Punishing the 'Rebellious Woman' and 'Preaching from the Pulpit' in Iowa

“I’d like to slap her,” said Rev. Steve Youngblood, pastor at the City Church in Burlington, Iowa, as he spoke of a whistle-blower parishioner who reported the church’s illegal political activities.

He then added that her husband “should correct her.”

What?

It is 2012 and the good pastor wants to slap what he refers to as the “rebellious woman.” We are moving into the twenty-first century and the man of the cloth wants the husband to “correct her!”

City Church, a tax-exempt organization that is forbidden under federal law to promote candidates or ballot measures, decided to distribute brochures calling for the ouster of a Supreme Court Justice in his retention election. The core of the campaign against this judge is a profound objection to the unanimous Varnum ruling in 2009 that extended the freedom to marry to gay and lesbian couples in Iowa. The pastor read the pamphlets from his pulpit, making them available to his parishioners with encouragement to pick one up.

On Sunday, October 7, more than 1500 pastors from various denominations celebrated “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” by endorsing candidates from their pulpits. In a blatant challenge to federal law, these clergy connected to the Alliance Defending Freedom with a fervent hope for the day where they will, as they say, “shine a light on what they believe are their freedoms of religion and speech.” That Sunday, they stood in their houses of worship and promoted their politics and their candidates in violation of federal law. And, it was on this day that the whistle blower was admonished by her pastor, Rev. Youngblood, who said to her and the congregation, "Don't call yourself a Christian and do that."

Earlier last month, Bob Vander Plaats, the head of Iowans for Freedom, got on a bus and drove across the state with politicians including Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and failed presidential GOP nominee, Rick Santorum. Their message was one of intolerance, urging voters to oust the Supreme Court Justice and punish him for doing his job.

Clearly the far right activists in Iowa are working from the same script. Some Iowa clergy and some politicians and pundits are working together to paint the Supreme Court justices with a broad brush, one that takes the measured decision of the Iowa Supreme Court in Varnum v. Brien and paints a distorted picture of "activist judges." In reality, the Supreme Court Justices simply ruled that barring same-sex couples from marriage is unconstitutional. And that is what Rev. Youngblood, Mr. Vander Plaats and their band of miscreants are fighting against—from the pulpit, in the media, and on the bus.

Equality is their target. And justice will be their first casualty.