Friday, August 16, 2013

IOWA CHRISTIAN PASTOR DEFENDS CHRISTIANITY AND U.S. CONSTITUTION

Pastor Gary Gordon PRESS RELEASE
“Iowa Church Officials Poised to Defend Small Business Owners’ First Amendment Rights”
 
DATE: 8/16/13
FROM: Cornerstone World Outreach, Sioux City Iowa
CONTACT: 712-253-9249, Rev. Cary K. Gordon, Executive Pastor
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Cornerstone World Outreach Executive Pastor, Rev. Cary Gordon, announced today that small business owners and church officials across Iowa should contact the offices of Cornerstone Church at 712-274-7572 ext. 0 if at any time they believe they have been targeted by a state sanctioned Human Rights Commission with accusations of discrimination against sexual behaviors which violate their religious freedoms of conscience.
Rev. Gordon expressed concern today stating, “A man who wished death upon my entire family at Christmas was recently appointed as a Human ‘Rights’ Commissioner in Sioux City, Iowa. A city organization with prosecutorial power - an extension of our judicial branch - charged with protecting citizens like me from religious discrimination, has rewarded and empowered someone they are supposed to prosecute.
Pastor Gordon’s call for Commissioner Raasch’s removal stemmed from a December 2010 exchange initiated by Raasch in response to Gordon’s public advocacy of removing three State Supreme Court judges from the bench who foisted gay marriage upon Iowa citizens. Raasch contacted Gordon through Facebook and wrote: You are a joke and your ‘church’ is our version of Westboro Baptist. You are haters and bigots and you will get what's coming to you sooner or later. I hope you rot in hell." 
In his blog, Pastor Gordon shared that he responded to him with as much decorum as he could muster, attempting to share the purpose of Jesus' crucifixion with him and its connection to the Christmas holiday he was desecrating. According to the Sioux City Journal, Gordon responded to Raasch: "I hope you repent of your sins and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. I wouldn't want you or anyone else to go to hell."
Gordon expressed frustration with the failure of the Sioux City Council to properly handle the situation. “After I brought the issue of Raasch’s death wishes against my family and the slander against my congregation to the City Council’s attention, and Commissioner Scott Raasch, a Democrat, admitted to the threatening exchange, you would have thought our Mayor would have removed him. However, Mayor Bob Scott, also a registered Democrat, refused his moral obligation to protect Sioux City’s religious community from an outspoken anti-religious bully like Scott Raasch.”
In the light of this tragic error, Cornerstone Church wants all Iowa citizens to know that when any local branch of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission puts citizen religious liberties in their cross-hairs and elected officials refuse their obligations to protect the public from those who wish to violate their first amendment rights, we are one phone call away. We intend to connect them with pro bono legal defense against any form of anti-religious bigotry masquerading as organizations who “defend Human ‘Rights’.”
Pastor Gordon shared that a trend pitting Americans’ first amendment rights against an unconstitutional and aggressive anti-religious crusade crafted by homosexual activists can be easily identified from San Antonio, Texas, to Sioux City, Iowa. Said Gordon, The City Council of San Antonio, led by Councilman Diego Bernal and supported by Mayor Julian Castro, is attempting to codify discriminatory regulations that would lay the foundation for litigation against any person or business with biblical values. The most outrageous part of the proposed ordinance said if you had ever ‘in word or in deed’ discriminated against any of the protected classes, you were rejected from service on a city board and would not be allowed to receive a city contract. This kind of anti-Christian bigotry is unparalleled in American history. What this ordinance is designed to do is punish anyone for verbally objecting to a sexual deviancy that was criminalized in the United States for more than 200 years. The first amendment is being scandalously desecrated.”
Gordon continued,Bad ordinances aside, in Sioux City, Iowa, we are doing something worse than San Antonio. We are openly promoting persons who have a public and private record of the worst kind of potentially violent hatred for people of faith to positions of prosecutorial authority on our own Human Rights Commission.
Raasch publicly apologized for what he described as “unChristlike” behavior, but he refused to resign his position after his own outrageous remarks against Pastor Gordon’s family and church were uncovered publicly. Gordon accepted Raasch’s apology, saying it was “overdue”, but maintained that a forced apology made three years late had nothing to do with qualifications and credibility. “The fact that he refuses to step down proves he does not have authentic remorse for his actions. For example, just because I forgive an adulterer caught in the act, does not mean I should also promote them as a credible town marriage counselor. How could anyone be expected to believe that Raasch could prosecute any other citizen for behaving as he has and have any credibility during the prosecution?
Pastor Gordon shared his view that the Sioux City Council’s refusal to remove Raasch, despite his admitted disqualifications for the position, is a dangerous abdication of their sworn duty to protect citizens.The fact that our City Council will not remove him, when it is within their power to do so, makes them complicit with his behavior. People of faith are clearly not safe in Sioux City, Iowa, so we are lawyered-up and ready to defend the freedoms of any citizens that contact us for help.”
Gordon repeatedly explained the problem with catching a guarded organization like a Human Rights Commission in the act of bullying religious people. Since the DesMoines Register revealed 27 HRC sting operations, ex post facto, which entrapped Iowa business owners in alleged infractions against protected classes, and we know that HRC activities remain generally secretive, and outside the scope of public scrutiny, it is very important that citizens know we are willing to help them with pro-bono legal defense in the shameful event that they have been discriminated against on religious grounds.”
Ironically, the Human Rights Commission describes itself as an organization committed to stopping illegal acts of discrimination. The Commission describes itself as, …a neutral fact-finding agency that investigates complaints of discrimination Whereas we investigate cases of discrimination we are also devoted to preventing such incidents.”
Scott Raasch’s threatening remarks made after Gordon publicly participated in a 2010 ouster of three state Supreme Court judges responsible for forcing gay marriage upon Iowans, were not his first remarks against people of Christian orthodoxy who objected to homosexual behavior. Raasch had been an outspoken opponent of religious liberty since first making public remarks on February 10, 2009.
In a publicized response to a successfully passed city resolution recognizing marriage as an institution between one man and one woman, Raasch argued that Christians who opposed gay marriage without also opposing adultery were “…hypocritical bigots that have caused Sioux City to become a joke.”
Raasch’s public activism against people of orthodox Christian faith continued in another published remark on March 6th of 2009, addressed to all people of faith who disagreed with homosexual marriage. In response to news that Christian people who objected to gay marriage had been appointed to various Sioux City boards and commissions, he wrote, We are seeing our city's boards and commissions being packed with these folks, and I think it's time to wake up. If people want to spread their non-inclusive opinions and religious beliefs, do it in your homes and places of worship.”
With regard to the value of honorable and trustworthy representative government, Cornerstone Church takes the position of John Dickinson, signer of the Constitution: “[W]hat innumerable acts of injustice may be committed – and how fatally may the principles of liberty be [shattered] – by a succession of [officials] utterly independent of the people?[i] [Emphasis Added]

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