Friday, Aug. 8, 2003 | 11:01 a.m.
It began as a reason to get a Henderson student out of phys ed and into physics.
But this week political activist Christopher Hansen's "church" was used by an Midwest couple to get a mother who was breast-feeding while driving out of legal trouble.
It's called the First Christian Fellowship of Eternal Sovereignty. And anyone who knows Hansen's aggressive campaigning for the Independent American Party can guess what it stands for -- God, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution -- pretty much in that order.
In an Ohio courtroom this week, it became a bit more to Catherine Nicole Donkers and the man she says is her husband, Brad Barnhill.
Donkers, 29, was accused of child endangerment, failing to comply with police officers, and with a number of driving violations stemming from a May 8 incident in which she was stopped at an Ohio tollbooth for driving while breast-feeding her 7-month-old baby.
The woman was found innocent today of child endangerment but convicted of three lesser charges. She faces 30 days in jail and a $500 fine when she is sentenced.
"Their car is parked in my driveway," Hansen said Thursday evening, just a few days after kissing the couple and their baby goodbye before they flew back to Ohio for the trial.
Barnhill has recently relocated to Los Angeles, Hansen said, and decided to fly to Ohio from Las Vegas because the fares were cheaper.
"They are such great people, I was thrilled to have them come on down and take them to the airport," Hansen said.
Hansen admits the religion was founded purely to get son Josh out of gym class. He made the argument that under his religion, only a father could decide whether his son should be in gym class, and Hansen told the school that he had ordered his son not to participate.
Hansen said that, as he and his late brother Danny researched writings of the founding fathers and creation of the U.S. government, which are central to the church's theology, they became true believers in their newfound faith.
"I felt it was so powerful and strong that I began to really put some effort into it," said Hansen, known in the fellowship as "the Sovereign."
That's how he met Barnhill. The computer consultant hooked up with Hansen on the Internet, Hansen said, and the two became fast pals.
Suddenly Barnhill was one of 13 "stripes," as Hansen calls the "apostles" under him, whose number he said has more to do with the 13 original U.S. colonies than those who stood by Jesus Christ.
Barnhill apparently was one of the most staunch believers in Hansen's religion and its tenets that decry the Internal Revenue Service as a beast and leads followers to stop paying taxes.
It is the sovereignty part of the faith that Barnhill used in court when Donkers was first facing a $1,000 fine. Barnhill told the court he was the only one able to speak for his partner, despite having no marriage license.
The Associated Press reported that Barnhill told court officials that as the "sole head of the family," he was the only one able to punish Donkers for her action.
"I directed her to do everything she did that day," Barnhill told the Associated Press after testifying Thursday in the Ohio court hearing the case. "Under our faith, she obeys me."
Hansen is not only the leader of this faith that is being used in court, but is something of the spiritual head of the IAP, the state's third-largest political party.
He's a true rabble-rouser who will take on -- as a great cause -- something as seemingly minor as the capitalization of names on a ballot and the actual date or veracity of his birthday.
While running for secretary of state last year, Hansen did divulge his age, but informed the Sun: "I have no independent knowledge of my birthday. The date is just hearsay."
His mother may have just told him his birthdate but she has helped Hansen, his sister Janine and brother Joel keep their dead brother Danny's memory alive by helping to field 54 candidates for the party on last year's election ballot statewide.
That led to some of Chris Hansen's better known antics.
He and the majority of IAP candidates in Southern Nevada filed campaign reports without any of data requested, but with a lengthy swearing of the date based on Jesus Christ's life.
Hansen was recently seen in public with his signature "Jail for Judges" T-shirt at an anti-tax rally that supported recalling six Supreme Court justices. He believes Jesus Christ is the only real judge.
At that July rally, Hansen's wife, Dawn, scrapped verbally with a teachers union member while Chris Hansen raged at the tax system in sound bites for television reporters.
Hansen's fights against the state Ethics Commission and Secretary of State have become epics for a minor party.
During one Ethics Commission hearing last year, Hansen sat silent for five minutes when granted an opportunity to speak, and then asked the commissioners if they found him rude.
According to Hansen's website for the fellowship, Patriot Saints for the Kingdom of God on Earth, certain beliefs would have led Barnhill and Donkers to express similar anger with the system.
Hansen's website refers to the elected officials and employees of the federal government as "beasts," in general. But it also specifically aims at the IRS, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Social Security Administration.
The website proclaims as "Truth:" the Bible, the teachings of Jesus Christ, the 10 Commandments, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and George Washington's Farewell Address.
Hansen said he is amazed at the e-mails he has received since news reports of the Ohio case began spreading to Ireland, Asia and even to atheists and agnostics via the Web.
"I got a bunch of stuff yelling at me for believing in God," Hansen said. "Then there was some other stuff right on our message about giving up the premise that you have to file taxes to live in this great nation."
Hansen said he is thrilled Barnhill and Donkers have taken the message to the masses, even if he's not too pleased with how Donkers got the couple there.
"I think what she did was dangerous," Hansen said. "I wouldn't do that. Well, I don't have the equipment to, but if I did, I wouldn't have done that."
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