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June 2014
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August 2014

The Good News Club In Portland Is Bad News

Parents across Portland are expressing concern regarding the arrival of “The Good News Club” – a fundamentalist Christian organization that works to recruit young children in city parks and public schools. The Constitution may afford this group the right to operate outside of regular school hours but parents have every right to be wary. The message being spread by ‘The Good News Club” is a far right understanding of the Christian faith outside the mainstream of even many traditional conservative evangelical churches. Faith as understood by their organizers is fear based and centered on sin. Children as young as five are told they are doomed to a life of eternal hell without accepting the theology of “The Good News Club.” They present this as a universal understanding of the Christian faith but that is not the case. Most Christians would reject this type of thinking and tactics out of hand. As a seminary educated clergy member in the United Church of Christ, I see the tactics used by “The Good News Club” as a form of coercion similar to a cult. Parents who send their children to clubs that operate on fear should be prepared to see their children suffer from mental health issues. God affirmed the goodness of Creation. Yes, sin is an important concept that Christians wrestle with. What we don’t do is wield fear of sin as a weapon to convert children who do not have the cognitive abilities to determine on their own what is right and wrong. Responsibile churches teach children about God's love, the need for all of us to be good community members, and the responibility we have to respect everyone regardless of their religion. Before the Portland Public Schools allow “The Good News Club” to use school facilities or to promote their activities on campus it would seem appropriate to allow mental health professionals to further investigate the activities of this group. Learn more at Protect Portland Children.


Sister Mary Kay Lampert: Advocate For The Least Of These Dies

1424271_10152334507358653_753927174_nIt is with great sadness that I note the death of Sister Mary Kay Lampert, my friend and long-time colleague. After several difficult bouts with cancer, Mary Kay passed away on July 1 and a funeral was held July 11. At the time of her death, we were out of town and I only learned the news today. Sister Mary Kay and I first worked together at Baloney Joe’s, a multi-service center for men experiencing homelessness, and later shared the job of coordinating the activities of Burnside Advocates Group (BAG). We last had the chance to visit in March. Mary Kay was a teacher for many years at Central Catholic High School, and also taught both at Marylhurst University and the University of Portland. She volunteered for years at Our House, a facility serving those with AIDS, and often invited people to join her for lunch at a gay bar across the street from the agency. Sister Mary Kay believed that women should be ordained – I was proud to invite her to preach on the mission of the church when I served Parkrose Community United Church of Christ – and was a strong supporter of unions. My sadness is tempered only by the knowledge that she is with God and that she lived a life fully present with God – working to build the Kingdom and advancing the needs of the least of these here on earth. I will miss my friend and partner of over twenty-five years deeply but know that she joins that great cloud of witnesses that loves us through space and time. Gifts in her honor can be made to the Sisters of the Holy Names Retirement Fund, P.O. Box 411, Marylhurst, OR 97036.  Please pray for her family and friends, particularly Sister Rosemary Anne Parker.


Statement On Portland Police Captain Mark Kruger

July 16, 2014

This is what the city of Portland has come to: an attempt to erase Mark Kruger's Nazi past from history. Capt. Kruger must see this as a victory. But his worship of SS troops might be erased from a city file as part of some bizarre move after he harassed a female colleague - another incident he has not been held fully accountable for - but Portlanders will remember this police officer who dressed as a Nazi and built a shrine in honor of Hitler's most fearsome troops. We won't forget. And our trust of the Portland Police Bureau and the Portland City Council will be further diminished because of this day. The U.S. Department of Justice investigation of the Portland Police, which found a pattern of civil rights abuses by Portland officers, didn't go far enough. There is a cancer in our bureau and no effective civilian control of this entity whose employees can get away with literally anything.

- Rev. Chuck Currie


Elections Have Consequences

I agree with Les AuCoin and others who have noted this week the number of progressives who declared in 2000 there was no difference between George W. Bush and Al Gore. Many of these people voted for third-party candidate Ralph Nader or didn't vote at all. The results of that election include not only the war in Iraq and the crash of the U.S. economy, but also the make up of the U.S. Supreme Court today. Elections do matter. All of us should make principled decisions in the ways we vote and conduct our public lives. Part of being principled is being smart and strategic. 2000 cost us a needless war and resulted in the Supreme Court rulings the majority of Americans oppose today. That election also resulted in a decade of inaction on climate change and a massive increase in inequality. It is a lesson worth remembering in 2016 and in the elections to follow.