Women's group wants UO apology for paper

   SALEM – Concerned Women for America of Oregon is angry.
The organization is calling on Dave Frohnmayer, president of the University of Oregon in Eugene, the Associated Students of the University of Oregon (ASUO) and the University of Oregon Alumni Association to apologize for what Concerned Women describes as “the obscene, anti-Christian assault” in the campus newspaper Insurgent’s March edition. The paper ran graphics depicting Jesus as a homosexual “in compromising poses with other men and other pornographic depictions,” said CWA.
    The controversy over the graphics has received not only regional but national media attention, including from FOX talk host Bill O’Reilly.
    Concerned Women of Oregon represents more than 4,000 members and is affiliated with Concerned Women for America, which has more than 500,000 supporters.
    Confronted about the controversy, Insurgent Student Editor Jessica Brown said about the graphics, “I have to say it is really fun to offend people. It is fun to break the rules. If it pi--es people off ... good that’s the point! So read, get pi--ed and talk about it!”
    Frohnmayer’s staff has stated there is nothing they can do because student funds are allocated at the bequest of a group of students (ASOU) elected by the student body. According to university administrators, oversight and accountability is with ASOU and not with the university.
    In addition to a full public apology, CWA Oregon wants UO to set up an oversight and accountability process in the university system. CWA says any organization that receives funds from students, parents, or state-funded scholarships should be held accountable by the university.
   “We are outraged over these cartoons. They are offensive and obscene,” said Louise Muscato, CWA Oregon director. “How can we in good conscience support or endorse the University of Oregon to young people looking for a university, when they are promoting anti-Christian ideals way outside of the mainstream? I have to believe if this ‘journalistic paper’ had run a cartoon with Mr. Frohnmayer’s face instead of Jesus Christ, justice would have been swift and harsh.”
    Concerned Women for America of Oregon is calling on its members and concerned citizens to phone Frohnmayer at 541-346-3036 and urge him to apologize for the obscene cartoons and to set up an accountability structure inside the university system.