Pastors take stands on issues, leave voting to congregants

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Local mainline and evangelical churches are approaching political issues from different perspectives and with different purposes.

"It seems to me, as I look around at churches in general, that just as you have red and blue states, you have red and blue churches," said the Rev. Robert Hardies, pastor of All Souls Unitarian Church in Columbia Heights.

Mr. Hardies' church, which has a largely liberal, diverse congregation, has registered voters at nightclubs in the District and is sending a team to Florida to monitor the election.

But the Rev. Lon Solomon, senior pastor of 12,000-member McLean Bible Church, one of the largest evangelical churches in Fairfax County, has addressed abortion and same-sex "marriage" but won't mention politics at the pulpit.

"Our focus is on bringing people into relationship with Jesus Christ. We believe that when that happens, the right decisions will be made at the public-policy level," said Denny Harris, director of ministry operations at McLean.

Meanwhile, a nondenominational black megachurch in Prince George's County plans to bus elderly members to the polls on Election Day.

"I have a one-phrase campaign: No vote, no voice. Get out and vote," said the Rev. Betty P. Peebles, senior pastor of Landover's Jericho City of Praise church, which boasts 15,000 members.

One of the most hotly contested elections in years has driven significant voter turnout and registration drives in churches. The Bush administration has worked to mobilize the 4 million evangelicals who did not vote in 2000, while liberal churches have organized at the grass-roots level.

"I get a sense from my parishioners that they have a deep concern about [the election]. A lot of them talk about it as being the most important in their lifetime," said the Rev. Dean Snyder, pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church in Dupont Circle, which serves a largely liberal and homosexual congregation.

"There is an urgency because so many issues that Scripture clearly speaks to are going to be influenced by this election," said Joshua Harris, senior pastor of the 3,000-member Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, who will speak about same-sex "marriage" on Sunday. He will say that God intends marriage to be between one man and one woman.