It’s no surprise that conservative activist and right wing preacher Joe Fuiten would endorse a “no” vote on R-71, which would reaffirm certain legal rights for same-sex couples. What is perhaps a more interesting development is the pastor’s endorsement of I-1033:
Fuiten, senior pastor at Cedar Park Assembly of God Church in Bothell, also recommended voting yes on Initiative 1033, which limits revenue increases for state and local governments to the rate of inflation and population growth.
Other religious leaders, however, see things differently:
“Saving a few tax dollars while needs across our state go unmet is not in keeping with our religious beliefs,” said a statement signed by 21 Protestant and Jewish leaders across Washington.
“To live up to our moral responsibility for the common good, we must make sure that the budget cuts we saw in this recession year do not become permanent in Washington—we must raise our voices against Initiative 1033.”
Even the Archdiocese of Seattle—which disappoints on R-71—nonetheless delivers the goods against I-1033:
Similar sentiments were voiced in a statement by the state’s Roman Catholic bishops, led by Seattle Archbishop Alex Brunett.
“While understanding that state and local taxes are burdensome to many, especially during tough economic times, the bishops of Washington State oppose I-1033, reasoning that its passage could result in significant cuts in funding for education, public safety, health care and services for the homeless.”
During the months in 2008 that myself and others worked to pass I-1000, the Death WIth Dignity initiative, the local Catholic church fought us tooth and nail. While the church gets things wrong on plenty of other issues, by opposing I-1033 they are burnishing their social justice bona fides. If anyone should be sticking up for low-income folks and the vulnerable, it’s the church.
People who agree with me show how smart and moral they are.
Further proof that the religious social base panders to the crazy traditional Right, in exchange for support on social issues.
That’s the only reason the true neocon loonies even care about the Religious right–free votes for their extra special blend of crazy.
The Archdiocese disappoints on R-71? Your expectations of how they would react to R-71 were confounded?
Time for an initiative to removed church’s tax exempt status.
Fuiten obviously isn’t an avid reader of the Bible where Jesus admonishes people to help those less well off and to be compassionate to others. The only ones he is being compassionate to are those with lots of money.
I-1033 shifts the tax burden more onto low and middle income taxpayers and mainly helps those with lots of property. It is a reverse Robin Hood scheme taking tax dollars everyone pays, including renters who don’t own property, and using it to pay taxes for wealthy property owners.
The rebate under I-1033 is not in proportion to the taxes you pay but only to the amount of property you own. That’s why if I-1033 passes Kemper Freeman who owns Bellevue Square will see a rebate of $1.7 million dollars per year in return for having given Eyman $25,000.
Maybe the good Pastor is hoping Kemper will give him some of his money for his church.
This reinforces the obvious: Fuiten and others like him are just tools of the conservative establishment.
How does the IRS not freak out when pastors say these kinds of things? They should have their tax-exempt statuses revoked b this afternoon.
Oh yeah, PastorPicks.com, endorsers of Tom Albro and David Doud.
There’s also a very pragmatic rationale for religious leaders to oppose I-1033: if the state is forced to even further reduce the amount of tax income devoted to supporting social services, a proportionally larger burden of responsibility is going to inevitably fall on religious-based organizations to take up some of the slack.
That in turn means less money from the collection plate going to other programs, and less into the pockets of those who run the churches themselves.