Church seeks dismissal of suit over gay marriage ban support

HELENA — A Baptist church asked the state political practices commissioner Thursday to dismiss a complaint over an event it hosted supporting a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

The complaint was filed last month by Montanans for Families and Fairness, a coalition formed to oppose the ban.

The group accused Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church of violating state campaign finance rules by failing to report its use of “in-kind” resources for a May 23 event urging support for Constitutional Initiative 96.

The event, the group said, transformed the church into a political committee and subjected it to campaign finance laws.

In a court filing Thursday, the church called the complaint “insufficient” and “frivolous” and asked Commissioner Linda Vaughey to dismiss it as being “too indefinite.”

Montanans for Families and Fairness “has abused and misused Montana’s political practices and campaign financing laws by filing a complaint with the Commissioner of Political Practices that is based solely on conjecture, assumptions and misrepresentations of law and fact,” the filing stated.