Group To Leaflet Unto Churches Christian Coalition To Pass Out Guides, Unions To Remove Them

Church parking lots may not be the most Christian places to be this Sunday. Blame the election.

Members of the Christian Coalition may be placing the group’s “Voter Guides” on windshields. Members of AFL-CIO unions may be taking them off.

Some ministers will allow the guides to be distributed to their congregations at the doorways.

Others won’t, following instead the rules of their superiors or the admonition of the Interfaith Alliance of Churches against using churches for partisan politics.

“People of faith should be active in politics,” the Rev. Walter Boris of Seattle, president of the alliance, said Friday at a Spokane news conference to denounce the guides. “It is important to speak up and ask questions. It is not appropriate to put religion at the service of politicians.”

The alliance objects to the coalition’s voters’ guides, which it regards as a thinly disguised endorsement of Republican candidates for local, state and national office.

Such an endorsement could cost churches their tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service, said Boris.

The Federal Election Commission has filed suit challenging the coalition’s tax status, claiming it illegally endorses candidates. But that suit may not go to trial for years.

The coalition contends the guides do not endorse candidates and are not illegal. They present the stands of both candidates on key issues.

David Welch, coalition state director, could not be reached for a response to the alliance’s news conference Friday. Earlier in the week, he defended the guides’ accuracy and was quoted by the Associated Press as calling the alliance “the barking dog of the religious left.”

The Rev. Rick Morse, an alliance official, argued Friday that the group was not the religious left, but religious moderates.

“Usually when a dog barks, people need to pay attention to what’s going on around them,” Morse added.

The Christian Coalition has asked clergy around the state to distribute their guides. The alliance has asked them to sign a pledge not to distribute them or use the pulpit to endorse candidates of any party.

The Catholic diocese of Spokane, the Episcopal diocese of Spokane and the Spokane stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have a policy against distributing such materials.

The Rev. John Steiner, vicar general of the Catholic diocese, said priests might tell their parishioners to vote. But they won’t allow the distribution of any group’s voter guides.

“Everybody’s got their agendas. Our agenda’s broader than either” the coalition or the alliance, Steiner said.

Late last month, the Washington state Labor Council sent a memo to union locals and activists advising them to fight the guides.

Members were urged to attend church services the two Sundays before the election and ask the minister or priest to prevent the distribution of the guides.

, DataTimes