Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Monday, May 14, 2012

News Roundup: Pastor Files Defamation Suit Against Former, Blogging Parishioner

Roundup of News:  Anabaptist Pastor Files Defamation Lawsuit Against Blog of Former Parishioner

         A British paper is covering a Pastor in Oregon, Chuck O’Neal, who is suing former followers who blogged about him and his church’s practices.  We covered the British article and Dee's post at The Wartburg Watch.  See:  http://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2012/05/1st-amendment-blogging-and-pastor.html. H/t to Dee for her initiation of the issue to us.
          We provide here a new round-up that has just begun.  We expect more media articles to come.
          We would like to see the pleadings and complaint filed in the Oregon court.  This raises First Amendment issues.  We believe this will explode on Pastor Chuck O’Neal and his Anabaptist Church; further, we think this an important case.  This will probably be tossed quickly.  Further, it appears that "Pastor Chuck" can dish up public criticisms but can't take it himself.  Rather churlish, we might say. This is precisely why we have the First Amendment.
          Having said that, we assert this importance of the 9th commandment vis a vis the Westminster Larger Catechism.  See:  http://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2012/05/westminster-larger-catechism-141-150.html.  There are numerous biblical issues at bar.
          We provide a roundup of four news reports.  They will be separated by lines.
          The first report is http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2144038/Pastor-Charles-ONeal-sues-church-members.html.   The second through fourth are:  ABC News here, Fox News here and a more local level (here) with KATU news.    

Church pastor sues former followers for $500,000 after he was called 'narcissist' in online blog

PUBLISHED: 01:01 EST, 14 May 2012 | UPDATED: 01:01 EST, 14 May 2012
A stay-at-home mother has been sued by the church she once attended because she criticised the pastor and his religious methods in an online blog.
Julie Anne Smith and her family decided to distance themselves from Beaverton Grace Bible Church because they did not agree with the church's ways.
Mrs Smith then says that she was shunned by friends in Oregon because Pastor Charles O'Neal encouraged members not have friends outside of the church community.
Blasphemy? Church pastor Charles O'Neal (right) is suing Julie Anne Smith in Oregon because she wrote negative things in a blog about Beaverton Grace Bible Church.
Mrs Smith aired her grievances online and started a blog last year called Beaverton Grace Bible Church Survivors - where she accused Pastor O'Neal of 'narcissism' and 'misleading the congregation'.
However the mother, her daughter and three others who raised questions about the church's practices were served with a $500,000 suit for defamation of character by her former church leader several days later.
She told ABC: 'All we did was asked questions. We just raised concerns. There’s no sin in that.'
Among her complaints were that the church discouraged parishioners to have friendships outside the church and told them what to wear.
Pastor O'Neal could not be reached for a comment at this time. The case will be heard before a judge later this month.
Gathering: The Smith family left Beaverton Grace Bible Church because they did not agree with some of its practices.
Read more:



May 13, 2012 4:40pm 

Oregon Church Sues Ex-Members Over Online Criticism

(Image Credit: Beaverton Grace Bible Church)

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.

Oregon mother, daughter reportedly sued for writing bad reviews of church online

Published May 14, 2012
FoxNews.com
An Oregon pastor is reportedly suing a mother and her daughter for $500,000 after the two blogged about the church and described it as "cult-like."

Pastor Charles O'Neal of the Beaverton Grace Bible Church claims reviews on a blog started by former church member Julie Anne Smith amount to defamation.

Smith, who says "the story of spiritual abuse needs to be told," described O'Neal and his church outside Portland as "creepy" and "cult-like." She described him calling for church elders to search closets of female congregants for clothes that are too revealing, among other lessons from the pulpit.

Smith told the KATU.com that she and her family were shunned by community members after leaving the church in Beaverton a few years ago. Smith said she then began writing Google and DEX reviews of the church as well as a blog.

"I thought, I'm just going to post a review," Smith said. "We do it with restaurants and hotels and whatnot, and I thought, why not do it with this church?" Smith told the website.

O'Neal claims in his lawsuit that Smith's use of words like "creepy," "cult," "control tactics," and "spiritual abuse," are defamation. O'Neal is suing Smith as well as her daughter and three other commentators, according to the website.

The pastor could not be reached, but audio clips of several of his sermons are available on the church's website. On one, he blasts the late televangelist the Rev. Robert Schuller, saying his book, "Self Esteem: The New Reformation" is "a book that will one day be burned in the fires of Hell."

Smith says the online reviews and blog are protected under the right to free speech.

"What somebody does in the church is one thing, but when you get out into society we have the right to free speech, and it may not be what people want to hear, but we absolutely have that right," she told the website. "He can say what he wants in the church and say, don't talk about this or don't talk about that, or don't talk to this person, but when you're out in the civil world, you don't do that anymore ... And he's not my pastor anymore. He does not have that right to keep people from talking."



Beaverton church sues family after they criticize it online
By Anita Kissée KATU News and KATU.com StaffPublished: May 12, 2012 at 12:48 AM PDTLast Updated: May 12, 2012 at 12:48 AM PDT 
BEAVERTON, Ore. - A church pastor is suing a mother and daughter for $500,000 because they gave the church bad reviews online.

The family being sued left the church a few years ago and Julie Anne Smith says she and her family were shunned and couldn't understand why. So she went online and wrote Google and DEX reviews of the church and then started a blog.

"I thought, I'm just going to post a review," Smith said. "We do it with restaurants and hotels and whatnot, and I thought, why not do it with this church?"

Never did she think Beaverton Grace Bible Church and Pastor Charles O'Neal would slap her with the lawsuit.

"I'm a stay-at-home mom. I teach my kids at home, and this is just not the amount of money that normal moms have."

When the family left the church, Smith says friends were told to end all contact with her.

"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," she said. "All we did was asked questions. We just raised concerns. There's no sin in that."

Dissatisfied, she went online to write reviews. Other church members counteracted them with church praise. So Smith started a blog called "Beaverton Grace Bible Church Survivors."

But the pastor claims in the lawsuit he filed that her words, "creepy," "cult," "control tactics," and "spiritual abuse," are defamation.

"What somebody does in the church is one thing, but when you get out into society we have the right to free speech, and it may not be what people want to hear, but we absolutely have that right," Smith said.

The lawsuit didn’t just target Smith. Her daughter and three other commenters are also being sued.

"He can say what he wants in the church and say, don't talk about this or don't talk about that, or don't talk to this person, but when you're out in the civil world, you don't do that anymore," Smith said. "And he's not my pastor anymore. He does not have that right to keep people from talking."

The Smiths filed a special free speech motion to dismiss the lawsuit. It goes before a judge later this month.

KATU News called the church, went there, went to the pastor's home and spoke to his wife. KATU News also called the pastor's attorney. All of them declined to give their side of the story.

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