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5 Comments

1. Carrie Mckenzie:

   Geez, I did not realize that as a Catholic I was a Satanist as well! Somebody better tell God about that!

2. Jim McGuigan:

   To provide a bit of perspective here, in a conservative blog called, Boots and Sabers, its owner Owen Robinson took some interesting approach to the Reynolds printing issue. Owen says:

   …this is Reynolds’ business. He is a printer. He is not responsible for the content of what he prints. He didn’t write it. He was paid to print it.

   Second, is the blogger advocating that printers censor material that they find objectionable? This would quickly lead to an unemployed printer.
   

   No Owen, Watchdog Milwaukee is not suggesting that printers censor materials — we are suggesting that community leaders like Senator Reynolds ought to lead by example and say no to hate groups like Wisconsin Christians United. I don’t think there’s any fear of Reynolds becoming an unemployed printer. If the Senator wants to put a few extra dollars in his pocket by printing for a hate group, it would make more sense for him to be an unemployed ex-politician.

   But words of wisdom dropped from the heavens as one of his visitors known simply as “Patrick” had this insightful response:

   A couple of points about Tom Reynolds and the “Wisconsin Christians Union” (which, by the way, might have ceased to exist–the web site has disappeared).

   1) This organization was founded by “Pastor” Ralph Ovadal, founder of WCU and head of the Pilgrims Covenant Church. To my knowledge, no established church ordained him–he is, I believe, self-ordained (if that’s possible).

   2) Ovadal, to liberals, defines what would be considered an ultra-conservative, street-preaching nut-job. Conservatives, of course, may think what they wish about him. He follows Tammy Baldwin around reading Bible passages to her, calls Pope John Paul II a minister of Satan and popes in general “antichrist.”

   3) Ovadal’s connection to Reynolds is more than simply customer-vendor. Ovadal was one of the speakers and WCU the organizer at the now-infamous “International Conference on Homo-Fascism” that Reynolds attended late in 2003–a conference focused on hatred of gays and lesbians. This is the conference where Grant Storms of the Christians Conservatives for Reform in Louisiana said
   “God has delivered them [homosexuals] into our hands, Hallelujah – Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom [like gun fire] – There’s twenty! Ca-ching, glory, glory to God, let’s go drive through the McDonalds and come back and get the rest.” And a state senator was in the audience listening to this…troubling, to say the least.

   4) In an interview with the Business Journal, Reynolds made a clear statement about “church before profits.” In other words, he only prints materials for those people and causes in which he believes. To quote the article, which was based upon an extended interview with Reynolds: “In its 12 years, however, Endeavor Press has specialized in printing low-cost materials for Christian and pro-life groups and other organizations whose goals Reynolds shares.” And another fact from the article…”Reynolds’ network of Christian groups—the same groups who have backed his political campaign—has proved to be his most loyal customer base.” And finally…”The journey culminated in Mississippi in 1984, when Reynolds had a conversion experience to Christianity. From that point on, Reynolds said he dedicated himself to spreading the Christian message.
   We came back to Milwaukee and thought we’d get into printing some good literature,” he said.

   And this “GOOD LITERATURE” to which Reynolds speaks is the writing of “Pastor” Ralph Ovadal, who calls the Pope the antichrist and organizes conferences where speakers talk about killing gays.

   No, Owen, this is not a simple case of liberals trying to deny conservatives the right to make money and showing hypocritical tendencies regarding freedom of speech. Ovadal and Reynolds should be free to speak their minds in whatever manner they wish, but those who have to decide whether or not to vote for Reynolds should have the right to know more about the core beliefs of these two men. How many conservative Catholics in my senate district do you think voted for Reynolds because of his stance on abortion and other issues? Their numbers are great in my district–I’m guessing Reynolds got a lot of their votes. Little did they know that Reynolds prints “good literature” that refers to the Pope as the “antichrist.”

3. Jim McGuigan:

   Here’s one that’s just worthy of a follow up…

   At http://www.quest-online.com/NewFiles/QuestXII12.html
   the Quest website writes:

   The InStep story along with dueling AW and WCU press releases drew the attention of Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel political columnists Cary Spivak & Dan Bice, who followed up with Reynolds and confirmed his presence at the Homo Fascism conference. In their January 13, 2004 piece the columnists wrote: “ ‘It sounded interesting,’ said the West Allis senator who owns a small print shop. ‘I don’t know much about them. I do a little printing for them.’” The “little printing” included a number of WCU brochures. Some of WCU titles are “A Little Discrimination Can Be a Good Thing,” “Homosexuality: The Truth” and “Is Someone You Know A Bugger?”

   One more follow up:
   Ralph Ovadahl’s website has moved. He’s now at Pilgrims Covenant Church

   There’s a killer story dying to be written on this…if I only had the time.

4. borton:

   Paul Soglin’s done a nice job on these strange bedfellows at his waxingamerica blog;

   http://www.waxingamerica.com/2005/12/tom_reynolds_ta.html

   Barry Orton

5. Bonzo:

   You guys are missing the point… or at least a part of it.
   Reynild’s little “Printing business” is a sole proprietership. It is in a room behind reynolds home (9430 West Schlinger… PUBLIC RECORDS) and the only thing he prints is religious materials and the occasional business card for his brother. SEE THIS PAGE: http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/1996/10/14/focus1.html?page=1 .

   SO, as far as I’m concerned, HE IS RESPONSIBLE, PERSONALLY, for every bit of hate that emulates from that back room of his.