The Office of the Governor in Wisconsin has no record of communications between Gov. Scott Walker and any deities, according to the office’s legal counsel.
While it’s on the record that the governor is communicating with higher powers like billionaire and political kingmaker Sheldon Adelson, that’s where the paper trail ends.
The official denial came in response to an open records request from Edward Susterich, a Milwaukee man who is a member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Susterich’s request said:
“Since your terms as Governor, please provide a copy/transcript of all communications with God, the Lord, Christ, Jesus or any other form of deity.”
Walker, who attends a nondenominational, evangelical church and is the son of a Baptist preacher, regularly mentions his reliance on God. In January he told a group of Wisconsin bankers that he will only run for president if he felt “called” to run.
Asked later by a reporter if he was praying about the decision, Walker said he was. “Any major decision I’ve made in my life, politics or otherwise, I’ve tried to discern God’s calling on.”
In a 1990 interview with the Marquette University yearbook, he said, “I really think there’s a reason why God put all these political thoughts in my head.”
God apparently isn’t putting them on paper, however. David Rabe, assistant legal counsel for the Office of the Governor, responded on Feb. 13 to Susterich’s open records request with this: “Pursuant to the Public Records Law, we are responding to let you know that this office does not have records responsive to your request.”
Walker most recently caused a bit of a flap in London with his answer to a British journalist who asked if he was comfortable with the theory of evolution: “I’m going to punt on that one as well. That’s a question a politician shouldn’t be involved in one way or another.”
Some skeptics think he dodged the question either because he doesn’t give credence to the theory or that he does and didn’t want to offend conservative evangelicals.
“I wish the media would press him more for details on any messages from God or about his religious beliefs that affect political decisions (abortion, birth control, same-sex marriage, end-of-life decisions, immunizations, religious exemption for parental neglect),” Susterich said in an email after receiving the response. He’s a former longtime FFRF executive board member.
In March 2014, FFRF sent a complaint letter about Walker’s tweet “Philippians 4:13” on the governor’s official Twitter account. The New Testament verse reads, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.”
In 2009, Walker told the Christian Businessmen’s Committee in Madison in 2009 that he started his “walk to Christ” when he was 13. He recalled the day he met his wife Tonette: “That night I heard Christ tell me, ‘This is the person you’re going to be with.’ “
