Gary Randall (pictured right) is having a conniption fit.  Pastor Joe Fuiten, the former Director of Gary’s Faith & Freedom Network and the very person who hired Gary into that cash cow position has had the temerity to tell the truth about Washington’s radical right.

“As a political movement, it is a leaderless army milling about the field,” acknowledged Pastor Joseph Fuiten, one of the area’s most visible leaders on the Christian right.

Randall stammers in reply, bubububut “2400 people gathered on the steps of the Capitol, in the rain, for marriage.”  True, but just a few years ago they were able to amass 20,000.

[Fuiten] has publicly opposed – and won’t sign – Referendum 71, the effort to repeal that measure, saying people are preoccupied with the economy and there’s not enough support.

More important, he said, Ref. 71 “drags us backward into a negative fight we’re not going to win.”

“I don’t want the church to be viewed as oppressive, [and] as opposed to people living their lives and eking out whatever happiness they can.”

He says he believes that different times call for different strategies and says that now, with the country less in sync with his traditional values, and many hurting because of the economy, people need to hear about hope, not about hell.

“God is not coercive,” he said. “The idea that people ought to be free to live their life and live the way they want to – I don’t object to that.”

In response to such sentiments Randall can only snipe.

“If he wanted to dissent or not support it,” Randall said, “I think people understand that. I don’t think people understand why he’s trying to undermine the whole effort. Some people have said it’s because he’s not leading the charge. I wouldn’t say that, but that has been said.“

Catfight!  If Randall represents local radical-right “leadership”, Fuiten’s assessment is clearly spot on.

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Related:

* Larry Stickney’s Referendum 71 Has No Support from its Natural Allies