Free Republic

Rev. Randy Steele, a 32-year-old pastor from Mount Vernon, Illinois, was quizzed by FBI agents after the Bureau received a complaint from an anonymous informant. Rev. Randy Steele, senior pastor at Southwest Christian Church in Mount Vernon, Illinois, thought that "somebody in my church might have done something" when he received a phone call from the FBI last November. It wasn’t until part way through an interview with two FBI agents later that day that the 32-year-old pastor realized that he was the subject of the inquiry. The agents quizzed the pastor about a sermon he had preached on Memorial...

I've always considered myself something of a First Amendment absolutist. By that I mean I am every bit as fervently supportive of freedom of speech and freedom of religion as our Founding Fathers were. But there are many people in America today who are misrepresenting what freedom of speech and freedom of religion really mean. They are distorting the original intent of the First Amendment. They are selectively applying this American concept to some while denying it to others. Once again, the Ward Churchill affair is illustrative of this problem. You've heard his defenders. They say the tenured University of...

MOUNT VERNON - As the senior pastor at Southwest Christian Church in Mount Vernon, Randy Steele thought he had encountered nearly every circumstance a minister could face. The Rev. Steele recently found out he was totally wrong in that assumption, however. The 32-year-old pastor, who has been a minister for 13 years, received what he called the "shock of his life" last November and is still incredulous about the chain of events that took place. On Nov. 23 - the day before Thanksgiving - he received a phone call from an agent with the FBI who requested to speak with...

Nov. 23, 2004, started out like any other normal morning for Randy Steele, senior pastor at Southwest Christian Church in Mount Vernon, Ill., a town about 80 miles southeast of St. Louis.Then the phone rang. It was the FBI. Steele said they wanted to meet with him personally. After agreeing to a time later that same afternoon, he said his first thoughts turned to his congregation. "One guy opened a file," Steele said. "And he said, 'This is pertaining to a sermon that you preached on Memorial Day.' "

MOUNT VERNON, Ill. (BP)--Nov. 23, 2004, started out like any other normal morning for Randy Steele, senior pastor at Southwest Christian Church in Mount Vernon, Ill., a town about 80 miles southeast of St. Louis. One of the longtime members of his church was on her deathbed and he planned to spend the day consoling her family. Then the phone rang. It was the FBI. Steele said they wanted to meet with him personally. After agreeing to a time later that same afternoon, he said his first thoughts turned to his congregation. “I was wondering what somebody in my church...