ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 12, 1996 TAG: 9610140043
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: AUSTIN, TEXAS
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE SAMPLE GUIDE distributed in Texas had racial overtones, said some religious and black leaders.
The Christian Coalition apologized Friday for sending out a sample voter guide that used a black man to represent candidates opposed to its positions.
The guide, which used a white man for positions the coalition favors, was criticized as racist by some religious leaders and by the Texas NAACP. It was distributed to a number of churches in Texas and possibly other states.
Mike Russell, a spokesman for the Virginia-based coalition, said approval of the sample guide was ``an honest mistake'' based on poor reproductions of the pictures.
The sample was distributed in an effort to persuade churches to order the coalition's actual voter guides, which explain the views of candidates for president, for Congress and for some statewide offices. The guides are widely distributed through churches and religious organizations across the country.
In the sample, the white candidate is listed as supporting such things as a balanced budget amendment, federal tax relief and parental choice in education.
The black man is listed as opposing those things and supporting such things as abortion on demand, taxpayer-funded abortion and allowing homosexuals to adopt children.
``This is yet another clear example of race-baiting for a political end,'' said Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas State Conference of NAACP Branches.
But Russell said, ``The important thing is that the mistake was discovered and corrected.'' He said the sample would no longer be used.
An outside firm designed the sample and faxed it to the coalition for approval, he said. ``The photographs were so fuzzy and dark in the fax. We approved it,'' he said. ``We're guilty of an honest mistake.''
Kyle Childress, pastor of the predominately white Austin Heights Baptist Church in Nacogdoches, in east Texas, said he accepts the coalition's apology.
But he added, ``You wonder, what kind of message are they trying to communicate. If you vote for a Democrat, they question your faith.''
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICSby CNB