Freedom of Religion Dies In New York
(WorldNetDaily.com) - Lawyers for a team of Christians convicted of disorderly conduct for praying at a "gay" fest in a public park in Elmira, N.Y., are promising an appeal of the verdict that left them with $100 fines.
Joel Oster, of the Alliance Defense Fund, said an appeal will be filed in Chemung County court for Julian and Gloria Raven, Maurice Kienenberger and Walter Quick, all of Elmira, who were ordered to pay $95 apiece in court costs in addition to the $100 fines.
Oster told the Star-Gazette newspaper that the police in the United States simply are not supposed to arrest people if someone else may be upset by their message.
The Supreme Court has ruled in cases involving "sit-in" protests, he said, that authorities cannot arrest blacks just because they were making white people angry....
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3 comments:
It depends. Some of these groups hold placards that say that God hates gays. St. Thomas Aquinas knew perfectly well that Scripture says "Jacob I have loved but Esau I have hated". Aquinas then went on to note that hate and anger are said of God metaphorically as anthropopathims for His will. He hates no one nor gets angry at anyone but that would denote change and surprise on His part neither of which He has since He is unchanging. Aquinas noted though that God does judge and that is the meaning of the metaphors about anger and hate...they are really saying that God judges gay activity to be evil and someone who dies active in that life without repentance will be damned. But God does not literally hate them.
Thus fundamentalists groups who hold up the placards are not being metaphoric but literal and they are incorrect and are also implying that God has change within Him which is absurd since He says: "I am the Lord and I change not"...."there is in Him neither change nor shadow of alteration.
I certainly don't agree with the tactics of some Fundamentalists, nor do I agree with their message. However, this isn't really about them. It's about freedom of speech, and the loss of it in the State of New York.
The ONLY kind of speech that needs to be protected is controversial speech. Speech that isn't controversial doesn't need protection at all, because nobody is threatening it. When protesters set up in a park, to "pray," during a gay fest, they take their safety into their own hands. That's part of the risk associated with free speech, but when law enforcement officials arrest them for no other reason than practicing their civil rights, what has this nation come to? It's unamerican, but not surprising in this current political climate.
These Christians were not even carrying signs, but if they were, that would have been legal. They only walked into the park. They didn't talk to anyone or do anything. Their plan was to silently pray. They were arrested because they were Christians and the corrupt authorities thought they may offend the sodomites. I hope the Alliance Defense Fund sues Elmira, N.Y until it is bankrupt.
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