By Joey Kennedy
The Birmingham News
November 17, 2000
We now have a model for getting tax reform and constitutional
reform in Alabama, and it's a model given to us, believe it or not,
by Alabama Baptists this week during their three-day meeting in Montgomery.
For the most part, the Baptists did what was expected.
They affirmed the latest Southern Baptist Convention creed; the one
that says women can't be called by God to the ministry like men, and
that wives should submit graciously to their husbands.
But Baptists did the unexpected, too. They adopted a
resolution calling on the governor and Legislature to reform the state's
wretched tax system. That was something Baptists hypocritically refused
to do last year, even as they basked in the glow of helping defeat
Gov. Don Siegelman's education lottery because, they said, a lottery
would hurt poor people most.
Righteous or right?
Now before running off and sending a congratulatory letter
to Baptist leaders to thank them, read the rest of the story.
Even though Alabama Baptists as a group adopted the resolution
calling for tax reform, the top leaders of the Alabama Baptist Convention
didn't want it.
They didn't care if they and their denomination look hypocritical,
fighting against last year's lottery on "moral" grounds while at the
same time supporting an immoral tax system.
They'd rather be self-righteous than right.
But that stubborn streak is exactly what leads to our
model for tax reform and constitutional reform in Alabama.
Like Baptist leaders, Alabama's elected leaders don't
want to touch tax or constitutional reform. Just this week, as mainstream
Baptists began their grass-roots push for their convention to encourage
tax reform as a moral issue, Siegelman was discouraging.
"I wouldn't expect any kind of immediate change," the
governor said. "You need to build public support."
Siegelman, in other words, was saying: Don't expect me
to lead the charge. You didn't think you were electing me governor
to be a leader, did you?
It was the same with top Baptist leaders.
Indeed, a strongly worded resolution calling for Baptists
to support tax reform was stripped down in a committee earlier this
week to be come a vague affirmation that basically said poor people
are, well, poor, so let's save them and keep giving to the World Hunger
Offering. Not one word about tax reform survived.
But the grass-roots wouldn't be denied. On Monday night
in Montgomery, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the moderate wing
of the Southern Baptist Convention, held a forum on tax and constitutional
reform. Panelists included Auburn University history professor Dr.
Wayne Flynt, former gubernatorial candidate Lenora Pate, Birmingham
community leader Odessa Woolfolk, former state Ethics Commission director
Melvin Cooper and Dr. Tom Corts, president of Samford University.
All argued passionately for reform, armed with all the horrible statistics
that show our tax system and constitution fatally flawed.
As important, at Monday night's forum there were the
more than 200 ordinary Baptists crowded together, listening attentively
and asking questions. Included, too, were dozens of young college
Baptists, looking for a cause to champion.
The people's will
The Baptist resolution to support tax reform came from
the floor, not from the leadership or some committee. Oh, these Baptist
leaders, after they were overwhelmed by the will of their flocks,
embraced tax reform like it was their idea.
Said the Baptist convention's
new president, the Rev. Mike McLemore of Lakeside Baptist Church in
Hoover: "We are trying to be proactive and not always a reactive institution."
Whatever. One million Baptists are now on record for
tax reform. Baptist leaders didn't want them to be, but they are.
If a grass-roots effort by ordinary Baptists can bend
the will of a few narrow-minded Baptist leaders, so, too, can a grass-roots
effort by Alabama citizens bend the will of our misguided governor
and Legislature.
Tax reform doesn't mean tax increase. It means tax fairness.
Call, write and otherwise pester your elected leaders about this,
and do it now.
Joey Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize
winner, is an editorial writer and editor of the "Columns" page for
The Birmingham News. Readers may e-mail him at jkennedy@bhamnews.com.
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