Northwest League Asks State Rep. to Return $1,000 Contribution

The Northwest Credit Union Association asked a state legislator to return its $1,000 campaign contribution after the Washington lawmaker admitted to authoring a document that outlined a war in the name of God to stop abortions, same-sex marriage and calls for the death of all males who do not yield to these terms of “justice and righteousness.”

About a week before he was re-elected to Spokane Valley’s 4th legislative district, Republican State Rep. Matt Shea made headlines when the Spokesman-Review newspaper reported he admitted to writing a four-page document titled the “Biblical Basis for War.” The newspaper described it as a “radical Christian call to arms, outlining 14 steps for seizing power and what to do afterward in explicit detail.”

One of the most controversial steps titled “Rules of War,” which includes making an offer of peace before declaring war as long as people surrender on terms of justice and righteousness to “stop all abortions, no same-sex marriage, no idolatry or occultism, not communism, and must obey Biblical law.”

The document then states if they yield to these terms, “they must pay share of work and taxes,” and “if they do not yield — kill all males.”

Some member credit unions brought to the attention of the Northwest Credit Union Association the personal views of Rep. Shea, including the recent media reports and social media posts about the Biblical Basis for War.

“We don’t believe those views, while separate from Rep. Shea’s support of credit union issues, reflect the values of NWCUA, of member credit unions, which operate on the ‘people helping people’ philosophy, or the views and values of many credit union members,” the NWCUA said in a prepared statement. “We do not believe the controversy the social media post created, is productive in advancing the credit union movement or the policy advancement initiatives that you as credit unions support. For these reasons we are asking Rep. Shea to return the 2017 contribution. We have taken similar action in the past when deemed appropriate.”

The NWCUA said the $1,000 contribution was made in the last election cycle to Rep. Shea’s primary election campaign, following a review of his past legislative support of issues relevant to Washington state credit unions. NWCUA is a bipartisan organization, which appreciates support on issues of most importance to credit unions such as choice, market competition, and fairness.

Rep. Shea did not respond to a CU Times request seeking comment.

However, in a video post, the state assembly member defended the Biblical Basis for War.

“First of all, it was a summary of a series of sermons on biblical war in the Old Testament and was part of a larger discussion on the history of warfare,” Shea said. “This document in and of itself was not a secret. I’ve actually talked about portions of this document publicly and talked about Just War Theory.”

Generally, the Just War Theory is the basis on which nations use to legally and morally justify going to war.