Bryan Fischer
Justified civil disobedience: protecting a child from lesbianism
By Bryan Fischer
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
(It should be noted that the American Family Association has taken no formal position on either Lisa Miller's actions or the actions of Pastor Timothy Miller. Please see note at end of this column. ~ B.F.)
Tennessee pastor Timothy Miller is now in jail. His crime? Allegedly helping a mother protect her daughter from the pernicious influence of sexual deviancy ("deviancy: actions or behaviours that violate cultural norms").
This tragic case, in which the mother has evidently been forced to flee the country to escape the clutches of those who are out to destroy her daughter's life, illustrates the need for a federal marriage amendment to the Constitution, to standardize marriage and family policy for the entire nation. The alternative is to continue the patchwork arrangement we now have in which more and more children are getting chewed up by mindless judges applying conflicting standards.
Lisa Miller (no relation) is the mother in question. She gave birth to her daughter, Isabella, in 2002. Isabella was conceived through artificial insemination while Ms. Miller was in a lesbian relationship with Janet Jenkins. This counterfeit "marriage" was recognized as a "civil union" in Vermont where they lived at the time.
This means, you will note, that Ms. Jenkins has no biological relationship with Isabella. None. According to my information, she never even adopted the girl. Her only connection to Isabella is being present at her birth and having a twisted legal relationship to the girl's mother because Vermont law grants recognition to relationships based on deviant ("departing from usual or accepted standards") sexuality.
Ms. Miller recognized in time the deviant nature of lesbianism and left the lifestyle, single-handedly giving the lie to the contention that people are "born that way" and that a change in sexual orientation is impossible.
The women agreed to dissolve their civil union — there is evidence that Ms. Jenkins was abusive, bitter and controlling — and a Vermont court awarded custody to the girl's mother and gave Ms. Jenkins visitation rights. Ms. Miller had moved to Virginia by this time, a state which wisely grants no legal recognition whatsoever to twisted sexual unions. And the Defense of Marriage Act prohibits Virginia from being forced to recognize same-sex unions that may have recognition in other states. In other words, Ms. Miller's relationship with Ms. Jenkins, while it may have had recognition in Vermont, had absolutely none in Virginia, where she lived and where she raised her daughter.
What the New York Times does not tell readers in its feature piece on this travesty is that Ms. Miller initially complied with the visitation stipulations of the Vermont court. However, Isabella would return from weekends with Ms. Jenkins traumatized, emotionally disturbed and mentally confused.
According to Lisa, Ms. Jenkins bathed naked with Isabella the first time they were together alone, after having seen her just once in the previous 2-1/2 years. Among the first words Isabella spoke to her mother on her return from that visit: "Mommy, will you please tell Janet that I don't have to take a bath anymore at her house."
When Isabella came home from other visits with Ms. Jenkins — as a five year old — she would stimulate herself sexually and put a pretend knife to her own throat and express a desire to kill herself.
Lisa did what any good mother would do when her child was being systematically and psychologically abused by a total stranger: she refused to subject her child to that continued abuse.
A Vermont court, heedlessly placing the demands of a self-centered and sexually immoral adult over a vulnerable and helpless child, ruled Lisa's resistance to its visitation order meant that Isabella had to be taken by force from her mother — nothing more than a legalized kidnapping — and awarded to a total stranger.
So while Pastor Miller is the one facing charges of aiding an "international parental kidnapping," the true perpetrators here are judges who would consign a child to an emotionally-scarring environment out of a mindless, robotic allegiance to political correctness run amok.
At this point details are somewhat sketchy, but according to the FBI, Lisa took Isabella and fled the country, which was the only thing she could do to protect her daughter. An abusive and activist judiciary had left her no choice.
She now evidently is living in Central America, beyond the reach of a pernicious legal system which, left to itself, would have wrecked the rest of her daughter's life, and a pastor is now in jail for the crime of helping this mother protect her daughter from the dark and dangerous influences of abnormal sexuality.
My heart breaks for this mother and child, driven from their native land by the misguided rulings of uncaring judges. And it breaks for Pastor Miller, who, even if he did what he is accused of, is being punished for doing his sacred duty and faithfully discharging his divine responsibility as a shepherd of the sheep.
He could have given Lisa and Isabella up to the wolves, but Jesus had harsh words for a shepherd who would do such a thing. "He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd...sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them...he flees because he cares nothing for the sheep" (John 10:12, 13).
The good shepherd, Jesus says, "lays down his life for the sheep." That's what this pastor has done, and he deserves our praise, support and commendation. And he deserves better from a Christian nation than to be thrown in a jail cell with rapists, murderers, child molesters and thieves.
He is in a long and worthy line of spiritual leaders, beginning with the apostles, who also were thrown in jail when they said, "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
Rosa Parks gained civil rights immortality because she refused an order to obey an unjust law. If there was ever a contemporary case in which civil disobedience is justified, the Lisa Miller case is it. May God have mercy on Lisa Miller, her daughter Isabella, and Pastor Timothy Miller. And may God, the Judge of the living and the dead, bring the guilty before his bar of pure and uncompromising justice.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
April 29, 2011
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
(It should be noted that the American Family Association has taken no formal position on either Lisa Miller's actions or the actions of Pastor Timothy Miller. Please see note at end of this column. ~ B.F.)
Tennessee pastor Timothy Miller is now in jail. His crime? Allegedly helping a mother protect her daughter from the pernicious influence of sexual deviancy ("deviancy: actions or behaviours that violate cultural norms").
This tragic case, in which the mother has evidently been forced to flee the country to escape the clutches of those who are out to destroy her daughter's life, illustrates the need for a federal marriage amendment to the Constitution, to standardize marriage and family policy for the entire nation. The alternative is to continue the patchwork arrangement we now have in which more and more children are getting chewed up by mindless judges applying conflicting standards.
Lisa Miller (no relation) is the mother in question. She gave birth to her daughter, Isabella, in 2002. Isabella was conceived through artificial insemination while Ms. Miller was in a lesbian relationship with Janet Jenkins. This counterfeit "marriage" was recognized as a "civil union" in Vermont where they lived at the time.
This means, you will note, that Ms. Jenkins has no biological relationship with Isabella. None. According to my information, she never even adopted the girl. Her only connection to Isabella is being present at her birth and having a twisted legal relationship to the girl's mother because Vermont law grants recognition to relationships based on deviant ("departing from usual or accepted standards") sexuality.
Ms. Miller recognized in time the deviant nature of lesbianism and left the lifestyle, single-handedly giving the lie to the contention that people are "born that way" and that a change in sexual orientation is impossible.
The women agreed to dissolve their civil union — there is evidence that Ms. Jenkins was abusive, bitter and controlling — and a Vermont court awarded custody to the girl's mother and gave Ms. Jenkins visitation rights. Ms. Miller had moved to Virginia by this time, a state which wisely grants no legal recognition whatsoever to twisted sexual unions. And the Defense of Marriage Act prohibits Virginia from being forced to recognize same-sex unions that may have recognition in other states. In other words, Ms. Miller's relationship with Ms. Jenkins, while it may have had recognition in Vermont, had absolutely none in Virginia, where she lived and where she raised her daughter.
What the New York Times does not tell readers in its feature piece on this travesty is that Ms. Miller initially complied with the visitation stipulations of the Vermont court. However, Isabella would return from weekends with Ms. Jenkins traumatized, emotionally disturbed and mentally confused.
According to Lisa, Ms. Jenkins bathed naked with Isabella the first time they were together alone, after having seen her just once in the previous 2-1/2 years. Among the first words Isabella spoke to her mother on her return from that visit: "Mommy, will you please tell Janet that I don't have to take a bath anymore at her house."
When Isabella came home from other visits with Ms. Jenkins — as a five year old — she would stimulate herself sexually and put a pretend knife to her own throat and express a desire to kill herself.
Lisa did what any good mother would do when her child was being systematically and psychologically abused by a total stranger: she refused to subject her child to that continued abuse.
A Vermont court, heedlessly placing the demands of a self-centered and sexually immoral adult over a vulnerable and helpless child, ruled Lisa's resistance to its visitation order meant that Isabella had to be taken by force from her mother — nothing more than a legalized kidnapping — and awarded to a total stranger.
So while Pastor Miller is the one facing charges of aiding an "international parental kidnapping," the true perpetrators here are judges who would consign a child to an emotionally-scarring environment out of a mindless, robotic allegiance to political correctness run amok.
At this point details are somewhat sketchy, but according to the FBI, Lisa took Isabella and fled the country, which was the only thing she could do to protect her daughter. An abusive and activist judiciary had left her no choice.
She now evidently is living in Central America, beyond the reach of a pernicious legal system which, left to itself, would have wrecked the rest of her daughter's life, and a pastor is now in jail for the crime of helping this mother protect her daughter from the dark and dangerous influences of abnormal sexuality.
My heart breaks for this mother and child, driven from their native land by the misguided rulings of uncaring judges. And it breaks for Pastor Miller, who, even if he did what he is accused of, is being punished for doing his sacred duty and faithfully discharging his divine responsibility as a shepherd of the sheep.
He could have given Lisa and Isabella up to the wolves, but Jesus had harsh words for a shepherd who would do such a thing. "He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd...sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them...he flees because he cares nothing for the sheep" (John 10:12, 13).
The good shepherd, Jesus says, "lays down his life for the sheep." That's what this pastor has done, and he deserves our praise, support and commendation. And he deserves better from a Christian nation than to be thrown in a jail cell with rapists, murderers, child molesters and thieves.
He is in a long and worthy line of spiritual leaders, beginning with the apostles, who also were thrown in jail when they said, "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
Rosa Parks gained civil rights immortality because she refused an order to obey an unjust law. If there was ever a contemporary case in which civil disobedience is justified, the Lisa Miller case is it. May God have mercy on Lisa Miller, her daughter Isabella, and Pastor Timothy Miller. And may God, the Judge of the living and the dead, bring the guilty before his bar of pure and uncompromising justice.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
