15 October 2014 A.D. Houston: Significant Threat to Constitutional Liberties
15
October 2014 A.D. Houston: Significant Threat to Constitutional
Liberties
Clark, Scott. “Another Threat to Constitutional
Liberties.” Heidelbog. 15 Oct 2014. http://heidelblog.net/2014/10/another-significant-threat-to-constitutional-liberties/. Accessed 15 Oct 2014.
Another Significant Threat To Constitutional Liberties
In May of this year
the Houston city council passed the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) that
requires businesses and workplaces to make available restroom facilities not
according to sex but according to gender identity. A group of Houston area
pastors has been organizing and vigorously opposing this bill. In response the
city has issued subpoenas for materials
produced, including sermons, by several of the ministers. It seems reasonably
clear that the Alliance Defending
Freedom is correct, that this is an attempt by the City of Houston to
intimidate ministers into shutting up about the HERO ordinance and about the
attempt by radicals to redefine human sexuality (sex vs gender). Ordinarily
the local coverage of these issues is better simply because the local media are
closer and more aware of all the facts but in this case the national media
seems to be doing a better job telling the whole story. The local
pastors group generated 50,000 signatures to get a referendum on the ballot to
overturn the HERO act. The city disqualified the petition because of alleged
“irregularities” and now seems to be trying to silence vocal opponents.
More than 10 years ago pastors in Canada began to face sanctions for speaking
up against homosexuality and homosexual marriage. They warned us that it could
happen here. I was one of those who did not listen. I thought that the
constitutional differences between the USA and Canada were enough that,
whatever happened in Canada, we would be safe here. I also thought that, after
the Hillarycare debacle, nothing like it would ever pass. Wrong again. I
didn’t think that Americans would elect an inexperienced former community
organizer with a set of dubious associations with radical anarchist bombers
(the Weather Underground), a weak
record in state politics, and virtually no record in national politics, to
become President of the United States of America. Three strikes and I’m out. So
I want a do over. It really is time to pay attention. The assumption that “it
can’t happen here because of the Bill of Rights” is obviously wrong. A
constitution only protects liberties if we elect people who are committed to
the constitution, who, in turn, appoint people to the bench who are also
committed to constitutional liberties. Clearly it is no longer safe to assume
that, whatever our economic and social differences, we’re all committed to basic
constitutional protections. We live in a time when:
·
When an administration has impenitently set the Department of
Justice upon a reporter and his family.
·
When Cal Sate University has forced
Inter-Varsity Fellowship off campus for believing and practicing the Christian
religion.
·
When bakers and florists are fined
and put out of business because of religious objections to catering homosexual
weddings.
·
When it became necessary not only for Congress to pass the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) but to call the Department
of Defense to heel because of its unconstitutional behavior
restricting religious liberty.
·
When a police captain is being punished by his
superiors for failing to attend a meeting in a local mosque, which the Mosque
advertises as an indoctrination session.
·
When middle school teachers, in middle America, are told
not to classify children as boys and girls but rather as “purple penguins.”
·
When the City of Houston thinks that it is constitutional to subpoena
sermons by ministers for daring to oppose the idea that human beings belong to
one of two sexes, male or female, that gender is a grammatical category.
We may disagree about whether or how Houston pastors should have
spoken up about this ordinance but the history and constitution of this country
say that they are well within their rights to do so. Yes, there are some limits
on what ministers can say about partisan politics,
unless a leading Democrat politician is in the pulpit, on “the Lord’s Day,” just
before election. In that case all limits are off.
For the rest, see: http://heidelblog.net/2014/10/another-significant-threat-to-constitutional-liberties/ . For bloggers, we recommend linking to
Heidelbog.
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