The first amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads this way:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof (emphasis added); or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.Apparently the city of Houston never read those parts of the Constitution when they joined up with our Union back in 1845. Or perhaps those leaders did, but the notes they held on the rules they agreed to abide by have been lost. How else could the recent actions of the Houston authorities be explained?
For those who have ignored all other sources of news over the last several months, Houston city officials subpoenaed "all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to HERO, the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your possession."
In a rather fortuitous turn of events, I am not one of the pastors who were served with these subpoenas, because I would have broke many of the 10 Commandments in my response, I'm certain.
Under no circumstances does a governmental authority have any business meddling with or in anything that has to do with a Church or the content of the pastor's message (unless her/his words were to discuss a potential insurrection against the U.S. of A.) It simply isn't part of the powers they possess, as our Founding Fathers (and unheralded Mothers) specifically exclude them from governmental control.
Mayor Parker herself stated "There's no question, the wording was overly broad." She then attempted to deflect blame back on those who had been wrongly subpoenaed by stating that "I also think there was some deliberate misinterpretation on the other side." Whether she is referencing church leaders who have (according to the same city officials who issued the overly broad subpoenas) gathered signatures that were deemed invalid by city officials, or if she was insinuating that church leaders and attentive citizens the nation over had misjudged her obviously unbiased, 100% above the boards attempts to suppress voters' desire to challenge a governmental policy (the HERO law. Governmental policymakers like to get cute when they come up with their acronyms.) in a legal manner.
Parker also stated that the purpose of the subpoenas was not bother with the question of "What did you preach on last Sunday?" If that's so, then why did the subpoenas request
If what Mayor Parker and her cronies says is true, why would the subpoenas not simply request materials that are germane to their inquiry, specifically what instructions religious leaders may have given with regard to gathering signatures for the ballot initiative they were leading? Mayor Parker and city staffers have an answer for that, too: blame the 'pro-bono' lawyers who had been charged with drafting the subpoenas. Houston city attorney allegedly stated that the subpoenas were issued without the Mayor's or city offical's knowledge or consent.all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to HERO, the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your possession.
Uh, what? What I gather from that is that city officials have been paying attention to the actions of our federal government and decided what's good for Washington is good for Houston, too.
Fortunately, many upright, intelligent citizens quickly responded to the government's overreach, however, the bigger problem is that in a world that can transmit news in a nano-second, this group of politicians still felt that they could outside the law.
