Ira Glass, host of radio show This American Life,
plans to visit Portland on October 7 to talk about his new book, The
New Kings of Non-Fiction. But the event—hosted by Oregon
Public Broadcasting (OPB)—is being held at an unlikely location,
given Glass’ liberal fan base: New Hope Community Church, a mega-church
in Clackamas that is one of the most actively anti-gay churches in the
Portland area.
New Hope contributed $9,000 to the Measure 36 effort in 2004, which
successfully banned same-sex marriage in Oregon’s constitution. New
Hope’s pastor, Ray Cotton, personally donated a least $1,000. In
contrast, most evangelical Oregon churches donated between $100 and
$1,000, with only a few churches—like Rolling Hills Community
Church in Tualatin, and Mt. Olivet in North Portland—giving more
than New Hope.
This past April, Cotton was one of 11 evangelical leaders who hosted
a “Pastors and Religious Leaders Day at the Capitol” to lobby against
the domestic partnership and anti-discrimination bills.
Both bills passed, and during an August 18 “Marriage and Morality
Sunday” event, New Hope was one of the few Portland area churches with
a table set up to gather signatures to refer them to the ballot.
But despite New Hope’s demonstrated anti-gay leanings, OPB’s John
Bell booked the 1,500-seat church—whose neon cross towers over
I-205—for Glass’ Portland appearance. The radio host has nearly
two dozen scheduled appearances around the country between September
and next summer, but every other city is giving him the mic at a
university, arts center, or theater.
Bell, who’s “gotten a couple of emails from folks” complaining about
the venue, doesn’t see a problem with renting New Hope. “It was the
venue that was available,” Bell says, citing Glass’ busy schedule and
the “short turnaround time” to schedule the event. New Hope is also
“one of the bigger [venues],” Bell says. (Indeed, there are other
venues available on October 7, but both are smaller than New Hope. Both
the Gerding Theater and First Congregational Church—an “open and
affirming” church that has hosted Glass before—indicated to the
Mercury that they could likely accommodate the event.)
“My position is that OPB serves a broad constituency,” Bell said,
adding that he’s hesitant to “apply a litmus test” to potential venues
for OPB events.
Glass, who had nothing to do with the choice in venue, responded to
an email from the Mercury: “I got something from my agent saying
two people had written to him complaining about this. Not so
great, huh?” He wanted to speak with OPB before commenting further, but
did not return a call by press time.