On
a recent Sunday morning, at a strip mall in Kent, a few hundred people
gathered to worship, rocking out to a band playing contemporary worship
songs and cheering on the fiery pastor -- all in Russian.This
might seem an unlikely place for Ken Hutcherson -- Redmond's Antioch
Bible Church senior pastor, who is known for outspoken views against
homosexuality -- to look for allies in his effort to overturn a state
law banning discrimination against gays and lesbians.
But
then Pastor Andrey Shapovalov asked the children to come forward. Bless
them, he said. "Pray that none of them become homosexuals or lesbians
or have abortions or live a life of crime."At
Transformation Center Church, a nondenominational, evangelical Slavic
church, the theology is "very biblically conservative," Shapovalov
says. "We are on the same page" as Hutcherson.The unusual alliance began last spring, after a debate on gay rights between Hutcherson and King County Executive Ron Sims.
A
local man saw it and approached Hutcherson to arrange a meeting with
his uncle, an evangelical pastor in Latvia who heads a network of
churches in 14 countries, including the U.S.The nephew "said he didn't know who I was or how important I was," Hutcherson says.The
relationship with the Latvian pastor, who is visiting Hutcherson this
week, has led to pro-traditional-family, anti-gay-marriage conferences
in Bellevue and Sacramento, Calif. And it resulted in a recent trip to
Latvia, where Hutcherson says he met with top evangelical government
officials to talk about stopping "the homosexual movement saying
they're a minority and that they need their equal rights."
Quest for signatures
Hutcherson
now hopes the alliance will result in signatures for an initiative he
filed last week seeking to repeal a state law, passed a year ago, that
adds sexual orientation to a state law banning discrimination based on
race, gender, religion and other categories."We've
got a lot of churches to reach," said Hutcherson, who must gather at
least 224,800 valid signatures by July 6 to put the initiative on the
fall ballot."We
want to get the Slavic churches, the Russian-speaking churches, the
Korean churches, Philippine, Chinese, white, cross-cultural. ... If
we're going to win this fight on protecting traditional marriage, we're
going to need all churches to work together."It's too soon to say whether Hutcherson's actions will yield the results he wants.About
two-thirds of the estimated 300 people who attend Transformation Center
Church are U.S. citizens -- and thus eligible to sign the initiative
petition. And although Transformation's involvement may signal the
beginning of political action on gay issues by conservative
evangelicals from the former Soviet republics, it's unclear where other
such local churches stand.
Other
questions include whether Hutcherson can mobilize other evangelical
churches at a time when the public debate is centering mainly around
domestic partnerships and gay marriage.
Even if his initiative makes it onto the ballot, Hutcherson's opponents doubt voters will take away a legal protection."I
just don't believe the people of this state are going to support
discrimination," said state Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, who championed
the gay-rights bill.That
isn't stopping Hutcherson, who says an earlier effort to repeal the
bill failed in part because "we waited too late to get the churches
together."All
of which has local gay-rights activist Bill Dubay musing: "I don't know
why he cares so much that people have legal protections. ... It seems
to me he needs a lot of attention, and this gets it for him."
"Tremendous ego"
Hutcherson,
who had a brief National Football League career as a linebacker with
the Seahawks, Dallas Cowboys and San Diego Chargers, acknowledges "I
have a tremendous ego.""That's
why I played pro football," he said. "I'm taking that same ego and
energy that benefited me in football and now putting it in for the
glory of God to do his will and his work."In
that regard, his ambitions are bigger than ever. He talks of organizing
an international summit: "I am building a force around the world."
Back at Transformation Center Church, a guest speaker talked about "divine penicillin.""I
consider myself more American than those who were born in this country
who are destroying it," said Wade Kusak, host of a Russian-language
radio show in Sacramento and publisher of newspapers there and in
Seattle.It's
no coincidence, he said, that states with growing evangelical Slavic
communities are the most liberal, full of people "trying to destroy our
families."That's
why God "made an injection" of Slavic evangelicals. "In those places
where the disease is progressing, God made a divine penicillin."Shapovalov said Kusak has spoken to his congregants on how to conduct themselves at political demonstrations.
In
Kusak's home base of Sacramento, which has the nation's largest
conservative evangelical Slavic community, church members have picketed
gay-pride events and packed legislative meetings, often far
outnumbering other protesters, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The
emigration began in the late 1980s, when then-Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev allowed victims of religious persecution -- among them
Baptists, Pentecostals and Jews -- to leave the country, said Susan
Hardwick, a University of Oregon geography professor specializing in
Russian and Ukrainian immigrant communities.
Many
went to Sacramento -- home of a Christian radio show that had been
broadcast in the Soviet Union -- or settled in the Pacific Northwest.
They established churches, which sponsored more families.
Many to draw from
Western
Washington has at least 60,000 immigrants from former Soviet republics,
said Charles Richter, a University of Washington graduate student
studying Russian religion and immigrants. Roughly one-third are
evangelical, one-third are Orthodox and the rest are of other or no
faiths.
Shapovalov
estimated that the Puget Sound area has about 30 to 40 evangelical
Slavic churches. They haven't really worked together, he said, but he
hopes he and Hutcherson can mobilize them.
Shapovalov,
32, a father of two, came to the United States from Ukraine in 1991
because he wanted to live in a "very Christian nation."Now, he said, he sees signs of erosion everywhere."When we used to live in Russia, there is no drugs," and homosexuality was hidden, he said.
But in the community here, some youths started drinking and a few engaged in homosexual behavior.
Church
member Aleksandr Zadniprovskiy, 25, a Port Orchard auto-shop owner,
said he wants his children to grow up the way he did. "I'm for doing
things right. There's a right way to do it and a wrong way."It's unclear where other local evangelical Russian-speaking churches stand.
Pastors at some of them could not be reached for comment.
The larger community
Also uncertain is the extent to which the larger evangelical community will mobilize for the initiative.Gary
Randall, president of Faith and Freedom Network, a lobbying group for
the state's conservative Christian community, said he would be happy to
work with Hutcherson, although he said he doesn't know if people are
still fired up about the issue.
Pastor
Alec Rowlands, president of Sound the Alarm, a group for conservative
Washington pastors, said his group's focus this year will be on
re-energizing pastors. "That's not to say we won't engage in political
things," he said. "But we've honestly not committed to any particular
initiatives or campaigns."That
doesn't diminish Hutcherson's zeal. He said he was meeting this week
with the visiting Latvian pastor, Shapovalov and possibly
representatives of other local evangelical Russian-speaking churches."We better wake up," he said. "This is a war."
