Search Results for: Hutcherson

We all knew that Rev. Ken Hutcherson was a documented liar. Now, thank’s once again to The Stranger’s Eli Sanders, we now know that Hutcherson still is a liar.

Just read Robert Jamieson’s column in today’s Seattle P-I: “Critics go after the wrong pastor.”

Hmm. I wasn’t aware that us critics were limited to going after only one pastor at a time.

It’s an embarrassment of riches out there with the likes of Mark Driscoll, Ken Hutcherson, Joe Fuiten, Ted Haggard, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Fred Phelps, and the inimitably mule-fucking Rev. Neil Horsley routinely making headlines. So many pastors, so little time.

I’ve only read the New Testament cover to cover once (and I have to admit it was more an exercise in opposition research than it was a journey of spiritual discovery) so correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to remember Christ teaching things like charity, loving thy neighbor, feeding and clothing the poor… you know, social justice stuff like that.

Thus it came as bit of a surprise to learn that Pastor Joe Fuiten — who routinely jostles with Reverend Ken Hutcherson for the role of Washington state’s loudest defender of Christian values — is in the process of turning retired ministers and missionaries out of their homes and onto the streets. I dunno… doesn’t sound very Christian to me.

I’m referring to the longtime residents of the Cedar Springs Bible Camp near Lake Stevens, who over the past thirty years, and with the Camp’s active encouragement and support, have built conventional homes on leased lots in the Camp’s five-acre residential area, and who have volunteered many hours of their time to Camp improvement projects.

The Camp leased lots only to “qualified tenants” with the stated purpose of providing low-cost, year-round residency to both active and retired Assemblies of God ministers, missionaries and lay people. Monthly leases remained low, sporadically rising by no more than 15 dollars a month from $10.50 per month in 1966 to $150.00 per month in 2004. Leases had historically been renewed annually at the option of the tenant.

That is until Pastor Fuiten’s mega-church, the Cedar Park Assembly of God, purchased the Bible Camp in 2005.

In September of 2005, Fuiten’s church offered residents a new lease that would increase rents by 83% over three years, a particular burden on the Camp’s retired seniors living on low, fixed incomes. But the most devastating alteration of the lease terms under Fuiten’s management was the elimination of the option to renew… destroying the resident’s resale value, and forcing them to abandon their houses and improvements in the event the leases are not renewed.

Under the terms of the new lease, there is only one potential buyer for the residents’ homes — Pastor Fuiten’s mega-church — which would be unjustly enriched should it choose to terminate the leases, or the tenants be unable to afford the new terms.

The residents have filed suit in Snohomish County Superior Court, and while I have no idea how the judge will rule, I’m pretty damn sure that if it were up to Christ, he’d feel a tad uncomfortable evicting a bunch of retired ministers and stealing their homes.

So now that the residents’ plight has been publicized, the question remains: what will Pastor Joe Fuiten do?

Eli Sanders has got the scoop on Slog:

May 24, 2006

Dear Church Leader:

We saw in the news media last week that organizers of Referendum 65, a proposed ballot initiative, have focused on working with churches to get enough signatures to place it on the state ballot. As the leader of a church that holds services on school district property through a building use permit, it’s important that you understand the legal restrictions on activities that take place on public property in order to protect your organization.

In fact, under Washington state law, the facilities of a public agency, i.e., the Lake Washington School District, may not be used directly or indirectly for the purpose of assisting a campaign for election of any person to any office or for the promotion of or opposition to any ballot proposition (RCW 42.17.130). Our attorneys have advised us that collection of signatures on any proposed ballot initiative on school property is a violation of that law, as campaigning for any candidate for elected office would be. Therefore we cannot allow your organization or another organization at your invitation to come onto district property for any efforts that would assist a political campaign of any kind.

While we have worked with political organizations that use our facilities to ensure their understanding of these restrictions, I recognize that we have we may not have made these requirements clear to other users groups. We will be adding this restriction to the building use guidelines so that it is clearly spelled out. Since we do not know if churches that use our schools may be participating in this event, we wanted to bring this concern to the attention of all churches using our facilities. I appreciate your cooperation on this issue, for the protection of both of our organizations. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Sincerely,

Janene Fogard

Deputy Superintendent
Lake Washington School District

Rev. Ken Hutcherson’s Antioch Bible Church was caught red handed last Sunday, canvassing for signatures on school property, which prompted the district to send the above letter to his and 7 other churches to which they rent space. Sanders wonders…

Could opponents of R-65, which would repeal Washington’s new gay civil rights law, go to court (or to state elections officials) and demand that all signatures collected on school grounds be invalidated? And if the Lake Washington School District alone has eight churches renting its facilities, exactly how many school districts state-wide have churches renting facilities from them, and how many of those churches collected R-65 signatures on public school property during Referendum Sunday?

I’ve been told the statute prohibiting political activity at tax exempt churches is “murky”, but the legal issues surrounding public schools are cut and dry. This is at very least a violation of the state’s public disclosure laws, subject to exactly the kind of complaint the Evergreen Freedom Foundation frequently files against teachers.

If these churches want to become so involved in enacting law, you’d think they’d at least have the decency to follow it.

KUOW radio (94.9 FM) will preempt its regular NPR programming tomorrow to bring you a recording of last week’s Ron Sims v. Ken Hutcherson debate, followed by a live call-in show. The debate will air from 11 am to 12:30 pm. Calls will be taken from 12:30 pm to 1 pm.

I don’t expect the airing on KUOW to change any more minds on gay civil rights than the live debate did, but it will be informative and entertaining nonetheless, so I highly recommend tuning in.

I was talking to The Stranger’s Josh Feit yesterday afternoon, and he was little worried. The folk at Town Hall had moved the Sims v. Hutch debate upstairs into the big room –apparently to accommodate the camera crews — and Josh was concerned that the audience might look embarrassingly small in the thousand-seat auditorium. “What if only twelve people show up?” he asked me. I assured him that I’d be there to make it a baker’s dozen.

As it turned out, I barely got in. A large, raucous crowd filled the auditorium, including an enthusiastic cheering section for Hutcherson’s Antioch Bible Church. I’d never seen so many queer people in one place… and there were a lot of gays and lesbians there too. This was one, pumped up crowd… more like the audience you might expect for a superstar comedian than a political debate. And judging from the audience reaction, The Stranger may have stumbled upon the greatest debating act since Timothy Leary v. G. Gordon Liddy.

They were loud, they were passionate, they were in your face… and that was just the audience. A steady wave of cheers, jeers, hisses, catcalls, laughter and groans rolled across the audience towards the dueling orators on stage. Both men received several standing ovations from their admirers. Both men seemed to genuinely enjoy the fierce debate.

This was politics the way it should be: raw, energetic… and entertaining. If all political rallies, all political events, all political debates were as much fun as this, we’d have 95 percent voter turnout… we’d have the nation’s youth clamoring to get involved. Politics wouldn’t just be more fun… it’d be downright cool.

Anyway, I’m not going to get into the details, but Michael has great coverage over at BlatherWatch, Will throws in a few pithy observations of his own, and the Seattle P-I does its darnedest to make the whole affair sound typically boring. I’m told the Seattle Channel shot the event, and if you get the chance, I highly recommend watching for yourself.

I’ll just sum up the Battle in Seattle by saying that I thought Sims kicked Hutch’s ass. (But then, I’m biased.) The topic was gay civil rights, and Hutch and his “church folk” wanted to make it a theological debate. It’s not, and Sims wouldn’t bite.

I’d love to see both men get a chance to hone their rhetoric by going at it a couple more times, but if all Hutcherson has to back up his public policy is the Christian Bible, then he really doesn’t deserve having his public profile raised any further… and Sims shouldn’t help him raise it.

I doubt many minds were changed last night, but it sure was fun. And that’s something you don’t often get to say about politics.

Wrestling greats Ron “King County Executive” Sims and Rev. Ken “the Jews killed Christ” Hutcherson lock horns tonight in a steel cage match at the Key Arena. Um… okay… it’s really just a debate, and it’s taking place in the staid environs of Seattle’s Town Hall. But I expect some rhetorical body slamming nonetheless.

Tickets are $5.00 at the door; fireworks start at 7:30 pm.

Rev. Hutcherson has been one of the most vocal opponents of legislation extending anti-discrimination protections to gays and lesbians, and when Sims joined us this week on Podcasting Liberally, we asked him why he was willing to take on such a pompous, blowhard. Lamenting Hutcherson’s efforts to co-opt a civil rights movement that “people lost their lives over,” Sims said that it was simply time for him to sit across the table and take Hutcherson on:

“He’s trying to steal a movement and limit its effects, and that’s just so wrong.”

Yes it is.

Hutcherson reportedly has a habit of playing the race card when he finds himself on the losing end of an argument, but as Will shockingly learned during our podcast, he’s going to have a tough time doing that against Sims:

“He’s going to argue he’s black, and last time I looked in the mirror, I am too.”

Here’s my debating tip to Sims: you’re first question to Hutcherson should be to ask him how his boycott is going, and then as he fumbles for an answer… hit him over the head with a folding chair. I’m ready to rumble!

HB 2661 passes, final vote: 25-23.

After thirty years, sexual orientation has finally been added to Washington state’s anti-discrimination laws. Kind of hard to believe it took so long.

A lot of people have worked extremely hard on this issue for many years, but perhaps nobody has played a larger role in its passage than the Rev. Ken Hutcherson, whose ham-fisted grandstanding in the wake of the bill’s close defeat last year was crucial in creating the blowback that ultimately led to Sen. Bill Finkbeiner voting his conscience.

Thank you Rev. Hutcherson. My fondest wish is that you and Kevin Carns team up to direct the conservative legislative agenda in WA state.

UPDATE:
Progressive Majority of Washington wants senators like Tim Sheldon, who voted no on HB 2661, to know that there is a price to pay for Democrats who betray core Democratic values. (You know… like equality.)

Progressive Majority doesn’t just elect new leaders, we hold the ones already in office accountable. But Senator Sheldon doesn’t get it

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Redmond Rev. Ken Hutcherson celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day by promoting discrimination of gays, announcing that he would use an appearance Thursday on the national theo-con talk show, Focus on the Family, to call for a boycott of Microsoft, Boeing and other companies who support gay rights legislation.

“We’re tired of sitting around thinking that morals can be ignored in our country,” he said. “This is not a threat, this is a promise.”

Yeah… sure it is, Ken. In fact, I betcha that not a single member of your Antioch Bible Church will buy a Boeing jetliner this year. That’s gotta be bad for business.

As for Microsoft, well… asking people to boycott Microsoft is pretty much like asking people to boycott oxygen.

But good luck there too Ken. I’ve seen a better than 1000 percent return on my Apple Computer stock over the past few years, and I’m all for anything that bumps it even higher. (Though once your parishioners dump their Windows boxes and buy Macs, I’m wondering what word processor or spreadsheet they’re gonna use?)

One question though…

Hutcherson said he’s not telling companies to change their own internal policies on gay rights. He just doesn’t want them influencing lawmakers with their support.

“Don’t step in our world, we won’t step in yours,” he said.

Um… so… your world, Ken, is influencing lawmakers? And I always thought church had something to do with, you know… religion.