Posted on 05/27/2004 6:36:54 PM PDT by tuckrdout
Gay rights group: Church broke law By ALLISON FARRELL Gazette State Bureau
HELENA - Gay rights advocates filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Political Practices against the Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church Wednesday, saying the church inappropriately held an event to support a proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage.
Montanans for Families and Fairness, a coalition that includes InterMountain Planned Parenthood, PRIDE and the Montana Human Rights Network, said in the complaint that the church failed to report to the state commissioner it used its "in-kind" resources to support the proposed constitutional ban.
Petitions supporting the proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage in Montana were circulated at a church event Sunday night. The initiative will be placed on the November ballot if 41,000 voters sign a petition in favor of the measure.
"They made an expense on behalf of this thing," said Rob Hill, campaign director for the coalition that filed the complaint. "We believe they have to file with the commissioner's office. They haven't done that."
The Rev. B.G. Stumberg, who leads the church, was surprised to hear from a reporter Wednesday that someone filed a complaint against his parish.
"I don't know what they're talking about," Stumberg said, after hearing the details of the complaint. "We haven't given a cent. The only thing we've done is we've spoken out for marriage."
The Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church opened its doors Sunday night for a broadcast event that piped in leading national evangelical leaders, including James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Chuck Colson of the Prison Fellowship, who promoted traditional marriage.
Petitions supporting the constitutional ban against gay marriage were circulated, and signed, Stumberg said. He said the church did nothing wrong.
"If they want to go to court about it, I guess I'll get me a lawyer," Stumberg said.
(Excerpt) Read more at billingsgazette.com ...
With their recent successes they have become emboldened.
LOL! Isn't that true?! Democrats can have political fundraisers at any church that will have them, and there are no repercussions. In fact St. Pauls Methodist church in Helena held a MHR task force--(one of the very groups who filed this "complaint")--- event a few months ago!
I agree with that!
If the Montana libs are successful with their suit I will be tempted to organize a group to sue every black church that hosts a guest sermon by a Dem politician.
Because, ultimately, the decision will be before the Montana Supreme Court, and not the Massachusetts SJC. Which one do you think is likely to sustain the church's free speech activities?
This is clearly an attempt to silence free speech.
No one has the right not to get sued. If we are to have freedom, then freedom must always be defended.
There's an old maxim about picking your battles. Gay rights groups used to follow it quite well, only trying to challenge the laws in places where they were likely to get a judiciary more in sympathy with their views. Overreaching and trying to get judicial victories out in flyover country is likely to backfire on them. By the time the SCOTUS takes up the issue of gay marriage, and gay hate speech, there is likely to be an entire body of law in many jurisdictions that do not favor the gay rights side.
It's not absolutely determinative of what the SCOTUS will do, but it will be a factor influencing their decisions. By the time that the SCOTUS struck down bans on interracial marriage, only a relative few states had laws against it, and only Virginia was still actively enforcing it. If the SCOTUS visited the issue right after California's Supreme Court struck down CA's interracial marriage ban in 1948, there might have been a precident set that would not have fallen so easily in 1967. The same thing is possible here.
| What We Can Do To Help Defeat the "Gay" Agenda |
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| Homosexual Agenda: Categorical Index of Links (Version 1.1) |
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| Myth and Reality about Homosexuality--Sexual Orientation Section, Guide to Family Issues" |
Gotcha...
" As a man danced, so the drums were beaten for him" Achebe,
I wonder what THE REVEREND Jesse Jackson's thoughts on this are? Or maybe THE REVEREND Al Sharpton could answer it instead.
I am very offended by this demeaning choice of words. Olson is insulting, ignorant and obviously a bigot!
Actually this article is the definition of bigotry.
Notice the media and the ACLU never complained about the "Separation of Church & State" when Al Sharpton ran for President.
Agreed. It's outrageous!
Nor when Al Gore made campaign speeches in Black Churches.
bttt
Meanwhile, if you are a Black Preacher in a Black Baptist Church, you can drag John F'n Kerry up to the pulpit, scream "Praise the Lord and Vote for this man" and pass the plate for his campaign, and NOTHING will ever happen to you.
separation of church and state?
has no one but conservatives ever actually READ the US Constitution???
Way to go, Montana!
And thus it starts . . . . .
Someone please tell me what the F**K a Commissioner of Political Practices is! Is this BS for real? Have we become the former Soviet Union? Have they mangaged to really defeat us from within as promised by using the educational systme (NEA)?
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