Church Group Fights Christian Coalition Guides Alliance Seeking ‘Don’t Use Us’ Pledge Called ‘Barking Dog Of Religious Left’ By Christian Coalition Director

Preachers who pass out Christian Coalition voter guides in church “have taken what belongs to God and have given it to Caesar,” leaders of an opposing religious group said Tuesday.

The guides typically fail to show the basis for positions ascribed to candidates, include distortions or overly broad generalizations, and are distributed too close to Election Day for candidates to respond, representatives of the Interfaith Alliance of Washington State told a news conference at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral.

In the past week, they said they had sent letters asking more than 2,000 religious leaders around the state to refuse to distribute the Christian Coalition material.

More than 150 have taken the “don’t use us” pledge, and 30 to 40 more are joining the ranks daily, said the Rev. Walter John Boris, alliance president and pastor of Kirkland Congregational United Church of Christ.

Dave Welch, state director of the Christian Coalition, dismissed the alliance as “the barking dog of the religious left.” He defended the accuracy and legitimacy of the voter guides as “something that the average person can understand without having to read through several reams of material.”

They are delivered in bundles to at least 2,500 churches around the state in time for delivery on the last two Sundays before the election, Welch said.

Guides on the choices for president, governor and seven of the state’s U.S. House seats show pictures of the Democratic and Republican candidates and positions - “opposes,” “supports,” “undecided” or “no response” - on about half-dozen issues that vary from race to race.

In four congressional districts, the Democratic candidate did not provide a picture, the guides state.

Some of the same clergy and groups in the “Don’t use us” campaign, including the Church Council of Greater Seattle, went on record Tuesday in opposition to initiatives that would authorize vouchers for children to attend private school at public expense and the formation of independent charter schools.

“There is no doubt that Initiatives 173 and 177 would take tax dollars away from the one system that is open to all children,” said Rabbi Daniel Bridge, executive director of the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation at the University of Washington. “If we allow this to happen, we will have finally laid to rest the American belief in co-existence and equality.”

One of those most closely aligned with the Christian Coalition is Ellen Craswell, the Republican candidate for governor, who favors school vouchers, a ban on abortions and a constitutional amendment to allow prayer in the schools.

“The fact that Ellen Craswell is a religious person is not a problem at all. To have those beliefs also inform her decisions is not a problem,” Boris said, “but when she talks about making the Bible the basis of government … that starts to erase the lines of separation between church and state.

“It is the lines of separation between church and state that assure religious liberty for all of us.”

The Rev. Rick Morse, pastor at Lake Washington Christian Church and alliance vice president, said it was fine for religious leaders to use their pulpits to say whom they favor in an election.

“Where you cross the line is by declaring that this is a godly candidate or where you say this candidate is one you should vote for,” Morse said.