Does Sienna Architecture support the anti-gay agenda?
I was reading the Portland Mercury yesterday and came across the news article regarding the petition gatherers seeking to overturn two recently passed gay rights laws. These petitions are showing up at churches around town and pastors are notifying their flocks. It is no surprise that churches are at the forefront of the anti-gay debate. It also doesn’t surprise me to find the petition gatherers at New Hope Community Church in Clackamas, a massive evangelical center.
What did surprise me was the photo in the article which showed a petitioner at his table in front of architectural drawings done by Sienna Architecture. Sienna is working with New Hope Church in designing a “campus” of mixed use buildings down in Clackamas.
Interesting concept. I wonder if it will be a Christian only villa?
My challenge is to Sienna - a firm that touts its “(commitment) to improving our communities through sustainable design.” I believe that one’s integrity is also reflected by the organizations one chooses to do business with - or, in other words, it’s not just what you say, but what you do. By working with a client that is pushing an anti-gay agenda, doesn’t that mean you also support such an agenda? Maybe not. Just because Amazon sells the Bible doesn’t mean it is proselytizing Christianity. I just wonder if Sienna’s other clients or its employees know this is taking place.
It’s a fine line sometimes. When they were trying to pass Measure 36 I paid attention to the corp. donators and to my knowledge have not patronized any of them since. One of the biggest sponsors was Cascade Athletic Club - to which my in-laws are members. They gave us some sweats a year or two after that had the club name on them and I politely refused. I won’t ever step foot in the place.
I think that kind of active support - is very different than simply selling a product that you may not approve of.
That being said - Sienna may have been chosen as the contractor by New Hope because they know that they agree on politics. Or they may have just had the best bid. If I were going to do business with Sienna I would want to find that out - but I don’t think you can assume that they’re bigots as well without further information.
I noticed the Sienna plans displayed behind the anti-gay petition tables too.
I give Sienna the benefit of the doubt that they chose to provide services to a church regardless of its discriminatory political stance. Similarly, I give OPB the benefit of the doubt for scheduling an Ira Glass (This American Life) event at New Hope.
On the other hand though, it is disturbing that Sienna and OPB would be so willing to associate themselves with a politically-active and discriminatory organization.
New Hope. If that ain’t irony, I don’t know what is. I’m just sayin’
We need a list, let’s call it a “purple list”, that we can keep of people we disagree with. Maybe we can pictures of these people next to their names, their addresses, and their sins. That would allow us to avoid their businesses, avoid them on the street, avoid hiring them, avoid working with them, keep our kids from playing with their kids.
Perhaps, we could then draw a purple line down the middle of the city and put the purple list people on one side of it and we right-minded people can all be on the other side, thus allowing us to segregate ourselves from these wrong-headed people and not have to see them at all.
I think this is the world John Lennon imagined.
Which purple line are you referring to? The line between inclusive and discriminator society or the line between those who discriminate and those who do not?
If New Hope was merely a religiously conservative church that happened to believe homosexuality was immoral, I would respect their right and just leave it at that. However, New Hope’s attempt to impose their discriminatory beliefs into the law means we all have a vested interest in not supporting their organization.
snap!
And the best way to deal with these things is to shun these people, put a big scarlett A(hole) painted on their church perhaps? Try dialog and organizing your own group to oppose them through the same legal political means they are using. Tolerance of those who you think are right isn’t tolerance at all. Being tolerant requires you to learn to live with those you disagree with.
Extramsg, you do have a point and thank you for being level headed. Yes, we all need to figure out how to get along with those we may disagree with. That’s what our society strives for. I guess my post is more about those individual decisions. Next time I sit down to plan my mixed use campus, I will take into account the types of clients each architect works with.
You know, Extramsg gets flustered anytime anyone says they make decisions of where they spend their money based upon values. I know he’s had issues when I’ve written about it before, but you know? Today’s consumers are more connected with the influence they can have with their dollars. And if that means not taking my business to a firm that helps build mega churches that then fight against me for my rights and livelihood, so be it. And there are many, many people like me, especially here in Portland. Thanks for the info Dieselboi: Sienna can certainly do business with whomever they want but it will influence my decision to ever spend money with them. And that’s for all businesses, including restaurants.
I make decisions all the time about where I spend my money - and I use judgments to make those decisions.
Some are based solely on finances: the product at store X is cheaper than it is at store y
Some are based on service/location: store y is right next door; store x is across town.
Other factors include quality, reliability, service, etc.
If I can make decisions/judgments based on those factors, and people accept those as ‘legit’ judgments - then why *can’t* I include other variables into the mix as well: a desire to support local businesses, a desire not to have my money support causes I disagree with, or just not wanting to further asshattery by dealing with a store where the owner is a tool?
My money, my decision, no guilt whatsoever.
I wouldn’t say “flustered”, but it’s an important issue to me and I think it’s a dangerous road the self-proclaimed progressives are going down — a very intolerant one.
“Today’s consumers are more connected with the influence they can have with their dollars.”
Um, people have been pretty aware of that for a long time. In fact, it’s been the rule rather than the exception for most of history. What’s the difference between your sentiments and those who started the blacklists making anyone with Communist ties unable to find work and causing their friends to no longer be able to be around them for fear of also being put on the blacklist?
What’s sad is that it’s coming back into vogue with the supposedly tolerant left. You want people to treat you with tolerance and understanding and accept you as you are, but offer intolerance in return? Be an example. Be part of the solution. Reach out a hand in fellowship, kindness, charity, and mercy. (With OPB at New Hope, you could as easily look at it as an opportunity for a pro-GLBT speaker to reach out in an anti-GLBT venue.)
Betsy, you certainly CAN make these judgments spend your money wherever you want. I would say that there is a difference in kind and that you SHOULD NOT discriminate in such ways. We make moral judgments all the time about which such limits on discrimination are appropriate and inappropriate. I tend to believe that discriminating on the basis of religion and politics is akin to discriminating on the basis of race, gender, sexuality, and so on, especially when a person or group is using legal, non-violent political processes.
Imagine the world that results when people take you and Lelo’s advice. Democrats don’t interact with Republicans. Catholics don’t interact with Evangelicals. Vegans don’t interact with Omnivores. Vegan Catholic Democrats don’t interact with anyone. And you thought the Middle East was a complicated mess of balkanized hatred.
This case is especially ridiculous, imo. We’re talking about not doing business with someone because they do business with someone that you don’t like. Ugh. I supposed someone will soon show me why I can no longer watch a Kevin Bacon movie: the six degrees of Nazi Kevin Bacon.