c. 1996 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ As Election Day approaches, religious liberals and conservatives are engaged in a duel of voter guides, with each side maintaining that their guides just present the facts while the other guy’s are partisan.

The latest shot in this contest within the larger electoral race was fired Friday (Oct. 25) by the liberal Interfaith Alliance, which bills itself as a non-partisan, religiously diverse organization that provides a”mainstream countervoice to the extreme religious right.” The Interfaith Alliance announced at a news conference the immediate distribution of about 5 million voter guides nationwide, concentrating on 44 U.S. Senate and House races in areas where the Christian Coalition is putting extra effort into electing candidates aligned with its conservative platform.

In addition, Jill Hanauer, the Interfaith Alliance’s executive director, said the group will work with local affiliates to distribute voter guides for hundreds of state and local races.

The Christian Coalition plans to distribute about 45 million voter guides covering the presidential contest, every House and Senate race, a handful of gubernatorial contests and some local races, according to spokesman Mike Russell.

Unlike the Interfaith Alliance, the coalition will not distribute its guides until the Sunday before the Nov. 5 election.”People just aren’t interested in receiving this material until they’re actually ready to go to the polls,”Russell said.

A sample Interfaith Alliance congressional voter guide given to reporters lists competing candidates’ positions _”supports,””opposes”or”no response”_ on seven issues: reducing the deficit by cutting funds for student loans; cutting Medicare spending; raising the minimum wage; ending guarantees of federal assistance for low-income women and children; banning 19 assault-style weapons; restricting tobacco advertising aimed at children; and weakening rules against air and water pollution.”These issues most impact women and children,”said the Rev. Albert M. Pennybacker, Interfaith Coalition president, noting that the issues reflect the group’s”true pro-family”concerns.

The Christian Coalition, which also says it supports pro-family causes, will list candidates’ positions on abortion, gays in the military, voluntary public school prayer, school choice, term limits for Congress, and a federal balanced budget amendment, among others. Russell said the issues will vary according to the differences between candidates in particular races.

Both the Interfaith Alliance and Christian Coalition said they determined candidates’ positions through responses to questionnaires, public statements and voting records. Both also do not say in their guides that a particular candidate should be supported, but leave it to voters to read between the lines and decide who comes closest to their position.

Interfaith Alliance officials made much of their decision not to distribute their voter guides inside houses of worship _ although they have no qualms doing so on the sidewalk in front of a church or having”grassroots”religious organizations assist in distributing them through the mail.

Churches are a main distribution point for the Christian Coalition, which also passes out its guides at parks, mall parking lots and other such areas.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based advocacy group that supports a strict interpretation of the First Amendment, last month sent a letter to pastors and local church leaders warning them about distributing voter guides, saying they might endanger their institution’s tax-exempt status if the guides are later deemed partisan.

The Federal Election Commission has also filed suit against the Christian Coalition, charging that its voter guides were so partisan in favor of conservative Republicans as to constitute alleged illegal campaign contributions.

However, Russell said in an interview that the FEC has not challenged the coalition’s right to distribute its guides in churches.”We follow the rules. Even the FEC is only questioning coordination between us and the campaigns, which we deny, not the content or distribution of the guides,”he said.

The FEC suit, filed in July and still unresolved, deals with Christian Coalition voter guides issued in 1992 only, and does not relate to the guides they will distribute during the 1996 election campaign.

MJP END RIFKIN