Saturday, January 14, 2006
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
 What do Ken Blackwell (Secretary of State and frontrunner for the 2006 Republican gubernatorial primary), Phil Heimlich (Hamilton County Commissioner and Jim Petro’s gubernatorial running mate), and the Cincinnati Police Department have in common? They all follow a movement known as Gothardism, which boasts ideas with names like “The Sevenfold Power of First-Century Churches and Homes.” This is all part of a nationwide movement under the banner of “character” that some people think is a cult.
Silja Talvi recently published an article entitled “The Cult of Character” from In These Times. The article outlines how the movement for a thing called “Character Cities” may actually be using a “secular” organization as a fulcrum for leveraging religious fundamentalism into City policy-making.
Perhaps most shocking is the following revelation, particularly given the concerns many Cincinnatians have about Police-Community relations:
Each of the 49 Character Qualities in CTI’s [Character Training Institute] secular materials have their exact counterpart in IBLP [Institute in Basic Life Principles] materials. In books like Gothard’s Power of Kingdom Living and The Sevenfold Power of First-Century Churches and Homes, they are typically referred to as “The Laws of the Kingdom.”
The IBLP’s “blue book,” formally titled The Power for True Success, is carried around by many of the IACC [International Association of Character Cities] officials. It explains the imperative for learning the 49 character qualities this way: “Character reveals the Lord Jesus Christ, since He is the full personification of all good character qualities.” It continues, “understanding character explains why things happen to us, because all things work together for good to conform us to the character of Christ.”
This book is now in the hands of most of the 1,200-strong Cincinnati police force, courtesy of a life insurance salesman and CTI cheerleader named Mike Daly who, along with Phil Heimlich, helped turn Cincinnati into a City of Character. The two worked hand-in-hand to implement the CTI training into nearly all facets of government and secondary education. During one of his trainings, Daly gifted curious officers with the religious books while telling them to become “apostles for character.”
In the blue book and other IBLP materials, the 49 character qualities take on a more strident and extremist tone. “Obedience” is defined as the “freedom to be creative under the protection of divinely appointed authorities. All legitimate authority comes from God. He is the One who sets up rulers and takes them down. … God ordained government to carry out his will in matters of justice.” What is going on here? Why is Phil Heimlich involved in what many find to be a cult designed to infiltrate public policy with religious fundamentalism? Are Cincinnati Police officers, thanks to material donated by Heimlich and Daly, thinking of themselves as ordained by god “to carry out his will in matters of justice”? Is that the kind of thinking we should instill in the minds of our officers? Is that really our City’s collected definition of “character”?
Ken Blackwell is also tied up in this cult of character. He has these statements posted on his webpage, and last year he spoke at the Character Conference.
Not that anyone should have a problem with the concept of “character” generally, but as demonstrated by Talvi’s article from In These Times, this is not a program which uses “character” in the general sense. In fact, based on the following description from Talvi’s article, it sounds like these people want to take gender roles back a few centuries:
Decorated in a faux-Victorian style, the lobby is spotless and dust-free, complete with displays of fake flowers in vases, rows of couches and psalm-quilted pillows. Low-level classical and hymnal music is piped in, but there are no television sets, radios or wall clocks to be seen. A busy group of young, unadorned women in ankle-length tan skirts, flats and dark polo shirts—and their adolescent male counterparts in pressed shirts and slacks—seem to make sure that everything runs on schedule. It doesn’t take long to notice that the female roles are rigidly secretarial and/or service-oriented.
Then there’s this passage: “According to Gothard’s interpretation, first century Roman Centurions were admirable figures of authority who followed their orders without question…”
Phil Heimlich has been involved in real estate business ventures with local attorney Chris Finney and Jeff Eichorn, Director of Public Relations for Jim Petro’s office. The name of their company? The Three Centurions. In a strange business move, ownership of the LLC was recently transferred to their wives. (Perhaps they took a cue from Tom Brinkman and Curry Printing, LLC.)
I mention this because it raises some questions about the so-called “character” of those involved in this character movement locally. For example, Phil Heimlich has overturned the will of the voters and revoked the Drake Tax Levy. He has appointed his business partner Chris Finney to influential positions—like on the Drake board and the Tax Levy Review Board. Their recent actions haves saved the average Hamilton County property owner about twenty bucks annually. Does that number increase for property owners who are not average—like those who may have real estate businesses?
Whatever the case, we need to pay more attention when our local policy-makers are plugged into such controversial groups. It may sound like one thing to hear news of “Character Cities”—but most people’s concept of “character” does not include outdated gender roles and teaching police officers that they are enacting the role of Jesus.
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