Houston, We Have A Problem!

At least in Houston, such discriminating forces are not getting their way without a fight.

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SHAWN PAUL — OCTOBER 28, 2014

Under the direction of Mayor Annise Parker, Houston’s first openly lesbian mayor, the City of Houston has launched an attack on area pastors’ First Amendment rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion.

In a whirlwind of recent developments, with subpoenas, the mayor first demanded that five local Christian pastors relinquish sermon outlines and other private communications related to the mayor or the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO).

Then, after these demands began to receive national media exposure, the mayor and the Houston City Attorney began to backpedal, with later statements to reporters expressing that the language of the original mandate was “too broad,” and “it should have been clarified.”

According to the amended blanket subpoena, city officials now simply require that any of the pastors’ “speeches” related to HERO, or a petition to repeal it, must be relinquished for their review.

It would be interesting to know how the city would differentiate between “sermons” and “speeches.” In fact, the subpoena still requires that 17 different classifications of the pastors’ communications must be submitted.

It should be noted that just a day before her last corrective statement, Parker tweeted that “If the 5 pastors used pulpits for politics, their sermons are fair game.”

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After only three days had passed by since that social media comment, the Houston Chronicle recorded the mayor as saying, “We don’t need to intrude on matters of faith to have equal rights in Houston, and it was never the intention of the City of Houston to intrude on any matters of faith or to get between a pastor and their parishioners.”

The origin of this battle has been centered upon the passage of Parker’s HERO ordinance, also known as the “Bathroom Bill,” that would allow individuals who claim to more closely identify with the opposite sex to use the public restrooms of their choice.

Apparently, city officials are angered that a voter lawsuit was filed by Houston citizens against the city after a baseless attempt of officials to invalidate the majority of 50,000 signatures of a petition aimed at repealing the HERO ordinance.

The city’s anger was also kindled against these five pastors, when they received word that the pastors had actively encouraged parishioners and citizens to sign the petition.

It seems to make no difference to the mayor’s office that the pastors have never been involved in the lawsuit.

These pastors have thus far expressed no intention to relinquish their sermons or other communications; and their stance is backed by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), whose attorneys have filed a motion in a Texas court to stop the subpoena.

Other organizations, including Texas Values, Family Research Council, and the American Family Association, have also expressed their support for the pastors and outrage at the intrusive subpoenas.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Senator Ted Cruz have also expressed outrage at the city’s actions. At a rally in support of the pastors, Cruz stated, “Caesar has no jurisdiction over the pulpit. When you subpoena one pastor, you subpoena every pastor.”

To many who are following this situation, it seems quite evident that the City of Houston is not only in violation of the Federal Constitution, but also the Texas State Constitution’s clauses related to freedom of speech and freedom of religious practice.

It’s also clear that this is the sort of abuse of power Americans everywhere should come to expect when representatives of special interest groups rise to positions of power that they then use to dictate which individuals’ rights really matter.

At least in Houston, such discriminating forces are not getting their way without a fight. Hopefully, this is a fight that many more will be willing to repeatedly fight across the nation–because these types of situations aren’t going away any time soon.

Photo credit: Ed Schipul (Flickr)

Read more at http://www.westernjournalism.com/houston-problem/#HpjXkHgiQdmVJqK1.99

The attack on national morale and morality

Though it should now be painfully obvious that the policies of those in our government’s highest offices are initiating a decline in America’s national security and economy, increasing evidence suggests that these concerns are only subsidiary effects of a much deeper, more sinister attack that is being unleashed upon the country.

As evidenced through social media and public polls, a growing number of Americans believe that this national erosion of prosperity and personal liberties cannot be explained away as the result of rampant incompetence in poor leadership, but that it is all a part of an intentional attack on the fundamental makeup of our country.

What’s worse, is that the heart of the attack is focused upon social issues, and more importantly, the traditional family unit.

Throughout a decades-long gradual slope, the size, scope, influence, and power of our federal government has grown by leaps and bounds at the expense of the individual liberties of private citizens.

The progression of this slippery slope has only accelerated, at unprecedented levels, under the direction of the country’s current leadership.

While it was founded by noble but imperfect men, America’s entire system of government, a new republic, was originally based upon Judeo-Christian precepts that became the foundation for our nation’s laws.

A recurring theme in our Declaration and other founding documents was a recognition of Almighty God as the sole proprietor of this new nation, with “We The People” as it facilitators and an honor system of good will toward our fellow man as we endeavored to build the greatest nation on earth, bound and motivated by a universal pursuit of coexisting freedoms and patriotism, and preserved by our Creator with honor given to him and the founding documents that He inspired.

America’s framers were learned men who took into account the lessons provided by history.

As a majority, they conceded that a democracy, however attractive to the citizenry, could never survive as a system of government that both allowed for personal freedoms, as well as to adhere to an unwavering rule of law.

That is why they decided instead that a republic was a more fitting system for this new government. They knew that it could stand the test of time, so long as the federal government, state governments, and private citizens continued to share their vision and worked in cooperation among themselves to ensure the nation’s survival in the form in which it was originally intended.

As we have witnessed, our government no longer represents the will of the people according to the fundamental laws of the land, but simply finds loopholes in laws, ignores them altogether, and/or works in unison with activist judges and slanted media outlets who have been bought and paid for to help them carry out their dishonest agenda.

Over time, we’ve lost the help of would-be patriots to a lack of overall education (especially an accurate instruction in American and World histories) and they have slowly been brainwashed by these united destructive forces to believe the opposite of what is true, as well as reversed definitions of right and wrong.

Although small victories have been won, we still live in a country where far too many believe that innocent unborn life is expendable for convenience, where the God-given traditional institution of marriage is being rapidly redefined, where freedom of speech and expression now comes with a disclaimer of political correctness, and where anyone’s religion or god is honored in the halls of our government and in our public places except the one our nation was first built upon.

What is most alarming to the student of history is that, in focus, this attack is fundamentally one upon the traditional family unit and freedom of religion.

What’s more, this has always been the method used by authoritarian dictators of history who wished to transform struggling countries into enslaved ones.

They know that this tested method will rob individuals of hope, who will no longer draw their strength from personal faith or their families, making their will much more easily broken by the powerful forces of a tyrannical government.

Let’s not forget the lessons of history and allow them to ruin this nation.

It starts with educated involvement in the political process through the polling places and peaceful discourse, and it ends with the will of unified individuals who refuse to surrender their hope.