Oregon Church Sues Ex-Members Over Online Criticism
When Julie Anne Smith and her family severed ties with the Beaverton
Grace Bible Church a few years ago, she said, former friends acted like
the Oregon mother and her family were complete strangers.
“If I went to Costco or any place in town, if I ran into somebody, they would turn their heads and walk the other way,” Smith told ABC affiliate KATU-TV in Portland. “All we did was asked questions. We just raised concerns. There’s no sin in that.”
Smith may have lost her former friends, but she said she never imagined she and her daughter be hit with a $500,000 lawsuit for defamation for speaking her mind on the Internet. Three other commenters who criticized the church were also named in the suit.
“You will be fine at this church if you never question the elders or pastor,” Smith wrote on Sept. 29, 2011, one of many online reviews she wrote critical of the church, according to court documents.
She said Pastor Charles O’Neal was guilty of “narcissism in the pulpit” and had “chosen to mislead the congregation.”
Smith described a church that told members what to wear, had communal foot washings and discouraged members from having friends outside the church.
She said church members began adding positive reviews, pushing her words down the page and her posts were removed. In February, Smith started a blog called “Beaverton Grace Bible Church Survivors.”
Three days after starting the blog, she was served with the lawsuit, she said.
“The story of spiritual abuse needs to be told. People are being hurt emotionally and spiritually by pastors who use bully tactics and we need a place to learn, to talk freely, and to heal. I will not be silenced,” she wrote on her blog.
ABC News’ calls to Beaverton Grace Bible Church were not returned.
The suit is scheduled to be heard by a judge later this month.
“If I went to Costco or any place in town, if I ran into somebody, they would turn their heads and walk the other way,” Smith told ABC affiliate KATU-TV in Portland. “All we did was asked questions. We just raised concerns. There’s no sin in that.”
Smith may have lost her former friends, but she said she never imagined she and her daughter be hit with a $500,000 lawsuit for defamation for speaking her mind on the Internet. Three other commenters who criticized the church were also named in the suit.
“You will be fine at this church if you never question the elders or pastor,” Smith wrote on Sept. 29, 2011, one of many online reviews she wrote critical of the church, according to court documents.
She said Pastor Charles O’Neal was guilty of “narcissism in the pulpit” and had “chosen to mislead the congregation.”
Smith described a church that told members what to wear, had communal foot washings and discouraged members from having friends outside the church.
She said church members began adding positive reviews, pushing her words down the page and her posts were removed. In February, Smith started a blog called “Beaverton Grace Bible Church Survivors.”
Three days after starting the blog, she was served with the lawsuit, she said.
“The story of spiritual abuse needs to be told. People are being hurt emotionally and spiritually by pastors who use bully tactics and we need a place to learn, to talk freely, and to heal. I will not be silenced,” she wrote on her blog.
ABC News’ calls to Beaverton Grace Bible Church were not returned.
The suit is scheduled to be heard by a judge later this month.
Judges routinely treat abortion like a "drive-thru"
You and I both know how pro-abortion judges "legislated" abortion-on-demand with Roe v. Wade.
But they haven't stopped there. When they handed down Roe v. Wade they included a hidden kill switch.
In order to keep their pro-abortion agenda, they insisted that legislatures couldn't limit abortion in any form without first giving the courts the right to carve out an exception in any given case.
They called it judicial bypass.
Take for example, an underage girl who gets pregnant and doesn't want her parents to find out.
Instead of dealing with the consequences, she goes before a judge and gets a judicial bypass so she can get an abortion without her parents' knowledge.
All so she won't have to deal with the embarrassment.
Just as the Supreme Court judges came down with the pro-abortion Roe v. Wade decision: you and I know that there are plenty of pro-abortion judges at both the state and federal level ready and eager to grant a rubber stamp to any girl seeking an abortion.
For example, under many state parental notification laws, judges have the power to grant judicial bypass if the judge determines that the minor is "mature enough" to have an abortion without consulting her parents.
Pro-abortion judges frequently take advantage of this type of vague criteria to readily bypass the parents for virtually any reason or no reason at all.
And don't think that abortion clinics don't know which judges will and won't do it.
In fact we know of abortionists who brag that no requests for judicial bypass in their area have been denied.
In Pennsylvania for instance, hundreds of petitions for bypasses are filed each year and only a handful are ever denied.
There is a solution.
That solution is the national Parental Notification and Intervention Act -- a federal law drafted by the National Pro-Life Alliance that would require "clear and convincing evidence of danger of physical abuse of the minor by the parent" before its provisions are waived by the judges.
Thus, not only would this law apply in all 50 states but it would remove the gray areas that allow pro-abortion judges to justify their rubber stamping of abortion.
With your continued support I am sure we will ultimately prevail and pass the Parental Notification and Intervention Act and the Life at Conception Act to end all abortion on demand.
For Life,
Martin Fox, President
National Pro-Life Alliance
P.S. If you can, please chip in with a contribution by clicking here. Your National Pro-Life Alliance is entirely dependent on voluntary contributions to keep our vital programs running. We receive no government funding.
Watch Josh Romney Get Booed Off The Stage By Ron Paul Supporters In Arizona
by James Crugnale
While campaigning for his father at the Arizona Republican Party convention on Saturday, Josh Romney got drowned out by boos by Ron Paul supporters and was forced to leave the stage.
The Arizona Republic’s Rebekah Sanders reported that Paul supporters screamed out that Romney was “the white Obama.”
“We cannot afford four more years of President Obama,” Romney
contended, as he sparred with the noisy crowd to be heard. “We need
someone to step in there and turn things around.”
Things took a turn for the worse when Romney began directing attendees how to vote for the presumptive Republican nominee’s slate.
“Make sure it says paid for Romney and that it’s green,” Romney began, but was loudly shouted down by the fervent Paul supporters. Romney quickly exited the stage before things got even more ugly.
“This is not in the bag,” Paul supporter Russ Wittenberg adamantly told KTVU-SF. “Contrary to what you guys in the media are saying, Romney does not have this thing in the bag yet.”
Watch below via KPNX-PHX:
While campaigning for his father at the Arizona Republican Party convention on Saturday, Josh Romney got drowned out by boos by Ron Paul supporters and was forced to leave the stage.
The Arizona Republic’s Rebekah Sanders reported that Paul supporters screamed out that Romney was “the white Obama.”
“We cannot afford four more years of President Obama,” Romney
contended, as he sparred with the noisy crowd to be heard. “We need
someone to step in there and turn things around.”Things took a turn for the worse when Romney began directing attendees how to vote for the presumptive Republican nominee’s slate.
“Make sure it says paid for Romney and that it’s green,” Romney began, but was loudly shouted down by the fervent Paul supporters. Romney quickly exited the stage before things got even more ugly.
“This is not in the bag,” Paul supporter Russ Wittenberg adamantly told KTVU-SF. “Contrary to what you guys in the media are saying, Romney does not have this thing in the bag yet.”
Watch below via KPNX-PHX:
UPDATE: PolicyMic’s Allan Stevo notes several Ron Paul supporters are disputing the media reports that Romney was booed off the stage. “Romney was not booed off the stage. The truth is [Josh] Romney was booed when he called for an endorsement of the Romney slate. He continued his speech until the end. That is definitely documented. He was not booed off the stage.”
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