The Oregonian’s new religion blog is just about what one might expect from a paper that has recently teamed up with The Christian Coalition of Oregon to recall the four Multnomah County Commissioners who support gay marriage. The author is a fellow by the name of Jim Slagle and is a member of Village Baptist Church. The church prominently features commentary on their web site from conservative icon Albert Mohler (see here, here and here for more on Mohler) and information on why gay marriage is wrong. Slagle has used his blog on The Oregonian’s web site to criticize modern Biblical scholarship and to proclaim Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ as realistic and free from anti-Semitism. He also uses FOX News’ Bill O’Reilly as his primary source of information on the debate surrounding the sacraments and pro-choice Catholic politicians like John Kerry. His views seem to be consistent with a very conservative theology.
Because of the staggering diversity of theological views there is little chance that the paper could have made everyone happy with their choice of a writer for a religion blog.
Franky, there is nothing wrong in showcasing Slagle in this way. He is a good writer and represents one viewpoint in a very large debate. But his site ought to be labeled as the "conservative view on religion" instead of the "religion blog." I'm pretty sure he doesn't represent many of my religious views. And The Oregonian should bring in more moderate and progressive writers if they really want to have a good theological dialog (not to mention Jews, Hindus, Muslims and other who might have a different world view than Christians).
