March 01, 2004
(Updated) 'Oregonian' Profiles Four Pastors In Anti-Marriage Debate
Article Fails To Include State Initiative Sponsors
Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.
Today's Oregonian offers a profile of sorts of four Portland-area pastors it says have "reluctantly step[ed] forward to oppose gay marriage" -- none of whom are the three chief petitioners of the four state initiatives filed last month.
They were reluctant to talk to a reporter and had to be persuaded to allow a photo to be taken. They would rather stay within their church communities and out of the public eye.
But, instead, four evangelical pastors from the Portland area have gingerly stepped into the public arena to oppose gay marriage.
Among other things, they are part of an informal group considering launching a ballot measure that, if passed by Oregon voters, would bar the state from recognizing any marriage that is not between a man and a woman.
It's not clear what the paper means by "launching a ballot measure" since there are already four measures filed with the state.
According to the article, these particular pastors take pains to differentiate themselves from Lon Mabon and the Oregon Citizens' Alliance, and distance themselves from direct opposition to civil unions. As previously reported, Kelly Boggs (one of the chief petitioners for the current crop of four proposed initiatives) seemingly has said the same things, despite, in the latter case, a prohibition of civil unions contained within two of the initiatives to which he has lent his name.
The interview with The Oregonian was arranged by Tim Nashif ("a veteran political consultant who helped found the Oregon Family Council, a group that publishes a Christian voting guide"), who has also been advising the petitioners involved in the four initiatives.
This set of pastors argues that since a 4,000-year-old book sets forth traditions of marriage, it's inconceivable that we in the 21st century would move to make any changes. As pointed out elsewhere, they somehow fail to mention those "parts of the bible that allowed husbands to have concubines, or allowed men to kill their wives for�disobedience."
In possibly related news, the aforementioned Kelly Boggs yesterday posted a long entry regarding defamation law.
We are fairly secure in arguing that this likely is an attempted pre-empitve strike on Boggs' part, as he may be trying to head off any public discussion of private discussions he's had about his involvement in the state initiative filings.
For those out there who may have had such discussions with Boggs, here is our layman's legal advice (not meant, in any substantial way, to be a substitute for actual legal advice): As a general rule, truth is a defense in cases of defamation accusations.
One last note: As of early this morning, according to email from the Elections Division, no comments have yet been filed on initiatives 146, 147, 148, or 149. See this item for information on challenges opponents might want to make on 147 and 149.
Update
We've been informed tha at least one set of comments on initiatives 147 and 149 were filed today, making use of our analysis of their possible non-compliance based upon mis-categorization. For what it's worth, according to the Elections Division, they typically do not post the comments until one business day after the comment deadline.
"Rather than post comments as they come in," says Summer S. Davis of the Elections Division, "we wait to post them all at once, especially since it is typical to receive no comments until shortly before the deadline."
Update
Basic Rights Oregon is pushing a petition (you can sign online via email or print a paper copy) which asks signatories to pledge not to sign "any anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act initiative petitions." Of course, the term "Defense of Marriage" is only used on two of the four new state initiatives, the other two using "Affirmation of Marriage" instead. Then again, the BRO website hasn't been very active regarding these state initiatives, so perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that they don't quite have their information right.
Comments (1)
Marie on 26 Mar 2004
I am not sure who you people are or what it is your are proving with this,reporting the news, web page. But I did wander in here, after seeing my Pastors name being used from a google search. I find it very odd that if you are telling the news to others, you are so one sided? But than again, I don't really know what you are all about, so maybe, you are not reporting news, maybe you are just telling your side of a story. That's OK too, it's your web page. But it sure would be nice if you knew from which you were telling, when you were telling it. Here's my point. And I quote
"As pointed out elsewhere, they somehow fail to mention those "parts of the bible that allowed husbands to have concubines, or allowed men to kill their wives for disobedience.""
Yes the Bible is full of this kind of stuff, really if you read it, you would find much worse. Hey there is even Gay and lesbian folks in there too. Along with all kinds of other things, some good, some not so good, and some down right awful. The Bible tells the truth, it is the facts of life! It is the telling of the history and the future of Man, from the beginning to the end! While there are things in the Bible like concubines, murder, sex out side of marriage, sex between beings and humans, beastality and more, this does not mean God would have us to be doing such things. Heaven forbid! The Bible is a teaching tool God gives us to use, to learn from, and Yes to follow what He said we should do. Not what those before us have done in spite of what God had told them was right and good to do in the eyes of the Lord. Knowing what they did (right or wrong) and learning from it is the wiser way to go, wouldn't you say? Everything that God put on this earth, everything God created, is good. It is what we have perverted these same things into that is so sinful. God did give us free will and because of that we have the God given power to pervert the very things He gave us to enjoy. It is very sad that we have managed to take almost everything God has given us and do wrong by Him. If you have read the Bible, you might agree with me, that in it, the UNITED STATES, is not mentioned. Do you suppose that this great nation of ours, founded, by Godly men, who I am sure never ever thought for one min. that some 200 years later, men would be marrying men, and women, would be doing the same, whoops started chasing rabbits. Do you suppose that the US of A is not mentioned because she no longer is of any relevance because God choose to stop blessing her because of her sinfulness, and say destroyed her as he did Sodom and Gomorrah. You know 200+ years is really no time at all when it comes to eternity. Sodom and Gomorrah are barely mentioned in the Bible, I bet they were around for longer than 200+ years, and yet only mentioned as to give us a clue of what God does not allow. The USA is getting mighty close to what Sodom and Gomorrah where, just before they were wiped from the face of the earth never to be heard from again..Just asking you to think about it.