STARNES: Houston now seeks pastor speeches - VIDEO: Houston has "gone too far," pastor says - GREGG JARRETT: The abuse of subpoenas

Five Christian pastors will no longer have to turn their sermons over to attorneys for the city of Houston. Instead, they will be forced to turn over their speeches related to the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO).

I don’t mean to point out the obvious here – but what do those attorneys think a sermon is? It’s a speech.

According to an amended motion filed Friday in Harris County, Texas court, the city’s attorneys will no longer demand sermons related to homosexuals, gender identity, or Mayor Annise Parker – Houston’s first openly lesbian mayor.

The amended subpoenas do require the pastors to turn over “all speeches or presentations related to HERO” – along with 17 different categories of information.

I don’t mean to point out the obvious here – but what do those attorneys think a sermon is? It’s a speech.

The Alliance Defending Freedom is a religious liberty law firm that is representing the pastors. Attorney Erik Stanley tells me the amended subpoenas don’t solve anything.

“The city of Houston still doesn’t get it,” he said. “The subpoenas still ask for information that encompasses speeches made by the pastors and private communications with their church members.”

Stanley said the only resolution is for the city to rescind the subpoenas entirely.

“This tramples their First Amendment rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion,” Stanley said. “Any inquiry into what these pastors did in standing against the ordinance passed by the city of Houston and encouraging members to sign the petition is a violation of the First Amendment.”

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The subpoenas were issued in a response to a lawsuit filed related to HERO, also known as the “Bathroom Bill.” Religious groups were opposed to a provision of the law that would allow men who identify as women to use the restrooms of their choice.

The city’s attorney said the pastors were subpoenaed because they were helping to lead opposition to the Bathroom Bill.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Mayor Parker said on Friday, “We don’t need to intrude on matters of faith to have equal rights in Houston, and it was never the intention of the city of Houston to intrude on any matters of faith or to get between a pastor and their parishioners.”

Folks, that’s a load of grade A fertilizer. 

“We don’t want their sermons, we want the instructions on the petition process. That’s always what we wanted and, again, they knew that’s what we wanted because that’s the subject of the lawsuit,” she said.

There’s just one problem, Madam Mayor, the pastors aren’t party to the lawsuit. And if you weren’t looking for their sermons, why did you put that in the subpoena. 

The amended subpoenas are not likely to quell growing national outrage over what many are calling an all-out assault on religious liberty.

Sen. Ted Cruz forcefully denounced the city’s actions during a Thursday rally in support of the pastors in Houston.

“Caesar has no jurisdiction over the pulpit,” Cruz said to a cheering crowd of pastors and supporters. “When you subpoena one pastor, you subpoena every pastor.”

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued a blistering letter to the city attorney Wednesday night – demanding they immediately rescind the subpoenas.

He called the subpoenas “aggressive and invasive” and said they show “no regard for the very serious First Amendment considerations at stake.”

“Whether you intend it to be so or not, your action is a direct assault on the religious liberty guaranteed by the First Amendment,” Abbott wrote.

Also on Wednesday, Mayor Parker issued a defiant statement on Twitter – justifying the city’s attack on the ministers.

“If the 5 pastors used pulpits for politics, their sermons are fair game,” Parker tweeted.

Stanley said the mayor’s tweet revealed the city’s true intent.

“I think the mayor’s comment unmasks what the city is really after,” he said. “The city views these pastors and the communications they make with their members, their sermons, and their speeches as fair game.”

He said it was nothing more than a “strong-arm intimidation tactic to silence these pastors.”

“They are sending a message that you better not go up against City Hall on these issues,” Stanley added.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins had a strong reaction to the city of Houston’s latest move. He told me Friday, “this head-fake might fool some, but the reality is, Mayor Parker didn’t need a subpoena to access those sermons in the first place. “They were already public,” he said. 

“In this ‘new’ filing, the mayor still insists on seeing private emails, texts, and other communications related to the mayor’s office and the city’s Bathroom Bill.’ While two words – ‘or sermons’ – are dropped from the ‘revised’ subpoena, the government intrusion into private religious affairs remains.  The ‘revised’ subpoena is a difference without a distinction.”   

Alliance Defending Freedom said they will move forward with a request to quash the subpoenas. Regardless of the outcome, the pastors will not turn over any documents to the city.

As Senator Cruz so eloquently said, Caesar has no jurisdiction over the pulpit.

Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. Sign up for his American Dispatch newsletter, be sure to join his Facebook page, and follow him on Twitter. His latest book is “God Less America.”

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STARNES: Houston now seeks pastor speeches - VIDEO: Houston has "gone too far," pastor says - GREGG JARRETT: The abuse of subpoenas

Pastor charged with sexual assualt

Deon p Green, Star Writer

Pastor Daniel Findlay, charged under the Sexual Offenses Act with three counts of sexual assault with a person under 16 years and one count of grievous sexual assault, was told his case will be tried soon.

Findlay, 36, from Lower York in St Thomas, appeared in the Morant Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday. His lawyer was absent and so was the complainant. After exploring the possibility of sending a taxi for the complainant, the magistrate advised the accused to make his attorney aware of the next court date.

“Your case will start soon, as the complainant is not here. You should return to court on August 7,” the magistrate advised. She also told the mother of the child to ensure that her daughter is present at the next hearing.

Findlay’s bail conditions of $250,000 with stringent measure remains. The bail conditions include two sureties, reporting to the police six times each week and residing with his father. The accused has also been ordered to have no contact with persons under the age of 16 years old.

Finday was identified as a person of interest by the Morant Bay police earlier this year, and was picked up in Kingston after he made arrangement with the police to hand himself in.

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Pastor charged with sexual assualt

Pastor says divine intervention needed to address crime

PASTOR of the Mandeville Seventh-day Adventist Church in Manchester Greg Baldeo said recent murders such as that of a man gun downed at the altar in a church, in the presence of children, shows that Jamaica is in desperate need of divine intervention.

Referencing the controversial comments made by National Security Minister Peter Bunting, earlier this year, about the need for divine intervention to fight crime, Baldeo said the minister spoke through divine inspiration.The minister came in for strong criticism and calls for his resignation after he told an audience at the Northern Caribbean University in April, that he was convinced that the best efforts of the security forces alone will not solve the crime problem in Jamaica, but rather it is going to take divine intervention, touching the hearts of a wide cross-section of the society.“In essence, what he was actually doing is calling on all of God’s people who are called by God’s name to humble themselves, and call a fast and pray for God’s divine intervention,” Baldeo told the congregation at the church’s day of prayer for the nation’s independence service on Saturday.However, the pastor argued that interest groups rejected the notion that power is found in prayer.“But as soon as the statement was made, the enemy pulled in the Trojan horse (Trojan horse comes as a disguise to blind your eyes from the actually imminent warfare) and took the country away from the essence of the statement — God is able to help,” Baldeo said.The emphasis, he said, was then placed on the man who uttered the statement.“The media highlighted those calling for the resignation of one who declared that God needs to be the source of all we do and us Christians, who should have gathered together and call on our God, allowed our minds to be politicised and polarised,” he opined.Baldeo stayed clear of siding with any political party, noting that the only vote he has ever cast is for Jesus.“Let me state this categorically, that the only time I have ever voted in my life is in the 80s when I entered the baptismal pool with my mother and voted to follow Jesus all the way,” he said.“Any political party that needs my approval must get the approval from God, and so I am not defending the statement in light of the party the minister represents; I am defending it in light of the God I represent,” he insisted.Baldeo cautioned against the desire to pull in Trojan horses.“When a group of strong, tough men can rape little girls, we need divine intervention; when someone can cut off the head of another human being and continue to walk among us, we need divine intervention; when a stepmother can chop up a four-year-old, put the carcass in a bag, throw it over her back and walk with it like some pig meat, we need divine intervention; when two sisters, who for years grew together and loved each other, and one day they have an argument and one stabs the other and kill her on the spot, we need divine intervention,” he insisted.The pastor, in acknowledging that the Christian battle is not carnal but spiritual, called the members to three days of prayer and fasting, starting yesterday through to Independence Day, tomorrow.This, he explained, is to take back the communities and the country for God.Earlier in the service, the national security minister, who was among the congregants, reiterated the need for divine intervention to address the country’s crime problem and said he had no apology for making that statement in April.Pastor of the Mandeville Seventh-day Adventist Church in Manchester Greg Baldeo prays with Minister of National Security Peter Bunting during a prayer for the nation at the Independence Service held at the Mandeville Church on Saturday.Pastor Greg Baldeo delivering the message.

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Pastor says divine intervention needed to address crime

Pastor: Gambling will not solve Jamaica"s woes

WITH lottery tickets now being sold on Sundays and reports that Caymanas Track Limited (CTL) last week gave patrons a chance to bet via simulcast at its Off-track Betting (OTB) parlours, pastor of the Webster Memorial United Church on Half-Way-Tree Road in St Andrew, Reverend Astor Carlyle has warned that the social destruction that follows gambling “cannot be fixed by the earnings from it”.

“I believe Jamaica has backslidden, gambling cannot be the way, will we serve God or mammon (materialism) … a choice will have to be made,” Rev Carlyle said yesterday in delivering the sermon during the 50th anniversary church service for the government’s public relations arm, the Jamaica Information Service.Church leaders have been chafing since February when Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips announced that effective Monday, April 1, several betting games would be available during public holidays and on Sundays. He said that the venture, which is part of the new tax measures to increase revenue earnings for the country, will see lottery companies being asked to pay more gross-profit taxes. The measure is expected to yield $1.5 billion.But yesterday Carlyle said that the Government had strayed from the moral ideals which have been the foundation of the country.“We have ceremonies and we invite pastors to pray, we have our National Anthem, a prayer ‘Eternal Father Bless our Land’ and then we pass legislation that undermine the social construct. Our anthem speaks to the fact that God is our eternal provider and yet we have become a nation of gamblers,” Carlyle charged in his sermon.“And then we would argue that ‘oh gambling allows us economic health and prosperity’, to what end?“That which ought to guide legislation, that which ought to guide our planning is the spirituality that we sing about in our National Anthem that God is the one who guides us. We need to get back to spirituality,” he said to applause from the congregation.Continuing, Rev Carlyle said that the nation is at a crucial juncture as it regards social life, economics, politics, and the environment.“It behoves each one of us to determine the kinds of inputs we make to the process of national transformation. The foundations are eroding, read the newspapers, listen to the news,” he noted, adding that “the most meaningful legacies are not necessarily those that have dollar values attached to them, but rather those intangibles that impact character and inform contribution.“Easy roads do not allow for lasting legacies, the time has come in this land when we must purpose[ly] in our hearts as a people choose the tough stony road of reconciliation and collaboration; look at the news, listen to it, look at the lines on people’s faces even as they read the headlines, there is so much tension and contention,” Rev Carlyle pointed out.“The time has come for us to avoid the roads of escapism and quick fix bandage solutions and instead walk the straight uphill path of truth and justice. Facing up to our shortcomings and stop hiding behind intellectual gymnastics for Jamaicans are not fools,” he preached.In the meantime he said that the time has come for the country to “instil in the lives of [its] children and youth, their purpose for being.”And yesterday Chief Executive Officer of the JIS Donna-Marie Rowe in her greeting said that the Organisation which has spawned many greats in the media profession, has “withstood the test of time” and is regarded among 95 per cent of Jamaicans polled, to be a credible and reliable source of information.Press Association of Jamaica President Jenni Campbell, Chairperson of the Jamaica Information Service Advisory Board Fae Ellington and Chief Executive Officer of the JIS Donna-Marie Rowe participate in the proceedings during the 50th anniversary church service for the entity at the Webster Memorial United Church on Half-Way-Tree Road in St Andrew, yesterday.Pastor of the Webster Memorial United Church Reverend Astor Carlyle delivers the sermon. (PHOTOS: BRYAN CUMMINGS)

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Pastor: Gambling will not solve Jamaica"s woes