Anti-Gay Activist Seeks $25,000 To Protect Pastors From ‘Cross-Hairs’ Of Gay Marriage Army

An anti-gay activist is calling for supporters to donate $25,000 to help him protect pastors from the “army” of same-sex marriage supporters who have “occupied” Texas.

It was’t enough for Texas to rely on the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to protect pastors from being forced to marry same-sex couples — even though no clergy member in America has ever been forced to marry any couple, for any reason, of any composition, ever. 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott was only too pleased, with the support of Texas Values founder Jonathan Saenz, to sign into law the Texas Pastors Protection bill, which even Texas LGBT groups supported.

But apparently even that isn’t enough for Saenz (image, front right in red tie), whose marriage ended in divorce after his wife left him for a woman.

Saenz is now promoting his fundraising campaign, seeking $25,000 to make sure all Christian pastors (nothing about Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, or other faith clergy members) in Texas know they don’t have to marry same-sex couples.

And he’s using rather strident and false rhetoric to make his money.

“Dear Friend,” Saenz’s letter begins. “America today is occupied territory. The enemies of religious freedom occupy every power center from government to academia. Everyone except its spiritual core.”

“That makes our pastors the Leaders of the Resistancee,” he continues, in bold type, spelling error included.

“How does an invading army break the will of an occupied people?,” Saenz asks. “First, it identifies its Resistance Leaders. Next, it isolates and demoralizes them, making them think they’re alone and powerless. Then it breaks them––before the people can rally to their defense.”

Saenz is so “alone and powerless” he can be seen above, posing with State GOP Rep. Cecil Bell, the lawmaker whose virulently anti-gay bill would literally have defunded same-sex marriage in Texas might have passed had the legislative session not run out of time this year. And here is Saenz, standing next to and shaking hands with Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, during the signing of a bill to make it even harder for minors to obtain an abortion:

“This is why your pastor is truly in the cross-hairs,” Saenz suggestively and offensively writes. “Armed with not only the recent egregious Supreme Court same-sex ‘marriage’ decision but a host of lower-court rulings and guidelines, the pro-homosexual left is scouring Texas—America’s last stronghold of resistance—seeking ‘weakest link’ communities and churches for a pre-emptive strike.”

Which, of course, is a baseless accusation, but great copy when you’re trying to raise cash.

“So it’s not enough for only a few well-informed pastors to know about our state’s new Pastor Protection Law. Every member of the Texas clergy and every Texas church must know they’re shielded against being forced to solemnize, perform, or celebrate a same-sex ‘marriage’ in violation of their beliefs.”

Saenz asks supporters for “a generous, even sacrificial” donation of “$50, $100, $250, $1,000 or an even more heroic gift” to “support our Protect Pastors campaign?”

(All bolding and italics are original.)

John Wright at Towleroad notes the Pastor Protection Law “merely reaffirms existing protections under the First Amendment, and Texas’ two openly LGBT lawmakers both voted in favor of it.”

Yes, anti-gay activism is a business, a lucrative business, even today.

 

Images via Facebook: Saenz and Bell, Saenz and Abbott.
Hat tip: Towleroad