Ken “The Hutch” Hutcherson, 61, a former Seattle Seahawk and an outspoken pastor who championed racial equality but opposed gay marriage, died shortly before noon on Wednesday.

He had battled prostate cancer for more than a decade.

Pastor Hutcherson, who started the Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, was not afraid to take on politically unpopular causes, such as his yearslong battle against same-sex marriage, or institutional inequities, such as the practice by adoption agencies of charging higher fees to adopt white babies.

During his life, the husband and father of four was described by supporters as funny, happy and jovial even in the face of cancer, while detractors called him an egotistic bully.

But Gerald Lewis, the pastor of administration at Antioch, said Hutcherson would like to be remembered as a man for whom the word of God was paramount.

“More than anything, he would want people to know he loved Jesus and submitted his entire life to working for the Lord,” said Lewis. “He often said, ‘I have been saved by the word of God, and I believe it to be true. I have to live by that, and I have to lead by that.’ ”

Pastor Hutcherson was born in Anniston, Ala., to a poor, single mother on July 14, 1952. He grew up during a time of “aggressive segregation,” Lewis said. He spoke publicly numerous times about experiencing racial prejudice — riding in the back of the bus and drinking from separate water fountains — and also of harboring bias himself.

He was quoted as saying he had been drawn to football because he “could hurt white people legally.”

But while he was in high school he had a religious experience and “God changed his life,” said Lewis. He submitted his life to God’s will and studied the Bible. Through his studies, he came to believe that men are created equal in God’s eyes and that discrimination based on race is wrong, Lewis said.

Pastor Hutcherson attended University of West Alabama in Livingston, Ala., and went on to play pro football as a linebacker in Dallas and San Diego before he was selected by the Seahawks during the expansion draft in 1976.

A knee injury ended his football career the next year, and he eventually started Antioch, a 3,500-member multiracial congregation that grew out of a small Bible study group.

The church’s motto is “Black and White in a Gray World,” a saying that aptly captured Pastor Hutcherson’s belief that God’s word provides clear truths in a murky world. It also speaks to his personal life, according to his friend and colleague Pastor Joe Fuiten, of Cedar Park Assembly of God, in Bothell.

-SNIP-

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