Posted on 07/25/2015 12:36:05 PM PDT by markomalley
The state of Kentucky has begun imposing a religious test on volunteer pastor counselors in its youth division, insisting that they refrain from calling homosexuality sinful and dismissing those who cannot bend their religious faith to accommodate the state requirements.
The policy was uncovered by Liberty Counsel, which has sent a letter to Bob Hayter, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, demanding that the state religious test be dropped and that a dismissed counselor be reinstated.
Liberty Counsel writes regarding the blatantly unconstitutional revocation of volunteer prison minister status of ordained Christian minister David Wells, who has provided voluntary spiritual counseling and mentorship to juvenile inmates under the control of the Department of Juvenile Justice. This revocation was issued by Warren County Regional Juvenile Detention Center on the basis of the April 4, 2014, DJJ Policy 912, which mandates full DJJ support of homosexuality and transvestism.
With no evidence of any violation of DJJ policy on Mr. Wells part, his volunteer status was revoked by the Warren RJDC superintendent because he could not sign a state-mandated statement that homosexuality was not sinful, among other things, the letter said.
The policy states that DJJ staff, volunteers and others shall not imply or tell LGBTQI juveniles that they are abnormal, deviant, sinful or that they can or should change their sexual orientation or gender identity.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights.
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What happened to “The Free Exercise Thereof?”
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The Constitution. You still reading that ol’ thing?
And, so it begins. Soon pastors who preach the truth of God’s Word regarding this abomination, will be rounded up and jailed.
Nothing in there about a right to be a volunteer youth pastor for the state.
Liberty Counsel is an excellent group to support if possible. They win nearly every case they take on, and they take on a lot, because their law school trains a lot of first-rate Christian Constitutional lawyers that will work these cases pro bono.
No need to render anything unto Caesar -- including one second of your time as a volunteer -- that is not Caesar's.
Nothing in there allows the state to infringe upon a pastor’s First Amendment guaranteed rights either.
Just...Wow! We knew this was coming.
Appalling.
Fine, call it depraved, revolting, perverted.
May we call the practice of homosexual behavior “distasteful” and “poor impulse control”? Most of what people do not like about homosexuals is the sometimes blatant “public displays of affection” and often arrogant efforts to shove our faces in the spectacle. Not “sinful”, but definitely very bad manners.
Do it, keeping it behind closed doors and blinds, and shut up about it. Don’t do it, keeping it behind closed doors and blinds, and shut up about it.
Just shut up about it.
>>Nothing in there allows the state to infringe upon a pastors First Amendment guaranteed rights either.
They aren’t doing that. He is free to exercise his religion as he sees fit, but this is their program. They get to make the rules.
We have to face the fact that this is NOT a Christian nation anymore, if it ever really was.
Why would they have volunteer pastors working for the State. Sounds like a violation of Separation of Church and State.
Exactly. It’s no mere accident of history that the Bill of Rights dates back to a time in this country when anyone with an ounce of responsibility and an IQ over 70 would have vomited at the thought of a government-run “volunteer youth program.”
The state can’t make program rules that infringe on the Constitutional rights of citizens, period. They are bound by it, they aren’t a private company.
Tyranny!
I’m a Buddhist not a Christian but I think this is worth shooting people over.
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