Tuesday, October 21, 2014

‘HOUSTON 5’ PASTOR: SERMON FIGHT ‘HIT NERVE’ FOR AMERICA


America’s Independent News Network
“A Free Press for a Free People”


One Of Those ‘AH-HA Moments’
Exposing ‘Path To Tyranny’

Bob Unruh, WND Exclusive — One of the five Houston pastors subpoenaed by his city for sermons and other communications regarding homosexuality told WND he’s a little surprised by the national attention given the dispute.

Dave Welch, executive director of the Houston area U.S. Pastor Council, said it was “just one of those God things.”

“I don’t think anyone could have remotely predicted the level of response from the nation,” Welch told WND on Monday.

“It just hit a nerve. It was just one of those ‘ah-ha’ moments where the veil of how far we are down the road to tyranny was pulled back,” he said. “For some reason, thankfully, it still reveals some reverence for the church and religion.”

WND broke the story a week ago of the city’s response to a lawsuit against an ordinance passed in May that allows “gender confused” people to use public facilities designated for the opposite sex. Opponents of the Equal Rights Ordinance sued when their apparently successful petition drive to place the issue on the election ballot was tossed out. They charge City Attorney Dave Feldman and Mayor Annise Parker, a lesbian, summarily dismissed thousands of valid signatures. In the discovery process for a scheduled January trial, the city subpoenaed Welch and four other pastors for any sermons or church communications that mention the ordinance or the mayor. Though they have been active opponents of the law, the five pastors are not party to the lawsuit.

WND reported outrage from across the nation ensued, and lawyers with the Alliance Defending Freedom asked a court to throw out the subpoenas. Amid the protest, city officials at first doubled down, with Parker stating, “If the 5 pastors used pulpits for politics, their sermons are fair game.” But Houston officials then said they would narrow the scope of their demand to “speeches” instead of sermons, a move ADF legal counsel Joe La Rue said was “wholly inadequate.”

Christiana Holcom, ADF litigation counsel, dismissed the notion that the city had in any way backed off.

“The shame that the city of Houston has brought upon itself is real, but the claim that it has changed course is not. The city has so far taken no concrete action to withdraw the subpoenas. Furthermore, the subpoenas themselves are the problem – not just their request for pastors’ sermons,” she said.

Monday was the due date for a city response to an order by the state Supreme Court to justify the rejection of thousands of signatures. Welch also said the pastors were awaiting a ruling on whether or not the subpoenas would be canceled by the courts.

Welch said the city’s demand for the sermons is generating a huge wave of opposition. Rallies are being planned, including one two days before the mid-term elections, and local officials are facing protest from their friends, neighbors and business acquaintances.

“This is not just a traditional, religious conservative issue,” he said. “It hits home for [many] people.”

He said even civil libertarians who might not otherwise be on the side of churches are coming forward in support of free speech and religious rights.

“We’ve been fighting to expose the highjacking of the civil rights movement, to stop them from gaining this ground,” Welch said.

Flood Of Sermons

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee suggested every pastor across America send Houston Mayor Annise Parker a sermon and urged others to send her Bibles. Several pastors reported to WND they were sending sermons.

Martial arts champion, film and television star and now social activist Chuck Norris wondered how government officials could not realize “a sermon is a speech.”

“Such action reminds me of the words of Forrest Gump and his mother, ‘Stupid is as stupid does,’” he wrote.

He provided the mayor’s contact information for those who want to voice their opposition:

Mayor Annise D. Parker
City of Houston
P.O. Box 1562 Houston, Texas 77251
Phone: (713) 837-0311
Email: mayor@houstontx.gov

Members of Congress and pastors from other cities have expressed alarm.

In a weekend statement, Senior Pastor Wilfredo De Jesus of New Life Covenant Church in Chicago said: “It’s a sad day in the United States of America, in the land of the free, when the First Amendment rights of religious leaders are being trampled on by a mayor for political gain and/or exposure.”

He said pastors have an obligation to share the Gospel.

“I accept the fact that what I preach may be considered by some as controversial and not accepted as popular. What I will not accept is a government body deploying bullying tactics that perpetuate an environment of hate toward Christians and bigotry toward our Christian beliefs,” he said.

Huckabee wants to see Parker receive “thousands and thousands of sermons and Bibles.”


Several petitions have been launched in support of the pastors, including one from Faith Driven Consumer that calls for an end to the “aggressive bullying” of the pastors. It set a goal of 10,000 signatures.

Founder Chris Stone said he wants the city “to unequivocally reverse course and end their harassment of five respected area pastors.”

A petition by Family Research Council had more than 35,000 signatures heading into the weekend.

WND columnist Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson called Parker’s actions an “unprecedented attack against religious freedom and free speech rights.”

“Christian pastors threaten the LGBT’s scheme to normalize abhorrent behavior. If we don’t stop the attack on these Houston pastors, the left will surely be emboldened to use their Gestapo-like tactics against any other group that opposes them, and we’ll end up like Canada,” he said.

Norris said: “If [City Attorney David] Feldman and Parker need a primer on the First Amendment, then let them know that America’s founders drafted it even to protect political speech by preachers!”

He continued: “I’m a Texan and it chaps my hide when some homegrown kibosh of the U.S. Constitution originates in the Lone Star State. We, above all, should be leading the way in liberty. I respect all people and persuasions, but Parker and Feldman’s move is nothing but a political maneuver to suppress dissenting voice and religious opinion.

“I dislike vulgar, profane and hate language as much as anyone. But America has a protection for its expression: It’s called the First Amendment, and I am tired of people trampling it by wrongly interpreting it as a right for only feel-good expression. Even hate language is protected under that leading tenet of our Bill of Rights.”

One of the other subpoenaed pastors is Khanh Huynh of the Vietnamese Baptist Church in Houston, who lived under the communist regime in Vietnam before participating in the great boatlift.

In an interview, he told WND he left Vietnam because of the repression and absence of freedom of religion, speech and association.

Describing the city’s move as an “intimidation tactic,” Huynh told WND that as a pastor and Christian, he must express perspectives on moral issues “without government oversight.”

“We voice our opinion. We’re standing for righteousness on a moral issue. The issue is that we have got to stand up for our belief,” he explained. “We will not back down.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the subpoenas “unbefitting of Texans, and it’s un-American.”

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., joined him.

“I stand with the pastors and churches in Houston against government interference and harassment,” he said.

Paul noted the First Amendment “doesn’t exist to keep religion out of government.”

“It exists to keep government out of religion.”

Enabling Sexual Predators

The lawsuit challenging Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance alleges the city violated its own charter in its adoption of the law, which in May designated homosexuals and transgender persons as a protected class.

Critics say the measure effectively enables sexual predators who dress as women to enter female public bathrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities. A coalition of activists that includes area pastors filed suit Aug. 6 against the city and Parker after officials announced a voter petition to repeal the measure didn’t have enough signatures to qualify for the election ballot.

According to a deposition from Houston city Secretary Anna Russell, her office had counted 19,177 signatures in the petition to repeal the measure and then stopped, because the qualifying number of 17,269 signatures already had been reached, with a margin.

The pastors’ coalition explained, “Her position is that it would be a waste of resources to continue to count when we clearly and easily had met the city charter standard.”

However, the deposition revealed that the mayor and the city attorney, Feldman, then simply overturned the result.

Russell said she was told to add the following statement to her count: “According to the city attorney’s office and reviewed by the city secretary the analysis of the city attorney’s office, 2,750 pages containing 16,010 signatures do not contain sufficient acknowledgment as required by the charter. Therefore, according to the city attorney’s office only 2,449 pages containing 15,249 signatures can lawfully be considered toward the signatures required.”


Opposition in Houston was led by a coalition including the Baptist Ministers Association of Houston, the Houston Area Pastor Council, the Houston Ministers against Crime, AME Ministers Alliance of Houston/Gulf Coast, the Northeast Ministers Alliance, the South Texas Full Gospel Baptist Fellowship, the South Texas District of the Assemblies of God and the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

Critics dubbed the Houston law the “sexual predator protection act,” claiming that by designating transgender or gender-confused persons as a protected class, women and children are threatened by predators seeking to exploit the ordinance’s ambiguous language.

Similar cases also have erupted in Maryland, Florida and Colorado, which adopted a radical “transgender nondiscrimination” bill in 2008 that makes it illegal to deny a person access to public accommodations, including restrooms and locker rooms, based on gender identity or the “perception” of gender identity. One consequence of the law is a ruling forcing authorities to permit 6-year-old Coy Mathis – a boy who says he thinks he’s a girl – to use the girls’ bathroom at his elementary school.

Nationwide, 17 states and the District of Columbia have embraced the transsexual agenda. Rhode Island added “gender identity and expression” to its anti-discrimination law in June with the support of Gov. Jack Markell, and Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden announced his support in an Equality Delaware video.
About the Author
Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially.

» Bob Unruh | Article Archive
» WND
NEWS BRIEFS: OCTOBER 21, 2014


Current Events And Commentaries

Walid Shoebat
Former Muslim Brotherhood Member Now Peace Activist

Obama Rebuked By Prominent Pastor
Who Concedes Islamic State IS Islamic

By Ben Barrack, Shoebat Foundation —By Ben Barrack, Shoebat.com — Prominent Christian pastor Reverend Franklin Graham essentially discarded Barack Obama’s contention that “ISIL is not Islamic” when the former took to facebook and implied that ISIL / ISIS / Islamic State / Da’ish is simply following the dictates of the Qur’an. In his post, Graham honed in on Islamic State’s enslavement and treatment of Yazidi women:
Reverend Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, has sometimes criticized Islam, and in a recent Facebook post questioned whether Islam is “really a religion of peace” noting that the Islamic State, in the latest issue of its magazine, Dabiq, defends slavery and the use of women as sex slaves “as a firmly established aspect of the Shariah.”

Sharia law “guides all aspects of Muslim life, including daily routines, familial and religious obligations, and financial dealings” in most Muslim countries, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. “It is derived primarily from the Quran and the Sunna—the sayings, practices, and teachings of the Prophet Mohammed.”

In his Oct. 18 Facebook post, Rev. Graham, who also runs the international aid group Samaritan’s Purse, said, “Is Islam really a religion of peace? Islamic State justified kidnapping women as sex slaves in the new issue of their online magazine. They said that it is a ‘firmly established aspect of Shariah’ and anyone who denies this is denying the Koran.”

“These are the militants who are currently terrorizing innocent Iraqis right now and advancing throughout the Middle East,” he said. “Does this sound peaceful to you?”

In the Islamic State’s magazine, Dabiq, Issue 4, there is an article about the treatment of the Yazidis in Iraq, a people the Islamic State describes as a “pagan minority.”

The article says that for the Yazidis, “their women could be enslaved” and “after capture, the Yazidi women and children were then divided according to the Shariah amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations [in northern Iraq], after one fifth of the slaves were transferred to the Islamic State’s authority to be divided as khums.”

“The enslaved Yazidi families are now sold by the Islamic State soldiers as the mushrikin were sold by the Companions before them,” reads the article.
As far as Islam taking women as slaves from lands it conquers, here is a clip from protests in London in early 2006 over the Mohammed cartoons from Denmark, long before ISIS was created....
Top Scientist: This Version Of Ebola Looks Like ‘A Very Different Bug’
By Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse —
Barack Obama and the head of the CDC need to quit saying that we know exactly how Ebola spreads. Because the truth is that there is much about this virus that we simply do not know. For example, a top Ebola scientist that is working in the heart of the outbreak in Liberia says that this version of Ebola looks like it could be "a very different bug" from past versions. Other leading scientists are echoing his concerns. And yet Barack Obama and Thomas Frieden continue to publicly proclaim that we know precisely how this virus behaves. Not only is that bad science, but it could also potentially result in the unnecessary deaths of a very large number of people. For example, Obama has refused to implement an Ebola travel ban because he is greatly underestimating the seriousness of this virus. This decision could turn out to be incredibly costly. If what you will read about below is true, we could be dealing with some sort of "super Ebola" that nobody has ever seen before.

Peter Jahrling of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease is on the front lines fighting this disease in Liberia. He is one of the top authorities in the world on Ebola, and what his team has been seeing under the microscope is incredibly sobering....
6 Times Obama Declared Crisis, Then Did Nothing
By Ben Shapiro, Breitbart —
Last week, President Obama finally began taking Ebola seriously – so seriously that he cancelled a campaign trip in order to hold an emergency meeting on Ebola. He then appointed a new Ebola czar, Ron Klain, whose stellar qualifications for handling a possible Ebola outbreak include flacking for Janet Reno, Al Gore, and Joe Biden. Finally, Obama held another Ebola meeting after going golfing. Klain skipped the meeting. It was the second such meeting Klain skipped. Don’t worry. The Obama administration has top men on the job. Top. Men.

This makes the 1,297th crisis the Obama administration has initially ignored, then declared a crisis, then ignored again. Which doesn’t mean that the crises disappear – far from it. They accelerate, grow, metastasize. But since prestidigitator Obama has busily misdirected to the next pseudocrisis – Global warming! Sexual assault on college campuses! Fat kiddies shoving fast food down their drooling pieholes! – the media never return to the scene of the continuing crime....
Western Journalism
Informing and Equipping Americans Who Love Freedom

Watch: Comedian Destroys Scandal-Ridden Obama Administration
In This Hilarious Two Minute Video

“Laws we’re gonna break, concern we’re gonna fake,
then it’s off to a fundraiser to shake it off, shake it off...”

Justin Koski, Western Journalism — Stand up comedian and parody musician Remy Munasifi, or @GoRemy, takes all of the most recent scandals and puts them into a music video where he plays a journalist, Josh Earnest, and an unexpected visitor.
This Remy parody of the Obama Administration to the insufferable Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” is utterly genius.
— Ellen L. Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) October 20, 2014
The best two minutes of your day. Brought to you by @reasontv and @GoRemy.
— Greta L. Alspaugh (@TowardLiberty) October 20, 2014

@GoRemy Nailed it!
— Julie Borowski (@JulieBorowski) October 20, 2014

H/T Twitchy
Bachmann Gets Security Detail After ISIS Threat
‘The U.S. Capitol Police does not discuss law enforcement
operations or security regarding Members of Congress.’
By Larry O’Connor, Ben Shapiro’s Truth Revolt —
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has been given a special security detail after the tea party favorite received an online threat from the ISIS terror group. According to Politico, Capitol Police have found the threat to be serious and credible:

Members of the U.S. Capitol Police’s Dignitary Protection Division were briefed on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The police security will continue until Bachmann, who will retire at the end of this Congress, is no longer in office....
Vicar Of Baghdad: ‘Americans Have To Realize All Of Their Intervention Has Totally Been Wasted’
By Vincent Funaro, Christian Post —
Canon Andrew White, the Anglican pastor who's known as the Vicar of Baghdad, says that after U.S. troops left Iraq in 2011, the country has been facing "total devastation," even worse than under Saddam Hussein. White also described what Christians are facing as one of the worst persecutions in history.

"It was total devastation, it was the most horrendous thing," White told The News Tribune in Takoma, Washington, Sunday when speaking about the persecution Christians have endured in Iraq since the U.S. pulled its troops out in 2011. "The terrible thing that the Americans have to realize is that all of their intervention, everything they tried to do, has totally been wasted. Nothing has been achieved by this at all."...
NewsBusted: October 21, 2014
The Green Light For Conservative Laughter!

Topics for this Edition of NewsBusted
• President Obama Low Approval
• Ebola
• CDC
• Governor Dan Malloy
• MSBNC
• CNN Cancels Crossfire
• Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg
• Alaska Motorist hits Moose
Pastor Warns Ebola Is God’s Punishment
For Obama Dividing Jerusalem
The Jerusalem Post —
The current Ebola outbreak is God’s punishment for U.S. President Barack Obama attempting to divide Jerusalem, according to the founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), John Hagee. The San Antonio-based pastor, Zionist, and televangelist issued the grim warning in a recent broadcast of the Hagee Hotline. Hagee cited Joel 3 to alert America that God intends to judge any nation that attempts to divide Israel.

“God says that when any nation divides up the land of Israel, they are subject to judgement, and dividing Jerusalem is dividing the land,” Hagee said. “Our president is dead set on dividing Jerusalem. He is watching, and he will bring America into judgment.”...
Israel To Rely Less On US Arms
After Obama Halts Weapons Shipments

“Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.” ~ Jeremiah 17:5

By Raphael Poch, Breaking Israel News —
Following the temporary embargo placed by the Obama administration on weapons shipments to Israel during Operation Protective Edge, Israel is taking steps to not have to rely in the future upon the kindness of strangers. Officials from Israel’s Defense Ministry who wished to remain anonymous told NRG that Israel will focus more on bolstering its own internal manufacturing of weapons.

The sources explained that the Defense Ministry arrived at the conclusion that they will no longer develop or manufacture even one sensitive armament in the US any longer. This decision comes as a response to the Obama administration’s decision to halt much-needed weapons to Israel during a time of war....
Family Research Council

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, Republican, Texas:
The City Of Houston Has No Power To Silence The Church

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today stood in defense of Houston pastors’ First Amendment right to speak and worship freely, calling upon Houstonians to stand firm against the City of Houston’s recent subpoena requiring pastors to submit sermons and other forms of communication.

“Today we all stand united in defense of religious liberty, and we all stand united in defense of our pastors,” said Sen. Cruz. “Our nation is an exceptional nation, it is a unique nation. We were founded on the radical concept that rights do not come from government, but they come from the Almighty God.

“This is a country that was formed centuries ago by people fleeing religious persecution seeking a land where you do not need to seek the permission of a king or queen or president to preach the Word of God, because we serve a higher authority.”

In his remarks, Sen. Cruz noted several recent assaults on religious liberty: The IRS illegally targeting Americans and requests for content of their prayers; The Air Force Chaplain, who was forced to remove his blog post stating, “There are no Atheists in foxholes;” The Obama Administration’s litigation against organizations such as Hobby Lobby and the Catholic group of nuns, the Little Sisters of the Poor, forcing them to either violate their conscience or face crippling faith fines.

Sen. Cruz concluded, “Yet as we’ve seen it across the country, our hearts are particularly broken that we are seeing it here in Houston, Texas. This week, the government of Houston, Texas sent a subpoena to silence prayers. The government of Houston, Texas demanded of the pastors, hand over your sermons to the government. The city of Houston has no power – no legal authority – to silence the church. Caesar has no jurisdiction over the pulpit, and when you subpoena one pastor, you subpoena every pastor.”
Mother In Coma Heard Everything,
Was Scared They’d Turn Off Her Life Support
By Steven Ertelt, Life News —
Kate Allat suffered a stroke at the age of 39 and the mother spent 10 days in a coma afterwards. Now that she is past that frightful ordeal, Allat reveals in a new interview that she heard everything going on around her in her hospital room and she was fearful her life support would be turned off.

Allat indicates that her mind was functioning normally during her coma but everyone around her thought she was brain-dead as she laid in her hospital bed paralyzed and unable to speak or breathe on her own. She listened in fright as medical staff discussed switching off her life support with her family....
OUTRAGE: This Just-Released Gov’t Report
Uncovers Massive, Costly Abuse In Obama Admin
Infected by Widespread Fraud and Abuse
By Norvell Rose, Western Journalism —
As though Democrats struggling to hold on to control of the Senate need another scandalous revelation about irresponsibility in the Obama administration….

Remember the jaw-dropping case of John Beale, the former EPA employee who didn’t show up at work for two-and-a-half years but continued to collect a paycheck while telling people that he was off working as a CIA spy? After being busted for the bizarre charade, Beale was sentenced to 32 months in prison for defrauding the EPA of about $900,000 in compensation....
Obama Has Everything “Under Control”

» Cartoonist: Michael Ramirez is the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for Investors Business Daily. Please contact your local newspaper editor if you want to see Michael Ramirez’s cartoons in your hometown paper.
Jesus Privately Briefing His Inner Circle of Disciples
Regarding The Last Days
“And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” ~ Matthew 24:3-14
on
Tags: Assault on First Amendment, Church, Commentary, Educational, Federal Government, First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, Homosexual Agenda, Homosexuals, Politics, Texas, Tyranny, WND