Ted Cruz: Houston Mayor 'Should Be Ashamed' Over Subpoenas Sent To Pastors by Paige Lavendar | Huffington Post | Posted: 10/17/2014 11:59 am EDT Excerpts: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)slammed Houston, Texas' openly gay Mayor Annise Parker after attorneys working for the city sent subpoenas to several pastors in the city, asking them to turn over "all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to HERO 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." In a statement Wednesday, Cruz said the move was another step in a government "assault against religious liberty" and said he stood with the pastors, who were all vocal opponents of HERO. "The City of Houston's subpoenas demanding that pastors provide the government with copies of their sermons is both shocking and shameful," Cruz said. "This is wrong. It's unbefitting of Texans, and it's un-American. The government has no business asking pastors to turn over their sermons. These subpoenas are a grotesque abuse of power, and the officials who approved them should be held accountable by the people. The mayor should be ashamed. And we should all be proud to stand up and defend the pastors who are resisting these blatant attempts to suppress their First Amendment rights," Cruz added. Janice Evans, a spokesperson for Parker, told The Huffington Post the mayor "agrees with those who are concerned about the subpoenas for pastors' sermons." "The subpoenas were issued by pro bono attorneys helping the city prepare for the trial regarding the petition to repeal the new Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO)in January," Evans said in an email. "Neither the mayor nor City Attorney David Feldman were aware the subpoenas had been issued until Tuesday. Both agree the original documents were overly broad. The city will move to narrow the scope during an upcoming court hearing. Attorney Feldman says the focus should be only on communications related to the HERO petition process." New York Magazine's Daily Intelligencer reported further on the subpoenas: Parker, who says she hadn't heard about the subpoenas until yesterday, doesn't care if pastors called her a dirty sinner or advocated for overturning the Equal Rights Ordinance. It turns out the subpoenas were sent by outside attorneys working for the city pro bono. They were looking into what instructions pastors gave out to those collecting signatures for a referendum on the non-discrimination law. (What exactly the pastors said, and what the collectors knew about the rules, is one of the key issues in pending litigation around whether opponents of the law gathered enough signatures for a referendum.) "There's no question, the wording was overly broad. But I also think there was some deliberate misinterpretation on the other side," Parker said at a press conference Wednesday. "The goal is to find out if there were specific instructions given on how the petitions should be accurately filled out. It's not about, 'What did you preach on last Sunday?' " read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/16/ted-cruz-houston-mayor_n_5998022.html ...... IMO: And Ted Cruz should be ashamed in insinuating that the Mayor was doing anything that wasn't correct and legal, but Cruz is always fast to put his sleazy interpretation on anything and spin it the way that benefits him.... Instead of asking the Mayor "what are you doing?" he surmised that she was trying to get information pertaining to sermons the pastor had been giving, when it was all about the upcoming referendum to repeal the Equal Rights Ordinance, and the subpoenas were requested by pro-bono attorneys that asked for any and all speeches, presentations, or sermons relating to instructions concerning the referendum about to be brought to trial. That is a far cry from Ted Cruz's statement that ""The City of Houston's subpoenas demanding that pastors provide the government with copies of their sermons is both shocking and shameful." shows how Cruz likes to change words around to suit his agenda. Ted Cruz is the one that is shocking and shameful; he reeks of it..
Oh please, do you ever look for truth? The Texas Attorney General told her to back off, she would surly lose. Most every sane liberal on this forum says her nazi style demand was despicable and against the 1st amendment, that is every liberal except you Yes, shocking and shameful on your part indeed. Only nut cases support gay-stopo behavior like this
The mayor violated the separation of church and state which is a Constitutional guarantee. The mayor also violates the First Amendment which guarantees free speech, and having pastors send in sermons for official government review for the purpose of censuring those who are not giving compliant speeches to the government is definitely a serious infringement on free speech. I would hope every single eighth grader in the United States would be able to see how un-American and un-Constitutional the mayors actions were, and if the eighth grader couldn't see that, then their civics teacher should be fired immediately.
Anyone who believes that nobody with a law degree working for the city or the mayor office or the mayor personally in paid capacity, oversaw the language in that subpoena and other matters involving a law suit directed against the city and the mayors office is 'on the sauce'. Someone besides pro bono private lawyers is paid to stay involved. I am not saying the mayor herself was aware of the scope of that draft, or even that she had the background to get its implications. Parker has bachelor's degree in anthropology, psychology and sociology, and she would have left this to 'experts' and probably did not even think to ask the right questions, but someone in the city attorneys office knew what questions to ask. That being said the mayor is responsible for setting the right tone for this battle over the ordinance. If she wanted to go for blood in this battle, it would have gone right down the chain and folks asking the right questions, at the wrong time or occasion tend to lose clout and access in a hurry in an executive bureaucracy. she may have stifled an atmosphere of debate and exchange.
...... 1) Oh please...define 'truth' for us...it certainly is not what Cruz spewed onto the media. But you are concerned that Cruz uttered lies and falsehoods about the Mayor, who happens to be gay, and should this be a factor in the barrage of BS against her? Apparently you didn't read my article as it stated that some pro-bono lawyers made out the subpoenas and sent them out asking for copies of everything relevant to the petition and collection of signatures Thus the Mayor had nothing to do with those subpoenas, it was outside help pertaining to the case. Instead of looking for the 'truth' you took Cruz' word and digested his lies like a good little lemming. 2) Usually when people start insulting the messenger, they already know they are losing....there are probably other things like the Mayor being gay that set off your last nerve, but hey...that's politics for ya'....
...... Sir/Madam: The Mayor did nothing !! Your epistle was nothing but Rush Limbaugh, Fox News propaganda gibberish trying to work a scandal out of nothing. Most of it was from the insane, lying diatribe by Ted Cruz...the very person you would probably vote for president. No one believes it but conservatives, who have their daily quotes given by Cruz and Fox News to utter in unison each day. one question: You are talking about the separation of the church and state: what if the pastor's sermons did exactly what you are accusing the Mayor of doing?
She has her job to do. How will she feed her cats and get a new bicycle tire if Soros drops by and she hasn't posted some far left BS about this case??
..... These pro-bono lawyers help in the making of a case. They can be full lawyers, others can be filling in time before taking their bar exams, and others are in college and work in offices to acclimate more quickly into the legal field. The legal wording of the subpoena is the standard rather strong language setting out the criteria that is needed by the Mayor's office in relation to the case. As in most politics, things will be taken out of context and blown up to infer some kind of wrongdoing, which happened in this case. Ted Cruz then jumped in for some media time and exploited the conservative mindset with lies and stirring up his base to eke out something more for himself. he could care less about any petition a Mayor is involved in, he needs to bring it to a culpable state of "unconstitutional" ire that the media would use. Just as in the republican futile obsession with Benghazi, Cruz wants to make this 'ParkerGate' into his little Benghazi in his entrance into the presidential limelight as he is a Tparty grifter. He will now sit back and see what sticks on a long lasting event that no one other than his base will remember next week.
I despise Sen Cruz's political tactics, that I feel they are cheap, petty and unethical, to say the least. But irrelevant of him, asking for the transcripts is wrong on every level. This new mayor must accept the bad with the good, like everyone else.
Then that would be perfectly okay. The Founders of our nation created the Constitution to limit the abuses of government which occur naturally without some sort of enumeration of government powers. The Constitution was designed to limit government, not its citizens. Everyone but government can mix church and state, however the government has an obligation to protect everyone's free practice of religion. The issue at hand is that the Mayor of Houston doesn't understand the difference between how things operate in the United States versus how things operate in North Korea, and frankly I am surprised to see that so many people are willing to opt for the North Korean method of governance. By the way, I don't watch Fox News and I don't listen to Rush Limbaugh. I have 250 channels of Sirius XM and I don't know how anyone could downgrade to AM radio after using satellite radio for a month or longer.
Post where the mayor rescinded those subpoenas? Here is what the mayors first tweet was: If the 5 pastors used pulpits for politics, their sermons are fair game, Parker tweeted. Like I said, gay-stopo BTW, to all the loon liberals on this forum, I support gay marriage, but what I don't support is a nazi style gay agenda. No one wins
you should concentrate less on the role of those 'pro bono' lawyers in this episode. They are distracting you from the content of my post which was entirely on those who gain compensation from the city, the mayors office, or personally as representatives of the mayor. The content extends to the executive of the city because she is responsible for managing the staff effectively enough that these big PR screw-ups don't happen. the point is that the original subpoena included much more than, " ...setting out the criteria that is needed by the Mayor's office in relation to the case." it represented a fishing expedition with tons of potential ramifications for both sides. Now this tactic of submitting an overly broad subpoena,does not have much of a down side if your client is Joe Sixpack suing his ex-wife, a restaurant, or his business partner , but it sure does if your client or your employers is the City of Houston or its mayor and you are serving it on a subset of the local conservative churches and pastors of Houston. I don't mind presuming some political or legal naivete on the part of these pro bono lawyers, but my generosity ends there. The mayor is getting some of just what she deserves either for not attending to this enough, or for not reigning in the messages she was sending to staff. As for Cruz he is a petty demogogue, but we all know those are out there. staff attorneys are paid to see beyond the 'little picture' of what actually happens in a court. They are paid to understand the broader ramifications of specific tactics on a client's professional and personal life and forewarn them. Certainly the city attorney and chief of staff are if underlings are too parochial in their vision.
Why Houston Is Forcing Pastors To Turn In Their Sermons Huffington Post | By Carol Kuruvilla | Posted: 10/15/2014 5:59 pm EDT Excerpts: "Some Houston pastors are being forced to hand their sermons over to the city -- and they're not happy about the government reading over their shoulders. Houston has asked five local conservative pastors to turn over sermons about a controversial new city ordinance that bans discrimination against LGBT people. The original subpoenas demanded to see any preaching related to homosexuality and gender identity. Houston's mayor, Annise Parker, has agreed that the initial demands were too broad. “Neither the mayor nor City Attorney David Feldman were aware the subpoenas had been issued until yesterday,” the mayor’s spokesperson Janice Evans told the Huffington Post over email. “Both agree the original documents were overly broad. The city will move to narrow the scope during an upcoming court hearing.” This means the city will still seek to collect any communication issued by these pastors that mention the petition against the hotly contested Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO). The Alliance Defending Freedom, an advocacy group, said the move to scale back the subpoenas is just an attempt to "turn down the heat." The ADF has filed a motion to shut down the subpoena request completely. Greg Scott, VP of communications for ADF, told HuffPost that the city's "intrusive demands are the same." It appears that the city will still be demanding access to no less than 17 categories of private communications (including things like text messages) between private citizens who are not even parties to the suit and other private parties. This is a naked attempt to intimidate private citizens who did nothing but disagree with the government over a policy matter. Do any of us really want to live in an America in which we can be threatened, silenced, and even punished for disagreeing with the government? Mayor Annise Parker, a lesbian who has been open about her sexuality, helped to push through this law in May. The ordinance bans discrimination against LGBT people in housing, in employment, and in public spaces. A controversial part of HERO would allow transgender people to file a complaint if they are prevented from accessing the bathroom of their choice. The law has yet to be implemented, RNS reports, as local and national faith leaders rally together to get it repealed. Opponents claim they collected about 50,000 signatures in support of placing this issue on November’s ballot, according to the Houston Chronicle. But the city discredited the effort, saying that the signatures weren’t valid. Mayor Parker: <If the 5 pastors used pulpits for politics, their sermons are fair game. Were instructions given on filling out anti-HERO petition? - A 12:12 AM - 15 Oct 2014> Christian activists sued the city. The city's pro bono lawyers decided to fight back with the sermon subpoenas. Although the faith leaders are involved in the Houston Pastor’s Council, they aren’t named in the trial over the failed petition. Still, the city believes they played an important part in the case. "These pastors worked to organize the repeal petition," Evans said. City attorney David Feldman suggested that the city is entitled to collect evidence about the pastors’ speeches--even though they took place in houses of worship. "Its relevant to know what representations and instructions were given regarding these petitions," Feldman told KTRH News. But Pastor Hernan Castano, one of the pastors on the city's list, believes the city has overstepped its boundaries. "For a city government to step into churches and ask pastors to turn in sermons, it's gone too far. This is not what America, the nation is about," the pastor of Iglesia Rios de Aceite told KTRK. But it's not only conservatives who are opposed to the city's actions. Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, President of the Interfaith Alliance, has often spoken out in support of LGBT rights. However, he said Houston's subpoenas would have a "dangerous, chilling effect." "I will work as hard to defend the freedom of speech from the pulpit for those with whom I disagree, as I will to defend the rights of the LGBT community. As long as a sermon is not inciting violence, the government has no business getting involved in the content of ministers’ sermons," Gaddy said in a statement released to the Huffington Post. read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/15/houston-pastor-sermon_n_5992044.html?cps=gravity ...... IMO: For many decades pastors have guided their parishioners on political matters, and it was especially prevalent during the G.W. Bush tenure when pastors of some religions refused absolution and membership in the church if they didn't vote for Bush in his second term. Pastors have been eager to instruct parishioners even in local politics where they could have a possible interest. Churches which do not adhere strictly to the Constitution which stipulates that religion should not ever be present in politics, and politics should never be present in religion. The Church cannot have it both ways; if as in Houston pastors are speaking out in Churches in favor or against something, they are delving in the politics of their surroundings thus losing any purported 'right' to politicize from their lecterns, and not voluntarily produce evidence in a subpoena. Our forefathers came to America to escape religious persecution which was powerful within the Church and thus in our Constitution provided us with Amendment 1 which stipulated that the government shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Thus the free exercise of any department of government in a court case, may call for certain evidence that may show religious interference in secular matters is perfectly legal and in this instance it is requested from 5 conservative pastors who are known to have worked on the repeal petition.
The sermons have been requested from 5 conservative pastors who are known to have worked on the repeal petition...amd they are narrowing down the items asked for, to only pastor's comments pertaining to the petition and any directions given by any of these 5 pastors. If religions are going to practice active politics, they need to face the consequences of subpoenas, examinations as to their motives, etc. Amendment 1 states: "that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion....(and freedom FROM religion) thus the 5 pastors should obey the subpoenas and give the requested information. If pastors choose to involve themselves in politics, they must play by the rules because they cannot have it both ways. Unless I hear from any member with civil, relevant information I will consider this the final word on the matter until more court proceedings start.
If you want to be free from religion, leave this country and go live in China or North Korea. Only catch is that you won't be free from the government, but I guess that's what you want anyways, civil liberties be damned. The establishment clause has to do with the government ESTABLISHING a national religion. The founding fathers did not want a Church of England type thing going on. Religious leaders have every right and obligation to speak out on moral issues which affect the society as a whole.
She's a Democrat and in her third and final term. Latino's are predominantly Catholic and make up 37% of the population. They may look the other way about her being gay, start going after Priests and Pastors, the Democrat party will lose in the next election.
[video=youtube;jc2FCJ7zWEQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc2FCJ7zWEQ[/video] Sounds like Illinois should be subpoenaing Wrights sermon transcripts.
Are you claiming that churches are "congress"? The line from the constitution speaks directly about Congress and restricts the actions Congress may take. It doesn't say one word restricting any other group or individual. There is nothing in that part of the Constitution that limits or restricts churches in any way.
