EDITORIAL Abuse law abuses constitutional rights Innocent until proven guilty is on its way to becoming a meaningless term in Oregon. In a blow to individual rights. Gov. Barbara Roberts last Thursday signed into law House Bill 2144. which allows juvenile court judges to remove alleged child abusers from their homes. The law states that. “If the petition that the child has been physically or sexually abused, the court, at the hearing, may enter an order reouiring the alleged per petrator of the abuse to move from the household in which the child resides." However, it must bo romomborod that (hosts peo ple ,iro innocent. They have been convicted oi nothing. In fact, in many casos they will have not been charged with any crime The more allegation of child abuse to tins court, without having pressed t riminal charges, is suffi t ient to have a person evicted from his or her house. A parent need merely accuse the other of child abuse and, presto, the accused parent must leave the house. How convenient. If allowed, this will be a powerful new weapon in mossy divan es. A parent need merely accuse the other of child itbuso and. presto, the accused parent must leave the house How convenient. The Fourth Amendment to the U S. Constitution pro tects. "Thcf right of the people to be secure in their per sons, houses, papers, and effor ts, against unreasonable searches and seizures." If being forcibly removed from your house without having been convicted of any crime is not "unreasonable." then what is? Both the Fifth and 14th amendments protect citizens from being "deprived of life, liberty, or property, with out due process of law " While certainly people can l>e held in custody for a period of time without being i barged with a crime, they cannot be hold Indefinitely. However, the eviction of people from their homos is not temporary, at least not in the sense that they can go home in two or three days. Rather, they will he forced to find other living arrangements until a trial occurs and they are either acquitted or convicted. The flaw with that is that vory few of these cases ever actually go to trial, so the decision as to whether an inno cent person may go home will be loft to children services authorities and the (uvonilo court system. This law is just one more step toward a totalitarian government that is working daily, at both the state and federal levels, to control the everyday lives of its citi zens. Enormous controversy has surrounded the authority of children services divisions around the country to remove children from their homes on a more, unsub stantiated accusation of abuse, to place thoso children in foster homes and then require the parents to prove their innocence. That is not the way the justice system is supposed to work, or have we chosen to accept such trouncing of basic rights as the price we must pay for a safer society? How many other rights are we willing to give up for a false sense of socurity? Oregon Daily Emerald Tha Oregon Dirty Emerald a pubtahad daJy Monday through f "day duong the echoot yap* and Tueeday and Thu**day dunng the mumme* by the Oregon Daily Eme*aid Pubherxng C« Inc . altha Un*ver»*y o> Oregon Eugene Oegon The Emerald operatee •ndapendantty ol tty* ttrweruty eeth oMcea at Smte 300 a> the Etb Memorial Unton taxi <» a m*mt» ot tha AsvxnMed Pteaa fha Emerald a pnvate property tha umavrtui removal o> um o* pope** a proeecutabie Editor Jaaa Ba>g PttOlO Editor Anthony I ornay Aaaoctala Editor* Ed Carton. M»w f oher Scot demon* Night Edtlor Marin lahet General Manager: Judy R46-551? Display Advertising Classified Advertising .. aee-jnz 346-4343 f THE SUNV'MT/ r TMt SUMMIT/ mp SwrAtArr! Japans Trade Surplus i t I TO Sut-WTUP OPINION Christianity fails to honor women In the UruIt'd States, the dom inant religion is Christianity. AImjuI 200 million Americans pray daily to God the Creator, the Be-All, End-All Himself Himself being the key phrase here And when all is said and done about God's relationship with Man. it comes down to this One-half of humanity is ignored, discounted and vilified. Women A friend of mine told me about a book he was reading, titled. What Color is Your God' He said it was a great book, the theme being that the true God transcends earthly distinctions such as rat*. I asked my friend if the author referred to God as He. "Yes," said my friend "I guess this guy thinks that God is a he." "If God is so all-encompassing as to have no color.” 1 said, "then why does it have a gen der?" "You’ve got a point," he said. From Genesis to Revelations, the Bible refers to God as He Persons more biblical than myself may tell you that He is just a convenient pronoun, per haps a trifle more dignified than It Religious people would have you think that all are equally loved in the eyes of the Lord — hey, just look at the Virgin Mary, she was a woman and managed to make it to the Holy Clique. Look at all of the woman saints. .Saint Joan, for instance. That's all fine and dandy, except that the pronoun "Ho" implies a lot more than a gen derless deity. The Virgin Mary supposedly never got to experi ence her sexuality, and Saint loan was burned at the stake as a witch. And if we urn all equal in I he hi", of die lumi, explain the sio rv of Adam and Ki n Here is my own inlerprutation God i reales Man, and I quote, "in his image " Man has no idea how to entertain himself in the Garden, grows horny and bored God finds sorry for Man and decides to give him a companion God conserves resources and makes Woman from one of Adam's ribs Woman takes on role of Childbearer. Woman becomes bored with Adam and decides to explore Garden by herself. Woman meets Serpent, who offers her Knowledge. Woman eats apple of Knowl edge. thereby infuriating Man and («od. who think that Woman shouldn't know anything Woman, her Knowledge and her sexuality become archetype for evil, gets the whole family kicked out of the Garden Church conducts smear cam paign against Woman that still lasts today Knd of story? Not quite. Church, next to government, is the largest sexist institution in the country. Yet without women, the Church would fall apart. The questions I'd ask these women are these: Do they enjoy following a religion gov erned by a book that says they are inferior? Do Catholic women care that they cannot be priests? When these women pray to God. is it a man's face that they see? At least our sexist government gives us the concession of Free dom of Religion under the First Amendment. That means Amer icans are free to create, destroy or follow the deities they choose. If I can choose my own deity. I am not going to choose one that is vengeful, male and who endorses killing in his name. I will choose one I can relate to. one which is reflected by all liv ing things, including my very female self. My God is a Goddess, and she is the Mother of all living things, including the God. her horned Man has no idea how to entertain himself in the Garden, grows homy and bored. God feels sorry for Man and decides to give him a companion. consort who frolics within the curves of the Earth that are Her body, drinking wine with Her, his Mother and Lover. The God dess reflects Woman, her curves are my curves, her moon cycles regulate my cycles. Blasphemy? Not quite. She's been around a lot longer than God the Creator has. One might say He was jealous of Her power and ordered his followers to kill hers. The Inquisition lasted from the 13D0s to the 1800s. spanned across Europe and the New World, and killed nearly nine million Goddess followers Only they were called "witches," and some of them were probably just Christians who happened to be powerful women. If that isn't blasphemous, I don't know what is. 1 can't convince all Christian women that they are being sexu ally harassed by their religion. I can only chart my own spiritual path. On this path I shall not blindly worship a God whose followers refer to humanity as Man. I shall not follow the men who follow this God. for although they make arguments filled with love and pronouns, they consider me inferior. I shall find the answers within myself and be slave to no person or faith. I am nobody's rib. Lio Solciccin is a columnist for the Emerald.