Religious Liberty On Trial

by Debbie Lawrence

  Meanwhile, the prosecutor in Tina's case was having his staff record all the hate speech on both radio and television. If the defense wanted to make this a circus, then the best thing for the prosecution to do was to show the clowns as terrorists.

  The Defense

  The trial resumed the following week. As the jury came in it was obvious that they were not happy. They had not originally been told they would be sequestered, and they had already been isolated for a week. They all knew it was because of the surprise motion of the defense. He had not won their hearts and minds with this stunt.

  The defense called Pastor Grey of Calvary Baptist Church first.

  Pastor Grey

  "Pastor Grey, are you familiar with the defendants?"

  The pastor nodded and smiled "Yes, two fine young people, they were active members of my church for several years. Excellent students, memorized verses from the Bible, brought their friends to come and be baptized. And both they and their parents tithed. Their father, Senator Thomson, had made a large donation to the church school so we could teach proper Christian Values."

  "Very good Pastor Grey, so you would consider these people model Christians?"

  Pastor Grey nodded "None of us are saints, but yes, they were excellent examples of our community."

  "Pastor Grey, what is your church's policy on gay people?"

  Pastor Grey puffed up "We love the sinner, but not the sin. The Bible teaches that homosexuality is an abomination and homosexuals should be put to death. However, if they repent, they can be saved, forgiven, and baptized into the church."

  "What about those who are not repentant?"

  "Well, in those cases, we believe that some additional persuasion is necessary. This might include having members their own age befriend them and try to persuade them of the error of their ways. If they still don't come around, they might be shunned."

  "Do you advocate violence?"

  "I don't, but the Bible does. It says that if a sinner burns in hell because we didn't reach out to save them, then we will burn in hell too. Therefore, we must do everything within our power to persuade the sinner to repent and be saved. Sometimes that includes a bit of intimidation."

  "Did Tommy or Betsy ever participate in this type of intimidation?"

  "Oh yes! Betsy would often make friends with a homosexual boy and get him to come to a place where Tommy and the other boys could convince him to repent."

  "What about boys who wanted to be girls?"

  "Sissies, Fairies, Faggots, Queers, Trannies, Queens, Dykes, they'll all burn in hell if we don't make them repent."

  "So what Betsy and her friends did to Tina would have been ministry, helping to get Tina to repent from her sinful ways."

  The pastor nodded "Yes, if they didn't at least try, they would burn in hell right next to Tina!"

  "Your witness."

  The prosecutor nodded "These traditions and teachings. Did they come from the witch trials and the inquisition? The Malleus Malefacorum?"

  Defense objected.

  "I'll withdraw the question."

  "Pastor Grey, how many members do you have in your congregation?"

  "We have over 1,000 active members, over 2,000 attend the Christmas and Easter services."

  "Pastor Grey, you have led many demonstrations have you not?"

  "Oh yes, we try to demonstrate our faith in public ways."

  "In 1968, you held a demonstration at a local Junior high school. Over 300 people showed up, did they not?"

  "Oh yes, I remember that event, we were protesting busing, integration, and race-mixing. A very successful demonstration."

  "Pastor Grey, I don't understand, only 30 of the demonstrators supported your position. Over 300 students came out in SUPPORT of busing and integration. Your own daughter announced that she was dating a black student."

  Pastor nodded. "Yes, I had to give her the strap for that."

  "Excuse me, you beat your own daughter with a razor strap? How many times?"

  "49 lashes, just as our Lord received under Pilate. She couldn't sit for a week. Spare the rod and spoil the child I always say."

  "So, Pastor Grey, you are saying that you advocate violent attacks against those you consider to be evil and unrepentant sinners?"

  "Absolutely! Better to make them suffer for a few days here on earth than suffer for an eternity in hell."

  "Can you tell me which chapters of the Bible order such behavior?"

  The pastor cited various isolated verses, putting together a jumble of verses from Leviticus, Deuteronomy, a couple lines from parables of Jesus, and a couple verses from Revelation.

  "Do you know Matthew 27 verse 5?"

  The pastor shrugged "Not off the top of my head."

  "So Judas threw the money into the temple and left, then he went away and hanged himself."

  "How about Luke 10 verse 37"

  The pastor was stumped again "I'd have to look that up."

  "Jesus told him "Go forth and do likewise?"

  The pastor nodded. "Ah yes."

  "So the members of your congregation should go hang themselves?"

  Pastor Grey fumed "Don't be ridiculous, you took two verses that were completely unrelated and combined them to make a ridiculous statement."

  "Pastor Grey, you just quoted a bunch if individual verses from almost random parts of the Bible and stitched them together to preach a mandate that your followers should terrorize minorities, gays, and anyone you consider a sinner?"

  "Pastor Grey, were Tina, or any of these other boys and girls, members of your congregation at the time they were attacked?"

  "No, of course not, we'd never allow queers and trannies to join our church, until they repented?"

  "Pastor Grey, I'd like you to take a look at some pictures. Here are pictures of Tina the night she was attacked. Is this the kind of behavior you encourage?"

  Pastor Grey looked at the picture of Tina, bleeding at the penis, testicles ripped loose, and still in her dress, with the hem up. Her legs were covered in bruises, her stomach had bruises as well.

  "Look at that faggot wearing that skimpy dress and pulling up her skirt like that, it's disgusting. She should be whipped within an inch of her life."

  "Pastor Grey, do you notice the bruises? Her testicles have been crushed, and her penis is leaking blood! Doesn't that upset you!"

  "What upsets me is that they didn't also whip her with a razor strap. That's what I would have done!"

  "Your honor, I would like to pass these pictures to the jury as a reminder of the damage incurred by Tina at the hands of the defendants."

  The judge nodded "Please do so."

  The jury was visibly disgusted. One appeared almost ready to throw up. Even the most conservative man on the Jury was visibly disturbed, at both the pictures, and the statements."

  "So Pastor Grey, you are not disturbed by these pictures, you feel that she WAS NOT PUNISHED SEVERELY ENOUGH!?"

  Pastor Grey nodded absolutely "That faggot Jezebel would lead faithful followers of my congregation into the depths of hell!"

  "Pastor Grey, are Elizabeth and Thomas currently members of your congregation?"

  "No, they left the church several years ago. I don't remember when."

  "No more questions for this witness your honor."

  Pastor Blair

  "Defense calls Pastor John Blair"

  Pastor Blair was sworn in.

  "Pastor Blair, are you familiar with Elizabeth and Thomas Thompson?"

  "Yes, Senator Thompson and his family joined our church about 8 years ago, about a year before he became a Senator. He and his family regularly attended our church and were regular contributors. His wife volunteered on several social action committees, and Senator Thompson has regularly spoken to our congregation during special services."

  "Very good. Now, can you tell me your church's position on homosexuals and transsexuals."

  "We have a zero-tolerance policy. Those who might be homosexuals are encouraged to
repent, or they must suffer the consequences! They are sinners and need to be punished!"

  "Very interesting. Is this limited only to members of your congregation?"

  "Oh no, we cannot let this subversive homosexuality and perversion corrupt our children. We try to put queers in their place whenever they are identified. We want to make sure that they don't infect our children with their sinful ways."

  "I see, so how do you put them in their place?"

  "First, they are taunted verbally, then they are threatened verbally, if they don't heed the warnings, then we get progressively more violent. Usually, that will get them to go into hiding, avoid our members, and keep their filthy little hands to themselves!"

  "What is your position on transsexuals, sissies if you like?"

  "Just a faggot in a dress. Sissies are just little faggots who haven't learned to actively engage in sinful acts like oral sex and sodomy."

  "What is your positions on lesbians?"

  "If they're pretty and feminine, the Bible doesn't really say anything about them. Many of the Kings of Israel had multiple wives. Abraham had Hagar and Sarah, Jacob had Rachel and Rehab. On the other hand, if they insist on dressing and acting like men, that's forbidden in Deuteronomy and we must treat them like faggots. Faggots and Dykes are sodomites, the worst kind of sinners!"

  "So, you would have encouraged members of your congregation to engage in such persuasion when these sodomites were identified? Would that have included Betsy and Tommy?"

  Pastor Blair nodded "Yes, we encouraged ALL of our youth to try to persuade sodomites to turn away from their wickedness."

  "So Tommy and Betsy, seeing Theodore as Tina would have naturally wanted to persuade him to turn away from his wickedness."

  "Objection!"

  The Judge nodded "Counselor, you are very close to being in contempt of court. One more slip like that, and you will be spending the night in a cell!"

  The Defense lawyer nodded "Pastor Blair, excuse the interruption, could you please answer the question?"

  "Yes, if they had seen that little faggot in a dress, they would have been duty bound to do whatever was necessary to persuade him to turn from his evil ways?"

  "Even if that included violence?"

  "Yes, even if that included violence!"

  "No more questions"

  The prosecution got up.

  "Pastor Blair, how big is your congregation?"

  Pastor Blair puffed up, "We have over 5,000 active members in our congregation, on Christmas and Easter, over 15,000 people come to worship in one of our 5 services on each of those days."

  "My, it seems that Senator Thompson found a much larger base for his political campaign!"

  "Objection!"

  "Overruled"

  "Do you recognize what I'm holding in my hand?"

  "Oh yes, that's our membership roster. We give them out to visitors and new members so that they can reach out to fellow members of the congregation."

  "Yes, one of our detectives obtained it for us. A member of your church."

  "Wonderful, we welcome law enforcement and other civil servants as members of our congregation!"

  "Really, how many members do you have who are politicians?"

  "Oh we have at least a dozen members of city council, members of the state legislature, the Governor, the Senator of course, and a couple members of congress."

  "I have here a list of the names of the members of your congregation who have been reported by school authorities for their acts of violence in the schools? Can you see the total number at the bottom?"

  "Over 300 soldiers for God!"

  "I have here a list of the victims of your soldiers for God. Can you see the count?"

  "This can't be, there are over 2,000 names on this list!"

  "Now, I'm going to ask you to count the names with asterisks after them."

  The courtroom was silent as pastor counted. "Looks like around 700 names - are those people in my church?"

  "No Pastor Blair, those people are all deceased. And by the way there are 732 names. These people died in various ways. 300 committed suicide. 200 had mysterious accidents, and 200 died of internal injuries because of violent attacks. ALL of them had been attacked 3 or more times by your Soldiers of God! Congratulations Pastor Blair, you have a higher score than a New York Mob Boss."

  "You can’t blame me for those deaths! I am a simple preacher."

  "A preacher who inspires his followers to go out and violently attack innocent people whose only crime was to be feminine or to be attracted to men! About half of those victims had told authorities that they were NOT gay."

  The jury was beginning to squirm. Even the gallery was visibly disturbed.

  "Here are some pictures of just a few of the victims after they were attacked. We didn't include the worst of them, because they were autopsy photos on open cases."

  She handed him a stack of 100 photos. The pastor got through half the pack before he couldn't look any more. "What have I done?"

  "No more questions at this time your honor?"

  Defense rose "Redirect your honor!"

  "Pastor Blair, did you force those people to attack the victims?"

  "I'm confused, what do you mean?"

  "Did you threaten to hurt them if they didn't actively attack, or were you just exercising your right to free speech and preaching the principles of your religion?"

  "Objection, Leading"

  "Sustained."

  "Were you speaking as a preacher?"

  "Yes"

  "Were you teaching scriptures as you understood them?"

  "Yes"

  "Are you a pastor of a church?"

  "Yes"

  "No more questions your honor."

  Prosecution rose "A few more questions."

  "Pastor Blair, your church is tax exempt is it not?"

  "Yes, we are a 503-C tax exempt organization."

  "Yet you offered investors a share of the profits from a subdivision of that organization."

  "If you mean Life Center, yes. Those investors were paid back."

  "But wasn't that only after the IRS ruled that if you paid anything to investors, you would lose your tax-exempt status?"

  "Yes, that's true"

  "Weren't you also facing charges of securities fraud as well?"

  "Yes, that's why we had to pay back the investors."

  "Pastor Blair, how many campaign rallies have you spoken to in the last 10 years?"

  "I'd have to have my secretary check that."

  "We already did that, you spoke at over 200 campaign rallies, including 30 rallies for Senator Thompson! Why?"

  "I spoke on behalf of Evangelical Christians who reflected the values of our ministry and our church?"

  "Really, did the congregation vote on who you should speak for?"

  "No, I made that choice myself!"

  "Oh, so you used your personal power and influence, to direct the resources of the congregation to support the candidates that you personally considered worthy of your personal support."

  "Yes, I exercised my right to free speech to support candidates that reflected my values!"

  "Did that include their support of your Soldiers for God!"

  "I suppose so!"

  "Did Senator Thompson support your activities?"

  "Yes, he even gave us the names of several sodomites that needed to be persuaded."

  "Really, did that include political candidates?"

  "Yes, but they supported gay rights, women's rights, abortion, and integration. They supported all forms of sodomy and depravity."

  "So you had their son's attacked?"

  "What are you talking about?"

  "25 of the people on that list, were the sons of political opponents - they are ALL dead now."

  "The jury and the gallery gasped."

  "Seems that your opponents really need to be afraid of your FREE SPEECH. They never know what you'll do to their children."

  "Objection!"

>   "Sustained"

  "No more questions your honor."

  Dr. Dobson

  The next Witness was Dr. James Dobson.

  "Dr. Dobson, could you please tell us about your ministry?"

  "Yes, I'm the featured pastor and president of Focus on the Family, and I'm an executive director on the Family Radio Network."

  "How big is your audience Dr. Dobson?"

  "We have roughly 11 million listeners nationwide, and several million more in other countries."

  "Are you familiar with the Thompson family?"

  "Yes, Senator Thompson spoke at a Focus on the Family fundraisers and has been a guest on my radio show several times. His wife and children have assisted with fundraisers and have even spoken on several of our programs. It is, after all, focus on the FAMILY."

  "Dr. Dobson, can you tell us your position, as a pastor, on homosexuality and transsexualism?"

  "Oh yes, it's a terrible thing. It's unnatural, contrary to God's creation. Homosexuality is the worst kind of perversion; the Bible says homosexuals should be put to death! They certainly don’t deserve special rights! They should not be allowed to display their affection in public, get married, or adopt children. It's disgusting! "

  "What about Transsexuals?"

  "They are demonically possessed. A transsexual boy has a demon telling him he's a girl. It's the ultimate blasphemy. Boys are boys and girls are girls. There is no in between and there is no way that a boy could be a girl or vice versa. It's just not natural."

  "Did the Thompson family share your views?"

  "Oh yes, Senator Thompson is a fine upstanding Christian who supports family values. When the children were on my show, they also echoed these same values."

  "Your witness"

  "Dr. Dobson, when did you first contact Senator Thompson?"

  "As soon as he won his party's nomination. I called and asked him to appear on my show, and to help with the fund raiser. He was quite eager to do both."

  "Dr. Dobson, you are a doctor of psychology? A medical doctor? A doctor of anthropology?"