{"id":40885,"date":"2016-01-01T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/oregon-owl-preys-upon-government-officials\/"},"modified":"2016-01-01T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-01-01T14:00:00","slug":"oregon-owl-preys-upon-government-officials","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/oregon-owl-preys-upon-government-officials\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon Owl Preys Upon Government Officials"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Oregon state officials have confirmed reports of several attacks on government workers outside its state capitol building, but have not recorded any arrests. Why? The attacker is an owl. &quot;It&#39;s silent,&quot; says city parks spokeswoman Tibby Larson. &quot;You&#39;re just walking along, minding your own business, and an owl comes silently at you from behind.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Owl attacks, believe it or not, are a relatively frequent phenomenon across the country. Although it may seem humorous that government workers have seemed to be the most frequent targets in this case, Larson noted that the owl is most likely more concerned with impressing potential mates than making a political statement.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"><em><strong>Possible Preaching Angle:<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n\n<p><em>Sure, it&#39;s strange animal antics to impress a potential mate, but you have to ask about the strange stuff we do to impress and please other people.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"> <\/h2>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[407,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3415,4546,4619,4655,4656],"tax_ctp_topics":[387,395,403],"class_list":["post-40885","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-animals","tax_ctp_tags-news-that-illustrates","tax_ctp_tags-peer-pressure","tax_ctp_tags-pleasing-god","tax_ctp_tags-pleasing-others"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Oregon Owl Preys Upon Government Officials - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/oregon-owl-preys-upon-government-officials\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oregon Owl Preys Upon Government Officials - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Oregon state officials have confirmed reports of several attacks on government workers outside its state capitol building, but have not recorded any arrests. Why? The attacker is an owl. &quot;It&#039;s silent,&quot; says city parks spokeswoman Tibby Larson. &quot;You&#039;re just walking along, minding your own business, and an owl comes silently at you from behind.&quot; Owl Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/oregon-owl-preys-upon-government-officials\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/oregon-owl-preys-upon-government-officials\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/oregon-owl-preys-upon-government-officials\/\",\"name\":\"Oregon Owl Preys Upon Government Officials - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-01T14:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-01-01T14:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/oregon-owl-preys-upon-government-officials\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/oregon-owl-preys-upon-government-officials\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/oregon-owl-preys-upon-government-officials\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Oregon Owl Preys Upon Government Officials\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Oregon Owl Preys Upon Government Officials - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/oregon-owl-preys-upon-government-officials\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Oregon Owl Preys Upon Government Officials - CT Pastors","og_description":"Oregon state officials have confirmed reports of several attacks on government workers outside its state capitol building, but have not recorded any arrests. 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The attacker is an owl. &quot;It&#39;s silent,&quot; says city parks spokeswoman Tibby Larson. &quot;You&#39;re just walking along, minding your own business, and an owl comes silently at you from behind.&quot; Owl Read more...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/oregon-owl-preys-upon-government-officials\/","og_site_name":"CT Pastors","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":628,"url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@CTpastors","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/oregon-owl-preys-upon-government-officials\/","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/oregon-owl-preys-upon-government-officials\/","name":"Oregon Owl Preys Upon Government Officials - 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