Posted on 10/15/2014 3:55:41 AM PDT by Kaslin
Unreal.
We already told you earlier today that folks are willing to use the gay rights movement as a pretext to go after those who live by the Word of God. Then we were talking about some lunkhead at a Canadian tourism company. I bet you didn't think the attorneys for a major American city would ever try to subpoena pastors' sermons to see if they had dared to speak any criticisms of the city's lesbian mayor.
Well. They did. Houston, we have . . . yeah, OK, it's an overused cliche. But if it ever applied, it would be here:
Houston's embattled equal rights ordinance took another legal turn this week when it surfaced that city attorneys, in an unusual step, subpoenaed sermons given by local pastors who oppose the law and are tied to the conservative Christian activists that have sued the city.
Opponents of the equal rights ordinance are hoping to force a repeal referendum when they get their day in court in January, claiming City Attorney David Feldman wrongly determined they had not gathered enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. City attorneys issued subpoenas last month during the case's discovery phase, seeking, among other communications, "all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to HERO, the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your possession."
The subpoenas were issued to several high-profile pastors and religious leaders who have been vocal in opposing the ordinance. The Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a motion on behalf of the pastors seeking to quash the subpoenas.
The back story is that in June the Houston City Council passed, and Mayor Parker signed, a "human rights ordinance" that panders in numerous ways to activists pushing for gay and "gender identity" rights, including a requirement that men be allowed to use women's bathrooms and vice versa. Not surprisingly, many local pastors opposed the ordinance, and more than 17,000 residents filed referendum petitions to get it repealed - which the city blatantly threw out alleging "irregularities".
But lest you thought Houston politicians were done playing hardball with their critics, not a chance. The subpoenas are supposedly to see if pastors had in any way violated the law by using the pulpit to preach about the law. Aside from the obvious First Amendment problems here, the pastors weren't even involved with the petition drive, so the city had no basis for issuing them subpoenas.
Not that this would stop them. The secular cultural left smells blood when it comes to gay rights, and they think they are now free to take any action - no matter how unconstitutional or illegal - against those who oppose the gay agenda because the cultural winds are blowing in their direction.
Big picture: If a city can subpoena a pastor's sermons just because the pastor preaches from the book that includes 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and other passages that call homosexuality sin, then we no longer have freedom of religion. At all. Period. Any pastor at any time could find himself in legal jeopardy if he preaches something not in agreement with the political, social or cultural orthodoxy of the moment.
It's a mistake to think the left has no god. They do. Their god is government, and specifically their own attainment of government power to use in shaping America's economic, social, cultural and political institutions to their liking. Those who preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ threaten the left's god, so no method of taking them down is off the table.
It's not just Houston that has a problem.
Jeremiah Wright, please pick up the courtesy phone.
Amen! It may as well start now.
Tell the city to KYA............
Houston...just what is wrong with you voters that you elect such human debris?
Houston - The Sodom and Gomorrah of 2014.
A church using deadly force? That’s not Christian at all. And it would bring every jackbooted thug within 100 miles.
Much better a viral video showing the police beating down the church door, manhandling passive parishioners into the paddy wagons, and surrounding the building with SWAT goons while they ransack the parish office.
That would create millions of allies. Mass rallies would follow & the po-po either arrests them all or backs down.
This isn’t North Korea. Yet.
Since when can a Mayor go after anyone’s Freedom of Speech?
I don’t particularly care for gay/lesbian/transexual/don’t know who they are’s either. This mayor can pound sand.
Thank you for this info. I thought the IRS could only monitor churches if they advocated for actual political candidates or parties, not social issues.
How is it that all these churches are preaching for open borders and amnesty and that’s not considered political activity?
But at least Black pastors, who support lesbianism, will be exempt.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Nazi.
Or you could just use deadly force and make the police so terrifed that they simply refuse to enforce the subpoena. Self preservation trumps all.
bkmk
501c3 information.
Great post!
Well....that usually ends up as a Waco or Ruby Ridge.
A church’s resistance to tyranny needs to be nonviolent which is the Christian example, after all.
“Naming & shaming” in this digital age however, might prove effective. If Officer Roid Rage finds his mug going viral, that could prove a deterrent to the others.
bump
At this point, the only deterrent would be a video of Officer Roid Rage’s kids crying at his funeral.
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