Ohio Church Promises to "Make America Great Again," Sends Creepy Mailers to Locals

     On Flag Day of this year, I posted a picture on Facebook of a church flying a flag upside down, a political statement used by Trump supporters to decry Trump's conviction on 34 felony charges for falsifying business records after paying hush money to a porn star he had sex with while his wife, Melania, was pregnant with their son, Barron. I was sadly used to political statements of this kind being made by the religious right in America, modern-day "conservatives" that former party legends like Barry Goldwater warned America against. I figured that was the end of it, just another church making a political statement while claiming tax-exempt status from the government.

     A series of messages I got from anonymous sources and some more digging uncovered a disturbing pattern by the Liberty Valley Church in Northfield, Ohio, that throws into serious doubt its status as a church. At the head of this organization is Pastor Jeff Tauring, and the upside down American flag isn't the only political flag this hack flies, proudly displaying a yellow Gadsden flag at the same height as the American flag he would go on to disrespect again and again. 

     Tauring is a graduate of the Heritage Baptist Institute. Any time the word "heritage" is in the name of an organization, it should be a giveaway as to what they stand for. It is the Heritage Foundation that is under fire after calling for a "bloodless revolution... if the left allows it" and for calling for the criminalization of "recreational sex" in the same week. Tauring calls himself a "student of the American Revolution" in his church bio.

     His values, of course, are right out of the 1700s. In January 2022, Tauring spoke before the Hudson, Ohio, Board of Education to oppose Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. In February 2022, Tauring, who flies an Israeli flag in front of his church, organized a mob that intimidated Casey Weinstein, a Democrat and one of only two Jews in the Ohio House. The mob, Tauring would explain to the news, was there in opposition to vaccine mandates and compared the mandates to the Holocaust and the Biden administration to Nazi Germany. Dozens of men and women calling themselves "Christian veterans" surrounded the home and began photographing and videotaping Weinstein's home as well as his wife and children.

     The reviews on the church are telling. One reviewer gave the church a three-star review and said there was clearly a "political slant" to the sermons. That is the understatement of the century. In 2022, the "church" sent a disturbing mailer to residents whether they went there or not. The mailer contained an image of Thomas Paine on one side and a man in a Guy Fawkes mask on the other. The mailer has no reference to Christianity and instead spends two paragraphs attacking Walmart, attacks China for coronavirus, says the Lincoln Project attacks Trump because of the tariffs he placed on China, and finishes off by spreading COVID vaccine conspiracy theories. 

     The mailer in question is depicted above. The rot in Northeast Ohio goes so much deeper, and I promise this is only the first of many articles to come on this topic. For now, we can't sit idly by and allow the likes of Jeff Tauring to get away with this. To submit a complaint to the IRS related to tax exempt status, click here. To leave a Google review, click here.

     This isn't about a pastor who also happens to have despicable views; it's about a pastor actively using his "church" to promote partisan politics and infect Ohio with wild conspiracy theories. Tauring's Independence Day celebration message describes the commencement of a campaign to "Make America Great Again." I didn't add the capitalization to that line. Jeff Tauring needs to be stopped.