Houston Mayor Wants to Censor Pastor's Sermons

Houston Mayor Annise Parker is fulfilling Christians’ prophetic warnings of past years regarding homosexual political gains, categorizing denunciations of homosexual behavior as hate speech.  In an unbelieveable and outrageous power grab, Mayor Parker, the city’s first openly lesbian mayor, has demanded that pastors turn over copies of their sermons that deal with homosexuality.  And she has done so, via legal subpoenas. 

It is doubtful this breach of the American principles of separation between church and state and free speech will survive the legal challenges.  But it will not be the last challenge.  And slowly, but surely, Americans will cede ground on this pivotal issue.

Could we imagine Jonas Clark submitting his sermons against the Stamp Act to King George III?  Or asking permission to train militia? It was his house to which the patriot firebrands Samuel Adams and John Hancock had gone to discuss strategies for the Revolution.  That is where Paul Revere rode the night of April 18, 1775 to find them.  And it was many parishioners from Pastor Clark’s church who opposed the British regulars the next day at what history would call the Battle of Lexington.

What of the Reverend Dr. Mayhew and Reverend Dr. Cooper, who John Adams said were the “most conspicuous, the most ardent, and influential [in the] awakening and revival of American principles and feeling.”?  Who could imagine them submitting manuscripts to that state for approval?

Or consider the Reverend John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg.  A devout pastor and ardent patriot.  He actually pastured two churches, an English speaking Episcopalian church and a German speaking Lutheran church.   He also served as a member of the Virginia legislature.   On January 24, 1776 Reverend Muhlenberg preached a sermon out of the book of Ecclesiastes, a time of peace and a time for war.  Afterwards, he flung off his clerical robe revealing his militia uniform and asked for men to follow him to war against the ‘tyrants’. He assembled 300 men from his church that became the 8th Virginia Regiment.

The power hungry lesbian mayor of Houston will lose her insane legal overreach.  But she has sounded the first shot in a long battle to silence Christ’s church on moral issues to which the state does not concur.  And judging from the measured, calculated response from the churches and Christians of Houston, the state will succeed.

Long gone is the view of Thomas Jefferson who said:

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."

The fight is on.

Duck Dynasty, Free Speech, and Biblical Authority

Thanks to some alluring marketing by Yahoo pop up ads, I found my way over to a little internet screed on the Duck Dynasty flap, You know, the one that’s been going on for a couple of weeks about Phil Robertson sharing his views in a GQ interview that homosexuality is wrong behavior and condemned by the Bible.

Well, over at the Huffington Post blog today, some actor, writer, radio host guy equated Robertson’s views with hate speech, entitling his tirade "Duck Dynasty, the Bible and Justification of Hatred". It’s the same old mantra that’s been going around for awhile. If you say anything against homosexuality, you’re hateful. You can’t have a viewpoint different from the Huffington Post Blog guy and every other person who believes homosexuality is an ok behavior. If you do happen to have a different viewpoint, and dare to make it known (even if an interviewer asks you a question for a magazine article) you are "spouting hateful speech".

The Huffington Post blog writer-actor-radio host guy doesn’t hate the Bible, of course. He can share a viewpoint different from a majority of Americans and disparage a deeply held religious tenet of millions of Christians (the Bible is a source of moral authority) and not be hateful. Because, of course, "hate speech" only works one way. Besides, he gets his "moral direction" from a "higher power" – his gut. I’m not quite sure what he does on pizza night, when the somewhat digested pepperoni and cheese go to war with the Pepsi and cheese cake. Maybe his gut is more just reliable than mine.

Of course, we won’t talk about Joseph Stalin, Jeffrey Dahmer, Timothy McVeigh and the hundreds of thousands of others down through the ages who have followed their own "guts" only to do dastardly deeds. I’m sure the Huffington Post blog writer-actor-radio host guy doesn’t really believe in everyone following their "gut". The Nazis did that in the 1930s and 40s and the results were horribly sinister. He just doesn’t like the idea of a Sacred Book and accountability to a Creator God.

Somehow, having a viewpoint different than his is "believing and saying hateful things about entire groups of people" although he never says what Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson said that was hateful.

I wonder what the Huffington Post blog writer-actor-radio host guy would say about Nazis, arsonists, drunk drivers, child molesters, the Taliban, and other such "entire groups of people". And I wonder if he would call expressing a viewpoint different from those within those groups "hateful"? If his fulmination against the Bible and its adherents is any example, I don’t think he’d be the least bit shy about haranguing any "entire groups of people" with whom he disagreed. He is after all, just following "his gut" --those good, ole trusty, reliable innards.

The problem with following your gut—your innermost visceral response, as any gastro-intestinalogist (or criminologist for that matter) will tell you, is that not all guts are created equal. There’s your gut, my gut, that Huffington Post blog writer-actor-radio host guy’s gut, and of course, there’s Phil Robertson’s gut. I reckon when he was talking to GQ about sin, he was just following his own gut. So, if that’s the higher power, what’s the problem?

Of course, our "gut" hardly trumps the Bible. It is an eternal, external, objective moral standard; not the transient, internal, subjective standard advocated by the Huffington Post blog writer-actor-radio host guy. It was not hateful for God to give us His Word, and it is not hateful for us to declare it to others, even if they recoil at its message.



　

Chick-fil-A and free speech

Last week, Chick-fil-A's CEO Dan Cathy spoke to Baptist Press of his company's steadfast support for marriage and family:

We are very much supportive of the family--the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that... We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.

But Cathy was about to find out what kind of country he really does live in.

Pro-homosexual forces quickly mobilized. The very people and organizations that advocate tolerance were showing no tolerance for someone with a different viewpoint. The sodomite bullies and their politically correct machine were in full swing by the week’s end, including the mayors of Boston and San Francisco who were threatening blockades of any Chick-fil-A franchise that wanted to open in their cities. In tactics reminiscent of the Gestapo and KGB, they were going to squash any dissent from a pro-homosexual viewpoint and the Chick-fil-A empire, daring to have a different viewpoint, became their target. Their message was clear--First Amendment advocates are not welcome in their cities.

Mike Huckabee got fed up and launched a Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day for Wednesday, August 1. The idea is simply to support them in some tangible way be giving them a bit of your business. I got fed up too and joined him on his facebook page. But in a little bit, Facebook removed, uh, er, ummm, Facebook experienced a technical glitch that inadvertently disabled Huckabee’s post for the next 12 hours…until the conservative outcry became feverish and the good IT folks at Facebook were able to get Huckabee’s page restored. Evidently, Mike Huckabee’s page was the only one affected by this “accidental” fluke at Facebook.

Chick-fil-A is a Christian company with 1,608 restaurants that had sales in excess of $4 billion last year. They follow their values. They are closed on Sunday to honor the Lord’s Day. They bailed out the struggling Peach Bowl 15 years ago. Yes, they renamed it the “Chick-fil-A” bowl but they have 15 successive sellouts. It is the only college bowl game with an invocation.

Anti-Christian forces have targeted Chick-fil-A because of Mr. Cathy’s comments of this past week and the overall Christian philosophy of the company. If you care about that, you should strongly consider giving the company some of your business in the future, especially this coming Wednesday, August 1. And be advised. If as many Christians care about this homosexual persecution that I think will, you might have a long wait, so plan ahead.

P.S. You can read Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino's letter here.

Walter Hoye Sentenced for Abortion Protest

Walter Hoye’s sign was simple: “Jesus loves you and your baby. Let us help.” But because his sign was a protest against America’s multi-million dollar abortion industry and because he is living in modern America, where human life is no longer valued and God no longer reverenced, he was destined for trouble.

On May 13, 2008, Pastor Hoye was arrested for allegedly violating a newly enacted law (a “bubble zone”) that places burdens and obstacles on abortion protesters who wish to protest this moral atrocity. Interestingly, Hoye was subsequently a party to the legal challenge asking the new law be ruled unconstitutional. As an African American pastor, he feels especially called to this ministry of protest and runs Issues4Life Foundation.

Strangely enough, no “clients” made any complaints. The prosecutor filed charges based solely upon the testimony of the director of Family Planning Specialists (the abortuary in question), Jackie Barbic. The prosecutor also named a couple of escorts as victims.

During the trial in January of this year, defense cross-examination revealed that one escort never mentioned her alleged intimidation to the police or the district attorney until after the district attorney had already filed the charges against Rev. Hoye.

Yes, you read that right. Oakland’s DA first filed charges against Walter Hoye and then suggested to the ‘escort’ that perhaps she was intimidated. Fortunately, the court dismissed this charge because of the misconduct of the prosecution.

You can see Walter Hoye’s peaceful protest here. The prosecution wasn’t aware of this rebuttal evidence that showed Mr. Barbic’s perjured testimony. It also shows a rather tenacious ‘escort’ who was the one doing the intimidating. Still, the jury found Walter Hoye guilty.

Allison Aranda, Staff Counsel for Life Legal Defense Foundation, who is representing Rev. Hoye said regarding the January verdict: “After speaking with several jurors after the verdict was read, it is clear that the court's failure and outright refusal to instruct the jury regarding the key elements of the crime led to the erroneous conviction of Rev. Hoye,”

And so, because he exercised his constitutional rights of free speech and protest on May 13, 2008, and because he followed his conscience before his God, yesterday he found himself on the 5th floor of the Alameda Superior Court building in Oakland where he was sentenced by Judge Stuart Hing with 30 days in jail and a $1,130 fine.

"This is a deliberate attempt to silence the Church and its prophetic role in protecting the innocent lives in our community and especially Black babies," said Pastor Stephen Broden of Dallas, Texas. "Pastor Hoye represents a legacy of resistance by Black preachers to injustices perpetrated on the beloved community. Prenatal murder of Black babies by the abortion industry should be resisted by every black pastor across this country."

Columnist Star Parker writes:

"...beyond the troubling details of this trial and conviction, circumstances surrounding the case convey the realities of our deeply confused and lost nation.

Abortion clinics such as Family Planning Specialists strategically locate to optimize their deadly business. This means in poor black neighborhoods.

A search of the 94607 zip code in Oakland where this facility is located shows that the population is 50 percent black, the median household income is 40 percent that of the median household income in the state of California while 30 percent earn below the poverty line and 58 percent of households with children are single parent households.

The poor black kids from the broken families and communities there go to failing public schools in Oakland where half of them drop out.

In these failing public schools, it is prohibited to teach the most important thing that these children could possibly hear. That there are absolutes in this world -- that there is right and there is wrong.

As religion and tradition have been purged from public life in America, the most immediate victims have been the weakest and most vulnerable.

California deals with this problem by subsidizing it. Every poor girl that goes to Family Planning Specialists gets her abortion paid for by California state insurance, Medi-Cal.

This fiscal year Medi-Cal will spend $52 million dollars of taxpayer funds paying for abortions of poor young women. This while Governor Schwarzenegger has announced an anticipated deficit of over $40 billion and tens of billions from the federal government in the new trillion dollar "stimulus" package will be sent to bail out the state.

The stated purpose of the Oakland ordinance, which may send Walter Hoye to jail, is to protect 'right of privacy." "Right of privacy" of teenage girls not old enough to vote, but who can get a state paid for abortion without informing a parent.

Yet the first amendment of our constitution no longer protects the freedom of a pastor to peaceably stand in front of an abortion clinic and tell these lost young women there is another way.

Something is wrong in America today. Very, very wrong.

Indeed. The wrong moral wrongness of America has been accelerated through this persecution of this brave patriot. Let us pray for Walter Hoye and his family. And let us pray for our drifting nation.