Lisa Miller

After defending kidnapper Lisa Miller, Liberty Counsel is set to take on its next big case against gay rights: stopping marriage equality in New York. Liberty Counsel, which has emerged as one of the Religious Right’s most vocally and virulently anti-gay organizations, is representing the social conservative group New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedom in the lawsuit:

In response to the flagrant violations of the New York state constitutional and legal procedures, Liberty Counsel has filed a law suit in the New York Supreme Court for declaratory and injunctive relief against the same-sex marriage law (the “Act”) which was signed into law on June 24, 2011 by Governor Cuomo.

Numerous constitutional and legal violations were committed using strong-arm tactics to pass the Act, thus infringing the rights of the citizens of New York. For example, the Governor pressured Republican Senators to vote for the Act at a private meeting at the Governor’s mansion and with the millions of dollars he had raised from Wall Street financiers. There were also unprecedented Senate lock-outs during the days leading up to the vote, where lobbyists and the public were shut out from the Senate lobby and denied access to elected representatives.

The full list of violations can be found in the complaint. Liberty Counsel is representing New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms (NYCF), and several other plaintiffs. NYCF is a statewide, issue-oriented, lobbying organization committed to voicing the pro-life and pro-family perspective to New York state elected officials. They represent constituents throughout the state of New York.

New York law requires that the government be open and transparent to keep political officials responsible. When government operates in secret and freezes out the very people it is supposed to represent, the entire system fails. The back-room tactics were rampant in the passages of this law. The law should be set aside and the process should begin again to allow the people a voice in the process.

Here is what Matt Barber of LC thinks about marriage equality:

Really, this is an anti-marriage movement. Homosexual activists are not looking for the white picket fence; they don’t really want marriage in the traditional monogamous sense of a lifelong relationship. The reality is that most of these activists are looking to attack the institution of marriage because it is something that was given to us by God, something designed by God; ultimately this is an act of rebellion against God.

Last month, Peter LaBarbera used his radio show, Americans for Truth Hour, to highlight a speech given by Liberty University law professor Rena Lindevaldsen, who serves as Lisa Miller's attorney in her position with Liberty Counsel. Lindevaldsen, speaking against marriage equality, declared that Christians can’t compromise on the issue of LGBT rights because that would mean “deny[ing] the truth of the scripture” and “Satan obviously doesn’t want us to look at the truth of scripture.” This is just the latest in a long line of anti-gay statements from Liberty University and the affiliated Liberty Counsel, which in the past has claimed gay marriage is a fight against an "Antichrist Spirit" and would like to see President Obama impeached for extending leave to domestic partners. 

To accept homosexuality as healthy and normal necessarily means we as Christians deny the truth of the scripture. There is simply no sound biblical position of neutrality on this issue. As Christians we have to treat the Bible as our action plan, therefore we have to refuse to legitimate [sic] any actions that the Bible calls sin.

And that’s one reason as Christians we hear we should compromise on the marriage battle. Let’s allow civil unions. Let’s allow domestic partnerships. When we do that, however, we compromise on scripture by calling what God says is sin, good.

Our only options as Christians, if we’re going to adhere to scripture, is to fight for marriage and everything that’s included in that. We don’t want to give up all the rights of marriage and simply protect the name of marriage because that’s not what the Bible is about when you hear about marriage.

That’s also why we shouldn’t get out of the marriage business all-together which is what some Christians say. “Let’s just give it over to churches, let them marry who they want and government gets out of the business.” That’s not the way the government works though. Government in all areas of life seeks to steer people into conduct it thinks is good, and is helpful to society. And that’s why it is involved in marriage, because time and again marriage between one man and one woman has shown to be the most optimal environment for raising godly children who are productive citizens.

And so to get out of the marriage business, as I like to call it, altogether simply means there’s going to be a void. There’s going to be a vacuum. Something fills that void. In essence, evil will sweep in and run rampant on the issues of marriage, relationships, and homosexuality.

Satan obviously doesn’t want us to look to the truth of scripture. The truth of scripture is that God has a different plan than same-sex sexual conduct for your life.  And so if Satan and those who are essentially advancing his agenda do not what to shed light on the truth, we have to.

Last month we noted that a legal defense fund had been set up for Timo Miller, the man charged with assisting Lisa Miller in kidnapping her daughter and fleeing the country.

The defense fund also created email list to disseminate updates on what is happening in the case and over the weekend sent out an email from the "Waslala Christian Brotherhood" reporting that US authorities were closing in on Miller, but that she managed to flee from where she was living in Jinotega, Nicaragua and elude capture, which is hailed as proof that God is protecting Miller in order to prevent her former partner, Janet Jenkins, from taking Isabella to a "satanic church":

During the last month the US detectives, the US embassy people and the local police have been harassing the Jinotega brethren. (They have also questioned Alvino and Edna and two of Timo’s brothers.) They are constantly watching and trailing the Jinotega brethren and again and again ask them a lot of questions. They have even said that if they do not help them find out where Lisa is, they could deport some of them, or put them in jail or do what the local police do here when they investigate. (And that is not nice. It's a vicious threat!) They are not very nice about the whole thing and almost force people to talk. This has been a very tiring time for the brethren there.

Toward the beginning of all this they had come to the Jinotega school/church house combination to pick Lisa up, but God had sent her away already. Later they brought in a bunch of Special Forces to invade the house she had been living in. But she was gone.

Lisa herself was having a spiritual struggle earlier, during the time she was with the church in Jinotega. She had some difficulty submitting to authority, battled with some rebellion and suffered depression. She had a feeling that once she totally surrendered her life to God, he was going to do something big. With the help of the brethren she had a spiritual break though. It was not very long after that, that she heard the news that Tim Miller was caught in the US.

So praise the Lord that she was right with God and the church when she left. We believe God will be able to bless her now. She is under His protection. Although men seek to take away Lisa’s motherly care for her daughter, Isabella, God is in control and loves them dearly. He will not allow anything to happen to them that will not bring glory to His Name.

It’s sad to think that poor, nine year old Isabella, after living a happy and a very normal life while with the church in Jinotega, might now be deprived of those joys because of having to run. She learned the language well and had been so happy there. Oh let us pray that she would not be forced to be taken back into a situation where she is taught all the perversions of lesbianism and where she would be taken to a satanic church. (Lisa knows that before, when Janet had Isabella over weekends, she would take her to a satanic church.) Let’s pray that soon these two could live a normal life again.

For over a year now we have been covering the story of Lisa Miller, who kidnapped her daughter and fled the country rather than abide by court-ordered custody arrangements with her former partner, Janet Jenkins.

From the very beginning, when Miller began attending Jerry Falwell's church and renounced homosexuality, she has been represented by Mat Staver and Rena Lindevaldsen at Liberty Counsel while the were simultaneously serving as Dean and Associate Professor, respectively, of the Falwell-founded Liberty University School of Law.

Ever since Miller disappeared, Staver and Lindevaldsen have insisted that they have no idea where she went and had nothing to do with her disappearance - a position they continue to maintain even after an FBI affidavit claimed that Miller and her daughter were living in a house in Nicaragua owned by the father of an administrative assistant who works in the Liberty Law School office.

Now, Sarah Poser of Religion Dispatches sheds even more light on this story with a great piece revealing that Staver and Lindevaldsen have been using Miller's case in the Foundations of Law course they teach at Liberty Law School ... and been teaching students that the "right" thing for a lawyer in case such as this is to counsel their client that they have an obligation to ignore the law and engage in "civil disobedience" in order to uphold God's law:

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.

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.”

...

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?”

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.”

Still, some knew what they needed to “regurgitate,” in order to get a good grade. “It was obvious by the substance of the class during the semester the answer that they wanted,” said one of the students. “The majority of people that I am acquainted with who did get As wrote that because that was expected of them.”

One of the students who got an A said, “I told them she needed to engage in civil disobedience and seriously consider leaving the country,” adding, “I knew what I needed to write.”

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.”

So if Staver and Lindevaldsen were teaching students at LU that the proper course of action for a lawyer in a case like this was to counsel their client to ignore court orders, it seems logical to wonder just what sort of counsel Staver and Lindevaldsen were giving to Miller before she kidnapped her daughter and fled the country.

We had been covering the Lisa Miller saga for over a year, but the trail had largely gone cold as Miller had kidnapped her daughter and disappeared and nobody seemed to know where they were ... until last month when a man, Timothy Miller [no relation], was arrested for allegedly having helped Miller and her daughter flee the country.

Timo Miller, as he is known, is now being charged with aiding in an "international parental kidnapping" ... and, of course, his supporters have set up a legal defense website to help him fight the charges which paints both Lisa and Timo as Christian heroes for refusing to allow a "child to become a pawn of the agenda of those who desire to 'normalize' homosexuality":

Since God has not intended for two men or two women to raise children as a family unit, they can’t produce children on their own. This creates a problem in their agenda to create the perception that homosexual behavior is normal. Thus they resort to adopting children or using artificial insemination from a male donor in the case of a lesbian relationship. Can you imagine being a child growing up in the middle of such an environment? It is a tragedy that laws and courts in our nation can be manipulated to allow an innocent and defenseless child to become a pawn of the agenda of those who desire to “normalize” homosexuality. Truly sin has devastating consequences.

...

A mother goose will fight to the death to protect her young. So will a robin or a mama bear. God has put instincts into a mother to protect their young. Lisa did what any good mother would do. She “died” while attempting to protect her young child from what she perceived as very imminent danger. Rather than risk what she felt was certain harm to her daughter, she took her child, and fled to Nicaragua .

...

The criminal complaint against Timo Miller says he aided in the removal of a child from the US in order to interfere with “parental” custody. It accuses him of arranging tickets, and picking them up at the airport.

The accusation begs a question. How can a biologically unrelated individual who has not gone through the adoption process even have “parental” rights? Homosexual marriages are not recognized federally, nor are they recognized by most states. In fact, most states have specific prohibitions banning homosexual marriage. These bans help to protect children from becoming pawns for homosexual activists who desire to use them in their crusade to “normalize” the homosexual lifestyle. Unfortunately, Vermont does not offer such protections to its defenseless children.

According to an update from yesterday, the defense fund has already raised over $30,000.

• The pastor arrested in connection with the Lisa Miller kidnapping has been released on bond.  Let's hope he doesn't flee the country.
• Richard Land says those who President Obama's Christian faith or birthplace are "irrational and a little unbalanced."
• Haley Barbour is not running for president.
• David Barton is headlining the Citizens for Community Values Annual Spring Partnership Banquet, along with Rep. Jim Jordan.
• Finally, Gary Bauer says everyone ought to get down on their knees and be thankful that America is a Christian nation.

It was over a year ago that Lisa Miller kidnapped her daughter and disappeared in order to avoid a court order to hand over custody to her ex-partner, Janet Jenkins.

Miller quickly became a hero to the Religious Right, thanks largely to the Liberty Counsel's long crusade to make Miller out to be the victim of a capricious legal system ... a crusade that abruptly came to an end when Miller disappeared and everyone started trying to cover their tracks.

Since her disappearance, bits of information have trickled out suggesting that Miller disappeared several months before the court imposed deadline and had help fleeing the country.

Today it was reported that a man named Timothy David Miller has been arrested for helping Miller and her daughter flee the country. And the criminal complaint [PDF] contains a wealth of information ... most notable for our purpose an assertion that Miller and her daughter are staying at a home owned by a man named Philip Zodhiates and that Zodhiates' daughter just so happens to work at the Liberty University Law School: 

66. Sarah Star, an attorney who represents Janet Jenkins, has told me that she received a call on or about June 21, 2010. The caller provided the following information:

a. Philip Zodhiates is a wealthy man and a "Liberty Leader" who has a beach house in Nicaragua. Lisa Miller and Isabella Miller have been staying at the home of Zodhiates.

b. Victoria Hyden is the daughter of Zodhiates. Zodhiates asked Hyden to disseminate a request to get Lisa Miller supplies.

67. The "Faculty/Staff Directory" listed within the Liberty School of Law website lists "Victoria Hyden" as an "Administrative Assistant" within the "Admissions and Financial Aid" section.

68. A website printout dated July 7, 2010 from the Vacationrentals.com website lists Philip Zodhiates as the owner of a vacation rental in Nicaragua.

And indeed she does - that is her in the front row, third from the left:

It is quite a conicidence that Mat Staver, head of Liberty Counsel, happens to also be Dean of the Liberty School of Law and that Rena Lindevaldsen, Miller's attorney at Liberty Counsel, is also an Associate Professor of Law at LU, don't you think?

And why is it that every employee listed on this Liberty Law School "Faculty/Staff Directory" has a link to their own individual biography page ... except for Victoria Hyden?

How it is that Liberty Counsel's most high profile client kidnaps her daughter and flees the country and the organization insists for more than a year that it has no idea where she is ... only to have it turn out that she is reportedly living in a home owned by the father of an admin assistant in Staver's very own office? 

As we have been noting for nearly a year now, Liberty Counsel has been steadily representing Lisa Miller in her on-going battle to prevent her former partner, Janet Jenkins, from having any access to their daughter. To that end, Miller has repeatedly defied court ordered custody arrangements to such an extent that the courts finally granted sole custody to Jenkins.

This latest court ruling was the topic of Liberty Counsel's "Faith and Freedom" radio program earlier this week and the level of fundamental dishonesty spread by LC's Matt Barber and Rena Lindevaldsen was rather staggering, including the claim by Barber that the courts have, in ruling against Miller, been acting as "an accomplice to kidnapping":

Of course, Lisa Miller has engaged in actual kidnapping and has been gone for almost a year at this point ... all while her representatives at Liberty Counsel claim to have no idea as to her whereabouts.

• Just a reminder to GOProud: just because the Left doesn't like you, it doesn't mean that the right-wing does.
• When even George W. Bish thinks Sarah Palin is a joke, that is saying something.
• Will the Religious Right please stop screaming about this nonsense now?
• Randall Terry is already going after John Boehner.
• Jim Garlow frets that Democrats are going to destroy California.
• It really is amazing how the Religious Right is fundamentally unwilling to condemn Lisa Miller for kidnapping her daughter and disappearing.
• I find it quite remarkable how David Barton's election "analysis" so closely mirrors Fox's "news."
• Finally, quote of the day from David Lane, executive director of AFA Action, responding to the win in Iowa: "For those who impose what we perceive as an immoral agenda, we're going to take them out" ... He said the group would do so again wherever judges "impose their will on free people."