Oregon Mother Sued For Writing Bad Chruch Review Online

It may come as a surprise to some of you, but apparently, free speech does not apply when you're talking about a church on the Internet. At least, not in Oregon, anyway.

An Oregon pastor is allegedly suing a mother and her daughter after the mother wrote a bad review of the pastor's church on a blog.

Pastor Charles O'Neal of the Beaverton Grace Bible Church claims reviews on a blog started by former church member Julie Anne Smith amount to defamation. Smith, who says "the story of spiritual abuse needs to be told," described O'Neal and his church outside Portland as "creepy" and "cult-like." She described him calling for church elders to search closets of female congregants for clothes that are too revealing, among other lessons from the pulpit.

Smith told the KATU.com 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.

Smith is claiming that her reviews are protected under the right to free speech. Not surprisingly, the pastor could not be reached for a comment.

I may be mistaken on this, but I'm pretty sure there's not a commandment that says, "Thou shalt not speak ill of thy former church." Hate to break it to you, Pastor, but people have the right to say whatever they want about your church. It's called free speech. And I'm sure any judge who hears this case will agree with me, if this ridiculous lawsuit even gets that far.