15
October 2014 A.D. Houston
to Pastors: Turn Over Your Sermons
Lee,
Brian. “Houston to Pastors: Turn Over
Your Sermons.” The Federalist. 15 Oct
2014. http://thefederalist.com/2014/10/15/houston-to-pastors-turn-over-your-sermons/. Accessed 15 Oct 2014.
Soon after Houston passed a
‘non-discrimination’ ordinance, it has ordered dissenting pastors to submit
their sermons for legal review. So, what?
October 15, 2014 By Brian Lee
“The city of Houston demands pastors turn over sermons.”
This headline, within hours of being posted on Foxnews.com, was forwarded
multiple times to my inbox, with comments such as “unbelievable.”
My response? So what? Sermons are public proclamation,
aren’t they?
If a government entity comes to me and demands that I turn over my
sermon manuscripts, well… I think I’d be inclined to send them along. And I’d
be sure to send each one with a carefully written cover letter explaining
exactly how the blood of Christ redeems sinners from death and the grave.
(Although good luck deciphering my rough outline, and reading my marginal
handwriting. I can send you a link to the audio.)
Sermons aren’t exactly what the legal profession would call “privileged
information.” (News reports suggest, however, that other “pastoral
communications” might be a part of the subpoena, and insofar as those are
private communications of pastors, I would fight their release.)
I grant that there are complex legal issues involved. And, seeing how it
has just been a few hours since this story started to bubble up on the Fox News
outrage-of-the-week radar, I make no claim to understanding the merits of the
legal case.
It
Started with a ‘Non-discrimination’ Ordinance
All I can tell so far is that the city passed a controversial
non-discrimination ordinance, which among other things, would allow biological
males to use the ladies room, and vice versa. A petition in opposition garnered
50,000 signatures, then was thrown out on a technicality. Next, a lawsuit
against the ordinance was filed, to which the city responded with a subpoena
for sermons from pastors associated with churches opposed to the ordinance.
And why, I ask, should pastors be unwilling to send their sermons to
whoever should request a copy?
“This is designed to intimidate pastors,” said Alliance Defending
Freedom attorney Erik Stanley. The ADF knows a thing or two about religion and
politics, as the organizers of “Pulpit Freedom Sunday.” Stanley suspects
Houston’s openly lesbian mayor wants to shame the pastors, holding sermons up
to public scrutiny to “out” the pastors as anti-gay bigots.
Free
Speech Is Never Guaranteed
What happened to “not being ashamed of the Gospel, the power
of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16)?
It is not as though we don’t have precedent, or direct
biblical command, addressing such a situation. The Apostle Paul was put in
chains—illegitimately—as a result of preaching the Gospel, and when Roman
authorities sought to release him, he insisted on the basis of his Roman
citizenship on his right to appeal all the way to Caesar in Rome. And in that
same epistle to the Romans, Paul wrote in chapter 13, “Let every person be
subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from
God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”
The government’s request for sermon manuscript—even a
mandate to that effect—seems to be one a Christian can in good conscience
submit to, and even celebrate as an opportunity for bearing witness to Christ.
But isn’t the First Amendment a good thing? Don’t we have
the right to preach whatever we want in our pulpits? Shouldn’t we fight to
defend and preserve this right? Absolutely. But having the legal right to
preach whatever we want does not equate to keeping records of our public
preaching secret. And while Americans have every right to fight to protect and
preserve this freedom, Christians have no guarantee that they will live and
minister in a land that protects this freedom.
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