Far-Right Clergy Front Group Reappears

Remember the Texas Restoration Project? That’s the political front group formed in 2005 to organize conservative, fundamentalist Christian clergy in support of Gov. Rick Perry. The group ended up being funded largely through a Houston-based nonprofit that itself was backed by more than $1 million from wealthy Perry campaign supporters.

We haven’t seen much from the Texas Restoration Project over the last couple of years. Then yesterday we saw an e-mail from the group asking Texas pastors to alert colleagues in Nevada about a gathering of the so-called Nevada Renewal Project Oct. 21-22 in Las Vegas:

“Will you please put a little effort in helping us get Nevada pastors to the Rediscovering God in America event? We want to do everything we can to make sure Nevada does not stand alone in the fight to restore its Judeo Christian heritage!”

The Texas Restoration Project organizers — including David Barton of WallBuilders and the Rev. Laurence White of Houston — have used their Texas contact list to promote similar groups across the country since 2005, mostly in election years. Over time, in fact, Restoration and Renewal projects have popped up in many political battleground states, from Nevada to Florida and Iowa to Colorado. The obvious goal has been to mobilize conservative pastors in support of selected Republican candidates (who often speak at the events). Pastors are then encouraged essentially to turn drag their own churches into partisan politics.

Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning News writes about the Nevada Renewal Project event here.