Conflict Over Religious Symbols Leads Josephine County To Cut Funding For OSU Extension Service

An ongoing disagreement over religious expression in a government-funded program has led to the apparent termination of a decadeslong partnership between Oregon State University and a rural county in southern Oregon.

Josephine County’s Board of Commissioners voted Wednesday to cut future funding toward Oregon State University’s Extension Service.

That decision comes after some commissioners and community members said at previous meetings the extension service had a “woke” agenda — specifically within the 4-H youth program.

The board cut the tax funding in a 2-1 vote. It also voted 2-1 to terminate a service agreement between the county and OSU for a number of programs. Those decisions halt local tax funding toward 4-H, gardening programs and other services leaving the future for extension service programming in the region unclear.

Josephine County Chair, and former Republican state senator, Herman Baertschiger Jr. said community concerns about the OSU Extension Service have been lingering for some time and haven’t been properly addressed.

“This problem started last fall and you have no reconciliation, and it’s June of this year. That’s a failing administration,” Baertschiger said. “They know they have a problem and they haven’t made any headway solving it, in my opinion.”

During previous meetings, Josephine County’s Board of Commissioners and local community members shared anecdotes of kids in the local 4-H program wearing shirts with Christian symbols on them being told they had to turn the shirts inside out to conceal the symbols. Community members also said religious-affiliated groups were barred from attending farm animal auctions with 4-H.

Staff with the extension service said those anecdotes don’t tell the whole story.

4-H is the only nationwide youth organization administered through land-grant institutions — in Oregon’s case OSU — according to the university. It began as an agricultural program for youth in rural communities focused on raising and auctioning farm animals, but it has also grown to include community service projects, art, music and science.

“I think the situation that’s been presented to you has been exaggerated,” Kayla Sheets, administrative office manager and local liaison for the OSU Extension Service, said to the Josephine County commissioners at a meeting last week.

According to the Grants Pass Daily Courier, accusations have been floating around the Josephine County community and social media that local 4-H leaders with the OSU Extension Service told a child participating in a livestock show at last August’s county fair to turn their T-shirt, displaying a large cross, inside out. That child was part of a local club called “Faithful Farmers.”

“It just saddens me, you taking God out of 4-H,” Baertschiger said during a meeting last month. “It still says ‘In God, we trust’ on every single dollar bill. We say it in our Pledge of Allegiance. It’s just politics. It’s just flat politics.”

Cathy Haas, OSU’s director for 4-H youth development and program leader, told OPB that to her knowledge no OSU employees asked children to turn their T-shirts inside out. However, Haas said she advised OSU’s 4-H faculty to have conversations about purchasing new T-shirts for the Faithful Farmers club.

The OSU Extension Service has a “religious neutrality policy,” stating that because 4-H is a publicly-funded program, it cannot include any religious activities or “overt references to a specific religious belief in club names or symbols.”

Jennifer Alexander, communications director for OSU’s division of extension and engagement, said the extension service held a community forum last January to hear and respond to questions from the community and to clarify its policies, including that religious neutrality policy.