There is only one path to heaven

In 2003 Paul Gazelka wrote a book called Marketplace Ministers: Awakening God’s People in the Workplace to Their Ultimate Purpose.

To me, the subtitle of the book is more important then the title. The reason is that Paul Gazelka believes he is one of God’s people and I am not. Further, Paul Gazelka believes his ultimate purpose, as a person of God, is to convert me to his way of believing. That is why he is a marketplace minister and that’s why he wants others to be one.  

Sen. Paul Gazelka

When Gazelka wrote the book he was an insurance agency owner. So, the fact that he was practicing and promoting religious extremism from his insurance office was only somewhat concerning.

Today Paul Gazelka is the Senate Majority leader in the Minnesota Senate and he is the representative in the Senate for all of us that live in Senate District Nine. That Paul Gazelka is in an exalted position of leadership in Minnesota is deeply concerning to me. It should also be deeply concerning to anyone who believes tolerance and diversity are vital to who we are as Minnesotans and Americans.

In chapter two of Marketplace Ministers Gazelka speaks with glowing pride for the intolerance exhibited by his wife.

“One time my wife and I were at dinner wth one of the leaders of the company I work for now,” Gazelka writes. “He and his wife were sitting right next to us. Hs wife leaned over to Maralee and sad, I think there are many roads to heaven. What do you think? . . . as graciously as my wife could, she disagreed.”

As Gazelka tells it, there was no conversation. There was only the flat statement that the woman who believed in the possibility of many roads to heaven was wrong and that Maralee, who knew the one true path, was right.

I was raised to believe everyone has a right to believe what they want. We are all Gods children is my fundamental belief. That’s not what Paul and Maralee Gazelka believe. They are God’s people and their ultimate purpose in life is to get me to see things as they do.

Throughout the book Paul Gazelka refers to me, and people like his bosses wife, as sinners or as lost or as unbelievers.

“Our goal as marketplace ministers is to influence those around us for the kingdom of God,” he writes. “To be most effective doing that, we need to be in places where unbelievers gather.”

So, when Gazelka went on business trips he went among the sinners in hotel bars and drank Pepsi. He saw his role as being like Jesus.

“He (Jesus) was amongst the sinners and was considered by them as their friend,” Gazelka writes.

Occasionally in a bar or at the office or in some other business setting Gazelka made a conversion. 

Being in the marketplace causes Gazelka to spend a lot of time thinking and talking about money. Gazelka himself was financially blessed by a minister that he respected when he was starting his insurance career.

“He told me to hold my wallet in my hands. Then he laid his hands over mine and prayed that the Lord would bless our business abundantly,” Gazelka wrote in chapter two.

Paul Gazelka also writes that he was called by God to become an insurance agent. He writes that God speaks to him and works through him regularly. The purpose of God channeling through Paul Gazelka is to bring about the Lord’s kingdom on earth; that is to say my conversion.  

“Vision for fulfilling God’s will on earth will come to leaders in all spheres of influence; church, government, business, marriage and family, and more. . . God’s plan is for Christian leaders from all spheres to work together with the common purpose of reaching the lost and establishing the Lord’s kingdom on earth,” Gazelka writes.

The Lord’s kingdom on earth includes generosity and compassion but seeming only for believers. Beyond that the purpose of conversion to Paul Gazelka’s beliefs is solely to be prepared for the end times, according to Marketplace Ministers. There is no information in Gazelka’s book to suggest otherwise.

I believe that Paul Gazelka sees the Minnesota Senate as an extension of his marketplace ministry. Paul Gazelka is welcome to his beliefs but the Minnesota Senate should not be a platform for him to promote such an extreme religious ideology.