The Observer., June 23, 2020, Page 4, Image 4

Opinion
4A
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
The Observer
OUR VIEW
The Lighthouse
Pentecostal Church
needs to stand up
e are all in this together.
That was the message, the
mantra, for the coronavirus pan-
demic. We heard it from elected officials at all
levels of government. We heard it from commu-
nity leaders. The Observer, too, emphasized the
sentiment.
But the Lighthouse Pentecostal Church, Island
City, did not buy into the message and became
the source of the COVID-19 outbreak in Union
County. Given the number of cases, the statis-
tics point to a grim reality — the virus is going
to kill people in the county. One church and its
actions made Union County the poster child for
what not to do during a pandemic.
Other churches adapted their services to protect
not just their congregations but the larger commu-
nity. Not Lighthouse Pentecostal Church, which
in the wake of The Observer’s reporting about the
outbreak took a defiant stance.
One of the Lighthouse Pentecostal Church’s
leaders, James Parker, posted a video to the
church’s Facebook page with a message to mem-
bers: “Our fruit will show that what we did is
the right thing. And more people need to do
what we did. And the more people that do the
right thing, the easier it’s going to be for the rest
of the world to combat this, this pandemic that
we’re going through. Umm, we shouldn’t hide
from life’s circumstances. You got to stand up
on your feet and you got to face them. That’s
what we do. That’s what we’ll continue to do.”
Now Parker’s video is gone from the page, as
are videos of church services in April and May
showing disregard for Gov. Kate Brown’s execu-
tive order banning large gatherings.
Stand up, indeed.
The recent slew of columns, letters to the editor
and comments to posts on The Observer’s Face-
book page attest to how outraged and just plain
hurt the community is because the Lighthouse
Pentecostal Church decided it did not have to
follow rules for protecting us all.
There was nothing sacred, holy or scriptural
about Lighthouse Pentecostal Church holding ser-
vices and defying practices for keeping the com-
munity safe. And now we are reporting four
employees at Grande Ronde Retirement Resi-
dence, La Grande, have COVID-19, leaving some
of the most vulnerable members of our commu-
nity in quarantine.
Who knows how long members of the Light-
house Pentecostal Church had the virus while they
shopped and worked and went about their lives
in the county. The church’s leaders and members,
meanwhile, stand silent as the virus continues
to wind its way through the county and beyond.
Hard to imagine the uptick in neighboring Wal-
lowa County is mere coincidence.
The Lighthouse Pentecostal Church should
stand up and apologize to the residents of Union
County and the rest of Oregon, admit what they
did was wrong and ask forgiveness and to once
again join the community. The editorial board of
The Observer, however, is not so naive to think
these words will enlighten the church and make
it change its ways. Perhaps God is playing them
like he did Pharaoh and hardening their hearts.
More likely, the leaders and followers of Light-
house Pentecostal Church will continue to grasp
firm to the cultish belief they are special, they did
the right thing, they are different from the rest of
the community.
The one positive outcome of this mess? The
attitude of the Lighthouse Pentecostal Church has
reaffirmed we really are all in this together, that
our actions have consequences. Whether we like it
or not.
W
Your views
No evidence that BLM
protest contributed to
COVID-19 outbreak
I find it bewildering that The
Observer has chosen to implicate
participants in the recent Black
Lives Matter protest in the spread of
COVID-19 within our community.
Both the pointed mention in the fea-
ture article on June 16 and the photo
of the demonstration — prominently
featured above the fold on the front
page — heavily imply the event fac-
tored in the proliferation of the virus.
At best, this editorial choice is care-
lessly misleading. At worst, it smacks
of conscious journalistic misconduct.
Even with the generous allow-
ance that six of the 234 newly con-
firmed cases may have no connection
to Lighthouse Pentecostal Church,
a stunning 98% of these cases have
been linked to that congregation. To
suggest, without evidence, that the
protest contributed to this outbreak
will only create further ill-will toward
BLM supporters and greater division
in our community.
Jeremiah Wierenga
Union
Editor’s note: The Center for
Human Development did not con-
firm the source of the outbreak for the
article that ran June 16. The center
instead said the outbreak had more
than one source and large gather-
ings posed the risk of spreading the
virus, which The Observer reported.
The day the article published, the
Oregon Health Authority confirmed
the church was the source of the out-
break, and The Observer has sub-
sequently reported that. COVID-19
numbers in the letter are reflective of
the time it was received.
Endangering lives is not
the ‘right thing to do’
I read that James Parker of the
Lighthouse Pentecostal Church,
Island City, said they would con-
tinue to congregate against all health
authorities’ recommendations because
it was the “right thing to do.” He
encouraged others to do the same
because we shouldn’t hide from life’s
challenges.
Of course this would be up to him
and his followers if the deadly con-
sequences of these actions were con-
fined to his group. However, because
of the way this virus infects everyone
in our community, this approach to
life’s challenges forces all of us to live
under the Lighthouse’s beliefs.
They have endangered thousands
and helped destroy all the progress
Union County has made.
Jim Kemp
La Grande
City managers erred in
forcing move of farmers
market
In reference to your article about
the La Grande Farmers Market being
forced off public property “tempo-
rarily,” I wonder if anyone from city
management has attended the market
since it opened in May. If someone
had, they would have seen a textbook
case on exercising proper social dis-
tancing and hygiene. Booths were
quite far apart, shoppers followed the
procedures set in place by the ven-
dors, and I, for one, felt quite safe and
happy that I could get fresh food from
local farmers and merchants.
If those same members of city
management had gone instead to
the market Saturday in the Eastern
Oregon Net, Inc. parking lot, they
would have seen a much less ideal
scenario: booths packed together with
distancing issues (lines of people
crossing over one another) and a more
crowded feel overall. To the credit of
all — shoppers, vendors, market vol-
unteers — it seemed to work, despite
the closed spaces. (My wife and I
did not see a single person without a
mask, for example.)
Farmers markets have been open
safely throughout the pandemic
across the state: They are as essen-
tial for our community as restaurants
and other businesses that have been
able to operate under current and pre-
vious restrictions. By its actions, the
city managers have been petty and
misguided in their direction. I would
hope they would reconsider their
actions and let the La Grande Farmers
Market operate in its former loca-
tion, so that it can continue to provide
its important function safely to this
community.
Rick LePage
La Grande
Take care of your neighbor
— wear a mask
“If you slide into a ditch in Union
County on a cold wintery night, the
first folks to come by will almost
always stop to help. Even if they are
conservatives and you have a bunch
of liberal bumper stickers, they pitch
in and help out.”
That is the story I tell out-of-
town friends about the quality of the
people and their values here in our
valley.
Sadly, this good neighbor atti-
tude is slipping just now when we all
face an invisible enemy. Lots of our
community members are stuck in
the ditch in a big way — our much
loved elders, little kids with immune
issues, so many of our friends who
have some kind of health issue,
they are at serious risk of a ter-
rible illness or death. Even young
healthy people have died from this,
and many will have lifelong organ
damage.
This is serious, friends. The facts
are clear. The science is not in dis-
pute. Experts around the world tell
us the same thing: Wearing masks
works. Staying 6 feet apart or more
works. We are hardy, tough people
and we can easily help our commu-
nity right now by this minor effort.
Or — just say “to hell with our com-
munity.” Which is it going to be?
The virus does not care if you
voted for Trump or not. If you are
tough or not. If you are not worried
for yourself, you probably are wor-
ried about our economy, which will
worsen and not recover if we have
an even larger outbreak here. That is
a fact.
All of us need to be good exam-
ples to one another. Taking care of
our community is a basic value we
all share. It is time to step up and
help.
Leaders of the community, in
government, business and others
need to rise to this challenge and
truly lead. The county commis-
sioners, who have been a disservice
so far, should serve us by asking The
Observer to print their picture on the
front page wearing masks to show
its critical importance. They could
ask leaders of the community, first
responders, business leaders and the
like to join them. This is the health
of our community we are talking
about.
No one likes wearing a mask or
social distancing, but this is a minor
effort to protect our community and
economy. A few more months of
helping out will make a huge dif-
ference, and then good treatments
and vaccines should be available.
Compare what our elders did for
us in fighting in wars to protect us,
building this country, sacrificing for
families and community. For sure,
we can do this.
Peter Barry
La Grande