Editor’s note: This article is the last in a series about church attendance and religious beliefs in Pierce County. The first installment addressed the challenges and opportunities the area’s low church attendance brings the region, while the second examined the diversity of religious beliefs.
Religion and politics sometimes collide in Pierce County. To some extent this is typical of the liberal West Coast area, but there are also residents with conservative views on political and social issues. Sometimes people of faith across the political spectrum join together in a cause, while other times they sharply disagree.
Bill Baarsma is a keen observer of politics in the area. He served on Tacoma City Council for eight years during the 1990s then was mayor from 2002 through 2009.
He has observed a number of situations where politics and religion intersected. One that stands out for him was in 2002. Shortly after becoming mayor, the council passed a resolution to include sexual orientation in Tacoma’s anti-discrimination policy. This move made it illegal for employers, landlords and financial institutions to discriminate against gays within the city limits.
Soon after the resolution passed, a group of citizens filed an initiative aimed at overturning the council’s actions. They gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, but voters ended up rejecting the measure.
“That became an issue that involved deeply held religious sentiment,” Baarsma recalled. One group that supported the initiative was Tacoma Ministerial Alliance, which includes many predominantly black churches in town.
Baarsma met with several ministers representing those churches. “It was quite a discussion. Rather intense,” he recalled.
In contrast, Associated Ministries, whose membership includes numerous congregations of various Christian denominations, was in favor of the council’s action.
Baarsma voted with the council majority in taking an anti-discriminatory stance. He worked for more than 30 years as a professor at the University of Puget Sound. He noted the college has a commitment to diversity that is very broad, with policies that protect people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation as well as on their gender, beliefs or race.
Baarsma noted during his time at city hall, Associated Ministries’ former Executive Director David Alger frequently testified on such issues. The city has worked with churches on addressing homelessness and other social problems, he added.
While mayor, he was approached by the minister at Life Center about joining a group of civic leaders seeking to combat AIDS in the small African nation of Lesotho. Baarsma accepted the invitation and considers his trip to the country as a highlight of his term. That led to formation of the Global Neighbor Project, which promotes education and other advances in Lesotho through local efforts. Baarsma noted churches with both liberal and conservative stances have made commitments to fight the spread of AIDS locally and around the world.
Baarsma was raised an Episcopal, while his wife was raised Pentecostal. Both now attend Immanuel Presbyterian Church. “That church seems to be growing. It is vibrant and very progressive,” he remarked.
It recently held a forum for candidates for Tacoma School Board, although he noted the church itself did not make any endorsements.
He has observed a trend of mainline Protestant denominations struggling to maintain strong memberships, with some congregations merging in order to survive.
“Churches provide people an opportunity to be engaged in community issues, which might be political,” Baarsma said. “Some are engaged politically, some are not.”
Local resident Jean McCord used to attend an Episcopal Church. She left when a new minister was hired who she felt was biased against gays. She now attends First United Methodist Church in downtown, which welcomes gay/lesbian/bisexual and transgendered worshippers. McCord said she and other members of the congregation enjoy the inclusive atmosphere, where gay and straight people can worship and serve at all levels. She said First United goes against the denomination’s official stance on homosexuality. She describes it as a “reconciling congregation.”
McCord said at the national level, the Presbyterian Church adopted a policy of officially welcoming gay people at all level on the other hand but noted that while some local congregations have welcomed that move, others are pondering a defection from the national church, most notably Chapel Hill in Gig Harbor.
Faith and politics have long been important facets of life for Mike Lonergan. He served on the city council when Baarsma was mayor. He has served as executive director of the Rescue Mission and the Salvation Army, two organizations with strong Christian roots.
For 20 years, he has been active in the state chapter of Gideons International, a group known for its Bible distribution efforts. Lonergan said the members are primarily white-collar Protestants. He is also a member of the Kiwanis and noted they start meetings with a prayer much like many other civic organizations.
Council positions are non-partisan, but Lonergan did run unsuccessfully for Congress as a Republican in 1984. He has been active in GOP politics and was generally considered the most conservative member of the council during his time in office.
Lonergan said those who consider themselves politically conservative tend to be Republicans because they agree with the party’s stance on social issues like abortion and gay marriage.
The Democratic Party, on the other hand, has woman’s right to choose abortion and sexual orientation equality as planks in its political platform. He noted the Catholic Church opposes abortion, yet observes that many local Catholics are Democrats. “I can see that being a divisive issue.”
The notion of this region of the country being an “unchurched zone,” with low church attendance compared to other parts of the nation, does not tell the entire story, in his view. “There are tens of thousands of people in Tacoma who do go to church.”
He noted the South is a Baptist stronghold, while the Midwest is a Lutheran one. Lonergan feels the Puget Sound’s remoteness has allowed other faiths to grow. “Some of the non-denominational churches are strong here,” he observed.
Life Center is affiliated with the Assemblies of God, which he described as newer denomination since it was founded in 1914. It is among the largest churches in the area.
“I think part of the Northwest culture is to be more individualistic and freestyle,” he continued. Some newer congregations are small, holding services in schools or storefronts, but are growing. Some move on to build their own sanctuaries.
“Some are becoming very big and attracting a lot of young people,” he said. One example is Champions Centre on East 72nd Street. “It is huge. A lot of people go there.”
Some of newer churches have a very modern form of worship, sometimes utilizing Christian rock music and avoiding the use of religious clothing like white clerical collars. “I think that is a difference in this part of the country.”
Lonergan has observed the battles at the local and national level among Presbyterians and Methodist on hot-button issues, such as ordination of openly gay clergy.
“I think the purpose of a church is to welcome people in whatever stage of life they are in,” he remarked. “It does not matter what your background is, you should be welcome.”
Lonergan attends Peace Assembly, a small, non-denomination church in the North End. He said it steers away from topics that divide other denominations such as abortion or gay clergy. “We stay away from those issues.”
