Posted on 10/18/2014 8:28:58 AM PDT by Patton@Bastogne
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Ted Cruz Tells Brody File: "Real Risk" Of Pastors Being Jailed For Preaching Against Homosexuality
In an exclusive interview with The Brody File, Senator Ted Cruz says pastors being hauled off to jail by the government for preaching against homosexuality is a “real risk” in the future.
““I think that is a real risk,” Cruz tells me. “Some in the media ridicule that threat saying there is no danger of the government coming after pastors. That is the usual response.”
But he adds: “The specter of government trying to determine if what pastors preach from the pulpit meets with the policy views or political correctness of the governing authorities, that prospect is real and happening now.”
Watch the clip below along with a partial transcription.
The Brody File traveled to Houston Texas Thursday to interview Cruz after his press conference in defense of Houston pastors. They are under a severe religious liberty attack by city officials.
The Mayor and the City Council are trying to subpoena the sermons of these pastors because of their supposed outspokenness on homosexuality and a controversial LGBT ordinance.
The pastors are refusing to give in.
More Brody File analysis on Ted Cruz and evangelicals here.
MANDATORY COURTESY: CBN NEWS/THE BRODY FILE
David Brody: “One of the next battles in this culture war could indeed be right there in the pulpit. Are we going through a potential period or could we very well soon go through a period where pastors are hauled off to jail for a hate crime because they are speaking for traditional marriage?”
Senator Ted Cruz: “I think that is a real risk and you and I have both pointed to that risk in the past and some in the media ridicule that threat saying there is no danger of the government coming after pastors. That is the usual response.”
Senator Ted Cruz: “The specter of government trying to determine if what pastors preach from the pulpit meets with the policy views or political correctness of the governing authorities, that prospect is real and happening now.”
Senator Ted Cruz: “When you subpoena one pastor, you subpoena every pastor. If government has the power to force the pulpit to knuckle under, if government has the power to insist that pastors hand over their sermons for government approval then we’ve lost the very first freedom that begins our bill of rights. We’ve lost the freedom that this country was built on. That’s what this fight is and I very much hope that this serves as a wake-up call to Christians, to people of faith, I hope it serves as a wake-up call to pastors to speak out and make abundantly clear that we will not give up our religious liberty. We will not go quietly into the night but we will stand and fight for principles that are right and true and will speak the truth and the pastors of this country will not be muzzled.
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Yes, I agree with you.
Read Post #73. Marron gets it. The totalitarian Left is fighting the churches, and they will use the unconstitutional power of government to control them. Do you get the picture?
I say hands off. The government has no Constitutional power to limit what is being said in the houses of worship. None. Period.
Please ignore this post, it was flippant and uncalled for. If I could remove it, I would. (Yes, I am embarrassed by it.)
Now we are on the same page!
The point is, this is a relatively NEW convention. If it is so fundamentally Founding Fatherish, why did it take so long to appear? Donors were regarded as distinct from donees.
So what did churches do before there was a 501c3? What did the individuals do? Why give the government the authority of a 501c3? Fight the government over that? This is similar to the free speech zone at Bundys ranch. Just ignore it. The government wants to create the illusion of defining some authority where none exists. Tell them to pound sand by ignoring it. If you give in to their illegal requests then you have given them the authority which continues to expand.
Can I search your vehicle? Can I search your home? If you have nothing to hide then you will let me come in.
They want authority where none exists. The 501c3 gives them a certain amount of authority where it is voluntarily given and I don’t think we should give it them.
Agreed!
Fag Nazis.
Do you voluntarily give up control and authority of your children?
I would hope not.
But then most parents actually do, willfully and voluntarily.
“”Parents give up their rights when they drop the children off at public school.”
—Texas Federal District Judge Melinda Harmon
Similarly, why give the government any control or authority where they should have none?
I doubt that anything can prove to atheist secularists that free exercise means every moment of a believer's life. Although, they will insist that their beliefs are allowed to be practiced 24/7/365, in classrooms, lecture halls, on buses, etc.
I am surprised, though, that Christians would buy into the notion that the government can control their speech by virtue of the government recognizing the reality of a relious body's corporateness.
“They are not just using IRS rules, they are using zoning rules, they are going after custody of peoples’ children.”
The difference as I see it regarding 501c3 vs other rules, is that someone willfully and voluntarily entered into the 501c3 contract. There was no coercion regarding the 501c3 contract. There is coercion regarding the other rules.
If you enter into a contract, don’t be surprised when the other entity wants to enforce the contract.
I agree but my point is that those that elect the fascist politicians should be the first to feel the wrath.
We in my neck of the woods have one word to describe the Marxist Socialists: Bertha. “Bertha” is synonymous with the word “big.” And Big Bertha Government is what is wrong with America. Big Bertha Government does a miserable job building things and does things wrong more than right.
As for Bertha, in the summer of 2013, the world’s largest tunneling machine (the cutting head is 57 feet in diameter), began digging the SR 99 tunnel beneath downtown Seattle. In December 2013, Seattle Tunnel Partners, the contracting team hired to design and build the tunnel, stopped excavation approximately 1,000 feet into the dig. It will not move one inch until March of 2015, if that predicted date is correct. So, that’s two years to dig 1000 feet. We could have gone that distance with pick and shovel!
In our liberal neck of the woods, Bertha is synonymous with the state worker’s unions. They own the state government and tax the people to pay for that ownership. The state worker’s unions pack a lot of punch, much like the German Krupp-built rail guns used by Germany in World War I and World War II. When that power is used against our freedoms, and the power to tax, Big Bertha Government has no limits. That is why I am furious when I read that Houston’s lesbian mayor, Annise Parker and her city council ordered pastors to turn over their sermons and any staff communications dealing with homosexuality, gender identity or Mayor Annise Parker. That is Big Bertha Government totalitarianism and it does not belong in America.
I believe the laws pertaining to the IRS 501-C3 should not apply to churches in any way. As far as I am concerned, churches are in a different class than the typical non-profit organizations that the IRS 501-C3 addresses. Why churches file for 501-C3 status is something I cannot comprehend. Maybe they cannot comprehend all the legal mumbo jumbo and want to do something they think is the safe thing to do. What they are doing is backing themselves into a corner so that Big Bertha Government can put their thumb on them.
Usually government has a hands-off approach to the churches. However, in the hands of those who have no regard for the Constitution and the historical limits on governmental infringement, we have Big Bertha Government and the totalitarian behavior we should have been protected from.
It is time to start throwing tea into the harbor and the snakes out of Big Bertha Government.
Here is my point about “Render unto Caesar.” In America, Caesar has no right to our freedoms. Read and get educated:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3217012/posts
It’s very important for many Christians and ministers to join in the arrest if that is what Caesar chooses to do.
If it were me ordered to bake cake and take pictures of gay unions, they would be unrecognizable. If they want nice pretend wedding pictures, best to pick a secular photographer and if they want a pretty “wedding” cake, best to choose a secular baker.
There is no federal writing that can contradict the US Constitution. If it does, then it is unconstitutional.
In allowing any government agency to acknowledge a church’s inherent corporateness, the church is doing the government a favor. Therefore, any interpretation of any church’s friendliness that violates the constitutional protections of the 1st amendment is a wrong interpretation.
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