Houston obviously gone to shit - Demands Pastors turn over sermons or face prosecution (Lesbian Mayor)
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City of Houston Demands Pastors Turn Over Sermons
The city of Houston has issued subpoenas demanding a group of pastors turn over any sermons dealing with homosexuality, gender identity or Annise Parker, the city’s first openly lesbian mayor. And those ministers who fail to comply could be held in contempt of court.
“The city’s subpoena of sermons and other pastoral communications is both needless and unprecedented,” Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Christina Holcomb said in a statement. “The city council and its attorneys are engaging in an inquisition designed to stifle any critique of its actions.”
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ADF, a nationally-known law firm specializing in religious liberty cases, is representing five Houston pastors. They filed a motion in Harris County courtto stop the subpoenas arguing they are “overbroad, unduly burdensome, harassing, and vexatious.”
“Political and social commentary is not a crime,” Holcomb said. “It is protected by the First Amendment.”
The subpoenas are just the latest twist in an ongoing saga over the Houston’s new non-discrimination ordinance. The law, among other things, would allow men to use the ladies room and vice versa. The city council approved the law in June.
The Houston Chronicle reported opponents of the ordinance launched a petition drive that generated more than 50,000 signatures – far more than the 17,269 needed to put a referendum on the ballot.
However, the city threw out the petition in August over alleged irregularities.
After opponents of the bathroom bill filed a lawsuit the city’s attorneys responded by issuing the subpoenas against the pastors.
The pastors were not part of the lawsuit. However, they were part of a coalition of some 400 Houston-area churches that opposed the ordinance. The churches represent a number of faith groups – from Southern Baptist to non-denominational.
“City council members are supposed to be public servants, not ‘Big Brother’ overlords who will tolerate no dissent or challenge,” said ADF attorney Erik Stanley. “This is designed to intimidate pastors.”
Mayor Parker will not explain why she wants to inspect the sermons. I contacted City Hall for a comment and received a terse reply from the mayor’s director of communications.
“We don’t comment on litigation,” said Janice Evans.
However, ADF attorney Stanley suspects the mayor wants to publicly shame the ministers. He said he anticipates they will hold up their sermons for public scrutiny. In other words – the city is rummaging for evidence to “out” the pastors as anti-gay bigots.
Among those slapped with a subpoena is Steve Riggle, the senior pastor of Grace Community Church. He was ordered him to produce all speeches and sermons related to Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality and gender identity.
The mega-church pastor was also ordered to hand over “all communications with members of your congregation” regarding the non-discrimination law.
“This is an attempt to chill pastors from speaking to the cultural issues of the day,” Riggle told me. “The mayor would like to silence our voice. She’s a bully.”
David Welch, pastor of Bear Creek Church and director of the Houston Area Pastor Council, also received a subpoena. He said he will not be intimidated by the mayor.
“We’re not afraid of this bully,” he said. “We’re not intimidated at all.”
He accused the city of violating the law with the subpoenas and vowed to stand firm in the faith.
“We are not going to yield our First Amendment rights,” Welch told me. ‘This is absolutely a complete abuse of authority.”
Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council, said pastors around the nation should rally around the Houston ministers.
“The state is breaching the wall of separation between church and state,” Perkins told me. ‘Pastors need to step forward and challenge this across the country. I’d like to see literally thousands of pastors after they read this story begin to challenge government authorities – to dare them to come into their churches and demand their sermons.”
Perkins called the actions by Houston’s mayor “obscene” and said they “should not be tolerated.”
“This is a shot across the bow of the church,” he said.
This is the moment I wrote about in my book, “God Less America.” I predicted that the government would one day try to silence American pastors. I warned that under the guise of “tolerance and diversity” elected officials would attempt to deconstruct religious liberty.
Sadly, that day arrived sooner than even I expected.
Tony Perkins is absolutely right. Now is the time for pastors and people of faith to take a stand. We must rise up and reject this despicable strong-arm attack on religious liberty. We cannot allow ministers to be intimidated by government thugs.
The pastors I spoke to tell me they will not comply with the subpoena – putting them at risk for a “fine or confinement, or both.”
Heaven forbid that should happen. But if it does, Christians across America should be willing to descend en masse upon Houston and join these brave men of God behind bars.
Pastor Welch compared the culture war skirmish to the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto, fought in present-day Harris County, Texas. It was a decisive battle of the Texas Revolution.
“This is the San Jacinto moment for traditional family,” Welch told me. “This is the place where we stop the LGBT assault on the freedom to practice our faith.”
We can no longer remain silent. We must stand together – because one day – the government might come for your pastor.
Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. Sign up for his American Dispatch newsletter, be sure to join hisFacebookpage, and follow him on Twitter. His latest book is “God Less America.”
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Liberals are open minded people tolerant to all different view points.
(Unless you disagree with them)
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I think they should be able to tell whatever ignorant, dumbass, backwards thoughts they want to their closed minded, archaic, dumb flock. Even if it is a cancer to our society's progression, it's ok as long as it isn't against the law.
That being said, it would be hard to take any part of that article as 100% truth without any confirmation from less biased sources.
Ja.brill Peppers - Cleveland Brown OldBrownsFan, on 02 Jun 2017 - 5:09PM said: "No you are not the work of the devil but you are deceived by the devil." Who's got it better than us? Nooooobody! -
marxists demand their free speech until they have the power to
decide who gets to have it and who doesn't.
The liberal/marxist model is one of duplicity, self-interest, and absolutely no principles,
sense of right and wrong.
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marxists demand their free speech until they have the power to
decide who gets to have it and who doesn't.
The liberal/marxist model is one of duplicity, self-interest, and absolutely no principles,
sense of right and wrong.
+1.marxists demand their free speech until they have the power to
decide who gets to have it and who doesn't.
The liberal/marxist model is one of duplicity, self-interest, and absolutely no principles,
sense of right and wrong.
Well said. Showed this to the wife as why I had switched from dem to republican a couple years back.
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I think they should be able to tell whatever ignorant, dumbass, backwards thoughts they want to their closed minded, archaic, dumb flock. Even if it is a cancer to our society's progression, it's ok as long as it isn't against the law.
That being said, it would be hard to take any part of that article as 100% truth without any confirmation from less biased sources.
I think they should be able to tell whatever ignorant, dumbass, backwards thoughts they want to their closed minded, archaic, dumb flock. Even if it is a cancer to our society's progression, it's ok as long as it isn't against the law.
That being said, it would be hard to take any part of that article as 100% truth without any confirmation from less biased sources.
It was on her Twitter page until she deleted the tweets.
And funny how you would never dare call Islam "Ignorant, dumbass, backwards, close minded, archaic, dumb flock"
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Islam definitely has their own ignorant, dumbass, backwards, closed-minded beliefs. All religions do. I just know more about Christianity.
And just like Christianity, I'm guessing there are different levels of Islam. With the "stone the gays" side being the dumbest. It's hard to compare one to one Islam in the ME and Christianity here though, do yo very different education levels.
Aaannnyywwwaaayyy. Most (all?) religions, at their base, are dumb. The creation stories, the superstition, etc. A magic story book just doesn't pass the common sense test.
So, like I've said many times, I use Christianty as an example because I am most familiar with it and, like in this article, its what we're talking about.
Also...if we're comparing you and Osiris....
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So at what age did the Catholic Priest butt fuck you?
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Me? Never. I took PSR, got my First Communion, and peaced out. I lasted two years in PSR, it was terrible. We went from C&E Christians to nothing. Much better now.
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I'm guessing that was an all wet in Egypt answer.....
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Parker hasn't been a bad mayor, the city is really booming right now. But she crossed the line here, you can't throw your weight around because someone annoys you. I think she has this strong urgency to put her stamp on the gay rights movement, but she will not gain anything by doing this. If she doesn't have a better reasoning for this investigation, she will find herself in the middle of an investigation.
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