A Christian attorney is expressing deep concern over the latest development in a case involving a group of Christians who were arrested for preaching the gospel at a homosexual pride event in Philadelphia.
Four Christians have been bound over for trial and face up to 47 years each in prison after preaching to a crowd of homosexuals at the pro-homosexual "Outfest" event in early October. Michael Marcavage, Mark Diener, Dennis Green, and James Cruse were each expected to enter a plea of "not guilty" on Wednesday (January 5) for the felony and misdemeanor charges filed against them by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. A female minor who also was arrested at the time faces charges in the juvenile justice system.
A strange twist has developed in the case since it was discussed Monday night on the Fox News program The O'Reilly Factor. WorldNetDaily is reporting that homosexual attorneys from the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division not only attended the October event, but also advised the Philadelphia police on the scene when 11 Christian protesters were arrested. According to that report, those DOJ attorneys may have recommended to police that the Christians be charged with "ethnic intimidation" under Pennsylvania's new "hate crimes" law.
WorldNetDaily identifies its source as a Justice Department employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity. That employee says because of those attorneys' involvement at "Outfest," it is unlikely the DOJ will take up the cause of those now facing criminal charges. A legal representative for "The Philadelphia Four" stated on Bill O'Reilly's show that plans included asking the DOJ to investigate the case.
Brian Fahling, the Christian attorney who appeared on The O'Reilly Factor, says the report of DOJ attorneys' involvement on the scene should trouble all who are following the case, which he describes as "of historic dimension."
"This case is historic for all the wrong reasons," Fahling says, "and now it turns out that Department of Justice attorneys attended 'Outfest' and may have advised the city on what charges to bring. I am stunned."
Fahling, senior trial attorney for the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy, says if the report is accurate, it does not bode well for his clients. "It has been made abundantly clear that my clients will never get justice from Philadelphia, and now it looks like they won't get it out of Washington, DC, either," he says. "I didn't think the abuse of power could get any worse -- and if these reports by WorldNetDaily prove to be true, then it's absolutely staggering."
The attorney is asking the DOJ to open a criminal probe into the case, but says he may rethink that strategy in light of the apparent collusion between government attorneys and the Philadelphia police. "This is not an erosion of our rights under the Constitution," he adds. "It is an earthquake that has swallowed them whole."
The WorldNetDaily source said he estimated that between 10 and 11 percent of the attorneys in the DOJ's Civil Rights Division are homosexual, and that "the attorneys who are gay here are trying to encourage more diversity" by getting more homosexual lawyers into the agency. Fahling told WND it is "always a possibility" that the sexual orientation of government attorneys could bias them against his clients -- but that perhaps public pressure could bring about an investigation.
"I suppose the only way to overcome that [possible bias] is to get such a public outcry on such a scale that it cannot be ignored by those higher up in the Department," the attorney says. "[I wouldn't expect] the political appointments in DOJ to be homosexual sympathizers; it's the lifers in the DOJ who may have come in [during] the Clinton administration, for instance, that would present the problem, if in fact the reports are true."
Only in Philly?
One might wonder how it could come to pass that a group of Christians could be arrested and face prison time simply for preaching the gospel of Christ in public. According to one family advocate in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love offers the perfect environment for such an occurrence.
William Devlin is founder of the Urban Family Council of Philadelphia. In an interview with the Chalcedon Report, Devlin lays blame at the feet of local church leaders and politicos.
"The real story here is the silence of the city's clergy," Devlin says. "Over the last ten years, I've been to pastor after pastor in this city, trying to get them to put pressure on the elected officials who've been pushing the homosexual agenda. They're all afraid to speak up. There is a collective spirit of fear hanging over this city. Right now, the gays own Philadelphia."
According to Devlin, the city fathers are akin to the proverbial frog in the kettle. "They've sat there in silence for all this time while the gays kept turning up the water temperature," he says. "Now it's come to a boil, and they're still in the pot."
Local political leaders are also at fault, says Devlin. One of the city leaders he is particularly critical of is Nelson Diaz, the city solicitor, who -- according to Devlin -- says he is a born-again Christian. Diaz, he says, is "busy now suing the Boy Scouts to force them to accept atheists and homosexuals as Scout leaders, busy pushing for gay marriage and more hate speech laws."
Chalcedon Report notes that Diaz chaired the Billy Graham Crusade in Philadelphia in 1991-92. The city solicitor, says Devlin, is one among many political leaders in the city who present themselves as born-again, evangelical Christians while promoting "gay rights" at the expense of Christianity.
AFA Center for Law & Policy (http://www.afa.net/clp)
Urban Family Council (http://www.urbanfamily.org)
© 2005, Agape Press. Used with Permission
