For years, the LGBT lobby has said things like, “Why do you care if we get married? It doesn’t hurt you,” and, “This doesn’t affect your religious liberty. It’s not like they’re forcing pastors to perform same sex marriages.” Well, in the city of Houston, TX, the first step has been taken in that direction.
In what appears to be an act of retribution against a coalition of churches that opposed a recently passed non-discrimination ordinance, the city of Houston has issued subpoenas to several area pastors, demanding that they turn over the content of any sermons that address homosexuality or gender identity.
The ordinance in question, that would allow people to use the restroom of the gender with which they choose to identify, was the subject of a lawsuit after a petition for referendum against the ordinance garnered over 50,000 signatures (they needed just under 18,000) was thrown out by the city. The pastors, who had nothing to do with said lawsuit, received their subpoenas shortly after it was filed.
There is no question that this is an attack on religious liberty. In recent interviews, attorney Erik Stanley suggested that Annise Parker, Houston’s first openly lesbian mayor, “wants to publicly shame the ministers.”
And the reality is even if the defense team is able to block the subpoenas, to an extent the damage will have been done. All anyone has to do is hint that the only reason to oppose the subpoenas is to hide the anti-gay bigotry that must be scrawled over every page of the sermons they are “trying to hide”. Never mind the fact that ordination does not strip a pastor of the same First Amendment rights that are afforded to everyone else.
The pastors who have received subpoenas have so far promised not to comply, claiming that the mayor is a bully whose goal is not acceptance but the silence of anyone who would dare to dissent.
Reverend Dave Welch, Executive Director of the Texas Pastor Council, spoke with Fox News' Todd Starnes about the subpoenas and compared them to the Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas Revolution of 1836.
This is the San Jacinto moment for traditional family. This is the place where we stop the LGBT assault on the freedom to practice our faith.
