The debate over Referendums C and D is about to get biblical.
Christian leaders are lining up on both sides of the proposal to suspend the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. And on both sides, they are citing Scripture.
Supporters see the idea of withholding TABOR refunds for five years and increasing the base from which future taxes are calculated as an answer to the Christian imperative for good works. Without more tax revenue, the state can’t afford to help people, they say.
Opponents see it as an assault on family values. Without tax refunds, people can’t afford to take care of their families and communities on their own, they say.
But while religious opinion is split, the political and organizational matchups between religious leaders seem to favor the Vote Yes campaign.
Today, a consortium of Christians, Jews and Muslims is scheduled to announce its faith-based endorsement of the proposed TABOR suspension.
“The Old Testament is just saturated with the expectation that people of faith are to be particularly … nurturing of the marginalized and the vulnerable,” said Paul Kottke, senior pastor at University Park United Methodist Church in Denver. “We don’t see it as a liberal-conservative issue. We see it as being socially engaged. Government does play a healthy role in the world in which we live, and we need to be in partnership with the government and the private sector.”
Catholic Charities also has sided with proponents, but Colorado’s three Catholic bishops have not decided whether to enter the debate themselves, said Tim Dore of the Colorado Catholic Conference.
Vote Yes proponents have been asking the bishops to endorse C and D, and they are set to consider the issue Friday, he said.
Although the referendums’ opponents have received considerable help from the libertarian wing of the national conservative movement, they are not receiving much direct support from the national conservative Christian groups that could bring serious political muscle to the fight.
The largest such group in the state, Focus on the Family, in Colorado Springs, has chosen not to grant opponents’ request for help in fighting the proposal.
“We aren’t getting involved,” spokesman Christopher Norfleet said. “It’s not one of our central issues.”
But a smaller conservative, evangelical group, the Rocky Mountain Family Council, has joined the opponents.
“Jesus talked about money more than any other subject,” council president Jim Chapman said. “Because of that, people of faith need to be good stewards of it. We would not say that feeding larger governments is necessarily a biblical value.”
The true marker of faith, he said, is found in deliberate, direct acts of charity – not the passive observation of tax deductions from one’s paycheck.
“I don’t think that’s what I’m supposed to do,” Chapman said. “I think charity rests on my shoulders. In American today, one of the great tragedies to people of faith is that we’ve basically given money to the government to take care of the poor and the sick and the hungry.”
Kottke said some churches are organizing information sessions and visits with authors of the proposal, such as Democratic House Speaker Andrew Romanoff.
But with state lawmakers with credentials in both the libertarian and conservative-Christian camps actively campaigning against C and D, opposition leader Jon Caldara, of Golden’s Independence Institute, says he is not worried about the values voter in November.
“I’ll guarantee you – churchgoing Coloradans put their families first,” he said. “If they’d rather give (their money) to their churches, to hurricane relief or their own children’s education, that’s a choice they want to have.”
Rep. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, is one lawmaker on the campaign trail this fall.
A consistent small-government and socially conservative vote in the House, Lundberg is scheduled to argue against the referendums in an upcoming debate hosted by a Catholic church, he said.
“It’s the social-justice committee that has invited me, so I kind of get a hint as to what direction they’re leaning,” he said. “But, hey, if a church calls and asks me to talk on C, I’m more than happy to explain why, biblically, there is a solid argument to say that limited government is the way to go.”
The arguments either way have roots in long-standing interpretations of the Bible, said John Greene, a senior fellow in Religion and American Politics at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. But it is unlikely that religious leaders will start coloring their religious services with campaign rhetoric, he said.
“The liberal ministers and the conservative ministers – neither want to see their churches become political organizations,” he said. “They have a broader purpose.”
Staff writer Jim Hughes can be reached at 303-820-1244 or jhughes@denverpost.com.
