{"id":200,"date":"2007-12-27T09:15:37","date_gmt":"2007-12-27T09:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godometer\/2007\/12\/thompson-overstates-methodist.html"},"modified":"2007-12-27T09:15:37","modified_gmt":"2007-12-27T09:15:37","slug":"thompson-overstates-methodist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2007\/12\/thompson-overstates-methodist.html","title":{"rendered":"Thompson Overstates Methodist Endorsement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"thompson3.jpg\"God-o-Meter just stumbled on this story<\/a> from last week about Fred Thompson overstating his conservative Christian support by inflating the heft of a group called the Wesleyan Center for Strategic Studies (whose web site now appears to be down). God-o-Meter had raised questions about the group<\/a> earlier this month, after the Thompson campaign emailed an ABC News report<\/a> about its support for Thompson headlined “Thompson Rallies Conservative Christians.” Turns out the group speaks for virtually no one and doesn’t even have the Washington, DC headquarters it claimed to. Here’s what The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s<\/em> Bible Belt Blogger<\/a> learned about it:<\/p>\n

The religious leaders who endorsed Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson on Friday in Jackson, Miss., represent a group closer to the size of West Memphis,Ark. not the state of California, as the former U.S. senator claimed, one of the ministers said Monday.
\nStanding beside the Rev. Phillip Knight and the Rev. Benny Tate, the respective president and vice president of the Congregational Methodist Church, Thompson said Friday, \u201cI am honored and blessed to receive the endorsement of these two men who represent 40 million people around the nation from 42 different Wesleyan denominations.\u201d
\nThe endorsement \u2014 and the 40 million figure \u2014 made the news this weekend and ended up in a Time magazine online article Monday.
\nBut Knight and Tate never have been elected to lead the nation\u2019s Wesleyans and Methodists, who number only 14.2 million, according to the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey. And the Congregational Methodist denomination, based in Florence, Miss., has only 26,000-27,000 members, Knight said in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Monday.
\nJeff Sadosky, a spokesman for the Thompson campaign, said he couldn\u2019t say whether Thompson was accurate when he claimed the men represented 40 million people.
\n\u201cI\u2019m not a religion expert,\u201d Sadosky said. \u201cThe numbers we used came from conversations with them.\u201d
\nKnight conceded Monday that there aren\u2019t 40 million Wesleyans and Methodists in the United States. Methodists and Wesleyans trace their spiritual roots to John Wesley, the 18th century Anglican preacher who founded the Methodist movement.
\nIn 2006, Knight and Tate founded the Wesleyan Center for Strategic Studies. The organization has a Washington phone number, which was answered by Knight on Monday, and a Washington post office box.
\nThe group\u2019s Web site, www.vchurches.com\/wcss\/, and blog are devoted primarily to promoting Thompson\u2019s presidential candidacy.
\nThe Web site also claims that the group has an office in the nation\u2019s capital.
\nKnight told the Democrat-Gazette that the center has at least three employees.
\nHe also reiterated, \u201cWe have an office primarily in Washington, D.C.\u201d
\nWhen pressed for the address of the office, Knight said the center doesn\u2019t actually have its own office, but that a group called American Values loans the center space when members travel to the capital.
\nAmerican Values, based in Shirlington, Va., is headed by former GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer, who hasn\u2019t publicly endorsed any of the Republican candidates.
\nIn an interview, Bauer confirmed he has offered to rent permanent office space to the founder of the Wesleyan center, but said that no deal has been formalized.
\nBauer said he also has offered to let the center borrow space, but that he hasn\u2019t seen anyone from the group in a couple of months.
\nTate couldn\u2019t be reached for comment Monday. A secretary at his church, Rock Springs Church in Milner, Ga., said she didn\u2019t have any information on the Wesleyan Center for Strategic Studies.
\n\u201cNo sir,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve never even heard of that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God-o-Meter is glad to learn it’s not the only one.<\/p>\n


\n4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God-o-Meter just stumbled on this story from last week about Fred Thompson overstating his conservative Christian support by inflating the heft of a group called the Wesleyan Center for Strategic Studies (whose web site now appears to be down). God-o-Meter had raised questions about the group earlier this month, after the Thompson campaign emailed an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fred-thompson"],"yoast_head":"\nThompson Overstates Methodist Endorsement - God-O-Meter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2007\/12\/thompson-overstates-methodist.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thompson Overstates Methodist Endorsement - God-O-Meter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"God-o-Meter just stumbled on this story from last week about Fred Thompson overstating his conservative Christian support by inflating the heft of a group called the Wesleyan Center for Strategic Studies (whose web site now appears to be down). 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