Oregon's Extreme Christian Right is Pissed
They're mad and that is A-OK with me, I'm just not sure if I actually believe why they are mad.
Trying to filter through the lies and rhetoric of Oregon's extreme Christian right can be a bit difficult sometimes. As much as one would like to believe that they don't fill their newsletters with lies and deception in a blatant attempt to mislead their followers can be anything but easy.
This morning I got an email from "Restore America", this is one of the three main groups heading up the attempt to overturn Oregon's brand new Domestic Partnership law and the new statewide Anti-Discrimination law. They seem to be all up in arms about Oregon evangelical church leaders who are refusing to participate in helping them to gather signatures for these anti-family, anti-equality drives.
Here is an excerpt from their newsletter:
For two months now it has become increasingly clear that many, if not most, of the leading Evangelical Churches in Oregon have given up the battle to protect and preserve traditional marriage.
Only three years ago these same churches, at the urging of Dr. James Dobson, mounted a furious and successful effort that Amended the Oregon Constitution to read that marriage was "between a man and a woman only."
With their retreat, which has been glaring, and contradictory to earlier statements, comes the obvious conclusion that the new form of marriage called 'domestic partnerships' created by the legislature, and in violation of the Constitution, is 'okay' with them.
They go on to cite an email from one of their supporters in which they tell the story of their church leaders not wanting to participate.
I'm trying to draw some conclusions here. In no particular order here they are.
So what now?
After reading their email I walked away with a sense of, well not really a sense of much. I know that with such a low threshold of signatures needed (55,179) that both of these could easily be out on the ballot, so is this simply an attempt to liven up their base or is this a move of desperation?
My assumption is that it is somewhere in the middle of both of those. In no way, shape or form should we ever underestimate the power of our opposition and never should we give up our vigilance, but is there hope? Is it possible that we won't see Domestic Partnerships or Anti-Discrimination referendums on the 2008 ballot?
In any case, as I said, we need to never lose that vigilance. This comes from Basic Rights Oregon late last week:
SPOTTING PETITION FRAUD
Folks, you are the eyes and the ears across Oregon and we need your help in spotting petition fraud by our opposition.
If you spot a referendum petition gatherer you should:
1.) Check to see if they're carrying Referendum Petitions #303 and #304.
2.) CALL US immediately and tell us where, what time/date, and whether the petitioner was carrying the full text of the bills or not. (It is against the law for them to not be carrying both bills on their person.)
If you see someone attempting to gather signatures for these anti-equality petitions, call Thomas at 503.222.6151 or email him at Thomas@basicrights.org.
That's all for now. There are 45 days left until these anti-equality, anti-family and frankly anti-Oregon groups have until they are required to turn in signatures. That is a month-and-a-half, plenty of time for them to collect more than enough sigs.
Labels: 2008 elections, ballot measure, basic rights oregon, evangelical, house bill 2007, oregon, senate bill 2
This entry was posted
on Monday, August 13, 2007 at 10:25 AM.
Want to discuss? Leave a comment below.
ByWell Gavin, it's good that the subject is the inclusion in the ballot of a question, and I'm glad to see that only 10-20% of the signature goal has been achieved by 50% of the time term past. It's quite likely that they can't go forward.
But were the case a bit different, let's say as you commented, having a 75% of un-supporters on the question would mark a confidence which could bring about surprises. I'm not there and can't give a view on politics and systems, but as galician native I know that confidence is more likely to cause deception.
And thank you for the corrections.
By
Gay author spreads astounishing news that could shock the entire christian movement. Log on to www.bradleyfowler.com for more details
» Post a Comment