THE FIRST AMENDMENT: HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM

By James Wilson

            The attacks on the First Amendment by government officials become more irrational as they become more brazen.  In Houston, Texas, the city council rammed through an ordinance – in order to please their avowedly lesbian mayor – that corresponds to California’s so-called bathroom bill.  It mandates permission for men and women to use each others’ public restroom and locker room facilities should they feel like the other gender on any given day.  Texas law requires a little more than 17,000 petition signatures for qualifying a referendum – to be certified by the city secretary.  More than 55,000 were submitted and the secretary – per her sworn testimony – certified them.  Houston’s city attorney – who has no authority to do so – invalidated all the signatures.  When concerned citizens filed a lawsuit against the city that same city attorney subpoenaed the sermons and pastor-to-member correspondence of five pastors who support the referendum but are not parties to the lawsuit.  That the pastors were not connected to the lawsuit is the irrational part; issuing the subpoenas is the brazen.

            Sermons are not private communication.  They are delivered in public every Sunday and they are often recorded for later publication.  Private communications between a pastor and anyone are confidential and protected.   To “summon” a sermon is a blatant attempt at intimidation against constitutionally protected speech and to subpoena privileged correspondence is a constitutional outrage.  The Alliance Defending Freedom took the case, and the subpoenas have been withdrawn in the wake of a public outcry that includes Texas Attorney General Abbott’s letter asking – in effect – what were you thinking?  But the most outrageous breach of law and constitution to remain standing is the suppression of the public’s right to speak through their vote.  This is not unique to Texas.

            In Colorado students objecting to a similar policy were threatened by police and their school district.  Pacific Justice Institute is defending them. 

            California’s Bathroom Bill – AB 1266 – was subject to a successful petition drive for a referendum.  It too was disqualified by Secretary of State Debra Bowen who refused to turn over petitions to Pacific Justice Institute for a state guaranteed right of review.  This one went before a judge who ruled petitioners had a “right to privacy” that trumped the right of review; again the ruling is as irrational as it is illegal and unconstitutional.  Who signs a petition and then hopes nobody finds out they signed?

            It doesn’t end there in California.  The State Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) has decided the Knox-Keene Act requires all employers – including churches – must provide abortion services for their employees if they offer health insurance to them.  This travesty comes in the wake of the recent Supreme Court Decision in favor of Hobby Lobby and against the Obama Administration (of which state health bureaucrats are well aware) attempt to force non-church – yet Christian owned – businesses to do the same thing.  Even the Obama Administration admits it has no power to force churches into this kind of grisly compliance.  The new state regulations took effect August 22.  What they achieve is to once again demonstrate that the largest criminal enterprise in our nation is government – in terms of reach and impact – at local, state and national levels.  Citizens need to just say no – and the persecuted pastors of Houston are doing just that.

            We need to say more than a rhetorical “No.”  We need to clog the courts with lawsuits demanding our legitimate rights; we need to vote for leaders with a record of operating within the limitations of constitution and Word of God.  That means doing our homework in primary seasons, when the alternatives are all available.  There can be no more choosing of lesser evils, as though evil knows degrees.  And when push comes to shove we need to say – en masse – “Go ahead, arrest me.”  This is what brought about civil rights reform in the sixties and seventies, and there are more of us at risk now than there were then – as though mere numbers matter.  Truth is if one is at risk all are at risk; this is hardly a new idea.

              In Acts 5 Peter and John told the Sanhedrin to do what they must, but “We must obey God rather than men.”  Jesus said to render to Ceasar only what belongs to him, and to God what belongs to Him.  Obedience here carries infinite blessing, for Jesus also says, in Matthew 10:32, that those who acknowledge Him before men will be acknowledged by Him before God.  I don’t want to spend time in jail, but for that kind of blessing it is well worthwhile if I must.