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Health & Fitness

GOP Senate Candidate Patrick Hall—Building Community?

My way or the highway? 105 years for this congregation...in just a few years Pat Hall had the congregation divided.

In the Sun-ThisWeek there was an interesting article about the local Senate District 57 GOP Candidate, Pat Hall.

He was endorsed by the local GOP and claims conservative credentials...but he said some interesting things:

One of them pertains to his background...

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Part of that surprise for the political newcomer might be because the Apple Valley resident says he won’t forget where he came from – a government-subsidized housing project in Minneapolis.

When he says he won't forget does that mean he will support government subsidized housing? Will his party accept that?

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Serving as a “voice for the impoverished” in the party not known for having such a voice, according to Hall...

I'd like to know what he means by that....and I would think his party would like to know as well.

But he goes on....

“I am passionate about these things,” said Hall, who is running against former longtime Rosemount High School principal and DFL candidate Greg Clausen. “I’m not your typical Republican. I am a critical thinker. I think that’s what people want.”

When he says "critical thinker", does he emphasize the "think" part or the "critic" part? If he really means what he is saying, then that is not your typical Republican. But...and that's a big but....does he mean it?

More mystery....

Hall said he would like to see some of the social programs that operate based on income, rather be based on a timeline, so people can rebuild their lives. He said cutting people off assistance when they get a job and exceed a particular program’s income guideline does a disservice to them.

Timeline? Please explain, Dr. Hall. And will he actually buck his party on assistance programs? What he is saying does not adhere to his party's leadership.

I am not sure we will get full explanations about this but maybe it helps to examine some of the things he has done in the past. He talks about the '90's.....

He is a former pastor starting in 1991 of what was then known as St. John’s Lutheran Church in Rosemount. He recalls one of the largest events in the south metro at the time was the church’s Celebration Athletic Games, which averaged about 1,500 participants annually. The all-sports clinic gave every child a chance to participate, no matter their financial state, and awarded them for their efforts. It’s events like this that Hall says helps build community. He hopes to bring that same kind of spirit to the state Capitol.

He lists this as part of his biographical information. I put the last two sentences in bold because building a sense of community is important to note. Just a few years later in 1994 and 1995, his sense of community was much different.

Here are some quotes from an article from the Pioneer Press Aug. 7, 1994:

The Rev. Pat Hall has a 4-foot-tall suit of armor propped in the corner of his office at St. John's Lutheran Church in Rosemount. It's a uniform he ought to wear instead of his liturgical robes.

During two years of conflict in his 1,500-member congregation, Hall has been kicked in the shins on Sunday morning. One of his council members was hit with a cane, and numerous people have refused to shake Hall's hand as he greeted parishioners after worship.

When Hall offered to shake one man's hand, the man slapped it away as he uttered an expletive that cannot be repeated in a family newspaper.

The conflict persists even though most of the disgruntled members now worship at other churches....

Interesting sense of community. But it got worse....

But now Hall, 40, faces another crisis. Bishop Lowell Erdahl of the St. Paul Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has joined the fray. Erdahl has ordered the congregation to repeat last January's annual meeting and vote again on resolutions about the congregation's constitution.

The bishop and his synod council also have ordered the church to reinstate about 60 disaffected parishioners who were removed from the congregation's voting membership roster five days before the annual meeting.

Erdahl has told Hall and his church council that if they do not comply with his order by October, he will bring legal action against them or discipline the congregation. If Erdahl disciplines St. John's, it would be only the third time an ELCA congregation has been disciplined. 

The congregation would not comply and the ELCA Bishop was frustrated. And a lot of his frustration was with Hall....

`We've tried to be very supportive of Pat Hall,'' Erdahl said. ``He's a likable, pleasant guy with lots of gifts. I've bent over backward to work with them. But not all conflict is caused by change. There are all kinds of factors - tactfulness, anger and bonding with the people.''

Pat Hall responded....

Hall admits his approach to change is "revolution not evolution.'' And he has a full agenda of transformations he wants to bring about - contemporary worship, a leaner church council, scaled down confirmation classes, neighborhood evangelism and the creation of an open and friendly membership.

He moved quickly on all those issues, and within three months of his arrival parishioners were complaining to Erdahl. The 105-year-old congregation was immediately enflamed.

My way or the highway? 105 years for this congregation...in just a few years Hall had the congregation divided.

But there is another point to make...

Hall and Erdahl agree that at this point, the narrow issue in the dispute is over the decision to remove about 60 people from the list of voting members. That was accomplished by checking the records and discovering which members in the past six months had received holy communion at least once, contributed money and participated in the life and worship of the congregation.

Hall and his staff and council wanted to remove the disgruntled members so they could not participate in the vote. But they say they also wanted to be fair. So they went through the records member by member and considered each person's situation, whether they had been homebound with illness, for instance. The list was posted at the entrance to the church.

Hmmmm....sound likes a miniature Voter ID method. Don't like the way they are going to vote, remove them. Using the word "fair" was a little ironic. They checked the records but still made their own arbitrary decision as to whom to remove.

So what is Pat Hall's sense of "community." I would like to know what his real definition looks like. Now I doubt anybody will pay much attention to these questions, but when I saw that article in the Sun-This Week, it just seemed like more context was needed.

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