Virginia Pastor Sent to Prison for Aiding "Ex-Lesbian" Parental Kidnapping

The loons of the Christian Right have a new martyr in the form of Kenneth L. Miller (pictured at right), who was sentenced to 27 months in prison by Judge William K. Sessions III of Federal District Court in Vermont for Miller's role in abetting Lisa Miller's international kidnapping of her daughter in defiance of both Vermont and Virginia Supreme Court rulings.  Miller had previously spent 30 days in jail for his refusal to name his accomplices some of whom include staff members at Liberty University and the virulently anti-gay Liberty Counsel.  The New York Times looks at Miller's much deserved conviction.  Miller with the aid of the theocrats at Liberty Counsel - who believe that the Christofascists are above the law  - is appealing the conviction.   Here are highlights from the Times story:

A Virginia pastor who said that his actions “flow out of my faith in Jesus,” was sentenced Monday to 27 months in prison for abetting the international parental kidnapping of a girl in a high-profile case involving a same-sex union and the condemnation of homosexuality by conservative Christians. 

Mr. Miller was convicted last fall for helping to arrange the covert flight to Nicaragua of Lisa A. Miller with her daughter, Isabella Miller-Jenkins, in 2009. 

Ms. Miller, who is not related to the pastor, had won support in conservative Christian circles for refusing to permit court-mandated visits with Isabella by her other legal mother, Janet Jenkins, Ms. Miller’s former partner in a civil union in Vermont. After the couple split up, Ms. Miller moved to Virginia, said she was a born-again Christian and denounced her former lesbianism as a sin. 

In 2009, as an exasperated family court judge threatened to transfer primary custody to Ms. Jenkins, Ms. Miller and her daughter, then 7, disappeared and a warrant was issued for Ms. Miller’s arrest.

Federal law enforcement officers later discovered that Mr. Miller had helped arrange for Ms. Miller and her daughter to fly to Nicaragua and live there with missionaries from Mr. Miller’s Amish-Mennonite sect. But officials have been unable to find the mother and daughter, who, in the view of one federal agent, have been “bouncing around the barrios of Nicaragua” for nearly four years now.

They also presented evidence implicating others whom they have called co-conspirators, including Philip Zodhiates, a wealthy conservative businessman who lives near Mr. Miller in Virginia, and his daughter, Victoria Hyden, an administrative assistant at the Liberty University Law School in Lynchburg, Va. Ms. Miller was living in Lynchburg before her flight and was represented in custody proceedings by the dean and associate dean of that law school.  

Ms. Jenkins, meanwhile, has brought a civil suit against Mr. Miller, Ms. Miller, Mr. Zodhiates, the Liberty University School of Law, the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg and other organizations and individuals, alleging a conspiracy encouraged and assisted Ms. Miller’s crime. 

It goes without saying that The Family Foundation is a vocal supporter of Lisa Miller and the unlawful kidnapping of Isabella.