c. 2000 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Lurking beneath the surface of this year’s presidential race is a group of issues many politicians consider too hot to touch _ the so-called moral issues, such as abortion or gambling or gay rights.

And though sometimes lost among the dueling tax cut, social security and Medicare plans, moral issues nevertheless will loom large on many state ballots this November.

Active citizens, national coalitions and even churches have fought to place more than 70 policy questions on the ballots of the 24 states that allow for policy-making by popular vote. Many questions cover the usual suspects _ taxes, guns, public education. But an important subset deals with controversial moral issues _ gay-marriage, physician-assisted suicide, gambling, school vouchers, abortion _ that state legislatures either can’t resolve or are unwilling to touch.

The little attention Democrats and Republicans afforded these issues at their national conventions may imply they are not of primary importance to voters. But that is hardly the case, according to some observers who say voters are so passionate about these issues that many politicians shun them lest they ruffle too many feathers.

“Most people turn to the initiative process because their elected representatives will not deal with controversial issues,” says Dane Waters, president of Washington, D.C.’s Initiative and Referendum Institute.

The Oregon Citizens Alliance turned to the ballot initiative process when it became convinced that state legislators were listening to newspaper editorial pages rather than ordinary citizens.

“Every editorial page in the state backs gay rights and hammers anybody who opposes it,” says Lon Mabon, chairman of the Alliance. Mabon is leading an effort to limit the teaching of homosexuality and bisexuality in the state’s public schools. Nebraska and Nevada will also wrestle with the issue of gay rights as they weigh in on ballot measures that would ban gay marriages.

“Our legislators in Nevada were scared to death of this issue, yet the people wanted it,” says Richard Ziser, chairman of Nevada’s Coalition for the Protection of Marriage.

And in Colorado, the Women’s Right of Information Coalition is working to institute a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion. “It’s very difficult to get the support needed to pass these measures in the state legislature,” says the Coalition’s Gary Rogers. “It’s been isolated as a political special interest issue.”

Not surprisingly, ballot questions concerned with matters of morality are drawing the attention of religious groups. Many are dipping into their coffers, forming coalitions and using their pulpits for a bit of moral bullying as they weigh in on this year’s ballot measures.

Churches have become formidable foes for gambling measures in many states. In Maine, churches have organized to fight a proposal that would legalize video gambling at racetracks. In South Dakota, the gambling industry is on the defensive after churches and other anti-gambling groups proposed a constitutional amendment that would render video lottery illegal.

Churches in Maine are also campaigning against a ballot question that would legalize physician-assisted suicide. Numerous religious coalitions, including the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, are expected to spend hundreds of thousand of dollars on the issue.

In Michigan, the Catholic church has been an outspoken and well-spent advocate of a ballot measure that would give school vouchers to children in failing public schools. The church has spent nearly $1 million while organizing a grass-roots campaign that includes church educational sessions and mass mailings.

“What we’re trying to do is to present some opportunities to children who don’t have the opportunity to succeed,” says Brian Broderick, spokesman for the Michigan Catholic Conference. School choice proposals are also on the ballot in California and Washington.

The efforts to ban same-sex marriage in Nebraska and Nevada are moving forward with the blessing of the Mormon and Catholic churches, and more than a few of their members’ dollars as well, according to the Initiative and Referendum Institute.

Dale Bills, a spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, says the church maintains a strict policy of political neutrality, but that it will speak out “on rare occasions on selected issues when fundamental moral values such as the free exercise of religion and protection of marriage are at stake.”

While overt political advocacy by religious groups leaves many feeling uneasy, churches are usually safely within their First Amendment rights when they take sides in ballot battles.

“From our reading of the law, the church can get involved in issues and the leading matters of the day with few restrictions,” says Steven Benen, spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “However, the church must be careful not to get involved in partisan politicking.” In other words, churches can speak out and campaign on major issues, just not on behalf of particular politicians or parties.

And in recent years, more and more churches have been exercising their First Amendment right to free political speech. Says Benen: “It’s been increasingly common to see churches and other houses of worship become interested in affecting public policy through ballot initiatives.”

KRE END WHITE