30th October, 2014
Houston Mayor Annise Parker has announced she has directed her legal team to drop the subpoenas issued to five pastors which demand they hand over sermons and other communications if they refer to homosexuality, gender identity or the mayor herself.
The move has been applauded by Rev Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council in the US, and comes after he and six other pastors from across the country met privately with the mayor for an hour in what was described as an "emergency delegation".
"Our meeting with the mayor was cordial and very production," said Rev Schenck in a statement issued on Wednesday. "While showing her all due respect, we never relaxed or compromised our demand for her to unequivocally withdraw the subpoenas. We’re thankful to her and we are supremely thankful to God for this positive outcome."
The subpoenas were issued after a voter lawsuit was filed following a city council decision to reject petitions protesting a controversial equal rights ordinance on sexual orientation and gender identity which was passed earlier this year.
The matter sparked a national outcry over religious freedom in the US with pastors from across the country reportedly opting to send the text of their sermons to the mayor.
Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom – a US-based non-profit legal organisation that advocates for religious freedom and had filed a motion for the subpoenas to be withdrawn, said Ms Parker "had no choice but to withdraw the subpoenas, which should never have been served in the first place".
Ms Parker, the first openly lesbian mayor of a major US city, told the Houston Chronicle, the goal of the subpoenas was to defend a lawsuit, not provoke a public debate. "I don’t want to have a national debate about freedom of religion when my whole purpose is to defend a strong and wonderful and appropriate city ordinance against local attack."
– DAVID ADAMS
