In Oregon, a local official's "State of the County" address turned into a Christian revival

Comments made by Lane County chair David Loveall and others show why religious proselytizing has no place in a government address

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Earlier this month, in Eugene, Oregon, the Lane County Board of Commissioners Chair David Loveall delivered his “State of the County” address, basically summarizing the successes they’ve achieved over the past year and and challenges facing them in the year ahead.

These types of speeches tend to be pretty low-key. No one really pays attention except hard-core local government aficionados. But this service caught the notice of some because of how much religion was baked into the event.

For example, when Loveall opened his speech, he suggested he and his fellow commissioners were not elected by the people they serve but appointed to their seats by God.

This is also a time for contemplation, future focus, and respect for what we have, and whom we serve, and the higher calling and the higher power that appointed us for all of the callings we find ourselves in at this season.

A few minutes later, he ceded the microphone to a friend of his, Chris Cirullo, because he’s an “international missionary, [so] I felt strongly his voice would matter here.”

Cirullo then offered an invocation of sorts. It wasn’t inspirational, though. It was just an exhortation—or a threat, depending on how you interpret it—telling everyone to find Jesus… or else.

So I plead, Father, open the eyes and the ears of those listening who are not yet surrendered and help them to see and hear the truth for the first time ever, and to respond with full surrender so they, too, can walk in the blessing of the Creator rather than the eternal pain for their sins.

You loved us enough to allow us to choose freely. And the brokenness in our city, county, state, country, and the world is our fault. Come and heal Lane County one heart at a time.

You are Lord of all, including Lane County. And in the end, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. But for some, it will be too late. I just pray that the people of Lane County don’t wait.

All praise, honor, and glory are yours and yours alone. We ask all of this in Jesus name. Amen.

Nothing like a Christian pastor to insult every non-Christian in the area as a way of inspiring the community. In no world would a non-Christian speaker ever be allowed to get away with this type of slander, but we’re so used to it when a Christian does it that these remarks went virtually unnoticed.

Needless to say, those of us who aren’t Christian have our eyes and ears open just fine. We have a solid relationship with the truth. We don’t need to surrender to anyone, especially a two-bit pastor who can’t imagine a world beyond his own bubble.

It’s also pathetic to hear him blame the people of Lane County for “brokenness,” whether that’s spiritual or otherwise. And that final call to imagine a future where he’s converted all the Jews and atheists and Muslims in the area is despicable in this setting.

Absolutely inappropriate and more evidence for why invocations have no place in government meetings.

But wait! That wasn’t even the only invocation. At the end of the address, Loveall called up Guy Higashi, pastor at New Hope Christian College and chaplain of the sheriff's office. Higashi spoke about how everyone needed a “true north” that guided their decisions. For him, it was God. For everyone else, it was… who knows. He didn’t finish that thought.

But he did tell the entire audience to bow their heads in prayer.

… For me, being a chaplain and a pastor, my true north is Jesus and the kingdom of God. But in business and government, True North serves as a shared guiding purpose to keep teams resilient, moving in the right direction. It’s more than a marketing slogan. It’s living a culture that drives our every decision.

And so, with that in mind, I know for myself, I have a guiding principle of a True North. Will you bow your heads and pray with me?

Heavenly Father…

Not the most egregious sermon but it was still inappropriate for anyone to ask the audience to pray because it assumes everyone shares his faith. They don’t.

In a letter to the Eugene Weekly, local resident Karen Myers urged people to watch the full speech so they could “see the blatant erosion of the separation of church and state in a public meeting,” adding, “I thought I was viewing an evangelical religious service rather than a Lane County government event.”

She concluded:

… what those of us who believe in the separation of church and state can do is vote Loveall out of office in November. Then my prayers will be answered.

Beautifully put. It shouldn’t have taken a citizen to state the obvious, though. The Commissioners should have spoken up long before her.

Another resident, Thomas Hiura, said in the same newspaper:

… In his final act as chair, Commissioner David Loveall made clear his perpetual disregard for the separation of church and state.

Watch the video and see that I am not exaggerating in the slightest. If you think the government’s role is to uplift one faith and explicitly state that all other faiths are lesser, you should not be in charge of our tax dollars.

I choose to pray to the same deity that Loveall does. Normal people can do this without demanding that the government promote that deity, even after being warned that it makes others in the county uncomfortable. Honestly, using your official position to knowingly create a hostile climate for others is what a weak person does. This will be worth remembering in November. Until such time, I thank the Lane County board for serving the whole public.

None of those speeches in Lane County were harmless personal expressions of faith. They were part of a larger demonstration of Christian power, treating elected office as some kind of divine appointment and turning a civic address into an opportunity to convert certain citizens. It’s an irresponsible message for the county to send its residents.

Making matters worse was that Loveall’s speech was written in advance and the two pastors knew where they were speaking. It’s not like they didn’t know what they were doing. They chose to use those platforms to spread a religious message instead of anything useful for the county. They were explicit claims of spiritual authority, moral supremacy, and eternal consequence, delivered in a place where people weren’t attending to hear sermons.

This would be obvious if the messages weren’t Christian in nature. But these people chose to exploit the machinery of the local government to privilege one belief system over all others.

That’s why you don’t bring religion into government. As soon as officials decide their faith (and only theirs) deserves amplification, there’s no way to make things neutral again. Non-Christians are systematically drowned out or kept out while the next meeting inevitably becomes another chance to up the ante.

As far as I can tell, none of the people in local government leadership have spoken out against any of this yet. No one defended the religious pluralism in real time or even afterwards. That suggests everyone was fine with it. Which means there’s a good chance they’ll keep doing it.

That kind of entitlement, once normalized, can’t correct itself. It must be remembered and confronted when those officials are on the ballot again.

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