When Bill Jack entered the Republican primary for a Colorado state house seat in 2022, the progressive media outlet Colorado Times Recorder reported the news under the headline Hate Cake Provocateur Enters Race for Castle Rock State Rep. and the image above (the actual design Jack wanted on his cake was "two males holding hands with a big ‘X’ on them").
He lost the primary but now he's coming to Minnesota later in the month to serve as the Class Director of 2023 TeenPact Minnesota.
What's TeenPact?
Bluestem had read about TeenPact most recently in a Legislative News and Views email from Rep. Marj Fogelman, R-Fulda. While it didn't look like something I'd send a pet cat to, it might be some parents' notion of ideal Christian leader training.
A reader in Minnesota state representative Chris Swedzinski's district -- Chippewa, Lac Qui Parle, Lyon, Yellow Medicine Counties--sent us word that "Rep. Chris Swedzinski is promoting a Christian organization and workshop that his wife just happens to work with."
"Works with" is a kind euphemism for State Coordinator. According to the contact information on the TeenPact Minnesota webpage, Jessica Swedzinski is the state coordinator of TeenPact Minnesota. The Jessica Linz Swedzinski Facebook page, which features a family photo including the state representative as its banner photo.
The email included a link to a March 6, 2023 Legislative update which noted:
Sign up for TeenPact event
Registration is now open to for a pair of TeenPact classes next month at the Capitol in St. Paul as students from around the state gather for a week of hands-on training in leadership and government.
TeenPact is a nationwide Christian non-profit educational ministry, known for its teen-oriented programs on leadership, citizenship, and government. It designed to help students understand the political process, value their liberty, and engage the culture. Through hands-on and practical teaching, TeenPact Students learn how to embrace their call as the next generation of leaders, find encouragement among like-minded peers, and develop the skills to engage the culture.
A four-day class will take place April 24-28 for ages 13-19. A one-day class for ages 8-12 is scheduled for April 29. The class for ages 8-12 is a condensed version of the class for the older group. Students will pray for their leaders during a prayer walk, explore the State House, become legislators in a mock legislature where they discuss bills they’ve written themselves, and more. Additional information and registration details are available at teenpact.com/minnesota.
If reader know of any other lawmakers promoting the TeenPact activities in their constituent emails, please email them to Bluestem at the address at the bottom of this post.
Other than its own webpage and promotions there's not a lot of coverage on the group. Wikipedia entry here.
A few survivors of the experience have written about their time at TeenPact in posts such as The day my inner feminist was born (there's a dress code, though the admonishment against slits in skirts isn't in the online document), “I am Ashamed of TeenPact” by David Chapman, and My Short-Lived Time as a Follower of Teenpact.
I suspect that few on my fellow worshippers in the Episcopal communion will be sending their children to this educational opportunity, though it is a free country.
More on Bill Jack
Bluestem began this post with mention of Hate Cake Provocateur Enters Race for Castle Rock State Rep. In the article, Michael Lund reports:
. . . Jack is known more widely from his time as an agent provocateur in 2014, when he requested homophobic cakes from local bakeries in response to a Colorado Civil Rights Division ruling in favor of a same-sex couple who were denied a wedding cake by Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood and its proprietor, Jack Phillips.
Jack told Monson that the Phillips case was a question of “disagreement” rather than “discrimination.”
When the three bakeries refused Jack’s request, he filed discrimination complaints with the Civil Rights Commission. Those cases ultimately influenced the Supreme Court decision in In its Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission decision, when a conservative legal advocacy group, Alliance Defending Freedom, highlighted the commission’s rulings against Jack to support their claims in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case.
Jack is a co-founder and educator at Worldview Academy, which aims to “bring the hope of the Gospel to an increasingly post-Christian culture,” by developing “leaders with a deep-rooted and profoundly biblical faith.”
He has appeared as a guest on Colorado radio programs discussing his activism and co-hosted a program with Kevin Swanson, who has advocated for the death penalty for homosexuals.
In one conversation from 2017, Swanson referred to Washington state schools with programming to address gender identity issues as “whorehouses,” to which Jack responded, “We need to burn ’em down.” . . .
He seems nice. Rep. Swedzinski's wife, state coordinator for TeenPact, wants the kids to learn from him:
Banner: from the Colorado Times Recorder. This wasn't actually the decoration Jack wanted on a cake--it was "two males holding hands with a big ‘X’ on them".
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