Pastor Involved in Lesbian Kidnapping Case Sent to Jail for Contempt

Kenneth Miller, right, walks with his wife to federal court on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013

In follow up to the last post and the pervasive mind set of Christianists that they are above the law that applies to everyone else, Kenneth Miller, the wingnut pastor who aided Lisa Miller kidnap her daughter in defiance of court orders (most likely with the help of religious extremists at Liberty University) has been ordered to jail for his contempt of court and refusal to answer questions in federal court.  Miller said that his religious beliefs trumped his duty to testify.  Sadly, Miller's attitude is symptomatic of a growing trend in Christofascist circles where they believe they can openly ignore the law.  Personally, I hope they leave Miller's sorry ass in jail indefinitely until he testifies.  I cannot help but suspect that Miller is protecting virulently anti-gay individuals like Matt Staver.  Here are story highlights on this continuing saga of Christianist contempt for the civil laws:

A pastor at the center of a dramatic and acrimonious custody and kidnapping case has been jailed for refusing to testify in court.

Kenneth Miller, a 47-year-old Mennonite pastor, told U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions on Thursday that he could not answer questions from a grand jury regarding the flight of Lisa Miller and her daughter to Nicaragua to avoid a custody transfer, reports the Associated Press. Lisa Miller (who is not related to Kenneth Miller) took the child overseas in 2009 so she would not have to comply with a court order allowing her former lesbian partner, Janet Jenkins, to see their daughter, reports NBC News.

In August, Kenneth Miller was convicted of helping the mother flee the country. His sentencing begins in March, and he faces a maximum jail time of three years.

The pastor apologized to the court on Thursday and said his "religious beliefs" prevented him from testifying, according to the AP. Miller said that he, and possibly others who may or may not have helped Lisa Miller violate the custody order, were motivated by their conviction in "God's Law," the AP reports.

The reluctant judge replied that while he appreciated the pastor's "faithfulness to your religion and your moral beliefs," the criminal justice system could not function without the grand jury, according to the AP.

The battle between Lisa Miller and Janet Jenkins, as well as the trial of Kenneth Miller has snowballed into a widely publicized debate that pits religious conservatives against LGBT advocates. In August, conservative firebrand Bryan Fischer, who has grabbed headlines in the past for inflammatory comments about Newtown and the LGBT community, said Lisa Miller had a responsibility "to obey God rather than man" and kidnap her daughter, reports Right Wing Watch.

Jenkins has also filed a civil suit in which she alleges that Miller, Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., and the Lynchburg-based Thomas Road Baptist Church all conspired to help conceal the whereabouts of her daughter. The suit is asking for unspecified monetary damages. 

As I have noted before, these folks are a threat to civil law authority and if they had their way would overthrow the U. S. Constitution.

Gingrich: "I Can Accept Reality of Gay Marriage" - Meanwhile Christofascists Threaten Revolution and Civil War

In a surprising turn of events GOP extremist Newt Gingrich has stated that he can accept the reality of same sex marriage so long as it is kept separate and distinct from church marriages - something that has always been the case in states that have approved gay marriage.  Moreover, he admitted that same sex couples exist everywhere across the country and recognized that increasingly Americans outside of Kool-Aid drinking Christofascist circle support legal recognition of same sex relationships.   The reaction by the Christofascist hate merchants has been fast and furious, particularly in respect to the possibility that the U. S. Supreme Court might render a ruling next June that legalizes same sex marriage nationwide.  So what do the Christofascists predict?  A revolt by the far right and a second civil war.  So much for God favoring the meek.  First, here are highlights from Think Progress on Newt Gingrich's surprising conversion:

In a stunning reversal, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) said this week that he thinks his party needs to “accommodate and deal with reality” and get on board with legal equality for same-sex couples. Gingrich, who pushed the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) through Congress in 1996, has been one of the nation’s most consistent opponents of marriage equality.
The Huffington Post reports:

On gay marriage, meanwhile, Gingrich argued that Republicans could no longer close their eyes to the course of public opinion. While he continued to profess a belief that marriage is defined as being between a man and a woman, he suggested that the party (and he himself) could accept a distinction between a “marriage in a church from a legal document issued by the state” — the latter being acceptable.

“I think that this will be much more difficult than immigration for conservatism to come to grips with,” he said, noting that the debate’s dynamics had changed after state referenda began resulting in the legalization of same-sex marriage. “It is in every family. It is in every community. The momentum is clearly now in the direction in finding some way to … accommodate and deal with reality. And the reality is going to be that in a number of American states — and it will be more after 2014 — gay relationships will be legal, period.”

In sum, Gingrich's conversion is an embrace of objective reality - something always distasteful to the Christofascists.  Meanwhile, the hate merchants of the Christofascist circles are going berserk and threatening a civil war should the U. S. Supreme Court make same sex marriage a nationwide legal right.  Right Wing Watch looks at the batshitery and spittle flying from the lips of Matt Staver, head of the utterly unhinged Liberty Counsel.  Here are excerpts (remember that to Staver and his fellow religious extremists, freedom of religion equals Chritofascists being able to force their beliefs on all Americans regardless of the faith tradition and/or sexual orientation):

According to Liberty Counsel head Mat Staver, if the Supreme Court rules in favor of marriage equality, America may head toward outright revolt and a second civil war. Staver told Janet Parshall that marriage equality will mean that the institution of marriage, freedom of speech and the freedom of religion will be “destroyed” and “bulldozed over.”

Like Family Research Council president Tony Perkins who last month maintained that the Supreme Court may start a “revolution” and “break this nation apart” by striking down gay marriage bans, Staver said that the court “could split the country right in two” as “this is the thing that revolutions literally are made of.”

 Staver: This is the thing that revolutions literally are made of. This would be more devastating to our freedom, to our religious freedom, to the rights of pastors and their duty to be able to speak and to Christians around the country, then anything that the revolutionaries during the American Revolution even dreamed of facing. This would be the thing that revolutions are made of. This could split the country right in two. This could cause another civil war. I’m not talking about just people protesting in the streets, this could be that level because what would ultimately happen is a direct collision would immediately happen with pastors, with churches, with Christians, with Christian ministries, with other businesses, it would be an avalanche that would go across the country.

 Staver: It’s stunning. That’s why I am very concerned that this has made its way to the United States Supreme Court because only five of those nine can make a decision and so five people, potentially, in the United States, only five out of the hundreds of millions that we have, have in their hand this opportunity to literally wreck marriage, to destroy the very foundation of our family and the biblical definition of marriage. The consequences are staggering. This could be the Roe v. Wade of marriage and family.

 The big question, of course, is why anyone listens to Staver at all.  The man may well have been a co-conspirator in the crime of Lisa Miller's kidnapping of her daughter and her flight to Central America.  And as a member of the bar, Staver thinks nothing of lying to courts and other tribunals in his quest to undermine the U. S. Constitution.  Staver lacks all legitimate credibility and constitutes a prime example of why the Christofascists and religion in general need to be driven from exerting any influence on the nation's civil laws.

Minister Found Guilty Of Aiding Kidnapping of Daughter Of "Ex-Lesbian"

The folks at Liberty University and Liberty Counsel - two nasty boils on Virginia's reputation - are going to be shrieking along with the rest of the professional Christian set over the conviction of Kenneth Miller (pictured at left) - a Mennonite pastor - for aiding and abetting Lisa Miller (no relation to Kenneth Miller) in the kidnapping of her daughter in contravention to numerous court rulings both here in Virginia and Vermont.  For newer readers, Lisa Miller is a lesbian who now claims to be "ex-gay" and who split from her former partner who was an adopted mother to Lisa Miller's daughter.  With the suspected but as yet unproven help of folks at Liberty University and the now convicted pastor, Lisa Miller abducted her daughter and fled to Central America and has been in hiding since 2009.  The Hartford Courant has details. Here are some highlights: 

A Mennonite minister was found guilty on Tuesday of aiding and abetting international kidnapping by helping a woman flee to Nicaragua with her daughter to evade court orders giving visitation rights to her former lesbian partner.

Federal prosecutors say Kenneth Miller of Stuarts Draft, Virginia, helped orchestrate Lisa Miller's flight to Canada and Nicaragua in 2009 with her daughter out of Christian solidarity with her decision to reject homosexuality and her former partner. The two Millers are not related.

The jury deliberated only a few hours before finding Kenneth Miller guilty. He faces the possibility of three years in prison. No sentencing date was set.  Miller showed no reaction as the verdict was announced. More than 80 other Mennonites filled the Vermont courtroom.

Lisa Miller took the girl to Central America after denouncing homosexuality and losing a series of family court battles in Vermont with her former partner, Janet Jenkins.  Jenkins and Miller were joined in a civil union in Vermont in 2000. After in vitro fertilization, Miller gave birth to Isabella two years later.  Miller filed to dissolve the union in 2003. She got custody of Isabella, but a Vermont court gave Jenkins visitation rights.

Joshua Autrey, a lawyer for Kenneth Miller, did not dispute evidence about his client's role in organizing Lisa Miller's secretive flight days before a court-ordered visitation with Jenkins.  Instead, the defense attorney offered a nuanced legal argument that his client did not know about her intent to violate Jenkins' visitation rights. 

Kenneth Miller contacted Mennonites to drive Lisa Miller and Isabella to an airport in Canada in 2009 and pick her up in Nicaragua where the group runs a mission, according to court documents.  Lisa Miller was indicted on international kidnapping charges in 2010, but federal agents have been unable to locate her or Isabella. Nicaragua does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.
 

The conviction is welcome and hopefully will drive the message home to the Christofascists that they are not exempt from the constraints of the civil laws - even if they see themselves as exempt from the Commandment against lying and bearing false witness.  Personally, I would love to see some of the folks at Liberty University further implicated in this conspiracy to defy the various court orders.

Anti-Gay Liberty Counsel Challenges Marriage Equality In New York

Speaking of embarrassments to the Commonwealth of Virginia, Metro Weekly is reporting that Liberty Counsel - based at the late Jerry Falwell's foul boil Liberty University Law School - will be appealing a New York State court ruling that threw out claims that New York State's marriage equality law had been enacted illegally.   For newer readers, employees at Liberty University have stated that Christians need to violate laws that do not conform to their fear and hated based version of Christianity.  Moreover, employees have been implicated in Lisa Miller's kidnapping of her daughter Isabella notwithstanding Virginia and Vermont court orders directing her to surrender the child to her former same sex partner.   Equally disturbing is the fact that Matt Barber (pictured at left) - a professional gay hater who constantly disseminating anti-gay lies - is on the Liberty University Law School faculty.  Here are highlights from the Metro Weekly coverage:

An anti-gay group requested today that New York's highest court review a lower court's decision to dismiss their lawsuit against the state's marriage equality law.

Among other things, Liberty Counsel contends that the state's open meeting law, which requires public access to the deliberations of legislative bodies, was violated during closed-door negotiations between marriage equality supporters and state senators. As such, the law granting same-sex couples the right to marry in New York should be scraped completely.

 After marriage equality was signed into law in June 2011, Liberty Counsel took their case to court.   .   .   .   .   However, last month the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court in Rochester ruled unanimously to dismiss the case, ruling that the meetings between Republican senators and advocates for the bill, which included Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, were lawful.

"In the event that we were to adopt plaintiffs' limited definition of 'guests,' it would be impossible for a Democratic member of a governor's office, such as a budget director, to speak to a majority Republican caucus," read the decision.

Now Liberty Counsel has asked the New York State Court of Appeals to consider the case. The group, which is well known for their anti-gay rhetoric, says "the remedy sought is the voiding of the law."

In statement, the founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel argued again that "arm-twisting and closed-door meetings used to pass this law redefining marriage violated the open meetings requirements" and that the legislative process must be transparent.

In my opinion both Matt Barber and Liberty Counsel head Matt Staver are certified assholes.  Moreover, given their unrestrained hysteria against gays, one has to wonder if they don't "protest too much."  No one is that homophobic in my view unless they have some serious issues of their own in terms of their sexuality.  Those who are comfortable with their own sexuality and don't have scarred psyches that need others to look down upon for self justification simply don't get this worked up over same sex CIVIL marriage laws.

Anti-Gay Christianists Want To Avoid the Consequences of Their Actions

Each time a gay teen takes their own life to escape the constant insidious bullying that springs from the non-stop anti-gay rhetoric the Christianists and professional Christians, if you will, who keep homophobia alive and in many cases make their living off of disseminating anti-LGBT hatred want to disavow any responsibility for the deaths that they have knowingly - indeed willingly - caused. It's like someone yelling fire in a crowded theater or some other crowded venue and then denying any responsibility for those who might be trampled to death as the mad effort to exit ensues. The denial is disingenuous to say the least. Thus, each time Maggie Gallagher, Tony Perkins, Don Wildmon, the hate merchants at Liberty University and a host of other hate merchants engage in anti-gay rants and allege that gays are a menace to society, they send the message that anti-gay bullying - and even physical violence against gays - is perfectly acceptable. Would that the mainstream media had the balls and integrity to call the bastards out on the consequences of their actions. A piece in Lez Get Real looks at the hypocrisy in the context of the Lisa Miller kidnapping case. However, the analysis applies to Christianists across the board. of the those who peddle anti-gay bigotry and hatred in the name of religion yet seek to disavow the blood on their hands. Here are highlights:

[N]o practical definition of freedom would be complete without the freedom to take the consequences. Indeed, it is the freedom upon which all the others are based.

The battle over issues like Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the Defense of Marriage Act, and even things as innocuous-seeming as the Lisa Miller case hinge upon freedom of religion, at least in the minds of those who pursue them as part of their faith. For the rest of us, it is about freedom from religion. We want to not have to be forced to accept other people’s views on religion, thank you very much.

It is also, though, about that quote above. Churches are free to discriminate. That is quite evident in the recent actions of the Kentucky church that banned interracial marriages. Catholic Churches are free to discriminate against lesbians and gays as well. The thing is, though, they still have to deal with the consequences, and that is something that they do not want to do.

Let us, though, look at the words of one Julio Severo regarding the case of Timothy David Miller and Lisa Miller. Timo Miller was charged by federal prosecutors with aiding Lisa Miller in the abduction of the daughter she had with Janet Jenkins. . . . Both Timo Miller and Lisa Miller, who are not related to each other, have the freedom to do what they wanted to, but they also face the freedom to take the consequences of their actions.

Severo thinks otherwise. He wrote recently that: Rev. Timothy David “Timo” Miller, who acted courageously in his defense of a persecuted child and her mother, has now made a deal with federal prosecutors, who are seeking to take Isabella Miller away from her mother and give her to an unrelated lesbian. No one knows exactly what this deal is, but prosecutors appear to be pleased with the results.

What you can do: Pray that God will lead Lisa and Isabella in his grace, mercy and power. Pray that the FBI and other authorities working for darkness and wickedness will be covered in confusion and shame. Pray that God will bring blindness to those planning to arrest and kidnap Lisa and Isabella (see 2 Kings 6:18). Pray that ultimately the name of Jesus Christ will be honored.

Severo shows without a doubt that he and his fellow “Christians” want nothing more than to make their religion dominant and to ignore the laws of the United States. They are the ones who want special privileges. They want to be better than everyone else and are terrified of their status being superior to all others will be stripped from them.

They are terrified of having to take the consequences of their actions. Lisa Miller will face jail time, and what is more, she will have to deal with the fact that she handed her daughter over to a known pedophile masquerading as a Baptist activist. She will have to cope with life in prison, and the fact that she will likely never get to see Isabella Miller for the rest of her life.

This is what these people want to avoid. They want to avoid having to understand that they have all but destroyed the life of young Isabella Miller- who, by the way, was seeing Janet Jenkins quite easily before she was brought into the Baptist fold and was not suffering from any problems whatsoever.

Well, the problem for Lisa Miller and company is that they are, like it or not, bound by the law.

Unethical and Possibly Illegal Lunacy at Liberty Law School

One has to continually wonder how on earth Liberty Law School at the late Jerry Falwell's wingnut Liberty University ever received accreditation from the American Bar Association since the institution teaches students to have disdain - if not open contempt - for the nation's laws that don't conform to "God's law" as interpreted by the theocrats and Christofascists on Liberty's faculty. You know, folks like Matt Staver (pictured at left) and Rena Lindevaldsen who represented international child kidnapping fugitive Lisa Miller. In my view, Liberty is a blight on the Commonwealth of Virginia and an insult to the rule of law upon which the USA is supposedly grounded. Religion Dispatches has an article that looks at the efforts of Liberty's faculty to train students to disregard laws that do not conform to "God's law as interpreted by the Christian Taliban. It's disturbing and suggests, at least to me, that Liberty University's accreditation ought to be reconsidered. Here are some highlights:
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Students at Liberty Law School tell RD that in the required Foundations of Law class in the fall of 2008, taught by Miller’s attorneys Mat Staver and Rena Lindevaldsen, they were repeatedly instructed that when faced with a conflict between “God’s law” and “man’s law,” they should resolve that conflict through “civil disobedience.” One student said, “the idea was when you are confronted with a particular situation, for instance, if you have a court order against you that is in violation of what you see as God’s law, essentially... civil disobedience was the answer.”
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This student and two others, who all requested anonymity for fear of reprisal by Staver (who is also the law school’s dean), recounted the classroom discussion of civil disobedience, as well as efforts to draw comparisons between choosing “God’s law” over “man’s law” to the American revolution and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. According to one student, in the Foundations course both Staver and Lindevaldsen “espoused the opinion that in situations where God’s law is in direct contradiction to man’s law, we have an obligation to disobey it.”
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That semester’s mid-term exam, obtained by RD [see excerpts of the actual exam here], included a question based on Miller’s case asking students to describe what advice they would give her “as a friend who is a Christian lawyer.” After laying out a slanted history of the protracted legal battle, the exam asked, “Lisa needs your counsel on how to think through her legal situation and how to respond as a Christian to this difficult problem. Relying only on what we have learned thus far in class, how would you counsel Lisa?”
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Students who wrote that Miller should comply with court orders received bad grades while those who wrote she should engage in civil disobedience received an A, the three students said. “People were appalled,” said one of the students, adding, “especially as lawyers to be, who are trained and licensed to practice the law—to disobey that law, that seemed completely counterintuitive to all of us.”
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Given what was expected of them on the exam, and the tenor of the class, there is “not a lot of shock among the students about the current developments,” said one of the students, referring to the revelation that Miller is in hiding in Nicaragua. “Everybody semi-suspected that Liberty Counsel had something to do with her disappearance.”
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Liberty Counsel’s publicity for its relentless litigation on Miller’s behalf has exploited several religious right tropes: that gay and lesbian people can be made straight through Christ; that “activist judges” are subverting biblical principles; and that the very health of the republic is at risk because gay and lesbian people can be parents.
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Did Liberty Counsel Know Miller Had Fled To Nicaragua? Neither Staver nor Lindevaldsen responded to RD’s requests for comment, but Staver told the New York Times last month that they had not had contact with Miller since 2009 and had always advised her to obey the law. Staver and Lindevaldsen did, however, teach their students that “civil disobedience” was a proper response, and persisted in their efforts to reverse court orders with relentless appeals claiming that court orders were in contravention of Miller’s Christian beliefs.
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The Foundations class is unlike anything offered at secular law schools, its purpose being to guide students toward a “Christian worldview” of the law. In the 2008-09 academic year, the required texts included David Barton’s Original Intent, which Barton’s website describes as “essential resource for anyone interested in our nation's religious heritage and the Founders' intended role for the American judicial system,” and Francis Schaeffer’s Christian Manifesto.
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But the students who spoke to RD worry that these Christian credentials will not serve them well after graduation. “If you walked into court and argued what Liberty wants you to,” said one, “you’d be laughed out of the room.”
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Staver’s views, they said, are “militant” and “fundamentalist.” He brooks no criticism from students or faculty. “He rules the law school like Moammar Gaddafi runs Libya,” said one of the students.

Why is Philip Zodhaites Selling Liberty University Data Bases?

Apparently the folks at Liberty University/Liberty Counsel were not happy with this post here on this blog and a similar version cross posted at The Bilerico Project because one Amber S. Haskew, Communications Director at Liberty Counsel, contacted the editors at Bilerico with her panties in a knot. She argued that there were no ties between Liberty Counsel and/or Liberty University and Philip Zodhaites - the far right Christianist who has been alleged to be harboring the fugitive Lisa Miller and her kidnapped daughter at a home he owns in Nicaragua. Zodhaites owns Waynesboro, Virginia based Response Unlimited which describes itself as a purveyor of "mailing lists and creative services for evangelical and conservative mailers." Waynesboro is a hop and a skip from Lynchburg, Virginia, the home of Liberty University. The funny thing is that despite Ms. Haskew's protests, Response Unlimited is peddling lists that can only have been derived from Liberty University. My thanks to the reader who sent me the links. First, there is this one:

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LIBERTY UNIVERSITY STUDENT RESPONDERS List No: 4748
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285,976 Actives...............$115/M
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Liberty University is a Christian academic community in the tradition of Evangelical institutions of higher education. These prospects are young men and women who are focused on a well-rounded, productive future. Age range is 25-45.
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A sample mail piece is required for approval.
SOURCE: Direct Response
ADDRESSING: Cartridge $25/F
E-Mail $75/F
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SELECTIONS:
Age
Gender
Geography
Income
Interest
FTP
$10/M
$10/M
$5/M
$10/M
$10/M
$75/F
*
MAINTENANCE: Updates 2-3 times per year.
MINIMUM: 5,000
*
This list is not a managed property of Response Unlimited, Contact for details
Response Unlimited
Phone: (540) 943-6721
Fax: (540) 943-0841
Email Us
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I cannot image who could have provided this list to Zodhaites' company, can you? And then there is this one:
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JERRY FALWELL BIBLICAL STUDIES BUYERS
Usage is available for this list Here List No: 1697
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
38,321 Former Buyers ..........$80/M
24,969 Expires.................$65/M
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Buyers of a Bible Study course offered on VHS cassette tapes produced by "The Institute of Biblical Studies," a Jerry Falwell organization. These dedicated Christians have paid at least $155.00 for the convenience to study the bible at home on videocassette. Some parents also use this course as an aid to help teach their children.The course offers a personalized "Graduate of Biblical Studies" certificate upon completion, along with a invitation to go to Liberty University for a graduation ceremony in cap and gown.
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The list owner reserves the right to exchange.
A sample mailpiece required for approval.
Cancellation Charges: $50.00 Flat Fee, $10/M Running Charges, Select Charges, and the Tape/Shipping or E-mail Fee.
*
Net Name Policy: Computer Verification Required
25,000-99,999 80% Min. + $10/M R/C
100,000-299,999 65% Min. + $10/M R/C
300,000 or more 50% Min. + $10/M R/C
*
SOURCE: Direct Mail & Television
AVG UNIT SALE: $155.00+
*
ADDRESSING: Cartridge $50/F
CD-ROM $75/F
FTP $75/F
E-Mail $50/F
Mag Tape $50/F
*
SELECTIONS: State/SCF, ZipGender
$3/M
$5/M
$5/M
*
MAINTENANCE:
Updated & Cleaned Fall 2003 - no longer updating
MINIMUM: 5,000
*
This list is not a managed property of Response Unlimited, Contact for details
Response Unlimited
Phone: (540) 943-6721
Fax: (540) 943-0841
Email Us

Is Matt Staver Lying About Lisa Miller?

Admittedly, I do not think much of the coven of gay-hating, anti-constitutional government theocrats at Liberty University and Liberty Counsel in Lynchburg, Virginia. Now, as the MSM has picked up on the arrest of a "Christian pastor" in the Lisa Miller kidnapping case, Liberty dean Matt Staver (pictured at left) is protesting that neither he nor the other loons at Liberty had any involvement in Miller's flight from the USA. Never mind that reportedly an affiliated entity to the late Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church - Falwell's son is chancellor of Liberty - had had Miller on the payroll. Let's get real, Lynchburg is not a large city and the Christianist circles are very tight with one another, so it stretches belief some lowly administrative assistant at Liberty Law School helped orchestrate Miller's kidnapping of Isabella and no body else knew about it. Next fairy tale please! I hope the FBI continues to probe this matter, and if Staver is shown to have been involved that he is prosecuted and/or disbarred. Here are highlights from the New York Times on the continuing story:

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Ms. Miller and Isabella stayed in a beach house in Nicaragua that is owned by a conservative businessman with close ties to Liberty University, an evangelical school in Lynchburg, Va., and whose daughter works at the university’s law school, according to the affidavit.
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Lawyers from Liberty, including the dean of the law school, Mathew D. Staver, represented Ms. Miller in court appeals on the custody issues. They argued without success that Ms. Jenkins had no parental rights and that laws in Virginia, which ban same-sex unions, should prevail over those in Vermont.
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On Friday, Mr. Staver said the legal team has had no contact with Ms. Miller since the fall of 2009 and had always advised her to obey the law. He said he knew nothing about the accusations involving a law school office assistant, Victoria Hyden, and her father Philip Zodhiates, the beach house’s owner.
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Mr. Zodhiates runs Response Unlimited, a Christian direct-mail company in Waynesboro, Va. He did not respond to requests for comment, but on Friday he told The Advocate magazine that the pair were not living at his house in Nicaragua and called the accusations “absurd.”
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Last June, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit, an unnamed person called one of Ms. Jenkins’s lawyers, Sarah Star, and told Ms. Star that the mother and daughter were hiding in Mr. Zodhiates’s Nicaraguan house. Much of the evidence in support of the criminal charges and other accusations, the affidavit said, was obtained through court-approved, covert searches of e-mail accounts, uncovering messages from Mr. Miller that appear to arrange the mother and daughter’s 2009 flight to Nicaragua and from Mr. Zodhiates arranging to send them supplies.
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The United States attorney for Vermont, Tristram Coffin, told the Rutland Herald newspaper that Mr. Miller had been arrested on Monday night in Virginia and was scheduled to appear in Federal District Court in Burlington on Monday. Officials declined to say whether others may be arrested or what measures they are taking to find Ms. Miller, who faces criminal charges, and Isabella, who under current rulings should be in the primary custody of Ms. Jenkins, with visitation rights for Ms. Miller.

"Former Lesbian" Loses in Custody Fight Again

At some point I would think the Virginia courts would begin sanctioning "former lesbian" Lisa Miller and/or her attorneys from the wingnut Liberty Counsel. Time and time again suits are being filed that cover the same arguments that have already been rejected only to have the cases thrown out over and over. Miller has become a cause - and fundraising tool - for the anti-gay elements in Virginia and elsewhere because like other snake oil peddlers of the far right Miller claims to have "found Jesus" and been "cured" of her homosexuality. Yeah, and if she's really "cured" then I'm the lost heir to the Russian crown too. This case has truly gotten to the point of the ridiculous. Here are highlights from the Daily Press:

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A Virginia woman who has been fighting for years to deny child-visitation rights to her former lesbian partner lost another round in the Virginia Court of Appeals on Tuesday. In a case closely watched by national gay rights and conservative Christian groups, the court unanimously upheld Winchester Circuit Judge John R. Prosser's dismissal of Lisa Miller's latest attempt to block Virginia from registering and enforcing a Vermont court order granting visitation rights to Janet Jenkins.

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Courts in both states have repeatedly ruled against Miller, who became pregnant by artificial insemination after she and Jenkins entered into a civil union in Vermont in 2000. Miller later renounced homosexuality and moved with daughter Isabella to the Winchester area, and the civil union was dissolved. The appeals court has now ruled against Miller three times. The Virginia Supreme Court also has ruled that Vermont has sole jurisdiction over the dispute, and the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear Miller's appeal.

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[T]he issue is simple: "It is well established that people can't just move from one state to another to avoid a court ruling they don't like." The Vermont Supreme Court also ruled in Jenkins' favor in 2006, and last January a Vermont family court judge rejected another attempt by Miller to deny visitation and warned that she risked losing custody of her now 7-year-old daughter if she continues to violate court orders.

Virginia "Ex-gay" Lesbian Custody Battle Continues

The sad saga of the endless litigation by Lisa Miller (pictured at right in the photo) - aided and abetted by Christianist "law firms" - to deprive her former partner of rights to the child they had as a couple while in Vermont living in a civil union continues anew. Now, as reported by Concerned Bitches for America, Ms. Miller is now facing contempt charges for violating a Vermont Court order which was upheld by Virginia's appellate Courts on multiple occasions. While the disingenuous bitches - many of whom are males for some unknown reason - tell a pathetic tale in the hopes of securing monetary donations, the real facts are that Miller entered into perfectly legal and valid arrangements which she now seeks to avoid by claiming that she has "left homosexuality" and fleeing to Virginia where she thought the anti-gay legislation would help her screw over her former partner. Having heard the facts, here is some of the drivel being put out by CWFA in the hope it will bring the organization money (rest assured, it's ALWAYS about money):
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Please act now to pray and support Lisa Miller as she fights to keep her daughter, Isabella. Embroiled in a custody battle with her former lesbian partner, Lisa is now a Christian who wants to raise her own biological child but has been told by the Vermont courts that they may strip her of those rights. Pray for Lisa as she and her legal counsel attend a hearing that will take place on October 27, 2008, in Vermont. At that hearing, a judge will decide whether or not Lisa will be punished for supposedly disobeying the court-ordered visitation to a woman who is not biologically related to her child.

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Concerned Women for America's (CWA) Field Development Coordinator, Nina Bell, invited Lisa to share on the CWA weekly prayer conference call earlier this week. Nina states, "Participants from all around the country have been specifically praying for Lisa the last few months, so it was a blessing to actually have her on the line with us. What I did not expect was the peace that was heard in her voice as she recounted the horrendous details of her five-year battle to keep her rights as a mother to seven-year-old Isabella."

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To get involved in CWA of Virginia, go to virginia.cwfa.org or e-mail director@virginia.cwfa.org. If you would like to get involved with one of our other fine state organizations, please visit the CWA in the States site.

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If you are done vomiting, it should be noted that Lisa Miller's attorney, Rena Lindevaldsen, is affiliated with Liberty Counsel and Liberty University. An obviously uninformed reader earlier this week claimed that currently there are not the vehemently anti-gay organizations of the past. I'm not sure where he's been, but CWFA and Liberty Counsel - as in Jerry Falwell's Liberty University (another blight on Virginia) - Focus on the Family and Family are just a few of such groups that continue to work to denigrate and stigmatize LGBT citizens on a daily basis.