Welcome to Paul Blair’s world. The 48-year-old Blair (left), pastor of the Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, Oklahoma, is a small business owner, husband, and father, and a former offensive lineman for the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings. He played his college ball for the Oklahoma State Cowboys and recently declared himself a Republican candidate for the Oklahoma state Senate, District 41.
Blair (who has been previously interviewed in The New American) offered in a campaign flier one reason for his decision to run for public office: “We must stop the overreach of the federal government. We must stop the crippling debt that is crushing our nation.”
The incumbent — and Blair’s opponent — is attorney Clark Jolley, age 41, who was first elected to the state Senate in 2004 and was appointed chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee last month. The Oklahoma Constitution, an established newspaper that champions limited government and free enterprise, but disapproves of taxpayer subsidies for big business, gave Jolley a score of 80 out of 100 in 2011, based on his record on 10 key votes. Jolley has a cumulative score (averaged from previous years) of 66.
While not naming the incumbent, Blair made a pointed complaint to his hometown newspaper, the Edmond Sun: “Having observed the actions of our state Legislature; it is apparent that we need real people with real ideas and not politicians playing party politics to represent our community using their current elected position in an attempt to catapult themselves to a higher office.”
Charlie Meadows, a close friend of Blair and the founder of the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee, believes he will be a formidable candidate. “Paul grew up in Edmond. He’s very popular.” says Meadows. “He’s an outspoken leader in the culture wars.”
That outspokenness was on display this past November 15, when Blair testified at an Oklahoma City city council meeting against a policy to add the category of sexual orientation to the city’s equal employment protections.
During the packed, emotionally charged city council meeting, Blair echoed the sentiments of many in the audience when he asked, “Why are we creating a special class of protection for someone’s behavior? We’re not talking about civil rights. This is not a gender; this is not a race. This is protecting someone’s behavior.” (See the video of his remarks at the end of this article.)
The measure passed by a vote of 7-2, indicating that the OKC public officials are eager to show themselves as GLBT-friendly to employees and future hires. Clearly, Blair and his supporters in the conservative Reclaiming Oklahoma for Christ movement (of which he is a leader) have their work cut out for them, despite living in the "reddest" state in the nation. And as Blair found out, persecution can occur even in the buckle of the Bible Belt.
In an eerie coincidence, on November 16, a day after the city council meeting, an increasingly unhinged-sounding caller made 13 threatening and obscene calls to the Fairview Baptist Church office. One message: “I have committed homicide more than one time and in more than one state — and yet have not been caught or charged.”
Another threat was directed at the pastor’s spouse, Cindy: “I wanna **** his wife. I’m gonna **** Mr. Blair’s wife.”
Church secretary Sue Sangster, the first to hear the voice mails, became very “concerned” for the welfare of those on the church grounds. (Fairview Baptist also operates a small school.) Blair dubbed the threats as a “potential act of domestic terrorism.” Local law enforcement were contacted and a suspect has since been identified.
Glynda Chu, a spokesperson for the Edmond Police Department, told The New American, in an email: “This week we filed out-of-custody charges with the DA’s office on 43-year-old David Moxley of Oklahoma City. He is facing charges of one count of making a bomb threat, one count of threatening phone calls, and one count of obscene phone calls. It will be up to the DA to decide what charges he will face from the charges we have presented. At that time a warrant will be issued for Mr. Moxley, and he will either turn himself in or be arrested.”
Despite the jarring incident, Fairview Baptist congregants have been praying for the perpetrator, while Blair, ever on the offensive, called out the national mainstream media for their lukewarm interest in reporting about this attack on Christians.
As he told Colorado’s Greeley Gazette, “If I would have left these types of threats on the voicemail of the local ‘gay’ alliance, I would have been in jail before sundown. It would have been on the front page of the New York Times and lead story of CNN.”
Blair — and his congregation — won’t be slowed down. Fairview Baptist’s members gave him a long standing ovation when he publicly informed them of his decision to become a state Senate candidate.
It’s clear that in Paul Blair’s world, politics isn’t a spectator sport.
Photo: Pastor Paul Blair
Isabel Lyman blogs at http://thecastillochronicles.blogspot.com. She is a former resident of Edmond, Oklahoma.
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Pastor Paul Blair on Aunt Bee, CSI & Football
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