"BEING PRO-LIFE IS AN AREA WHERE CHRISTIAN BUSINESSES NEED TO HAVE A BIGGER VOICE"
Visitors to Arne Jensen Landscaping’s website may notice an unusual sentence prominently displayed at the top of the page: “After all, we were meant to live in a garden.”
A reference to the biblical garden of Eden, the father-and-son landscaping team wanted their business to reflect their deepest beliefs. One of those beliefs, says Arne Jensen’s son Aren Jensen, is that God created all humans in his image from the moment they are conceived — and therefore killing them is wrong.
“I don’t think that being pro-life is a political issue, but a moral issue,” says Aren Jensen. “This is such an important issue to us, and I believe it’s an area where Christian businesses need to have a bigger voice and not be afraid of the values that built them.”
The values that built Arne Jensen Landscaping from 1976 to today are easy for Aren to list off: faith, hard work, integrity and love of family, community and the soil. The business started in Corvallis but moved to Salem in 1988, where it continues today.
Both father and son have degrees in horticulture from Oregon State University, and their projects stretch all over Marion, Linn, Benton and Polk counties, as well as the coast and even Bend. Approximately 15 employees can help customers with landscape design, construction and maintenance, including custom projects, metal fabrication, carpentry projects and pools and other water features.
“Just getting to make a space come alive, to pull that dream out of the customer’s heart, it’s so special,” Aren says. “I’ve found something I can create, a living art.”
Humans are living art, too, the Jensens believe. As such, they have been steady supporters of Oregon Right to Life for many years, including landscaping at the organization’s office in Keizer.
“There’s something about when you get in your 40s, you realize the depth of the issues a little bit more and are less worried about what people think of you,” says Aren. “There are times to speak out as a business owner, and we believe that it’s time to do that on this incredibly important topic of abortion.”
