The number one enemy among conservatives over the last week or so may not actually be President Barack Obama, despite haranguing about Obamacare and the Islamic State and his handling of Ebola and the usual schtick. Instead, that accolade could arguably go to Houston Mayor Annise Parker (D) who has found herself in the crosshairs of the far right over subpoenas of a handful of pastors in the city.
The fury at Parker, who is openly gay, concerns a lawsuit against the city for rejecting citizen petitions toward repealing the city’s pro-LGBT equal rights ordinance. Pro bono attorneys on behalf of the city subpoenaed a set of pastors who had been involved in collecting signatures against the city’s equal rights ordinance. The subpoenas called on the pastors to submit “all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to the [Houston Equal Rights Ordinance], the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your possession.”
Conservatives interpreted this as a thinly veiled attempt to bully religious leaders. The national conservative group the Alliance Defending Freedom filed a motion to fight the subpoena citing First Amendment Rights.
“The message is clear: oppose the decision of city government, and drown in unwarranted, burdensome, discovery requests,” the motion said. “These requests, if allowed, will have a chilling effect on future citizens who might consider circulating referendum petitions because they are dissatisfied with ordinances passed by the City Council. Not only will the Nonparty Pastors be harmed if these discovery requests are allowed, but the People will suffer as well. The referendum process will become toxic and the People will be deprived of an important check on city government provided them by the Charter.”
The ADF wasn’t alone. Conservatives pounced as well, bashing it as a witch hunt and a move by Parker to push some kind of radical liberal agenda.
Former Rep. Allen West (R-FL), in an exhaustive post on his website titled “Christian persecution in the US: Openly gay Houston mayor demands pastors turn over sermons,” wrote that the move clearly showed Parker’s “intent to establish a radical far left, gender blind agenda and through coercion and intimidation, destroy any opposition — including church leaders. This is the tyranny of the Left and the radical gay agenda in full display.”
“This unprecedented assault on Pastors and Christians cannot and will not stand!” former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee wrote in an email to supporters.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) chimed in too:
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.
A headline and subhead at the conservative WND.com blared “Houston Demands Oversight of Sermons: Campaign against pastors called ‘Big Brother overlords’ on a ‘witch hunt.'”
At National Review, Ian Tuttle wrote “The city’s tactics are transparent — and appalling. Private citizens’ right to petition their local government for a redress of grievances was violated by the mayor and her minions.”
On Fox News’ Outnumbered Kirsten Powers said it was “such a blatant violation of the First Amendment.”
“And these anti-discrimination statutes, the way they’re being implemented, is very scary and very chilling as well because it’s basically they’re deciding what your views are supposed to be on certain things and they’re now trying to legislate it and trying to legislate speech,” she said.
But while the religious right whips itself into a frenzy, they seem to have missed the fact that Parker herself said on Wednesday that the wording of the original subpoenas may have been a little too broad. She did, however, say that no part of the move was meant to bully pastors or fight religious freedom.
“There’s no question the wording was overly broad, but I also think there was some deliberate misinterpretation on the other side,” Parker said Wednesday. The entire point, according to Parker, was to find out what directions the pastors gave on how the petitions should be filed. It didn’t have to do with what the pastors were preaching.”
On Friday Parker announced that Houston had refiled its subpoenas.
Never intended to interfere w/ pastors & their sermons or an intrusion on religion. Our discovery motion now clearly focused on petition.-A
— Annise Parker (@AnniseParker) October 17, 2014
City just refilled subpoenas in #HERO. Clarified our intent. No mention of sermons. All about petition process instructions.-A
— Annise Parker (@AnniseParker) October 17, 2014
