Jody Hice, a former Southern Baptist pastor and former U.S. representative from Georgia who sought to overturn the 2020 election results, is the public face of a new campaign promoting “election integrity.”
“There is perhaps no greater endeavor that is more fundamental for the perseveration of our Republic than preserving the integrity of our elections,” says Hice, president of the conservative Christian political group FRC Action, in his new book, Sacred Trust: Election Integrity and the Will of the People.
FRC Action is the political lobbying arm of the Family Research Council, the activist group founded by James Dobson’s Focus on the Family 41 years ago. Hice was named president of FRCA last fall.
In 2020, Hice worked to overturn the will of the people who voted. He was one of 139 Republican members of Congress who voted to overturn election results on Jan 6, 2020. He also objected to the counting of electoral votes in Georgia.
In 2022, he ran for Georgia secretary of state but lost a primary race against incumbent Brad Raffensperger, who rejected Trump’s pleas to “find 11,780 votes.” Trump endorsed Hice in the race.
FRC’s crusade for election integrity comes at a time when Jack Burkman, a former lobbyist and political dirty trickster who worked with FRC years ago, was fined for launching a robocall campaign designed to suppress the Black vote in five states in 2020.
Hice has a solid SBC pedigree, having been pastor of two Georgia churches: Bethlehem First Baptist Church in Bethlehem (1998-2010) and The Summit Church in Loganville (2011-2013). He previously served as first vice president of the Georgia Baptist Convention.
He received a bachelor of arts degree from Asbury College, a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctor of ministry degree from Luther Rice Seminary, where he also served as a professor of preaching.
Hice has long exhibited a politicized faith. While pastor at Bethlehem First Baptist he launched a radio program, “Let Freedom Ring,” and a parallel nonprofit, LFR Ministries.
Another nonprofit he founded, Ten Commandments-Georgia, Inc., exists to “to reclaim our Godly heritage by displaying the Historical Documents of America’s Law and Government in County Courthouses and Public Buildings statewide!” Honorary board members include the “Ten Commandments” Judge Roy Moore, former Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy, and fellow former SBC pastor Rick Scarborough.
He was among the first few dozen pastors to participate in Pulpit Freedom Sunday in 2008. Launched by Focus-aligned Alliance Defending Freedom, the annual event is “designed to secure the free speech rights of pastors in the pulpit” by having pastors endorse political candidates in violation of the 1954 Johnson Amendment that bars tax-exempt charities such as churches from doing so.
Hice criticizes pastors and churches for remaining silent on politics, condemns “the lie of separation of church and state” and argues religious freedom does not apply to American Muslims.
“It’s hard to imagine a member of Congress that more fully reflects the far-right, conspiracy-embracing, Christian nationalist wing of the party than Hice.”
“It’s hard to imagine a member of Congress that more fully reflects the far-right, conspiracy-embracing, Christian nationalist wing of the party than Hice,” warns Right Wing Watch.
While in Congress, Hice sought to impeach President Joe Biden, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
FRC did not respond to a request to interview Hice. His new book was published by Humanix Books, which is part of Newsmax Media, the company behind Newsmax, the right-of-Fox cable news network.
Meanwhile, Jack Burkman, a conspiracy theorist and lobbyist who worked with FRC in 2005, finally was held accountable for an operation he and a partner ran to suppress the Black vote in 2020, a ploy they believed would help Trump prevail. The pair must pay up to $1.25 million in fines in New York.
Burkman, who runs an organization called American Decency that promotes “family values” by attacking gays, has a long history of dirty tricks targeting Democrats. He was behind claims that presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg had sexually assaulted another man and claims that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was guilty of sexual impropriety.
In 2020, Burkman targeted Black voters in New York, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois with phone calls from a fake civil rights organization that warned them against mail-in voting: “Mail-in voting sounds great, but did you know that if you vote by mail, your personal information will be part of a public database that will be used by police departments to track down old warrants and be used by credit card companies to collect outstanding debts?”
The calls also claimed personal records would be used to promote “mandatory vaccines.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the fine last Tuesday, saying, “Wohl and Burkman engaged in a disgraceful campaign to intimidate Black voters, using threats and lies to keep them from making their voices heard in an attempt to secure the election for their preferred presidential candidate.”
This article was originally published in Baptist News Global.
