RSS FeedFree Speech?
Now here’s an interesting story (link to whole story at the bottom). Apparently, there is/was a minister who was part of the Southern Baptist Convention who publicly denounced homosexual marriage from his church pulpit. Nothing new right? Well, here’s where it gets interesting. On January 3rd, 2006, he was arrested outside of a hotel in Oklahoma City for soliciting an undercover male police officer to come to his hotel room for oral sex. He was then charged with misdemeanor lewdness and now his case is before the court. The defense is asking for the lewdness charge to be dropped and also claiming the pastor’s right to free speech was infringed upon. Here’s the defense’s argument. The Supreme Court ruled in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas that it is not illegal for consenting adults to engage in private homosexual acts. The Pastor’s attorney states:
“Now, my client’s being prosecuted basically for having offered to engage in such an act, which basically makes it a crime to ask someone to do something that’s legal.”
While I am vehemently opposed to homosexuality and homosexual marriage for a number of reasons, I think I have to side with the pastor in this case, regardless of the hypocrisy or my beliefs regarding the morality of his actions. The reason I take this stance is because of the statement made by the pastor’s attorney. The pastor is being prosecuted for commiting a LEGAL activity. He wasn’t doing anything wrong illegal, yet he was still arrested? This should be concerning to anyone. So legality is dictated by the situation or interpretation by the officer? Think of the ramifications this precedent could have for future cases. Oh and to add more to the defense’s argument, there was never any discussion of payment or money, so this is not a case of male prostitution.
While I’m not lawyer, I highly believe this case will be dropped. I can only imagine it would have to be, UNLESS, there is some law on the books in Oklahoma City that defines the pastor’s solicitation as illegal. Evn then, I can only imagine with the Supreme Court case of Lawrence v. Texas that the constitutionality of the city/state law would be challenged by the defense.
Like I said before, while I don’t agree with what he was doing or participating in, I’m very glad he was exposed rather than being allowed to continue to lead his congregation. However, to be arrested for simply asking someone to participate in something that’s not illegal, that scares me. Then again, our legal system has done that a lot lately. It’s like a Judge told my mom once after she had finished complaining about our legal system, “It’s not perfect, but it’s the best we’ve got and a lot better than any other country.”
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