We called them Kissers, but Oregon City Followers of Christ Church, or Followers as they referred to themselves, was their official name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is exactly two congregations like\nthem in the United States, one in Oregon City, the other in Oklahoma,\nI think. I don’t know for sure because I am researching this all from\nmemory. Believe me, the Kissers imprinted concrete memories and I\nhave photographic recall when it comes to this type of Oregon City\nthings. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I suspect many other people growing up\nin Oregon City will remember the Kissers. How could you not? There\nwas nothing like them anywhere in the country. There still isn’t\nanyone like them. They’re still around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those girls. Those cars. The dunks by\nwhite guys. The tackle football games. Those girls. That church. And\nthey were all blood brothers and sisters in the church and that is no\nfigure of speech. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were called Kissers because of\nrumored mysterious kissing ritual. No one really knew what it was but\nwe often imagined it. Later, I discovered the ritual involved adult\nmen kissing each other on the mouth when they greeted each other in\nprivate. Maybe it’s true. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A man named Walter White immigrated\nwith his family to Oregon City from Caldwell, Idaho in the early\n1960s and established the OC Followers’ congregation, which at the\ntime was located in a rural area of Highway 213 near present-day\nClackamas Community College. It’s still there, now surrounded by\nstrip malls and fast food franchises. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
White was the leader of the church and\nalso claimed status as a prophet. He predicted the end of the world\nwas coming in 1969. It did, but not in the way White foretold. It was\nmuch worse: Richard Nixon became President and the horror that he\nunleashed back then is still unfolding today. The modern unmaking of\nmy country began with his hate and paranoia. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interestingly enough, Richard Nixon and\nhis criminal henchmen on the White House staff were soon to play a\nvery important but largely unknown role in the history of the\nKissers. Key staff members were Christian Scientists, faith healers,\nand the Followers were faith healers, too. They didn’t believe in\ndoctors but they did believe in dentists, orthodontists and\noptometrists. So the story goes, White had bad teeth and was\npractically blind, so there you are. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My dad knew Walter White. He would only\nshop in Walter White’s WB grocery store in Oregon City because it had\nall of three aisles and everyone working there, including White, knew\nmy dad and greeted him warmly because he taught many of their kids\nand the kids loved him. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They greeted me warmly, too, when Dad\nwould take me to the WB, introduce me as his son, and buy me\ngroceries when I first moved out on my own at age 20 and didn’t\nreally have a job yet that covered all the bills. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or did I meet White? I just called Dad\nfor confirmation on this and he couldn’t confirm that it was the<\/em>\nWalter White who owned and operated the WB. In my mind, it was him.\nThe man I met in the meat market apron had that prophet look. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time, Dad and I didn’t know\nWalter White was a self-proclaimed prophet, much less one who got it\nwrong on the date for the Rapture. Think if that: Oregon City had a\nprophet who botched it! After White died in 2003, the congregation\nnever found a replacement. They are still searching for a new\nprophet. The WB is still open. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who would want to follow a prophet who\ngot it wrong? Where do you go from there? It’s not like following a\nbad rock and roll band on stage. The stakes were much greater. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The faith healing aspect of the\nFollowers garnered them national notoriety 15 or so years ago when\nthe Clackamas County justice authorities finally cracked down on\nmembers of the church who withheld medical treatment from their\nchildren and allowed them to die from easily treatable maladies. It\nwas in all the papers and all over TV news. Kissers went to prison\nand several are still incarcerated. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, the children unnecessarily dying\nwas a fascinating, tragic story, covered by conventional reporting,\nbut it’s hardly the Story\n<\/em>of the Kissers. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n I know what that Story<\/em> is. I was\nright there. She was right there. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Note to reader:\nIt is my wish that the reader will support the idea that Pioneer\nPride<\/em> is a \u201cbook.\u201d It is also my wish that the reader\nconsider \u201cbuying\u201d the book as it rolls out in installments. A\npurchase supports an author and future literary endeavors by Nestucca\nSpit Press. To purchase, look to the right on the blog to use Paypal\nor contact me to make other arrangements.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We called them Kissers, but Oregon City Followers of Christ Church, or Followers as they referred to themselves, was their official name. There is exactly two congregations like them in the United States, one in Oregon City, the other in Oklahoma, I think. I don’t know for sure because I am researching this all from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,942],"tags":[1088,1089],"class_list":["post-5935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","category-oregon-city","tag-followers-of-christ-church-oregon-city","tag-kissers","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5935"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5937,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5935\/revisions\/5937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}