From OneNewsNow: Clergy in the crosshairs

Clergy in the crosshairs

Jim Brown - OneNewsNow

A Texas congressman who is a former judge warns that the "hate crimes" legislation reintroduced in the U.S. House could potentially lead to the arrest of Christian pastors who speak out against sexual immorality.

Representatives John Conyers (D-Michigan) and Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) are sponsoring the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (H.R. 1913), also known as the "Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act." The bill would add sexual orientation to the list of categories covered under federal hate crime law. When Democrats passed the bill in 2007, they were divided over whether to add "gender identity and expression" to the list.

Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) says under the legislation, pastors, rabbis, or imams could be charged with encouraging or inducing a "hate crime" if they preach against homosexuality.

"Every preacher of the gospel, unless you cut out parts of it; every imam who mentions anything with regard to sexual immorality -- they could be pursued, and in other countries they have been," says the Texas lawmaker.

Gohmert shares information he received from abroad. "I was talking to a guy from Norway who was telling me that people are even afraid to say Mary was a virgin, because just bringing up sexuality at all can raise problems with law enforcement," he says.

Gohmert believes the Conyers-Kirk bill is also unnecessary because hate-motivated crimes are not a major national epidemic. He notes that during his time as a judge, he found that people who commit crimes out of anger and hate have a better chance of being rehabilitated than those who simply commit crimes randomly.

Pastor Killed During Sunday Services

Baptist pastor murdered during Sunday morning service

MARYVILLE, Ill. - A gunman walked down the aisle of an Illinois church during a Sunday service and killed the pastor, then stabbed himself and slashed two other people as congregants wrestled him to the ground, authorities said.

The man walked into the sprawling red brick First Baptist Church shortly after 8 a.m. and briefly spoke with The Rev. Fred Winters before pulling out a .45-caliber handgun and shooting Winters once in the chest, said Illinois State Police Master Trooper Ralph Timmins.

The gun jammed before the man could fire again, Timmins said. The attacker then pulled out a knife and injured himself before churchgoers subdued him. Two parishioners involved in the struggle also suffered knife wounds, Timmins said.

Timmins said officials don't know whether Winters, a married father of two who had led the church for nearly 22 years, and the gunman knew each other.

Officials did not know the suspect's name.

"We don't know the relationship (between the gunman and pastor), why he's here or what the circumstances came about that caused him in the first place to be here," Timmins said.

The Rev. Mark Jones, another pastor at First Baptist, said he did not recognize the gunman, who he saw briefly before the man pulled out his weapon. Jones went into an adjacent room and did not see the shooting, though he heard a sound like miniature fire crackers.

"We have no idea what this guy's motives were," Jones said outside the church. "We don't know if we'll ever know that."

Winters was pronounced dead at Anderson Hospital, spokeswoman Natalie Head said. Two people who were injured at the church were flown to another hospital, Head said.

The gunman and one victim, 39-year-old Terry Bullard, were being treated at St. Louis University Hospital, spokeswoman Laura Keller said. Bullard underwent surgery for stab wounds and was in serious condition, she said.

Keller said the gunman underwent surgery Sunday afternoon but could not provide his name, condition or type of injuries.

The other victim, Keith Melton, was treated and released from Gateway Regional Medical Center, spokeswoman Kate Allaria said. A man who answered the phone at a listing for Keith Melton in Troy identified himself as Melton's stepson and said Melton had been stabbed but was going to be fine.

First Baptist had an average attendance of 32 people when Winters became senior pastor in 1987; it now has about 1,200 members, according to the church's Web site. Winters also was former president of the Illinois Baptist State Association and an adjunct professor for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, according to the site.

"Our great God is not surprised by this, or anything," Nate Adams, executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association, said in a statement. "That He allows evil and free will to have their way in tragedies like this is a mystery in many ways."

The church sits along a busy two-lane highway on the east side of Maryville, a fast-growing village of more than 7,000 people about 20 miles northeast of St. Louis. A farm sits directly across from church, but subdivisions of newer homes can been seen from every side.

"Things like this just don't happen in Maryville," Mayor Larry Gulledge said. "We've lost one of the pillars of our community, one of our leaders."

Congregant Sharla Dryden pulled into the church parking lot for a 9:30 a.m. service in time to see "just a lot of chaos, lot of police, fire, and people just devastated."

"They just said there had been a shooting," said Dryden, 62. "I would have been devastated if anyone had been shot, but to hear it was the pastor was terrible. You just never expect this to happen at a church."

But Jeffrey Hawkins, executive director of the Christian Security Network - a national organization that deals with security, safety and emergency planning for churches, schools and ministries - noted in a statement that while the shooting is a tragedy, it is "one that has been witnessed many times over the years."

Last month, a man shot and killed himself in front of a cross inside televangelist Robert H. Schuller's Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif. In November, a gunman killed his estranged wife in a New Jersey church vestibule as Sunday services let out.

A Pastor With GUTS!

H/T to 'my favorite uncle' in Kentucky. Received in email this morning.

Thought you might enjoy this interesting prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate. It seems prayer still upsets some people.

When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask
your forgiveness and to seek your direction and
guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those  
who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we
have done.  

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed
our values.

We have exploited the poor and called it
the lottery.  

We have rewarded laziness and called it
welfare.

We have killed our unborn and called  it
choice.  

We have shot abortionists and called  it
justifiable.  

We have neglected to discipline our
children and called it building self esteem..

We have abused power and called it  
politics.  

We have coveted our neighbor's possessions
and called it ambition.  

We have polluted the air with profanity and
pornography and called it freedom of expression.  

We have ridiculed the time-honored values
of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.  

Search  us, Oh, God, and know our hearts
today;  cleanse us from every sin and set us free.  
Amen! 

The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. 

In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church,  where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and Korea.

Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, 'The Rest of the Story,'and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.  
 

With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called 'one nation under God.'

From OneNewsNow.com - Pastors Need to Stand Up to IRS

'Intimidation' of pastors at issue

Jeff Johnson - OneNewsNow - 5/13/2008 10:00:00 AM

Protecting pastors' constitutionally protected right to preach on biblical issues related to politics is the motive behind one Christian law firm's "Pulpit Initiative."

For almost the first 180 years of American history, pastors routinely addressed political issues and candidates from the pulpit. "Until about 1954, churches were free to endorse or oppose particular candidates from the pulpit -- and, in fact, churches did that," says Erik Stanley with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). "Some pastors opposed Thomas Jefferson as being a deist. Other pastors opposed William Howard Taft as a Unitarian. Some pastors opposed Al Smith in the 1928 presidential election -- and the list goes on and on.

"But that changed in 1954, says Stanley, when Congress passed a law forbidding churches from endorsing or opposing candidates. The so-called "Johnson Amendment" was passed without any debate or analysis. Stanley says that provision has since been used to keep churches from speaking out when politics intrudes into moral issues addressed by scripture.

"The IRS has been used as a willing accomplice with groups like Americans United [for Separation of Church and State] to silence pastors from speaking biblical values from the pulpit," alleges the attorney. "[W]e believe that pastors ... shouldn't be intimidated into giving those up.

"That is why ADF is asking pastors to help reclaim that constitutionally protected right.

 

"What we would like pastors to do is to preach a biblically based sermon evaluating the candidates for office on September 28 of this year," he explains. "And we're asking pastors to use their authority as biblical, prophetic voices to the culture to make recommendations either opposing or supporting particular candidates for office." (Click here to learn more about "Pulpit Freedom Sunday.")That is why ADF is asking pastors to help reclaim that constitutionally protected right.

Stanley says, for too long, pastors have been intimidated by the IRS and groups like Americans United. "What we're trying to do is to reestablish the freedom of the pulpit," the attorney says. "This is not a political project; this is a core religious project. This is not involving political speech from the pulpit; this is involving religious speech from the pulpit."

 
ADF hopes that, by forcing the IRS to investigate hundreds or thousands of complaints, they can get the issue before a federal court that will uphold the right of churches to oppose or endorse candidates based on biblical considerations.
 
"We want the IRS to get out of the pulpit and return that to the hands of the pastors where it belongs," Stanley emphasizes. "It is the pastor's job to determine the sermon -- not the IRS."

Note from Cyber Pastor: I agree with most of what is in this article. I did want to say that I am not totally convinced that Jefferson was a deist (couldn't let that pass). Also, I'm going to be praying and researching this issue before deciding what I will be preaching on that date, God gets to decide what I preach and when, but this point is an important one. We will have to remember, that this will work for both sides of the political aisle - even though many liberal churches already do this.