Sermons Now Subject to Federal Scrutiny?

The New American ^ | February 17, 2005 | William Norman Grigg

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Rev. Randy Steele, a 32-year-old pastor from Mount Vernon, Illinois, was quizzed by FBI agents after the Bureau received a complaint from an anonymous informant. Rev. Randy Steele, senior pastor at Southwest Christian Church in Mount Vernon, Illinois, thought that "somebody in my church might have done something" when he received a phone call from the FBI last November. It wasn’t until part way through an interview with two FBI agents later that day that the 32-year-old pastor realized that he was the subject of the inquiry.

The agents quizzed the pastor about a sermon he had preached on Memorial Day that compared the aggregate casualty count of America’s wars to the number of children murdered through abortion since 1973. "It was a sermon about abortion and what the Bible says about the sanctity of life," Rev. Steele told the February 9 issue of The Southern Illinoisan. "But it also dealt with how as Christians we need to love and reach out to people and teach them the message of truth about these types of issues."

An anonymous informant was prompted to "drop a dime" on Rev. Steele by the pastor’s description of the struggle against abortion as a "different type of war," which was likely misconstrued as a call for violence against abortionists or assaults on abortion mills. The Southern also noted: "The informant also told authorities that during a sermon on homosexuality, Steele said he was willing to go to jail for his beliefs, prompting another line of questioning by the FBI." The public-minded informant apparently wanted to offer the pastor just that opportunity.

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[Fiddlstix]

[NEBUCHADNEZZAR1961]

Amazing. The FBI has nothing better to do then spie on our own clergy while our southern border is crawling with Al Queda and drug smugglers.

If we get hit again and it turns out it was because the bad guys came from over the border I don't see how Bush will be able to escape the blame.

[BipolarBob]

A disgruntled worshipper? Not influenced from above, that's for sure.

[Strutt9]

Oh Good grief, what's next?

[Byron_the_Aussie]

The KGB would be proud.

In the current climate of Patriot Act hysteria, I guess he's lucky they didn't just snatch him off the street.

[Nathan Zachary]

That's disgusting. Yet the Imam's can preach "Kill the Jews kill the Christians" and preach racist bigotry all they want?

There is nothing in the bible that could warrant scrutiny, unlike the unholy Koran, Satan's bible.
Besides, it's a violation of religious freedom, and the separation of church and state, constitutional guaranties that do not apply to the Koran, and were never intended to.

[Battle Hymn of the Republic]

"But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.

And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.

But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls."

Luke 21:12-19, KJV

[skinkinthegrass]

Just look @ the location, Mount Vernon, IL...What did you expect? Illinois, was/is a Blue State.

[Servant of the 9]

There is nothing in the bible that could warrant scrutiny ...

Luke 22:35-38

He said to them, “When I sent you out barefoot without purse or pack, were you ever short of anything?” “No,” they answered. “It is different now,” he said; “whoever has a purse had better take it with him, and his pack too; and if he has no sword, let him sell his cloak to buy one. For Scripture says, ‘And he was counted among the outlaws,’”......

Anything can be misinterpreted by idiots.

So9

[Al Simmons]

Not a disgruntled worshipper - but an atheist 'plant'. Some commie groups said recently they would be sending 'monitors' to listen to Christian sermons.

This was a political act of intimidation by a would-be American left-wing NAZI.

Just imagine if Hitlery was ever elected president....

[the invisib1e hand]

It sounds so much like an urban legend...trouble is, nowadays, it could very easily be true. Gideon's-Trumpet-alert.

[BipolarBob]

Yeah, that makes more sense. Destroy the moral fabric and family values, an ol' communist recipe.

[EarlyRiser]

Government determining what can be said in sermons? Oh, great. Now they will be even more boreing!

[Sola Veritas]

From the article:

Those efforts received a dramatic boost with passage of the post-Oklahoma City Bombing federal counter-terrorism act in 1996. A federal grant authorized by that measure created the State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training (SLATT) program. Acting in the name of "anti-terrorism preparedness training," SLATT helped indoctrinate state and local law enforcement about the supposed threat posed by "domestic terrorist and ‘political’ extremist movements (including ideologies, illegal activities, tactics, and strategies), and provid[ing] an initial assessment of the threat potential posed by extremists...."

Potential terrorists, according to SLATT, "identify with one or more of the following philosophies: anti-tax, anti-federal government, anti-state government, anti-authority, anti-world alliances, pro-racial purity, pro-white supremacy, anti-Semitic, and a fear of loss of Constitutional rights … with an equal fear of a one world order...."

Sola Veritas writing now:

By the criteria listed in the second paragraph. Just about everyone who is a regular on FR would be a suspect terrorist. I wish I could verify the information in this article. My experience with the FBI since 9-11 is they are spending all their time chasing down foreign terrorists and don't have time for pennie anti "domestic" types.

[Biblebelter]

Did those boys and girls in the FBI ever figure out where the anthrax came from? Draining ponds and drilling preachers, and every day we are being invaded from an unguarded southern border. America is not safer, it is not safer from anthrax, dope, and terrorists. And evidently it is not safe to speak of murdered fetuses as casualities of war, even in a so-called sanctuary.

[theDentist]

The FBI has the responsibility to investigate reports of potential domestic terrorism, even if it seems like a wild goose chase. If they didn't and something happened....

[Prophet in the wilderness]

This disgruntled person sounds like a radical feminist, gay activist mole planted in the church to me.
In her ( Barbara Ehrenreich / well known Feminist/Socialist ) commencement speech to the graduating class of Barnard College last June ( http://hereticscorner.typepad.com/the_heretics_corner/politics/ The speech is 1/3 of the way down the page - June 12 2004 ) she said in the last paragraph of her speech/
" And we need a kind of woman who isn't trying to assimilate , but to infiltrate and subvert the institutions she goes into "/
One of the " INSTUTIONS " that she was mentioning here was the institution of Christianity .
I resent the thought, that she equates Christianity with radical Islam in this speech.
Make no mistake about it, the feminist, and the left, have their armies of moles planted in our churches and organizations , ready to infiltrate and subvert ( to bring down and destroy ) our Christian institutions.
It's time for the church to wake up and be on the lookout to the fact that these moles are already in our Churches today ready to infiltrate, to subvert, and to cause mayhem.
We need to pray, and remember the words of Jesus, " Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against this church "
Some of the demons from hell are the feminist and the homosexual movement.
The bible tells us to beware of the devils schemes and tricks : II Corinthians 2:11 " Lest Satan should get a advantage over us ; for we are not ignorant of his devices "
The feminist, and the gays are satan's pawns and tools to use to bring down the church, through infiltration and subversion.
The left, and the feminist may have already have their moles and trolls already on this web sight (FR) to cause mayhem, so be on the lookout.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

What about that Church in San Fran about 10 years ago or so, were the worshipers were in the church service, and these Gay activist came around the whole church and vandalized the church and were spilling AIDS/HIV infected blood all over the church and were ( Intimidating ) the church worshipers, and the police and the F.B.I. did NOTHING ABOUT IT !! .
Isn't that a case of domestic terrorism ?