Christians Have No Rights in America

Christians Have No Rights in America

According to the mayor of Houston Texas…

By de Andréa

October 18, 2014

It is becoming increasingly clear that if one is a Christian in…well… really anywhere, you have no rights.  Moreover if you become a Christian you will likely lose whatever historical rights that you thought you had. 

Now one would probably expect that in a Middle Eastern country where Islam reigns, it might be understood that a Christian would be considered a lower life form.  But this article is about Christians in America, the land of the free… the so-called Christian Nation, well, that is of course if you are politically correct and speak only words approved by your government, whether it be local or Federal. 

For more than one hundred years now the Christian church has been under silent censure by the IRS - connected to the 501 c3 tax free status.  Consequently pastors are reluctant to build a sermon around anything controversial or political, like homosexuality, or abortion, and should they dare mention anything about voting or the cardinal sin of expressing anything pro or con about a political candidate, they would have nightmares of IRS agents dressed in Kevlar and pointing AR 15’s at them on the pulpit.   But for some of this we have no one to blame but ourselves because as Christians we long ago sold our freedom for 20 pieces of silver.  

On the other hand, long before 1913 and the IRS, Thomas Jefferson rightly noted that big cities are the “bane” of freedom. And in a letter to James Madison, Jefferson wrote, “When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become corrupt as in Europe.” Modern America is a living testament to Jefferson’s sagacity. Unlike early America, the vast majority of the U.S. population now lives in large metropolitan areas. And who said these old Founding Fathers had no vision. It is the big-government machinations of big-city politicians that are leading the charge for America’s surrender to Big Brother. Houston, Texas, is just the latest example of a one hundred year war against Christians in America.

The mayor of Houston has issued subpoenas demanding a group of pastors turn over any sermons dealing with homosexuality, and gender identity. This was ordered by Annise Parker, the city’s first openly lesbian mayor. And those ministers who fail to comply will 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. 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 so-called non-discrimination ordinance, dubbed the bathroom bill. The law, among other things, allows men to use the ladies room and vice versa. The city council approved the law in June. 

This is similar to California’s Public School law allowing transgender students to use the bathroom and take showers in the locker room of their choice.  

The Houston Chronicle reported opponents of the ordinance, mostly Christian church pastors and members, 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 arbitrarily threw out the petition against the law in August over alleged so-called irregularities.  They likely missed doting one of the (i)’s.

After opponents of the bathroom bill filed a lawsuit the city’s attorneys responded by issuing the subpoenas against the pastors.

Although the pastors were not part of the lawsuit, they were however 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 and strip Christians of their First Amendment rights.”

 Among those slapped with a subpoena is Steve Riggle, the senior pastor of Grace Community Church. He was ordered 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 said. “The mayor would like to silence our voice. She’s a bully.”

Rev. David Welch, executive director of the Texas 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 said. “This is absolutely a complete abuse of authority.”

See the report: City Of Houston Demands Pastors Turn Over Sermons

Obviously, city officials in Houston, Texas, are misusing their authority to bully and intimidate local pastors and churches from exercising their God-given duty to proclaim Biblical truth as they understand it. And, yes, such speech is emphatically recognized and protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Therefore, it is clear that  Mayor Annise Parker and the Houston City Council hate America and do not believe in freedom of speech unless it’s their own freedom of speech; their actions should be regarded as an act of tyranny by any freedom lover--be they Christian or otherwise.  They should bring her up on charges of violating the rite of mandamus for violating the First Amendment rights of the people she represents as Mayor as well as her oath of Office.

The audacity of Mayor Parker and the Houston City Council to demand they examine and approve of a pastor’s sermons and private communications with parishioners! This is so egregiously offensive it is difficult to comprehend that we are talking about an American city. But this is NOT the America of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison and for sure not the America of the Constitutional Republic. Furthermore, it is obvious that Texas is NOT the State of Travis, Austin, and Houston. In fact, the namesake of the City of Houston must be turning over in his grave. I doubt that the Mexican tyrant, Santa Anna, ever dreamed up anything as dastardly as what we see emanating from the twisted mind of Mayor Parker and her corrupt cronies on the Houston City Council.  But that is just my honest opinion.

Unfortunately, there is absolutely no doubt that the action of Houston city officials only typifies the actions of today’s State and Federal government and is a precursor of the forthcoming acts of tyranny.

In conjunction with what I wrote earlier, most of us are aware that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued a statement saying it was going to begin “monitoring” the sermons of America’s pastors after an atheist organization complained that too many of America’s pastors were violating the conditions of their non-profit tax status under section 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC).  See this report: IRS Agrees To Monitor Sermons In Settlement With Atheists.

The issue is NOT even homosexuality or lesbianism; the issue is a constitutional issue, it is an issue of freedom of speech and of religion.  As it is, for all intents and purposes, the story is completely ignored by the alphabet soup media. So typical of the enablement of tyranny by the American communist media.

THE BOTTOM LINE: That the Church will once again be forced to truly recognize who their Master is, what their spiritual authority is, and where real liberty comes from, may not be a bad thing at all. It just might be the beginning of what America needs most: fiercely independent, unshackled pastors and Christians that are courageously and fearlessly proclaiming the Biblical Natural Law principles of liberty, which have been mostly ignored for well over a century now. It will also give genuine believers an opportunity to identify real Bible churches from phony, government-created non-profit organizations pretending to be churches.  But again, that is just my blatantly truthful opinion.

It took religious persecution in Colonial America to bring about a ‘Great Awakening’, which then produced the great separation from the British Crown and finally American independence. It appears that it’s going to take religious persecution once again to bring about another Great Awakening, which very well could produce another great surge of liberty and independence in our land.  Or it could bring total subjugation of the country.  But it truly should awaken history reminiscent of the oppression of the British Government’s total control of the Church.

So if you think that this war against Christians and Christian moral principles has just begun, you would be wrong my friend.  It started 2000 years ago and it not going away anytime soon.

I can't help but wonder why the mayor didn't subpoena the Muslim Mosques?  They not only speak out against homosexuality, they behead them.  Maybe the mayor was afraid of losing her head.  So to speak!

Breaking…During the writing of this article on the 16^th of October, a higher court judge overturned the subpoena ordering the turnover of the pastor’s sermons in Houston. One has to wonder if it got this far, how long will it be until there are no more judges left to defend constitutional law against these social communists that we ignorantly elect to office.

How long indeed! 

Thanks for listening – de Andréa  

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