When President Obama’s former pastor Jeremiah Wright spewed virulent, racially charged, and hate-filled sermons over his Chicago congregation, many times with our Fearless Leader in the front pew, people shrugged and said, “That’s the Good Reverend’s First Amendment right.”
When radical Islamic imams across the country spew hate-filled sermons over their followers, in the process they often incite acts of violence against their fellow citizens. Just ask the family of the now headless 54-year-old grandmother whose killer was spawned from the Oklahoma City Islamic Center. Again, people shrug and say “That’s the Muslims exercising their First Amendment right.”
But when five Christian pastors in Houston adhere to their religious beliefs and try to build support to fight a new law that will let men who identify as women use the Ladies Room, the openly gay mayor of Houston has a hissy fit and subpoenas not only their sermons but also a wide array of private communications, both written and electronic.
Where is the outrage?
Though the City of Houston claims the subpoenas are an attempt to determine how the preachers instructed their congregants in their push to get the ordinance repealed, the mere act of challenging the sanctity of the pulpit poses an existential threat to the First Amendment.
Ted Cruz, the US Senator from Texas, said it well and succinctly, “Caesar has no jurisdiction over the pulpit.”
Amusingly, and in the wake of a nationwide outcry (finally!), on Friday, October 17th the subpoenas were amended to demand production of the pastors’ “speeches” instead of “sermons.”
Well what is a sermon if not a speech? It’s truly a distinction without a difference. Splitting hairs over semantics is nothing more than a smoke screen to obfuscate what is really going on: further diminishment of our personal freedoms, which have been fading away fast and furiously since the passage of the Patriot Act.
What people just don’t seem to get is that the beauty of the First Amendment is that no matter how obnoxious someone’s speech or actions are, be they Jeremiah Wright, an America-hating Islamic imam who basks in all the bounty this country has to offer, Neo-Nazis who march in 4th of July parades, or anti-military activists who burn Old Glory in protest, they still have a right to say and do their piece. Though any right thinking American hates what they say and do, they recognize that they still have a right to say and do it.
Contrary to what the “progressives” in this country would have us believe, the US Constitution does NOT guarantee any of us the right to not be offended. If something someone says or does offends you, too bad. Suck it up. If a TV show offends you, change the channel. If a book you are reading offends you, put it down and grab another one. And if a pastor’s sermon offends you, then don’t patronize his church.
Mayor Parker may be offended because some God-fearing Christians don’t agree with her lifestyle and don’t want it imposed on them and their children by a radical, gender-blind ordinance. But she doesn’t have the right to highjack the powerful and coercive power of government to intimidate and silence them in their righteous efforts to have it repealed.
Excellent response!!!!