. “We have had this minister here before and he has given a wonderful prayer last time. I’m not sure if he singled out a particular item on the agenda, I didn’t hear that…” Kenney said.
“It is what it is. It’s your interpretation of a prayer,” Kenney continued. “I don’t want to get into the religious or political aspect of it. … It’s a free country, freedom of speech, that was his prayer. I have no problems with it.”
Sununu later criticized Van Ostern for voicing his concern. “The fact that one of the councilors would bring up the idea of having us censor a prayer by someone is offensive to me,” he told the Concord Monitor. “It’s a ridiculous request, it’s offensive. If someone wants to come in and recite a prayer, it’s their prayer. If it touches on issues before us, that’s fine.”
“To cry censorship when you hear concern is nonsense and does nothing to address the point: mixing religion, political lobbying and political ambition like we saw this week is not what voters sent us to Concord to do,” Van Ostern replied.