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The candidate turned out to be impressive, but our initial introduction was a bit awkward.
Seattle City Council hopeful Tim Burgess kept returning to the point that he was a pro-choice Democrat, although running for a non-partisan office that has no power to amend Roe v. Wade.
Eventually it dawned on me: Burgess was anticipating some flak, or had received incoming fire, because he and his wife are religious people who belong to a traditionalist church.
In certain circles, being a Presbyterian -- or goin' to meetings, period -- can lay you low in the Emerald City.
This column has, on occasion, scorched religious-right leaders who impose litmus tests on candidates, define what they call a "Values Voter" and manipulate the Gospels in pursuit of temporal power.
Unfortunately, there's a flip side to the equation: We have, especially in this "unchurched" corner of America, a faction that actively mocks religion and seeks to stigmatize people of faith.
Accurately and bluntly, it's the last form of bigotry that is socially acceptable.
A case in point: Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., recently committed the secular sin of voting to deny federal dollars to Planned Parenthood. He also has supported federal funding for faith-based organizations.
On Seattle's Capitol Hill, The Stranger set out to explain these votes in terms of Reichert's religious affiliation: He is a member of the conservative Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod.
While saying he felt "uncomfortable" bringing up the matter, the author concluded: "It's time to make things uncomfortable for those who would force their religious values on others."
No evidence was presented that Reichert was following dictates from his denomination.
Whether you like him or loathe him, there's contrary evidence that the "Gentleman from Washington" is a) open to persuasion, and b) willing to buck his party when he feels strongly about something.
Reichert went south on House Majority Leader Tom DeLay in 2005, a month after coming to Congress, when DeLay tried to have Congress intervene to keep alive the comatose Terri Schiavo. Reichert also has supported stem-cell research legislation vetoed by President Bush.
We have plenty of evidence, across the spectrum, of public officials taking positions that conflict with leaders of their religious affiliation.
Gov. Chris Gregoire is a practicing Catholic. She was, however, the keynote speaker at a May breakfast of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, raising campaign dollars for candidates who support abortion rights.
Gregoire and other leading pro-choice Catholics coexist, at times uneasily, with a strongly anti-abortion pastor at St. Michael Parish in Olympia.
Congress is home to a trio of cousins from one of the West's great Mormon clans. Reps. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and Mark Udall, D-Colo., are moderate Democrats. Both voted in favor of the ban on partial-birth abortions but opposed banning gays from the Boy Scouts.
Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., a former bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is one of the most conscience-driven politicians in America. But a conscience can drive you in different directions. Smith is anti-abortion and has opposed Oregon's assisted-suicide policy -- but was one of the first Republican senators to speak out against the Iraq war.
Smith sponsored an amendment that included gays and lesbians in federal hate-crime legislation. Judy Shepard, mother of slain Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard, praised the Oregon Republican in a TV spot.
Stereotyping, demeaning critics tend to depict those of traditional faith as "narrow," "reactionary" or bent on "imposing" their particular set of beliefs. They are, in fact, as far off base as those in the fundamentalist camp who bash gays and freak out over feminism.
One example comes to mind. Under a new, authoritarian leadership, the Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod in the early 1970s cracked down on Concordia Seminary. The seminary's faculty was dismissed and a large body of students chose to leave.
The exiles from Concordia simply crossed town, where they were welcomed into the divinity school at Jesuit-run Saint Louis University.
Who welcomed them? The dean at Saint Louis U. was future Seattle University President (and 1990 Seattle First Citizen) Father William Sullivan.
In reading The Stranger, it became evident that the author of the article about Reichert had not talked with Reichert. Its only direct quote was boilerplate from Karen Cooper, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington.
People surprise you when you hear them out. Shortly before his death, former Missouri Sen. Tom Eagleton, a Catholic and abortion opponent, bucked his church's leadership and provided pivotal support to a state ballot measure approving stem cell research.
Or Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who has proclaimed: "As a right-to-life senator, I believe that a critical part of a pro-life, pro-family philosophy is helping the living. ... The purpose of (stem cell) research is to save life, not terminate it."
Faith in America will never be a product of dogma, discipline and docility.
It deserves better than to be manipulated by those with a political agenda, or stigmatized by bigots who feign sophistication.
Religious faithful in office deserve better
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