The Right Reverend Harris Himes
by Rebecca Schmitz
If you want to know why I will never vote for a Republican, or why I loathe the Religious Right, you don’t need to look any farther than this:
The Rev. Harris Himes, pastor of Big Sky Christian Center in Hamilton, said this election was an important one for Christians. Since Republicans support the sanctity of life and marriage and “recognizing that any Democrat is entirely against those principles, there’s no way any Christian can sit out this election,” Himes said. By not supporting Republicans in the election, “you will do something absolutely that God abhors,” he said.
Pardon my French, but how has this asshat been able to keep his tax-exempt status for so long? Does anyone want to start taking a drive down the Bitterroot on Sunday mornings with me to document Himes’ political activity within the walls of the Big Sky Christian Republican Center?
Maybe we could pick up some brioche and coffee from Le Petit on the way. Lord knows I’ll need the calming influence of delicious pastry just to sit through the sermon.
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4&20 blackbirds 
February 6, 2008 at 12:20 pm
IRS publication/form Number 3949-A. Available online.
October 23, 2014 at 1:21 pm
if anyone needs to fill out a form 3949-A, I found a blank form here http://goo.gl/OFn5pb.
February 6, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Do you want to drive, or shall I?
February 6, 2008 at 12:33 pm
in what way do repukes support “the sanctity of life?”
…by torturing and murdering iraqi children? by starving, freezing, etc… american children whose mothers were forced to bear them, because abortions were no longer affordable/available to them? by allowing american children to be tortured and murdered in so-called bootcamps?
my my. what would their culture-hero, jesus, say?
February 6, 2008 at 1:04 pm
“in what way do repukes support…”
Typical “hate america first” vituperation from the loathsome on the left. Seems that Republicans, Rebecca, have no lock on idiocy.
Rebecca, before you think the establishmentarians, the Christian Reconstructionists, like the theocrat you quoted, are Republicans, you might note the aversion that little jimmie dobson and the other leaders of the theocracy now! movement have for even pro choice candidates like John McCain.
If a candidate isn’t trying to turn this into a theocracy, vowing to make the constitution into “gods document”, they just aren’t going to support a republican or democrat.
I saw a lot of theocratic support for Ron Paul over the last few weeks. I’m sure his old pal Gary North approves. Who really thinks those Ron Paul supporters are going to vote for John McCain, if he becomes the Republican nominee?
No, your aversion to Republicans is misplaced, ma’am.
I’ve never been one to swear allegiance to Gaia the earth mother, worship at the altar of the noble primitive, or the god of government, so my admittance into the democratic party is unlikely as well. Let’s not forget the theocracy of the far left: praise government from whom all blessings flow.
February 6, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Thanks for defining for us what it is to be a Democrat, goof. Too bad you got it dead wrong.
Yes, Democrats aren’t averse to providing a solution to a problem that involves government. That is, we’re pratical, not ideologues. And certainly we have faith in representative government; that’s why we demand good representation.
So while we’re busy trying to wrest government back into the hands of the people, Republicans seem content with the way the system is working. You see it in the way you all laud Conrad Burns. It doesn’t matter that the guy was an eager participant in a loathesome system: he’s your man! It seems it’s more important that your party “wins” than it is we get good government.
That explains the GOP’s approval ratings.
Good luck with that and your inane habit of equating criticism of failed government with treason. If you truly loved America, as you seem to claim, you wouldn’t stand by as members of your preferred political party game the system, start unwanted and undeclared wars, violate the constitution, trash the economy, run up the deficeit, and torture. And you’d be pissed off at the hypocrisy emanating from creeps like the Rev. Himes.
February 19, 2011 at 6:34 pm
“That explains the GOP’s approval ratings.”
Some comments hold up better than others. The GOP approval ratings last election were darn good, due to the excesses of the Democrats in Congress particularly. Now, the GOP/Tea Party/Constitutionalist excesses are going to swing the pendulum the other way.
It’s the primary system, imo, that elects the most radical of each party. It’s time for open primaries that send the top three off to the general.
February 19, 2011 at 7:39 pm
or easier recall election rules.
February 19, 2011 at 10:32 pm
pb, by the time we got to recall a legislator, the session would be over. and i’m not a fan of term limits either.
it’s the one suggestion i have that might make a difference, don’t know if it has unintended bad consequences.
but if nobody here is willing to give it a shot, then either come up with their own plan, or live with an ever worsening spiral of extremism
February 19, 2011 at 11:36 pm
i don’t like term limits either goof. witness the total lack of personal relationships between reasonable members of both parties.
before term limits, statesmanship or stateswomanship was fostered by senior legislators who knew each other well. they kept things in line.
what we have now is a back and forth dysfunction masquerading as governance. everyone is looking for a political advantage while seemingly no one is watching out for the good of the state or its people. it is anything goes, no holds barred, survival of the fittest jungle rules in helena. not a very cerebral or evolved environment in which to make laws.
February 6, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Goof, you and I know Republicans are the ones who actively court the votes and encourge the behavior of Himes’ and his ilk. The GOP is entirely culpable in the rise of the Religious Right since the 70s. Without its superb political organization, I doubt Pat Robertson would be enough of a household name to lend important support to a (now failed) presidental campaign.
There is no way I’ll ever vote for a politician who feels himself at home in the same party as Harris Himes.
February 6, 2008 at 3:28 pm
There is no way I’ll ever vote for a politician who feels himself at home in the same party as Harris Himes, er, Jay Stevens.
See how that works?
Not very well, imo.
February 6, 2008 at 3:38 pm
There’s a pretty big problem with your analogy, goof. Harris Himes is violating the laws of man (and God) with the consent and best wishes of the Republican party machinery. To the best of anyone’s knowledge, Jay Stevens is violating neither.
February 6, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Sure, as soon as I start trading favors to preserve sex slavery, feel free to throw me to the wolves.
February 6, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Zing!
February 6, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Jay Stevens hasn’t ever violated the laws of god or man? Wow!
I guess we know what the “J” stands for, eh? Jay-zuss C Stevens?
I think the analogy works. I see the same hyperbole of hatred as the other fellow.
February 6, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Here’s the difference, Goof: as far as I know, whatever Jay does in his private life or whatever he says (as per his First Amendment rights), he’s not counting on his political clout and alliance with the Democratic Party to protect him when and if he runs afoul of U.S. law.
Right now, if you listen to the politicians, we’re fighting a war against religious fundamentalism abroad; against people who want to usurp democracy and the rule of law in favor of the rule of primitive superstition. And yet, there’s one political party at home that courts people with the same impulse: to take away our rights in favor of
ShariaBiblical law.I think you know there’s a world of difference between, as you call it, the “theocracy of the far left” and people like Harris Himes. The left wants more of your tax dollars. The right, on the other hand, wants to control your mind and body. Which is worse?
On second thought, don’t answer that. I don’t want to know you value the almighty dollar over a single one of your brain cells.
February 6, 2008 at 9:39 pm
“A lot of so-called conservatives don’t know what the word means. They think I’ve turned liberal because I believe a woman has a right to an abortion. That’s a decision that’s up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the Religious Right.”
Barry Goldwater, who, last time I checked, was not only republican, but the father of the modern conservative wing of the party.
February 6, 2008 at 9:52 pm
I think if Barry was around today (okay, and a lot younger) he’d be a Libertarian by now.
February 6, 2008 at 10:02 pm
It could be said, as is was said of Thomas Jefferson, the deist, “he would not be considered a suitable candidate” by either party today.
February 6, 2008 at 10:06 pm
The thing is, Rebecca, one must pick a viable party if one wants to play the game. Libertarian ain’t one of them.
Goldwater would be a Republican. He certainly wouldn’t be a “true progressive”; he’d be a “republipuke”.
February 6, 2008 at 10:22 pm
The left wants more than my dollars. I’ve fought the indoctrination from the left every day my sons came home from public school.
They want control of choice just as surely as the religious right. Just different choices. I don’t have to guess about it, Rebecca. I was a democrat, once.
The right of a woman to choose is a basic Lockean property right. It’s a very conservative idea, as Barry says.
The theocrats believe government gets its powers from god. The far left thinks government IS god. Both advocate a top down morality that is required because the individual is incapable of what they see as righteousness. (None are righteous, no, not one), (it’s for the good of the whole). Neither is correct.
“to protect these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed”. Now, that’s American!
February 7, 2008 at 7:25 am
You really think Barry would have survived the George W. Bush years with his Republican credentials intact? I’ll bet that by now he would have been slandered from pillar to post by Limbaugh, Hannity, and the rest of the retards on talk radio as a liberal turncoat, just like what’s happening to John McCain now.
The first vote Goldwater cast against a “partial-birth abortion” ban, or the first time he spoke out against our misadventure in Iraq, James Dobson and Karl Rove would be handing out knives on the steps of the US Capitol. GOP rivals would step forward during the next primary election and claim he betrayed party principles.
I think Republicans, as much as they love to invoke the memory of Barry Goldwater, would push him out of the party today.
February 7, 2008 at 9:47 am
The far left thinks government IS god.
Exactly who is the “far left” that has any voice in either party right now? I consider myself far left, there isn’t anyone in government right now saying much on my behalf, and I certainly don’t believe government is god. That is a ridiculous statement.
February 7, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I like Harris. He’s actually a lot more reasonable than you’d think. Evangelicals tend to get carried away with their prophesying, though, which kind of goes with the territory.
And goof, I hate to break it to you but McCain is supposed to be prolife, though he blows hot and cold on it according to the interest group ratings.
February 7, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Sorry, Carol, but his quest to ban various books in the Ravalli County school system makes him anything but reasonable to me. You simply don’t do that in a civilized society.
February 7, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Yes, I misstyped. John McCain is definitely pro life. I meant “even a pro life candidate like John McCain” which makes my point more succinctly.
Thanks for the correction Carol. When even a pro life candidate like McCain isn’t sufficiently obsequious to the Pope and the Pentacostals to get their support, we are seeing the republican bus being hijacked and driven into a ditch.
Rick Majerus’ situation compounded to the President of the United States.
February 7, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I have to agree with chrislatray here.
The far left, which is far lefter than b’birds and LiTW’ers tend to be, among other tendencies is anarchistic and atheistic (or non-monotheistic). Many hold their noses if they walk far enough to the right to see if what the now “traditional left” offers is compelling enough to draw them back into the fray.
I just have to laugh when a republican tries to pass off the left as worshippers of government as god. Those on the far left wish for revolution or for the current system of government and economics to fail, so as to be replaced with something more enlightened (time to break out the flame retardant).
February 7, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I think it’s a sign of just how far to the right our national discussion has moved.
February 11, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Goof, yer a fruitcake. I don’t even recognize this “left” you describe. It’s like some monster out of a sci-fi picture, a scary monster in your closet. I think you listen to too much talk radio, dude.
Of course Goldwater was a fruitcake, too. So you have that in common.
July 27, 2008 at 2:00 am
I applaud Reverend Himes and his commitment to decency and life values. Sorry I don’t support sucking a babies organs through its skull so someone who chose to have sex could escape the responsibility of caring for the human life.
How perfect that you would stop to pick up your latte on the way to view Rev Himes church. No doubt you will chase it with a decaf joint. ;)
November 11, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Link, please. Yours goes nowhere, and I’d like to see it.
February 19, 2011 at 5:47 pm
After seeing that video, I’d like to toss the Rev. a gun and tell him I’m gay…do what gODD tells you to do Rev….otherwise sit down and shut up.
February 19, 2011 at 6:14 pm
That fruitcake goof, always representin the Goldwater wing, but then, according to Jay, Barry was a nut, too.
Seeing what is happening in Montana, and in Wisconsin, it’s still that case that I don’t admire a single thing the radicals of either right or left are up to.
Whichever party learns to stay out of my bedroom and my wallet will get my vote.
February 19, 2011 at 6:17 pm
Oh, and Himes and his “hommahsekshuls will surely die” is as surely an advocate of Sharia law as the most radical Imam on the planet.