A VICTORY FOR HOUSTON PASTORS…

BUT HOW LONG WILL IT LAST?

FIRST AMENDMENT FREEDOM OF
RELIGION REMAINS UNDER ATTACK

JOIN SENS. TED CRUZ AND MIKE LEE IN THE
FIGHT FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

TELL CONGRESS – FIGHT FOR THE FIRST AMENDMENT – SELECT HERE

Urgent Alert: In the face of YOUR outrage, YOUR protests, and YOUR mounting petitions, the City of Houston withdrew its subpoenas requiring pastors to submit their sermons in blatant violation of the First Amendment! This partial retreat, at least, by the totalitarian Left proves that grassroots Americans are NOT yet powerless but remain a force to be reckoned with when aroused to resistance – and MUST MOBILIZE when our freedoms are on the line.

However gratifying this victory, there are countless other cases of similar infringements on religious liberty that remain to be challenged, from attempting to force gay marriages in our houses of worship to forcing illicit taxpayer funding of abortion in Obamacare – as well as Obama's unconstitutional suppressions of the freedom of speech and expression of faith for Christian men and women, whether in our military or in the public square or in our schools.

The assaults will not stop in Houston, and they will not stop anywhere else in the country so long as Barack Obama occupies the Oval Office and considers our constitutional rights as fair game to bend to his pet social engineering projects.

We still need Congress to fulfill their oaths of office and act to safeguard our First Amendment – Religious Liberty rights.

TELL CONGRESS – FIGHT FOR THE FIRST AMENDMENT – SELECT HERE

Cases are cropping up across America – whether it's pastors resisting the lesbian mayor of Houston TX gone tyrant trying to compel a pro-transgender ordinance upon an unwilling electorate by chilling Christian activism, or Christian bakers in Oregon now facing business-closing fines for refusing to bake a gay "wedding" cake, or a most egregious case in Idaho where city officials have threatened 180-day jail terms and $1,000 per day fines for ministers who refuse to officiate same-sex weddings.

In the Idaho case, husband and wife Donald and Evelyn Knapp, both ordained ministers who run the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, were told that because the city views the chapel as a "public accommodation" it is subject to the city's non-discrimination statute which includes sexual orientation and gender identity. And because the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals STRUCK DOWN Idaho's constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, the ministers will have to celebrate same-sex weddings or pay the exorbitant fines and GO TO JAIL FOR THEIR FAITH.

Since 1989, the Knapps have been celebrating weddings without a hiccup until now – when pop culture and progressive governance has decided that sexual "freedom" supersedes religious liberty and the rights of conscience.

This forward march to redefine traditional, Faith-based CHRISTIAN marriage WILL NOT STOP with Idaho.

We have seen it everywhere.

As exposed by the Houston case, even the Sunday sermon is no longer protected from Obama's brownshirts by First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and religious liberty as the "gay lobby's power poster girl" Houston mayor Annise Parker persists with a shocking subpoena against area pastors. Parker seeks to criminalize all who oppose her "Equal Rights Ordinance" aka the "Sexual Predator Protection Act" stooping to demand sermons and pastor-parishioner communications, in her vendetta to crush resistance.

The God-less and the gay bully brigade is ACTIVELY seeking to redefine marriage at a national level by REFUSING TO RESPECT the 14th Amendment rights of our States… while dismantling the First Amendment PROTECTIONS for the rights of CHRISTIANS.

TELL CONGRESS – FIGHT FOR THE FIRST AMENDMENT – SELECT HERE

As the Heritage Foundation's Ryan Anderson reminds us in a commentary for The Daily Signal, Idaho has a Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) on the books. The free exercise of religion is specifically protected, which is supposed to prevent the government from burdening faith practices and religious beliefs UNLESS the government proves that the burden in question advances a government interest in the least restrictive means possible.

Anderson wonders how the persecution of the Knapps is possible given the state's RFRA:

It is unclear how the city could claim that forcing the Knapps to perform a same-sex wedding is a compelling government interest being pursued in the least restrictive way. There are numerous other venues where a same-sex couple could get married. Indeed, there is a county clerk's office directly across the street from the chapel.

But we know this isn't about homosexuals getting "married" to each other. It's about forcing moral equivalence and forcing "tolerance" upon Bible-believers in our daily lives and even in our houses of worship.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Our free exercise of religious faith can be restored… but our elected representatives MUST FIGHT FOR IT

TELL CONGRESS – FIGHT FOR THE FIRST AMENDMENT – SELECT HERE

The founding principle of religious liberty in America provides that not only are individuals and groups protected from being coerced into a certain religion but that FAITH and its free expression and exercise is protected from being corrupted or abused by governing forces.

Case in point, the recent Supreme Court decision on the Hobby Lobby case determined that a "family business," which is what the Knapp's husband and wife-owned chapel is – COULD have a religious view as an extension of the faith of its owners…

After all, logic follows that if their "offensive" religious views – whether against abortion or homosexual "marriage" – were so intolerable to Americans, then free market principles would shut them down, not bureaucrats!

In addition to fighting for Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRAs) – complete with SPECIFIC protections for beliefs and actions in regards to same-sex marriage – in ALL FIFTY STATES, we urgently need Congressional action to protect our First Amendment rights as Christians from tyrannical political factions and activist courts.

TELL CONGRESS – FIGHT FOR THE FIRST AMENDMENT – SELECT HERE

Nationally, at the federal level, Congress can protect our First Amendment freedoms of religion, assembly and speech from the progressives' "gay is ok" social engineering by prohibiting the government from discriminating against ANY individual or group, regardless of tax-exempt status, based on their faith-based convictions that marriage is between one man and one woman.

Shamefully, the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act (H.R. 3133 and S. 1808), sponsored by Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) respectively, is sitting in the House and Senate. Similarly S. 2024, the State Marriage Defense Act, allowing our States to exercise their constitutional discretion in defining marriage, is collecting dust.

OUR STATES AND CONGRESS MUST MOVE NOW TO PROTECT GOD-HONORING MARRIAGE AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN AMERICA!

We need YOUR urgent outcry to Congress in solidarity with our Bible-believing Churches, our ministers and those still willing to stand up against the gay 'marriage' march for free exercise of our religious liberty and our First Amendment protected free speech.

TELL CONGRESS – FIGHT FOR THE FIRST AMENDMENT – SELECT HERE

Coercion to conform to the homosexual agenda is relentless. Not long ago we learned of a British millionaire homosexual couple SUING to FORCE same-sex wedding services in churches regardless of faith precepts, claiming our houses of worship have no legal right to decline participation in so called 'gay weddings'!

As British homosexual millionaire Tony Drewitt-Barlow comments, he and his partner have brought the lawsuit because [emphasis added]: "It is a shame that we are forced to take Christians into a court to get them to recognize us."

"It upsets me because I want it so much – a big lavish ceremony, the whole works," he adds. "I just don't think it is going to happen straight away.

"As much as people are saying this is a good thing, I am still not getting what I want."

At the time, I asked, 'How long until our increasingly indulgent, leftwing judicial system right here in America moves to enforce such narcissistic, selfish abuses – at the full sacrifice of our once-protected First Amendment freedoms?'

It took less than a year.

Because again, we all know that this isn't about a "fundamental right" for same-sex couples to "wed." Or else that Idaho couple would have gone to the County Clerk's office across the street – or a "progressive" church that advocates homosexual "unions."

This is about forcing public acceptance and apparent institutional endorsement of the homosexual agenda on America – and in particular on Christians.

TELL CONGRESS – FIGHT FOR THE FIRST AMENDMENT – SELECT HERE

Over the course of the past year, we have endured the systemic abuse of the First Amendment rights of Christian Americans, a sacrifice of our religious liberty largely focused on advancing the "gay-is-ok" agenda in our schools, in our businesses and in the public square.

Publicly disagree, and the burden of proof that one is NOT illegally perpetrating civil rights violations through invidious "discrimination" rests solely with the Christian who refuses to "normalize" homosexuality. Militantly gay customers have no similar burden of proof to show that their demands did not violate the First Amendment rights of those they now seek to bully in court and silence in the streets for refusing to play along with the thuggish "gay is good" mob.

This is why Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have hit the nail on the head with S. 2024 to stop Barack Obama from forcing same-sex "marriage" on our States. By ensuring that States do not have to adhere to the mutable federal definition of "marriage" and "spouse" our religious free exercise is protected from federal interposition of the homosexual agenda – no matter who is running the DOJ, or the Oval Office.

TELL CONGRESS – FIGHT FOR THE FIRST AMENDMENT – SELECT HERE

As Christians together, we MUST UNITE and DEMAND that the Congress exert oversight and end the unacceptable assault on the constitutionally-protected First Amendment religious liberties of faithful Americans, whether leading prayer in our Churches or leading in uniform on foreign battlefields.

I thank you for your faithfulness, and ask for your advocacy on behalf of our fellow believers across America. Please remember our soldiers overseas especially in your prayers as every day they fight for freedom here at home and around the world.

Keep Faith,

Ambassador Alan Keyes
Chairman, Faith and Freedom Foundation

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