Ohio students, faith leaders rally outside event that featured Project 2025 leader

People rallied outside the Greater Columbus Convention Center while inside Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts gave his keynote address. (Photo by Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal).

A few dozen college students and faith leaders rallied outside the Greater Columbus Convention Center while inside the man behind Project 2025 was giving his keynote address.

The Center for Christian Virtue hosted the first day of the Essential Summit on Thursday , with speakers including Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. CCV is listed as a hate group , according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Project 2025 is a Presidential Transition Project written by the Heritage Foundation that spells out the first 180 days in office for the next right-wing administration. Former President Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025 , but former Trump administration officials helped create the policy book, which heavily leans on Christian Nationalism values.

In response to the Essential Summit, the Ohio Student Association and the Ohio Organizing Collaborative’s Amos Project organized a rally and a press conference.

Students rally against Project 2025

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College students of faith slammed Project 2025 at the rally.

For University of Cincinnati student Chloe Freeman, being a Christian is a large part of who she is.

“Growing up Christian, I was taught that the greatest thing was love,” Freeman said. “What is happening today in that convention center is not loving. What is happening in that convention center is taking faith and capitalizing on it to create hateful and divisive policies. That is not faith. That is not what Jesus wanted.”

As a person of faith, Ohio State University student Eloni McClain said one of her most important duties is to love thy neighbor.

“I urge the Heritage Foundation to separate their hateful rhetoric from Christian ideals,” McClain said.

Michelle Stanley, a Kent State University student, called Project 2025 a blueprint for authoritarian control of the government.

“This extremist plan seeks to strip away our freedoms and dismantle the democratic institutions that protect us,” Stanley said. “This plan will further separate schools and the workplace in our communities. … Project 2025 targets young people by eroding education.”

People held up various signs at the rally that —  Project 2025 attacks women’s rights; Jesus loves queer people; protect freedom, reject project 2025; Christians against Christian Nationalism.

Faith leaders speak out against Project 2025

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Numerous faith leaders spoke out against Project 2025 at the First Church of God on Columbus’ Southeast Side Thursday before rallying outside the Convention Center.

Faith and Freedom are under attack, said Pastor Lesley Jones, the organizing director of OOC’s Amos Project, a federation of congregations across Ohio that try to promote justice.

“Project 2025 threatens to dismantle our democracy by deconstructing government agencies, rolling back policies that protect the most vulnerable and marginalized, and blurring the lines between the practice of faith and creating public policy that ensures the well being of everyday folks,” she said. “We are concerned about the exploitation of our faith and ignoring the call of our sacred text that calls us to love God and love our neighbor.”

Church of God Bishop Timothy Clarke called Project 2025 “an aberration of the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“I do not think he would recognize what they are lifting and lording just a few miles from here, because his gospel was so different,” he said, referring to the Essential Summit happening in downtown Columbus.

Pastor Michael Harrison, of the Union Baptist Church in Youngstown who serves as the chair of the OOC, talked about how Project 2025 intersects with Christian Nationalism.

“It promotes hate, violence and discrimination,” he said. “This project is against the teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

What would Project 2025 do?

The nearly 900-page policy book would touch nearly every fabric of the executive branch.

Honesty for Ohio Education compiled a document explaining how Project 2025 would affect education and how it lines up with what is happening in Ohio, especially when it comes to creating university school vouchers.

Project 2025 would eliminate the United States Department of Education and would eliminate the Office of Head Start, which means closing Head Start child care programs that served about 833,000 low-income children in fiscal year 2022 .

Project 2025 would also, among other things, seek to reverse the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortion, and go after immigrant communities through mass deportations.

Other speakers at the two-day Essential Summit included Dr. Ben Carson, the Housing and Urban Development secretary during the Trump administration; Larry Arnn, the president of Hillsdale College (a conservative Christian college in Michigan); state Sen. Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, and state Rep. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania.

This is the first time CCV is hosting the Essential Summit, which is a precursor to Friday’s annual Ohio March for Life that is also hosted by CCV.

Ohio-based religious instruction program LifeWise Academy , which appears to have connections to the Heritage Foundation, was one of the sponsors of the Essential Summit . Westerville City Schools Board of Education, a suburban school district north of Columbus, recently rescinded their release for time policy that had allowed LifeWise to participate in the district.

Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on X.

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