Bothell pastor leads drive backing Bush

The senior pastor of the Cedar Park Assembly of God Church in Bothell, Wash., is leading a statewide effort to rally social conservatives to re-elect President Bush.

Joseph Fuiten is directing a voter-registration drive, focused primarily on evangelical churches, through Washington Evangelicals for Responsible Government, a lobbying group he leads. Statewide, more than 800 churches have received registration materials.

“God wants us to be involved in government,” Fuiten said. “It’s not like we’re trying to impose our values on the country. We’re trying to prevent other people from imposing their values on us.”

Political observers nationwide are debating how deeply churches can involve themselves in partisan politics without violating the federal tax-exempt status given to religious institutions. The Bush campaign has, for example, asked religious volunteers for church directories and asked Southern Baptist pastors for help in registering voters.

State Democratic Party chairman Paul Berendt called Fuiten’s effort “a real crossing of the line separating church and state.”

“What you’re talking about here is a gross effort to politicize evangelicals, to connect Scripture with politics and to lay a guilt trip on individuals to vote a certain way,” Berendt said.