GOP Chairman David McLain's
Associates Being Investigated
Fake Church? No Congregation,
No Meetings Past Five Years?
A close associate of GOP Chairman David McLain was being investigated the past few weeks by the online news outlet The Frontier. A journalist from the group contacted Sooner Tea Party a few weeks ago and we got a small mention in the article on the David McLain/City Elders controversy.
It seems that Gateway Ministries ran by Jesse Rogers, the guy that founded and heads the City Elders group, has held church property tax exemptions worth thousands of dollars per year in property tax despite not having a congregation or holding religious services for more than five years. The story points out that Roger's City Elders group has entered into a contract with OCPAC to endorse and donate to political candidates in the 2020 elections according to multiple weeks of articles by OCPAC. Churches of course are prohibited from electioneering and campaign donation raising and can lose tax exempt status.
Rogers is said to have refused to interview for the article and in fact threatened to “drag out” the reporter if he remained at a September 5th meeting the City Elders was holding. The story details a checkered past for the McLain associate, including a bitter and sordid lawsuit over ownership/control of a church in Ada that culminated in one group sneaking into the church after hours and evicting Rodger's belongings out onto the sidewalk.
The article appears to have mined Rogers' Facebook posts for statements about the group's purpose:
“The goal is to extend the network nationwide, Rodgers has said, to vet candidates for office and stand as guardians against those who do not hold a biblical worldview. In one Facebook post from May 31, Rodgers said members of the group have a “divine right” to govern based on their position as elders in God’s spiritual governing authority on earth.”
“We’ve got to get involved,” Rodgers told the OCPAC group. “Government has become the primary instrument by which the kingdom of darkness uses to take our liberties and freedoms away. And so, enough.”
“City Elders is about “men and women who have come to the stature and level of maturity that they can lock arms with brothers and sisters in a county seat and say ‘we’re not going to allow someone who has a perverse worldview or not a biblical worldview ascend to a position of authority in government,” Rodgers said at the August OCPAC meeting. “We’re going to vet them before they get into office. You can say ‘is that the role of the church?’ You bet that’s the role of the church.”.
The article lays out exactly why GOP Chairman David McLain should be forced to resign from the City Elder's board of directors. Many Christians will find the group offensive as will most moderate both Independent and Republican.
Other City Elder board members have drawn attention including one that is on multiple marriages all the while preaching Christian values to others for a living.
