Tony Ojeda is running for Nebraska Legislature in District 30. Some of you may know about him from the recent domain name controversy.
I visited his campaign website at www.voteojeda.com and found something rather disturbing on his website.
If you visit his website, you will find a section with information on how to “Become an Activist Family.” The website defines the “Role of an Activist Family.”
Here is step #1…
Say a daily prayer for the success of the campaign.
I don’t know what church this guy belongs to but I’m not aware of any church that encourages this type of prayer. I think Mr. Ojeda has completely missed the purpose of prayer. People should be praying for the safety and welfare of the people ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Having people pray for the success of a political campaign is self-serving, idiotic and a waste of time. I hope God has more important things to do than answer these types of prayers. You can pray for a candidate’s safety but please do not pray for the success of the campaign. I don’t care if that person is a Democrat or a Republican.
In closing, I would like all of you to pray for chief (that’s me). I need all of you to say a daily prayer that I win the lottery. You can slip this prayer in between a Hail Mary and an Our Father.
UPDATE #1: An observant reader pointed out an editorial written by Harold W. Andersen in the Omaha World-Herald back in 2002. The title of the article was “Religious overtones were plain in bid to unseat Regent Wilson.” It looks like praying for Mr. Ojeda is nothing new.
Certainly one of the most remarkable results of the Nov. 5 Nebraska general election was evidence that a widely respected, two-term University of Nebraska regent could come within 334 votes of being turned out of office because he approves of potentially life-saving medical research involving use of fetal tissue from elective abortions.
In Tony Ojeda’s nearly successful effort to unseat Regent Charles Wilson, also of Lincoln, the religious overtones were evident from the start. One of Ojeda’s letters to Catholic former students of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln urged prayers for his victory and asked: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” In a speech to a Catholic-sponsored forum in a Lincoln pub after the election, Ojeda said that “literally thousands of people … were praying that I’d have a victory.”
I have, incidentally, despite allegations to the contrary, never suggested that people with such deeply held religious beliefs - in the case at hand, Catholics and some “religious-right” Protestants - be criticized for their views or their efforts to so heavily involve their religious views in the political process. That is, of course, their right.
But there also is the right of dissent or disapproval by those who believe public policy should be rationally driven rather than emotionally driven and should not be determined by zealous single-issue minority groups that can decide elections, especially when the turnout is light.
UPDATE #2: An editorial published on October 2, 2002 by the Daily Nebraskan questioned Mr. Ojeda’s “unethical” campaign tactics during his bid to become a Univeristy of Nebraska Regent. The title of the editorial is “Question of ethics.”
UPDATE #3: Nebraskans: Ready to be Informed?
ok-
I know this is going to be seen as a weird comment coming from me, but it’s in earnest. Yes, asking people to pray for your political campaign is crass. He should take that down, it makes him look dumb.
But praying for a campaign is not a waste of time or a waste of “God’s energy” or anything like that. For an infinite God there is no waste of energy, much less, energy to be used up. In scripture we learn that God has numbered the hair on our heads. God watches each sparrow sitting in each tree at each second, and knows both where each has been and where each will go. There is no prayer too tiny and there is no prayer to great for God. If the number of hairs on your head is of God’s concern, certainly a political campaign is. It is ok to pray for rain tomorrow, for World Peace, for an ‘A’ on a test, to win the lottery, and for Hurricane survivors all in the same breath. That’s part of the beauty of an infinite and loving God. /evangelism.
The reason his prayer request is odorous is because I don’t think faith and politics should be mixed in that type of way. It implies that religious constituents (read Christians, or even, evangelical conservative Christians) have some special role to play in his campaign/public life, that non-believers don’t get to play. It makes me question whether he would represent the needs and wants of believers and non-believers/agnostics with the same willingness, and that is antithetical to democratic government.
Plus he’s playing politics with his religion in a way which stinks heavily of Pharisees, Sadducees and moneychangers in the temple.
On the subject of prayer, President Bush has just declared Friday Sept. 16th a national day of prayer and rememberance for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
was this before or after he awarded the largest clean up contract for Katrina to Halliburton? this guy OUGHTA be prayin….
he has changed it to being an “Ojeda Family” and the url is different now — it’s http://www.voteojeda.com/ojedafamily.html
But what you really need to do is go to his regular website for his “business”
In his campaign blurb he says this about his working life: “For the past 11 years, I have helped individuals, families, and businesses grow in financial security and success. I manage investments: helping my clients save for the future; plan for education, ensure a successful retirement, and grow their family businesses. My work as an investment advisor is challenging and fulfilling. I currently work for a Nebraska based company called the Armour Center.” But The Armour Center website is just plain scarey, at least to me, and if his has to do with investments and education, they aren’t what most people would think when they hear those words. See what I mean http://www.armourcenter.com/ojeda.html
The kind of businesses he advises are not your regular businesses. I hope the voters of his district will at least know who he is before they vote for him, but they won’t learn it from his campaign site.
And if he thinks this is the first time a candidate or any public figure has found the site with their name unavailable, he doesn’t know much about the domain name business. That’s probably not all he doesn’t know much about.
You are all looking a bit foolish with your negative comments. Niave, yes.