Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee wants the nation's pastors to send Bibles and copies of all of their sermons to Houston Mayor Annise Parker, who has issued a broad subpoena demanding the city's pastors hand over copies of their sermons and communications concerning the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.
"I hope she gets thousands and thousands of sermons and Bibles," said Huckabee, who is an ordained Southern Baptist minister, on his Fox News show Saturday.
"It ought to make you mad that the mayor thinks she can turn in her pastors," the Republican said. "And so I got an idea. If she wants a sermon, here is my suggestion. I would like to ask every pastor in America, not only the ones in Houston, to send her your sermons and go ahead. Obviously she could use a few. And everybody watching the show ought to send her a Bible."
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Houston's city attorneys initially issued the subpoenas in September when people who opposed the city's equal rights ordinance were trying to force a repeal referendum on the ordinance, which grants certain rights to transgendered people,
reports the Houston Chronicle.
Now, the opponents are challenging a ruling by city attorney David Feldman that they did not gather enough signatures to get the repeal on the city's ballot.
Parker, the city's first openly gay mayor, demanded in the subpoenas that Houston pastors should turn in "all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to (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."
The demand went out to several pastors and religious leaders who opposed the ordinance, The Chronicle reports.
Last Monday, the Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal group that represents the pastors, said it filed a motion saying the sermons are constitutionally protected and the city did not have the right to demand them.
In pushing back against the subpoenas, the Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal group representing the pastors,
issued a statement Monday saying it filed a motion saying that the sermons were constitutionally protected speech and the city had no right demanding them.
On his show Saturday, Huckabee posted the address for Parker's Houston office, even though on Friday, she and the city backtracked some on the language of the demand, instead asking for "[a]ll speeches or presentations related to [the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance] or the petition prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by [the pastors] or in [the pastors'] possession."
But the language change is not enough, said Huckabee and the Alliance Defending Freedom.
"The city of Houston still doesn't get it. It thinks that by changing nothing in its subpoenas other than to remove the word ‘sermons' that it has solved the problem," said Eric Stanley, senior legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom. "That solves nothing...they must be rescinded entirely."
"The Houston case reminds us how our country is taken over by despots who hurt those who have their Bibles," Huckabee said Saturday, calling for Parker to apologize or resign.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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