Alarm over gay rights bill prompts rally in Salem for pastors, religious leaders April 5

    SALEM -- In light of the State Capitol's new political climate, the quick advance last month of legislation to grant minority rights to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals didn't surprise evangelical Christians strongly opposed.

    But knowing the legislation was coming didn't lessen opponents' sense of alarm.

   "The most morally destructive bill in Oregon history" is how David Crowe, Christian political activist and driector of Lake Oswego-based Restore America, termed Senate Bill 2.

   "Never in our nation's 230-year history have religious freedoms faced so serious a threat as the one currently in the Oregon Legislature," summarized a letter from 11 Oregon pastors to fellow pastors statewide.

    Such is the level of concern that the letter called for pastors and religious and private school leaders from throughout Oregon to rally in Salem Thursday, April 5, and meet with legislators. Assisting with the effort is Oregon Family Council.
    Fast tracked for the certain signature of Gov. Ted Kulongoski, the bill was seen by many evangelical Christians as a serious threat to religious freedom, including Christians’ right to teach children how to make moral distinctions. They also claimed it would lead to “hate speech” legislation to muffle all dissent, mandate changes in education that directly contradict the nation’s traditional morality, and require teaching of homosexuality as a legitimate, alternative lifestyle to children in public schools.
    Yet to gay and lesbian activists who failed in 2004 to defeat a ballot measure that banned same-sex marriages in the state, the 21-7 OK of SB2 by the Senate March 21 was hailed as a long-awaited step toward outlawing what they see as discrimination based on sexual orientation and to allow same-sex couples to enter into civil unions.
    Opponents pledged to carry on their fight in the House of Representatives.
    What paved the way for the new legislation was last November’s election, which saw Kulongoski re-elected to a second term and the Democrats gaining control of the House. Now that the Senate has passed the measure, the House will work on both it and House Bill 2007, which would legally sanction civil unions between same-sex couples. That legislation would extend to such couples some of the same rights enjoyed by married couples.
    For Oregon Family Council, which played a major role in the success of the 2004 ban on same-sex marriage, the big question was which was the best strategy — trying to get the most objectionable parts of the legislation removed, or planning an initiative campaign this year for a fall statewide vote to try to overturn the legislation.
   “We don’t have the luxury, like we did two years ago, of asking our friends in the House to take care of this for us,” Nick Graham of Oregon Family Council told Christian News Northwest. “We have to work within the system to make sure that whatever Salem sends out, is not going to infringe on religious freedom.”
    Graham said a March 19 hearing in Salem on SB 2 lasted seven hours and saw 126 people register in opposition and 65 supporting. Virtually all testifying against the bill had faith-based reasons for opposing it, he said.
   “We had fantastic testimony in opposition, such as from legal firms and executive pastors,” Graham said. “But to no avail, that evening, the bill was passed out of committee and sent to the floor of the Senate ... We were given the appearance of public input, but ultimately it meant nothing.”
    Most prominent concern for Christians is the lack of a religious exemption to address operating procedures and hiring practices for parachurch organizations such as homeless missions, Christian adoption agencies, schools and many more ministries, said Graham. He said the hope is that the House might yet change that language in its version of the bill.
   “Changing the religious exemption would, at the very least, protect the religious community from having their beliefs encroached on,” said Graham.
He said a Seattle law firm, Ellis, Li & McKinstry, wrote that the bill: “undermines the autonomy of religious organizations by subjecting them to unprecedented judicial intrusion and sanction if they decline to hire homosexuals, make their facilities available to homosexual activities and open housing to homosexual couples.”
    An initiative drive to overturn the legislation would take about 55,000 signatures to qualify for the fall ballot, Graham said.
    Graham acknowledged that legislation dealing with religious liberties and civil unions is “not as cut and dried as marriage” and that the potential was there to confuse voters.
    “But at the same time religious freedom is a concept that the vast majority of Oregonians understand and is at the core of freedom in this country,” he said. “This bill is forcing churches to accept, not just tolerate, but accept this lifestyle as OK with the doctrine and practices of their church.”
     Pastors and religious leaders and private school leaders will rally at 11:30 a.m. at Salem Evangelical Church, 455 Locust N.E. After lunch and a briefing, they will be shuttled to the Capitol by bus to meet with legislators. To register, phone 503-257-0444 or go to www.pastorday.com.