And somewhere, John Giles is muttering under his breath, “I told you so.” Alabama’s new Christian Coalition has chosen to act more like Jesus and less like a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican party, publicly supporting bipartisan legislation that would further regulate the state’s payday loan industry.
Randy Brinson hopes people saw a different Christian Coalition of Alabama on Tuesday.
The president of the organization attended a news conference where state Sen. Bradley Byrne, R-Fairhope, discussed his bill to regulate the payday loan industry. They were joined by Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Joe Turnham.
Brinson said the bipartisan display is something he’s worked on since joining the group in December. “I asked ‘where are the things where we can find consensus on issues?’ ” Brinson said.
In an amusing bit of revisionist history, former president Giles claims to have been bipartisan as well. Well, yeah, I know there are legislators on both sides of the aisle who oppose rewriting our crappy constitution, but it’s not because they believe God ordained the current one or even because they believe Jesus would oppose a fair and adequate tax system. And, sadly, it’s not hard to find gay-bashers of every political stripe, especially when they’re threatened with well-funded smear campaigns if they don’t toe the line. But it was no secret that the questionnaires used to compile the Christian Coalition’s voter guides were so skewed toward Republican positions that many Democrats didn’t even bother to complete them. Doesn’t sound very bipartisan to me.
Will this new Christian Coalition really be bipartisan? We’ll have to wait and see. If it truly is of the improved variety, I hope its leaders will choose to be more transparent about its funding sources. I think it’s safe to assume they won’t take any more casino money, but it would be nice to know for sure.
I’m certain they will not be unbiased. However, simply making the gesture on one obvious issue is one (indeed, significant) more good thing than the disgusting Mr. Giles ever did. He (Giles) would probably argue that Christ Himself called for the formation of the payday loan industry.
Bill, payday loans are the 11th Commandment.
James Cameron found the piece of paper that said so cluthched in Jesus’ hand inside the tomb he found.
I saw it on t.v. last week so it must be true.
Anna, LOL!
I saw that one, too. I’m like you in that I’m still skeptical. This was too obvious an easy issue. That they support it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ve become bipartisan or even nonpartisan. I’ll believe them when they put out more informative voter guides and even show support for a Dem or third party candidate or two.
So, if payday loans are commandment 11, is Mr. Giles’ 12th commandment: “thou shalt have private school vouchers”…?
Bradley Byrne is a good guy.
Del, is he your senator?
ALMod, you’re right — the endorsements will tell the story.
Jeff, I’m sure that one’s right up there with “Thou shalt give tax cuts to the wealthy.”
And both of you got caught by my akismet spam blocker. I hadn’t checked that thing in months till another blogger mentioned it this weekend. Now I’m wondering how many comments never made it through. Strange!
No, we’ve got Vivian Figures, the one who keeps fighting the battle to ban tobacco. Bradley used to live fairly near here, and he and his family went to our church. He served on the state school board–first got elected as a Dem, I think—then he switched parties, moved across the bay to conservative Baldwin County, and ran successfully for Senate.
A while back he introduced what I considered to be a shamelessly pandering bill about schoolchildren and the Pledge. I sent an email criticizing it and got a speedy, courteous, personal reply. Today I sent an email congratulating him about the payday loan bill and got an equally speedy and courteous reply. He’s smart, has Christian values (as opposed to Christianist) and except for that little sally about the pledge has been a consistent voice of prudence and reason in the Senate.
/Byrne campaign advertisement
I should hope you were paid for that, Del.
Seriously, it’s nice to hear about the good ones, and the ones who can be taught. My state senator tends to embody the worst attributes of a mule, particularly when it comes to constitutional reform.