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`Amoeba'-like split by Religious Right haunts Michigan GOP. (People & Events).


A heavily Republican county in Michigan is still reeling from TV preacher Pat Robertson's presidential campaign in 1988, with warring GOP factions battling for control of the party.

Oakland County, just northwest of Detroit, is one of the five most Republican counties in the nation. Yet, according to according to
prep.
1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.

2. In keeping with: according to instructions.

3.
 an account in the conservative newspaper Human Events, local Republicans "are not happy with their party."

The conflict stems from 1988, when, as the paper put it, "Michigan Republicans split like a giant amoeba amoeba: see ameba.
amoeba

One-celled protozoan that can form temporary extensions of cytoplasm (pseudopodia) in order to move about. Some amoebas are found on the bottom of freshwater streams and ponds.
 and sent two delegations to the national party convention (one favoring the elder George Bush, the other for Pat Robertson Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson (born March 22 1930)[1] is a televangelist from the United States.[2] He is the founder of numerous organizations and corporations, including the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), )...." Religious conservatives, Human Events says, believe that current county GOP chair L. Brooks Patterson Lewis Brooks Patterson (b. January 4 1939) is an American lawyer and politician, currently County Executive of Oakland County, Michigan. Oakland County has an affluent population of over a million, that includes the northern and northwestern suburbs of Detroit.  is "hostile to their candidates and causes."

In November, the county's GOP leaders met to elect a new executive committee. Religious Right activists stacked the meeting and elected former Michigan Christian Coalition Christian Coalition, organization founded to advance the agenda of political and social conservatives, mostly comprised of evangelical Protestant Republicans, and to preserve what it deems traditional American values.  head Tom McMillin as chair over Patterson. McMillin then adopted new rules making it easier for him to appoint fellow social conservatives on the committee.

Members of the Republican old guard were furious over the changes and stormed out of the meeting en masse en masse  
adv.
In one group or body; all together: The protesters marched en masse to the capitol.



[French : en, in + masse, mass.
. They later gathered in a rump caucus and began operating as the county party's true executive committee. McMillin and his supporters filed suit in state court, but a three-judge panel rejected the case.

Patterson attempted to heal the rift by stepping down as party chairman. The executive committee then elected Paul Welday, an aide to U.S. Rep. Joe Kollenberg (R-Mich.) as chair. Welday in turn appointed the Rev. Keith Butler For the football player of the same name, see .

Keith Butler is the founding pastor of the nondenominational Word of Faith International Christian Center (WOFICC) Church in suburban Detroit, which has a 22,000+-member congregation.
, a McMillin aide, as the party's publicity chair. In other Christian Coalition news:

* The Christian Coalition of Alabama is taking credit for electing a Republican to the governorship. Although the organization claims to be non-partisan, the Coalition commissioned a study after the November election that concluded that its voter guides helped Republican Bob Riley

For other people named Bob Riley, see Bob Riley (disambiguation).
Robert Renfroe "Bob" Riley (born October 3, 1944) is an American politician in the Republican Party.
 defeat Democratic incumbent Don Siegelman.

The Coalition claims its voter guides helped sway women from Siegelman toward Riley. "The most important conclusion drawn ... is that the Gubernatorial Election would have definitely gone to Don Siegelman had it not been for the Christian Coalition Voter Guide and other efforts," read the report.

A Coalition critic said the report was telling. "The issue is not about who won or lost the election," the Rev. James L. Evans, pastor of Crosscreek Baptist Church in Pelham Noun 1. Pelham - a bit with a bar mouthpiece that is designed to combine a curb and snaffle
bit - piece of metal held in horse's mouth by reins and used to control the horse while riding; "the horse was not accustomed to a bit"
, Ala., wrote in the Montgomery Advertiser. "The problem is a Christian group claiming one thing and doing another. On the one hand the Coalition claims they are a non-partisan Christian group. Then with the other hand they brag that their voter guides contributed to a particular outcome. As my grandpa used to say, `you can't hit what you are shooting at if you don't aim at it.'"
COPYRIGHT 2003 Americans United for Separation of Church and State
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2003, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Publication:Church & State
Geographic Code:1U3MI
Date:Feb 1, 2003
Words:466
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