Evangelize the Vote

Meet the conservative Christian pastor who spearheaded the Bush voter registration campaign in Washington.

by Nina Shapiro


Walking into Pastor Joseph Fuiten's sprawling Cedar Park Assembly of God church, on a wooded 46-acre plot in Bothell, one can still see a sign of the election—a box holding voter registration forms, emblazoned with a red, white, and blue logo: "For Faith, Freedom and Family: Vote!"

The pastor coordinated the Bush campaign's state effort to mobilize "social"—read Christian—conservatives and heads a right-wing lobbying group called Washington Evangelicals for Responsible Government (WERG). During the election season, the pastor sent 2,700 such voter registration boxes to churches across the state, netting what he estimates to be 45,000 to 90,000 new voters. Those are huge numbers that are impossible to verify; he says they come from a sample survey of churches that received the boxes. But Republicans and churches are convinced that something important happened among evangelicals locally in this election, just as evangelicals and the "moral values" that concerned them played a pivotal role nationally. "In my 24 years in politics, it's the most organized I've ever seen evangelical churches," says state Republican Party Chair Chris Vance. He says at many churches there were election coordinators registering voters and then urging them to the polls.

Various local church leaders and religious conservative organizations, including Pastor Ken Hutcherson at Antioch Bible Church and a relatively low-key state chapter of the Christian Coalition, mounted get-out-the-vote efforts this year. Fuiten, though, is seen as driving the new Christian conservative vote. Leah Yoon, a spokesperson for the state's Bush campaign, now based in New York, credits the pastor with being "single-handedly responsible" for voter turnout among local religious conservatives and calls him "the go-to guy" for this constituency.

http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0446/041117_news_evangelical.php

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why they're tax exempt now. I get that the poor churches need the exemption...But when a church in Houston can buy Compaq Center (where the Rockets once played), should they really be tax exempt???????

I don't think any of them should really be tax exempt, but maybe they could at least cap it...if the church brings in over a certain amount, they are no longer tax exempt???

-----Original Message-----
From: ardean anvik
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 12:47 PM
To: chrisvance@wsrp.org

Subject: Federal Campaign Law

May I request that you or someone on your staff send directions regarding what Counties can and cannot do as it pertains to newsletters and phone banks usage for federal candidates.

There is a great deal of ignorance out here and many counties are violating the campaign law as I understood it from you. God help us if the Democrats find out.

I think we all need direction. Can you help us?

Thanks, Chris

Ardean A. Anvik
State Committeeman, Mason COunty

And if anyone is pursuing legal action because of it?

Also per mixing church and state my brother in law told me in late August Dino Rossi made a campaign appearing during mass at his church.

the parody site "http://georgewbush.org" instead of of folks at "http://georgewbush.com"

They had a portion of their website called 'deadletters' where all these juicy emails were sent. Dont know if any action was taken on this one but sure looks like it should be.

This whole site has now been archived at :

http://2004.georgewbush.org/index.asp

Click on the section middle-left called "dead letter office"

good luck.