tuscl

Could this happen to any of us?

shadowcat
Atlanta suburb
Monday, May 14, 2012 11:17 AM
An Oregon pastor is reportedly suing a mother and her daughter for $500,000 after the two gave the church bad reviews online. Pastor Charles O'Neal of the Beaverton Grace Bible Church is suing Julie Anne Smith for allegedly writing unfavorable reviews of the church on the Internet, [view link] reported. Smith told the website 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. Smith, however, 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."

12 comments

  • georgmicrodong
    •
    12 years ago
    It depends on the content. It's not always a clear line of demarcation, but if you recite facts, without much in the way of value judgement, or your own opinion of how things make you feel, or you're often OK. When you start to impugn motives, or ascribe value judgements out of context, things get murkier. Without reading her actual reviews, I wouldn't want to say much.
  • vincemichaels
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    12 years ago
    That's not nice, Pastor. You'll surely burn in hell.
  • thesamurai
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    12 years ago
    Interesting that she doesn't think within the church there is a right to free speech.
  • bang69
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    12 years ago
    O that pastro is going to burn in HELL for that!!!!
  • steve229
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    12 years ago
    I think Shadowcat's point was - what if a strip club/stripper decided to sue one of us for giving the club/dancer bad reviews on TUSCL?
  • Ermita_Nights
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    12 years ago
    Facts are ok. So you could say "she wouldn't give me a BJ" instead of "she didn't want to give me a BJ because I'm so big." I don't think we really have anything to worry about.
  • 23cambyman
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    12 years ago
    I thought everything on here was stories of fiction??? So no truth to it at all
  • Alucard
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    12 years ago
    "I thought everything on here was stories of fiction?" That's the supposed safety net.
  • Columbo
    •
    12 years ago
    The lesson here is to post a review with facts without getting into slander and accusations. The case might not go anywhere, but why take the chance by going overboard in your comments.
  • m00tpoint
    •
    12 years ago
    Juice, I am ashamed of you! You know that one does not burn in hell for things that we DO but for what we believe or refuse to believe. For it is through grace we are saved. Grace and grace alone. A true called worker is held accountable for what he says that misconstrues and misleads but what he says is not this man's biggest issue - it is what he apparently believes. And that is what will condemn him to hell. Let's be clear.
  • motorhead
    •
    12 years ago
    The internet and social media is here to say in some form or another. We're going to have to learn to live with it and not over-react so severely. I'm a member of a Facebook group for a major league baseball team. Last night another member posted that he received an "anonymous" threatening phone call simply because he made a slightly negative comment about a certain player. Since real names are used on Facebook as opposed to her, it makes it easy to find a person's home phone number. But that's scary a guy would take it to that level. Relax - it's baseball. And the same thing applies to this form - it's just strip clubs folks.
  • rh48hr
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    12 years ago
    Social media is getting scary in some cases. An anonymous fan tweeted to Lakers guard Steve Blake and his wife that they hoped the Blake family was murdered after Blake missed a go ahead field goal attempt at the end of game 2 of the Lakers-Thunder series. Some people need to get their head examined and hopefully they won't reproduce.
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