Beacon Journal via Bradenton Herald:

Aug. 06, 2006

Voter sticker's intent debated
By Lisa A. Abraham
Beacon Journal staff writer

The ``I Voted Today'' sticker -- the seemingly innocuous emblem that
voters slap on their chests after casting their ballot -- has been
changed by Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.

Since last November, voters have emerged from polling places with a
new sticker that says: ``I Voted Today -- Change Our World, Vote Your
Conscience.''

While those words may seem equally innocuous, they have roots in what
Blackwell calls a ``character-building'' program that has ties to a
national ``character-building'' movement founded by Chicago-area
evangelist Bill Gothard.

When ``Vote your conscience'' appeared last year, it received little attention.

But in a heated gubernatorial election year in which religion has
become a hot issue, suspicious Summit County Democrats have called for
a vote of the Board of Elections on Monday to determine whether voters
here will get those stickers in November.

Election boards are not required to give out the stickers.

``It's not an issue that has routinely come before our board to review
those stickers,'' said board member Russ Pry, a Democrat, who
questioned whether some kind of religious agenda was behind the
phrasing.

``I would prefer to go with just `I Voted Today,' '' he said.

Blackwell, the Republican gubernatorial candidate who never shies from
his evangelical Christian beliefs, launched the Ohio Center for Civic
Character from the secretary of state's office in 2001.

The center has a prominent position -- top right corner -- on
Blackwell's official state Web site, and a picture of the Earth is the
same one that appears on the sticker.

The 20 tenets of his character program are in a treatise known as
``Uncommon Sense'' and include such phrases as ``submission to
truth,'' ``seeking wisdom'' and ``promise-keeping and
trustworthiness.''

Many state lawmakers and some business leaders are listed on the Web
site as endorsing the ideals.

When someone incorporates a new business or becomes a U.S. citizen in
Ohio, Blackwell's office delivers a copy of Uncommon Sense.

Blackwell, touting the benefits of the document, said it can help
shape the character of new Americans.

Blackwell said he is not a student of Gothard's and is not familiar
with his teachings, but supports the movement of cities that have
agreed to enter into a ``character covenant.''

Controversial figure

Gothard is one of the key figures behind that movement. His detractors
have accused him of forming the secular character arm of his
ministries as a way of proselytizing his beliefs in a public domain.

And Blackwell's Web site offers a link to the International
Association of Character Cities, which falls under the umbrella of
Gothard's ministries.

Gothard is a controversial figure who founded the Institute in Basic
Life Principles, a seminar-based multimillion-dollar ministry
headquartered in Oak Brook, Ill.

His theology includes a list of what he calls the 49 general commands
of Christ and their 49 corresponding character qualities.

Those qualities form the basis of programming known as Character
First! from the Oklahoma City-based Character Training Institute,
which includes the International Institute of Character Cities.

Is religion involved?

John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the
University of Akron, said that while building character is not
required of the Ohio secretary of state, there's nothing in the law to
prevent him from taking the initiative.

``One could argue that the two things that the secretary of state does
-- administer elections and administer business incorporations -- both
have to do with the question of character in the broadest sense,'' he
said.

Green said Blackwell's program ``takes that a step farther and
encourages developing character for its own sake. I think the key
issue is the question of God. If God is involved... a lot of people
would find that such a program would cross the line, if it was very
explicitly religious,'' he said.

Character First! programming -- offered nationwide to businesses,
schools and governments -- is scrubbed free of Biblical or God
references, but its moral message is identical to Gothard's 49
commands of Christ.

Blackwell said if there are similarities between his center's Uncommon
Sense and Character First! it's only because they both are founded on
basic character ideals -- truthfulness, fidelity and honesty -- that
predate either organization.

Blackwell said Assistant Secretary of State Monty Lobb and Columbus
business consultant Chip Weiant wrote Uncommon Sense for use within
Blackwell's office when he was state treasurer. It was later
incorporated into the secretary of state's office, from where
Blackwell decided to use it as a basis for a statewide character
project.

`Principles are universal'

Blackwell said the document is nonreligious and was developed to
appeal to all faiths, as well as the business community. He has no
concerns with its public use or the use of taxpayer money.

``People I deal with in the marketplace setting have not a clue that a
lot of our great economic thinkers were first and foremost moral
philosophers,'' Blackwell said.

``The 20 principles are pretty universal and we crafted it and said
that anyone who wants to use it, as long as they understood where it
came from, they were free to use it,'' he said.

Both Lobb and Blackwell said they had no ties to Gothard. Lobb,
however, did fill in for Blackwell in 2004 as a keynote speaker at a
Character Cities conference.

``Gothard wasn't there,'' said Lobb, who runs the character center in
Blackwell's office.

But even the ``Ohio candidate character-builder commitment'' on
Blackwell's Web site asks candidates to strive to practice character
ethics, ``as defined by Character First, Character Counts, and
Uncommon Sense.''

Lobb said it was his decision to include the Character First! ethics
in the pledge.

He noted that there are other links on Blackwell's Web site, although
none to religious-based organizations.

However, the Web site does not provide a link to Character Counts!,
perhaps one of the best-known character-building organizations in the
country, which counts Akron and Toledo public schools among its
membership.

Character First!

It does link to the Character Council of Greater Cincinnati and
Northern Kentucky -- a group that embraces the Character First!
ideology and boasts its ties to the Character Cities organization.

Joseph Conn, spokesman for Americans United for the Separation of
Church and State, said his organization typically hears complaints
about Character First! when an effort is made to use the programming
in public venues.

``Wherever it pops up, it becomes a controversy. People don't like the
idea of instituting a controversial minister's program into the public
schools or government,'' he said.

Conn's organization is a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog organization
that monitors the mixing of any particular religious views into
government activity.

He said while Character First! is not overtly religious, ``It's
clearly based on the teachings of Bill Gothard, who is a
fundamentalist minister. This is a guy who thinks Cabbage Patch Dolls
are satanic, and he thinks married women shouldn't work outside the
home and that there should never be divorce under any circumstances.
Those are ideas that even most evangelicals would disagree with.''

Green said simply because Gothard's religious ideas may be
controversial, that doesn't mean his character-building principles are
without merit. But he said any time a government agency attempts to
define character in one particular way, it's an invitation for
controversy.

Which comes back to issue of the ``I Voted Today'' sticker.

Democrats complain that Blackwell is using the sticker ``to send a
subliminal message,'' said Brian Rothenberg, spokesman for the Ohio
Democratic Party.

``I don't think there's anything subliminal about it. It's pretty
obvious to me,'' Green said. He said people base their votes on a
variety of interests -- political, business, their personal values --
and because ballots are secret, people are comfortable to vote those
interests without repercussions.

What's troubling to Green is that the sticker, ``suggests to people
the basis of their vote should be on one topic and not on another, and
one of the virtues of voting is that we get to vote the interest we
want.''