Pastor Fuiten skewers strategy of R-71 opponents

Pastor Joe Fuiten, one of the state's better known conservative Christian political activists, didn't have a lot of compliments today about the tactics of those behind Referendum 71.

Writing online, Fuiten takes aim at Protect Marriage Washington and Faith and Freedom Network (translated as Larry Stickney and Gary Randall, respectively) for not having a strategy to win.

He writes:

"From my viewpoint, the outcome would have been difficult under the best of circumstances. But our loss was made certain by three failures on our part:

We failed in our message.
We failed in our methods.
We failed in our money.
Furthermore, I still have to wonder if God was in the effort."

A bit farther down he says:

Maybe the main lesson to be learned from our loss is to question those who want to lead us into similar efforts in the future. We have a right to know that they have a plan that involves enough money and the plan to raise the money. Even more than the plan, there should be some evidence of. seed money. If you are going to claim to be the leader you have to actually have a strategy for victory. Without the definitive plan our side has nothing to rally around.

And while Fuiten insisted he backed the effort once it qualified, he wondered if God was on their side.

We clearly lost ground with some. Did we gain offsetting ground with others? I don't know. Only eternity will tell. I do know we all worked hard for what we hoped was the will of God. We did it mostly for the right reasons. In our best motives we might have done it for God's glory.

Unfortunately, it appears we have fallen short of the glory of God.