Call it a harmonic convergence:

Messages crossed my computer this morning from a former Republican, now independent Sen. Jim Hendren, and from a former Republican senator, Bryan King, both essentially calling out those who wave religious and “values” flags to achieve morally dubious and sometimes self-enriching political ends.

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First, a tweet from Hendren:

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Isn’t truth-telling one of those values touted on Sen.Jason Rapert’s graven image out at the state Capitol? It’s held in low regard by Republicans in Congress, including every member of the Arkansas delegation. They refuse to hold Jan. 6 coup plotters to account, in service to Trumpism.

And then I heard from Bryan King, the former state senator from Green Forest, who’s giving some thought to trying to take back a Senate seat won by Bible-thumping Sen. Bob Ballinger, an enabler for the dubious Ecclesia College among other endeavors. A 2010 gerrymander left King at a disadvantage against Ballinger when his home county was split. He gets the whole county back this go-round.

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In the meanwhile, King has written an op-ed for a local newspaper, inspired, he told me, by a sermon on the Pharisees at the Methodist church he attends. It’s titled:

Modern Day Pharisees and False Prophets: Preaching Politics for Self-Profit

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It’s about people who use “diversion politics and issues for personal profit and empowerment.” Jesus warned about their like, King writes.

Examples King cited:

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Ralph Reed, the first leader of the Christian Coalition. It mobilized Christian conservatives for Republican candidates. “But his motives and accomplishments were more embedded in self-interest than in the real issues of the day,” King writes. He mentioned Reed’s enrichment with fees helping American Indian casinos. He could have mentioned how some of the people elected with help of the coalition made fun of these voters in private.

Then there was former Republican Party leader and senator Gilbert Baker, named to head the Arkansas Faith and Freedom Coalition, an offshoot of a Ralph Reed national creation. Supposedly, it was to make sure the voices of conservative Christians were heard.

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It certainly made an impact on Baker’s bank account and those of others, including former Sen. Michael Lamoureux. Donations were made to the coalition, King writes, by powerful lobbyists, tobacco companies and nursing home owner Michael Morton. Baker, coincidentally, worked, among other issues, to find ways to insulate nursing homes from lawsuits. Which surely is mentioned somewhere in the New Testament.

Private donations to 501c4 organizations are just about impossible to track, unlike the campaign finance filings required of candidates like King. Dark money contributed to an onslaught of advertising against him in his race against Ballinger

But back to Baker. King writes of Baker’s indictment on bribery charges related to campaign contributions made by Morton to convicted former Judge Mike Maggio, who reduced a big jury verdict against a Morton nursing home. (Morton wasn’t charged.) Baker, the values exemplar, also got a DUI after meth was found in his system during a traffic stop, King noted. He wrote:

Use of the Faith and Freedom Coalition in the diversion of personal donations from lobbyists and special interests into a private account paints a dark and dirty picture. The Bible is clear. This is exactly what the Pharisees did in Jesus’s time. They used politics and money to personally profit and enhance their own power. They also lied and worked to destroy Jesus and anyone else that questioned or exposed them and their corrupt actions.

 

He said he’d learned as a senator that politicians don’t like being questioned. The Pharisees didn’t either, he said, to the displeasure of Jesus, who castigated them for being full of greed and self-indulgence.

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King says it’s time to speak out against the dishonest and hypocrites regardless of party affiliation.

On this, he and I agree. (Noted: I’ve been a critic of King in the past, but we’ve established an interesting phone/text/email colloquy since he left office. You may be sure he has not become a liberal.)

There’s more in his op-ed.  Subscribe to the Madison County Record and you can read it all.