malvern-online.com - The Arguments will be in church

LITTLE ROCK (AP) — The best place to hear arguments this fall over whether to create a state-run lottery for education or to restrict public services for illegal immigrants may not be at a campaign rally. It'll be from the pews.

Trying to mimick the success of an initiative banning gay marriage in Arkansas, both sides of three high-profile ballot measures vying for the November ballot are hoping to use churches as part of their campaign strategies.

From providing talking points to sermons to recruiting well-known pastors, the campaigns will rely on Arkansas' Bible Belt status to bring out support for their voter-led initiatives.

The first shot in that battle was fired last month when the Arkansas Family Council Action Committee announced it would rely on churches for its campaign against a proposed lottery that Lt. Gov. Bill Halter hopes to place on the November ballot.

The conservative group and longtime foe of expanded gambling will start its so-called "Truth Campaign" by targeting the 10,000 churchgoers already on its mailing lists. The campaign will include providing church sermon outlines to pastors and bulletin tracts against the measure.

It's a strategy that Jerry Cox, the council's director, knows can work because it's the same way he was able to rally support around a 2004 ballot measure banning gay marriage. Cox said the vast majority of the signatures that were gathered for the constitutional amendment, which passed overwhelmingly that year, came through churches.

Though legal, the council's strategy could be viewed by some as blurring the lines between the church and the political arena. Some may not like the idea of their worship service sprinkled with a little bit of electioneering.

"That's a mistake that some people make is that because something has become political, the church shouldn't address it," Cox said. "If it has anything to do with child welfare, morality, with the public good, it's not only appropriate for the church to address that issue, it's necessary for the church to address that issue."

But the council may end up competing against itself for pulpit time. At the same time the group is recruiting churches to its anti-

lottery campaign, it's also relying on pastors to help sign up support for its ballot measure aimed at banning gay people from fostering or adopting children. The proposed ballot measure would prohibit unmarried couples living together from fostering or adopting children.

In an effort to pass its adoption ban, the council is distributing a 24-page booklet on the guidelines for fostering and adopting children in the state to churches, Cox said.

"The short answer is some churches may have a considerable amount of material from us," Cox said. "There may be some churches that will step up big time on the adoption measure but not on the lottery. And you'll have some churches that will be really concerned about the lottery."

That doesn't mean his opponents are conceding ground on either front. Opponents of the gay foster parent and adoption movements say they're also reaching out to church leaders for their cause.

Arguing that the measure would limit the number of foster or adoptive parents, Arkansas Families First has recruited church leaders to their cause. Debbie Willhite, the group's campaign director, said she's relying on religious leaders to help campaign against the proposal and warn about its potential consequences.

They include Charles Crutchfield, the United Methodist Church's bishop for the Arkansas Annual Conference, who said he plans to speak out against the council's measure.

"We are not suggesting what preachers choose to preach on," Willhite said. "We're suggesting that there is another side to what this initiative will do and what it does is hurt children."

For his part, Halter said he's relying on people of all religious backgrounds to help with his proposal to create a lottery to fund college scholarships.

"We haven't thought about doing sermon notes," Halter said. "I think that we are more likely to simply focus on the traditional means of getting the message out to all Arkansans and just try to provide them with facts."

The stickiness of mixing politics and religion came up when Cox announced his church-centered campaign. Pastor Robert E. Smith, who leads Little Rock's Word of Outreach Christian Center, suggested that Halter and government officials who support the lottery are influenced by "user-friendly ministries that don't tell it altogether like it is."

Halter said he won't comment on Smith's suggestion, but said he hoped opponents would be respectful and realize that people can share a faith but differ on policy.

The Rev. Stephen Copley, a Methodist minister who heads the Arkansas Friendship Coalition, said he could see churches playing a role in opposing a proposed ballot measure that would require government agencies to verify all those seeking public benefits in the state are legal U.S. residents. The proposal by a group called Secure Arkansas has already been rejected by the attorney general's office twice, but Copley said the coalition is prepared to campaign against it if the measure makes it onto the November ballot.

But Copley said he thinks pastors should probably stop short of directly telling worshippers how to vote on a measure.

"For me, I believe pretty strongly that you present the issue but in the context of how does our faith bear on that," Copley said. "What does the faith tradition say about that? I think that's the proper role."