By Douglas V. Gibbs
Remember when Don Lemon and gang invaded a church to protest one of the church’s pastors who worked for ICE? They entered the church, took over the service, refused to leave and shouted, “Who shut this down? We shut this down!” The agitators screamed at crying children, blocked parents from retrieving their children from Sunday School, and one of the activists told a child their parents were Nazis and going to hell.
A federal grand jury indicted 38 of the invaders on two charges: violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (passed for abortion clinics, but protects access to churches as well), and violating the Ku Klux Klan Act which criminalizes efforts to deprive Americans of their fundamental rights – including the free exercise of religion.
The activists are claiming they are not guilty and that their actions are protected by the First Amendment. According to their motion, “The Constitution does not contain any exception to free speech in churches…There is no alleged conduct that crossed the line into violence, threats or anything that went beyond free speech. The protest was limited to pure speech and assembly.”
The defendants also argue that “there are no allegations supporting the conclusion that defendants’ actions were intended to interfere with freedom of worship.”
The argument by the activists is based on a number of flawed assumptions, with two in particular I would like to key in on.
They frame their “right” to free speech and assembly on whether or not the First Amendment contains an “exception to free speech in churches.” The second assumption is based on what their “intentions” were.
When it comes to our Natural Rights, they exist not because of the language in the First Amendment, or anywhere else in the Constitution. We were endowed by our Creator with our Natural Rights. The First Amendment does not grant, define, or guarantee any of the five rights enumerated in the amendment. They belong to us naturally. The right to free speech and assembly, however, also carry another component that the activists don’t seem to understand.
A right stops being a right when it interferes with another’s right. For example, I may have the right to swing my arms, but I don’t have the right to swing my arms into someone’s face. My right to swing my arms stops at the tip of the nose of the other person, and actually even further away because they have the right not to be struck in the face, or feel that they are under the threat of such action.
The agitators cited Snyder v. Phelps to combat that argument, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that protesters carrying offensive signs near a military funeral did not interfere with the funeral. The difference is that the protesters in the Snyder case remained on public property about 1,000 feet away from the church that the funeral was being held at. They did not enter the building or interrupt the service while going down aisles and screaming in the faces of those in attendance.
As for their claim that they had no “intent” to interfere with a religious worship service, try that argument when you get pulled over for speeding. “But officer, I didn’t intend to drive too fast.” Whether they, in their minds, intended to or not (and they obviously did intend to disrupt the service), the fact is that they did. And since the left hates God so much, and don’t understand what “God-given Rights” means, from their point of view what they did was no different than interrupting a city council meeting with their antics. I am not sure they truly understand the severity of their actions. I am not letting them off the hook, here – I am simply pointing out that to them God does not exist so worshipping Him is a silly action that needs not be protected.
The reality is, the hard left hates Christians, hates Christianity, and hated that pastor for daring to have anything to do with ICE because they hate Trump and America. They wanted to frighten people. They wanted to terrorize the worshippers and upset them as they did. They’ve decided in their minds that anyone who disagrees with them is an enemy and the ends justify the means. And, regardless of “intentions,” the fact is the worshippers felt terrorized, they believed it might be an active-shooter situation, they feared for their own safety and the safety of their children, and they were horrified at being screamed at that they were Nazis and going to Hell in their own church which is supposed to be a safe place.
I know people that got into a public argument and with their words threatened to “kill” the person they were arguing with, and were hit with a charge of a “terrorist threat.” But somehow in the minds of the lefties, terrifying families, frightening children, and screaming they are there to “shut this down” isn’t the same kind of offense?
The worst part is that the perpetrators are so out of their mind under the spell of the cult of leftism that they don’t understand how evil what they did truly is. I truly believe they are completely ignorant of the seriousness of their actions, and they truly do not understand how what they were doing was exactly the kind tactic used by the Nazis, Soviets, and other tyrannical horrors in history to instill fear in their opposition as a precursor of the murderous actions that would be committed against their victims.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
