Telling Time in Ellaville

The clock tower on the Schley County courthouse in Ellaville, Georgia, population 1,770, is leaning precariously. But in Lois Theiss' ink drawing of the courthouse, prints of which sell for $10, the tower stands straight and tall. To Lois and Dave Theiss, America is a lot like the clock tower: tilting dangerously to the left, about to fall over. And they want to set it straight.

Dave, a high school graduate and 37-year-old contractor, is the new chair of his county's Republican Party and the county coordinator for Pat Robertson's presidential campaign. Dave has politics in his blood now, and he's thinking of running for Congress.

Lois, 41, is a college graduate who works in the home as an artist and an aspiring writer of historical novels. But she spends most of her time "home schooling" the couple's three children, a 12-year-old daughter and two sons, ages 11 and 8.

The Theisses live in a big, old house in Ellaville, about 17 miles north of Plains and 15 miles northeast of Americus, where Sunday afternoons are quiet and restful. The family has returned from worship at its charismatic Methodist church, "where just about everybody is for Pat Robertson," and eaten a good, home-cooked meal. Talking politics on the Lord's day seems like a natural thing to do.

The main reason Lois supports Robertson for president is "Pat's basic theme of morality," she says. "The basic tenets of the Judeo-Christian ethic will give everybody freedom -- homosexuals, too." Asked to explain what those basic tenets are, Lois answers, "Old-fashioned morality: You marry one person, have fidelity in marriage, no premarital sex, integrity. Back to when people had convictions and lived by them instead of 'anything goes.'"

Homosexuality and AIDS seem to be issues of great concern to Lois and Dave. "Homosexuals don't care about giving people AIDS; they just want their freedom. If homosexuals are a threat to me, I want the government to protect me," Lois says. Asked if they are suggesting that persons with AIDS be quarantined, Dave says, "Yes, if they refuse to abide by a certain set of rules ..."

The Theisses have home-schooled their children for two years now because "they weren't learning to read" in the public schools. "I had to teach them at home anyway," Lois says. But Lois and Dave were also concerned about what their children were learning in the public schools.

"They took God out of the public schools and put humanism in. That's a godless religion," Lois says. "I looked at some of the reading books, and I was appalled," she continues. "They had poems about death and the devil. There was no sunny, happy, family stuff. It was morbid. That was the final straw for me. I took my kids out ...

"I am opposed to the idea that children belong to the state. The state should make them good citizens, but they belong to the parents ... I don't support forcing someone to pray [in school]. I teach our kids both sides [creationism and evolution]. But the public schools just teach one side. They're anti-God, anti-Christian," Lois says.

THE THEISSES HAVE even harsher words for communism and "one-worlders" such as the Council for Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. Lois' father is a Cuban evangelist who was forced to leave his country after "the communists took over. Communism is godless," Lois says. "I don't care what Billy Graham says. Christians don't have freedom in communist countries."

Dave believes the Reagan administration has made a huge mistake in trying to negotiate arms reduction treaties with the Soviet Union. "We're depending on the word of two mass murderers: Castro and Gorbachev," he says. "And this lending them money, trading with them, giving them technology ... We're doing what Lenin said we would do: giving them the rope to hang us with.

"The Bible says that in the end times they'll cry, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace," he says.

According to Dave, U.S. support for the Nicaraguan contras is a matter of stopping the Soviet Union in the region and defending the United States from communist domination. "If El Salvador falls, then Guatemala and Mexico, we're going to be overrun. They'll defeat us with refugees easier than guns."

The Theisses are also concerned about the welfare system. "We have a class of people that is dependent on the government," Dave says. "We have to wean them away from that." Dave supports lowering the minimum wage, increasing tax deductions for families, and drastically cutting the welfare rolls. "Now we encourage teenage girls to get pregnant and get on welfare," he says. "We are subsidizing unwed pregnancies ... We've decimated black families with our welfare policies ... We need to encourage strong families, but we're forcing them to break up. Poverty is like anything else: If you subsidize it, you'll get more of it."

In general, the Theisses are for less government involvement in everything. If Dave had his way, he would do away with income taxes and federal involvement in local schools. Asked about federally forced desegregation of public schools, the Theisses say, "It would have been better to let local communities deal with that."

Pat Robertson offers them great hope, but they know that everyone doesn't feel that way about the former television evangelist. "We've heard some people say that the thought of Pat Robertson as president scares them," Lois says. "Does he scare you?"

Vicki Kemper was news editor of Sojourners when this article appeared.