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Faith

Former Lesbian-Turned-Evangelical Christian ‘Kidnaps’ Daughter, Vanishes Amid Custody Battle

Jun. 27, 2011 11:54am Billy Hallowell

Lisa Miller (left) and Janet Jenkins (right)

MONTPELIER, Vt. (The Blaze/AP) — Lisa Miller’s path from lesbian in committed relationship to international fugitive started in 2003.

She broke up with her partner, Janet Jenkins, renounced homosexuality and became an evangelical Christian before disappearing in 2009 with the daughter she had with Jenkins.

Now, what started as a custody battle over little Isabella Miller-Jenkins has turned into a global manhunt, with indications that Mennonite pastors and other faith-based supporters may have helped hide the two in Nicaragua and are now coming to the aid of one who the FBI says helped Miller.

Eager to keep the girl away from Jenkins and what they consider a dangerous and immoral lifestyle, they liken their roles to that of underground helpers aiding runaway slaves.

“God’s Holy Law never recognizes a gay marriage,” said Pablo Yoder, a Mennonite pastor in Nicaragua, in an email message to The Associated Press. “Thus, the Nicaraguan Brotherhood felt it right and good to help Lisa not only free herself from the so called civil marriage and lesbian lifestyle, but especially to protect her nine year old daughter from being abducted and handed over to an active lesbian and a whole-hearted activist.”

As the gay marriage movement gains momentum in the U.S. with impending legal recognition of the relationships in New York state, the case is a reminder of the opposition that same-sex couples and their families can face.

The saga began in 2000, when Miller and Jenkins were joined in a civil union in Vermont. Two years later, Miller gave birth to the girl, through artificial insemination. The couple split in 2003, with Miller renouncing her homosexuality and becoming a Baptist, then a Mennonite.

Miller was originally granted custody of the girl, but her defiance of visitation schedules led courts in Vermont and Virginia to rule in favor of Jenkins, culminating in a judge’s 2009 decision to award custody to Jenkins.

After Miller and the girl failed to show for a court-ordered custody swap on Jan. 1, 2010, to hand the girl over to Jenkins, the hunt was on. A federal arrest warrant was issued for Miller, and her daughter’s name was added to the missing by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

But they were long gone: In 2009, two months before the judge ordered the custody change, Miller and the girl flew to Central America and took up residence for an unknown amount of time in Nicaragua before vanishing again.

So says the FBI, which revealed in April that it had arrested Nicaraguan missionary Timothy David “Timo” Miller and charged him with abetting an international kidnapping by helping arrange travel and lodging for the two. He is awaiting trial.

According to the FBI, Timo Miller — no relation to Lisa Miller — arranged to fly Miller and her daughter from Canada to Augusto C. Sandino International Airport in Managua.

He’d never met her until they arrived at the airport, according to Loyal Martin, a friend of Timo Miller’s.

Timo Miller has pleaded not guilty and is free on $25,000 bail, awaiting trial. His attorney, federal public defender Steven Barth, won’t discuss the case. Another lawyer for Timo Miller, Jeffrey Conrad, of Lancaster, Pa., didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“Tim believes there is a higher law than the laws of any country that all people, including himself, are accountable to,” said Martin, 40, of Philadelphia, N.Y., who attended Miller’s first court appearance.

In an April 1 affidavit outlining the charge against Timo Miller, FBI agent Dana Kaegel noted the involvement of various religious groups and people involved — in some fashion — with Miller.

At a minimum, she appears to have had the support in the Mennonite community outside the capital of Managua.

Yoder, who works the remote village of Waslala, 161 miles from Managua, told The Associated Press she celebrated her daughter’s birthday in his house last year. He wouldn’t say more.

“She came here to have a good time, and we allowed her to celebrate her daughter’s birthday in my house because of the love we have for the girl,” Pablo Yoder said.

Yoder, who is mentioned in the FBI’s affidavit over an email exchange with Timo Miller planning the party, told the AP in an interview he couldn’t remember how long she stayed. She slept at the house of another pastor, according to Yoder, who would not name that person for fear it would lead to questioning by police.

Members of the church made a pact not to reveal any details to protect Timothy David Miller.

“We want to remain silent because we do not know whether it would cause him problems,” Yoder said. “The moment may arrive when we are going to want to talk, when we deem it necessary to tell Nicaragua the true story.”

Nicaraguan police haven’t questioned Yoder and other members of his church, he said in an interview last month.

“They know we are not involved in this matter,” said Yoder, who likens the help given to Lisa Miller to aid given by Mennonites and Quakers to the aid abolitionists gave runaway slaves.

Richard Huber, of Myerstown, Pa., a friend of Timo Miller’s who agreed to assume custody of him after his first court appearance, sees Timo Miller’s actions as faith-based.

“Choosing to heed God’s law over man’s would be an accurate way of putting it,” he said in an email message.

Miller may have gotten help from others drawn to her predicament for religious reasons.

The lawyer for Miller’s ex-partner, Janet Jenkins, told the FBI she got a call in June 2010 from someone — she won’t say who — who told her that Lisa Miller and the girl had stayed in a beach house in coastal San Juan del Sur, about 68 miles south of Managua.

The house is owned by Philip Zodhiates, the father of Liberty University law school administrative assistant Victoria Hyden, according to the FBI. Jenkins’ attorney, Sarah Star, told the FBI that the caller told her Zodhiates had asked his daughter to put out a request for supplies for Lisa Miller.

Located in Lynchburg, Va., Liberty University was founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. An affiliate of the university, conservative Christian law firm Liberty Counsel, formerly represented Miller in her court case in Vermont over custody of the girl.

Law school dean Mathew Staver — who leads Liberty Counsel — has said Zodhiates isn’t affiliated with either. Watch Liberty Counsel radio host Matt Barber comment on this case, below:

“From our perspective, she just dropped off the face of the Earth. We haven’t heard from her or from anyone who said they’ve heard from her,” Staver said of Lisa Miller.

Miller, 42, is wanted by the FBI and Interpol, which recently requested the help of Nicaraguan police in the search. U.S. Embassy officials in Nicaragua said they don’t know where she is.

“We have clues, but we do not want to reveal them so as not to hinder our investigation,” Fernando Borge, spokesman for the Nicaraguan national police, told the AP last month. “We can’t say either, at the moment, whether she is or is not in the country.”

A security guard at the hotel Royal Chateau in San Juan del Sur, Juan Garcia, told the AP last month he remembered seeing Miller and her daughter seated along the waterfront.

Back in Vermont, Jenkins waits for word on their whereabouts, a break in the case — or both.

“It is hard to understand how anyone could consider a childhood on the run better and more stable than one surrounded by family, with two parents and two sets of grandparents who can provide love and support,” Jenkins, who declined to be interviewed for this story, said in an email.

Timo Miller, meanwhile, awaits trial on the abetting count, which could send him to prison for three years. For now, he and his wife and their four children are staying in Pennsylvania, with Huber.

Supporters have rallied to Timo Miller’s his side. At his April 25 court appearance in federal court in Burlington, Vt., dozens of supporters turned out.

More than $30,000 has been raised for his legal defense fund, and donors have provided he and his family with a minivan and an apartment, according to www.timomiller.org, the Timothy Miller Family Support Network’s website.

“When Isabella was about 18 months old, Lisa Miller realized the emptiness of her lesbian lifestyle, and her mother’s instinct alerted her to the danger that lifestyle posed for her young daughter. She chose to leave that lifestyle, repented of her immoral ways, and began a new life,” according to the website.

Star calls Miller’s actions kidnapping. She doesn’t buy the idea of civil disobedience.

“My understanding is that civil disobedience is an act of defiance against a government. Janet Jenkins is not the government, she is a mother who is worried sick about her daughter.”

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

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Comments (259)

MUDFLAPS
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 4:20pm
which one is the dude here?

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florida123
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 4:14pm
Miller gave birth to this child, Jenkins was just there like a friend! How does Jenkins have any rights to this child? None in my eyes! I pray that Miller stays hidden until this child is of age…………

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shimauma
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 4:09pm
God has ways of working things out so that His will is always done. If Ms. Miller is doing God’s will then the law of the land will forever be stymied but the Hand of God. I think what the atheists and deviant lifestyle people are worried about is that they are not going to get their say in how this little girl is raised. It infuriates them to be so powerless when they don’t have a chance of having the Creator of the Universe taking their side. So if Ms Miller fails to elude the law before her child turns 18 then we will all know what God’s will is. I pray to God that Ms. Miller is never found by the deviants trying to control her life and the life of her daughter.

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kendeer
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 3:49pm
stupid liberals dont care how many lives they screw up they only want to rub there nasty lifestyles in our faces !!

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KENTUCKYREDBONE
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 3:47pm
Somebody made an excellent point! If it was a normal straight couple thier would probably NOT be a global manhunt! This hunt is more about Politics and left wing pervert Government control than whats best for the Child!

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ModerationIsBest
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 3:43pm
@ISRAELISOURFRIEND

Everything you described Atheism hasn’t done, isn’t the point of believing in a God.

You don’t believe in God to heal a broken heart
You don’t believe in God to dream a dream

You believe in God for the afterlife, that there is a world beyond this world that is more important and has more meaning. You don’t believe in God to make your life on this planet more enjoyable/pleasant.

That is just a misconception of many(not all) religious people.

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zopola
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 3:17pm
Seems to me that this would fall under the protection of the ‘First Ammendment”; free exercise of religion. Sice she is the natural mother of the child, one would think that the court would side with her. Unfortunately there is little protection from federal activist judges who are attempting to break down any Christian resistance to the ‘gay agenda’.
This ought to be a case to take up by ACLJ and Jay Sekulow…, not to mention voters who enabled this judge.

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Kathleen
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 2:43pm
A Lesbian mothering a child with another lesbian is not natural i.e. permitted by nature. Is Jenkins angry with natures law? Does she feel nature is bigotted? A man being sterile is not an equivalent argument because it is sickness to blame, not nature.

Love is selfless not selfish. If you truly love a child you want what’s best for them, not what’s best for you. To ignore that a child needs the balance of both genders is to be truly disingenuous. Again, if one parent out of a heterosexual couple abandons that child, there are emotional repercussions. A child can deal with a loss if it is due to death, but they still pine for the loss of that parent.

You don’t solve the world’s problems by adding to them.

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mtorres20
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 2:38pm
The State of Vermont is the most guilty party here by recognizing this unnatural union.

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Stu D. Baker-Hawk
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 2:35pm
In this case the FBI is on the wrong side of God. I would go against them, too! (BTW, J. Edgar Hoover was a homosexual cross-dresser. Go figure…)

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DoctorRon
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 2:22pm
None of us know the facts of the custody case. Perhaps Ms. Miller was denied custody due to mental disability as evidenced by thinking she can make a decision to become heterosexual.

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DoctorRon
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 2:16pm
If you believe that your interpretation of “God’s law” trumps man’s law, what keeps a Muslim from saying that Sharia law trumps mans law?

The laws are based on the Constitution, not anyone’s interpretation of what they think God would want. God has the full capacity to render justice as He sees fit.

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- encinom
  Posted on June 27, 2011 at 3:10pm
  Thank you, the lone voice of reason in the theocracy forest.
  
  Report this comment
- SREGN
  Posted on June 27, 2011 at 3:38pm
  Sorry to break it to you, Ron, but that’s what the Muslims do say.
  
  Report this comment
- Supercalafragalisticexpialidotious
  Posted on June 27, 2011 at 8:51pm
  Islamists seek to impose their religion on others through government. Their laws and rules are man made, when they become enforced by courts and legislation. That has nothing to do with the kind of “law” this guy is talking about.
  
  This is such a messy case. From what I can see, the court ruling was political. Were these two women considered legally married? If not, what legal case could Jenkins, at that time, have possibly brought against Miller? I find the comparison to the live-in boyfriend made by others here has at least some merit.
  
  That said, we don’t know these people, we can only judge based on this article, and the video. Which means this boils down, generally, to an opportunity for commenters to state their political point of view, I suppose.
  
  But on the face of it, I can’t justify taking a 10 year old girl from her biological mother, and more importantly the woman who up to now has raised her, in order to hand her over to a complete stranger. Because this girl couldn’t possibly remember Jenkins, being one a year old when Miller left, after all. And Jenkins couldn’t possibly have much to share with this girl, other than a hatred for everything she’s been taught for her entire childhood so far- and, I’ll bet, a hatred for Miller, who, in that ten year old’s mind, is and I guarantee, will remain, her mother.
  
  Report this comment
MR.CONSERVATIVENEGRO
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 2:10pm
The DNA is the telling factor here. The modern day castrody wants you to believe that Mrs. Jenkins, just because she is lesbian, has the same rights as say…the actual man who donated the sperm. She does not. No more than I am the biological father, of a child, born in a relationship, that I had nothing to do with. It isn’t my child to fight over…wether I marry the woman or not. I believe that lesbians, gays, tri-sexuals, trans-morons are psychologically missing something. They have identity issues, and perhaps should be cast out of society before they inject their cancerous ladened psychosis into anymore of our children.

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- encinom
  Posted on June 27, 2011 at 5:10pm
  “The modern day castrody wants you to believe that Mrs. Jenkins, just because she is lesbian, has the same rights as say”
  
  No the argument is that they as a couple in a committed relationship, reconized under the laws of the State of Vermont conceived a child. And as with a divorce, both parties have duties and obligations to the child. The lunatic chrisitian broke the law and needs to be dragged back and jailed.
  
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Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 2:08pm
There is no statement I can make against organized religion more dαmning than the actions of Lisa Miller.

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- Supercalafragalisticexpialidotious
  Posted on June 27, 2011 at 8:32pm
  Remove “organized religion”, replace it with “lesbianism”. Remove “Lisa Miller”, replace it with “Jenkins”. I think Jenkins’ actions, at this point, are pretty selfish, and politically motivated. Super duper motherly qualities, those. I’m sure she’d have so much in common with her 10 year old “daughter” who doesn’t know her at all, seeing as how she hasn’t seen Jenkins since she was 1 year of age…
  
  But that aside. I think it’s a difficult point you’re trying to argue. All organized religion is evil….because of *points wildly* that woman over THERE! Darn you, horrible evil lady! Grrr! :) Just saying.
  
  I’m sorry if I come across as harsh. The internet brings out my snarky side. ^^;
  
  Report this comment
faithwillwin
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 1:58pm
Praise God Our Father and Creator. All associated with protecting this child and any others is in my prayers and under God’s hands of love. Surround them with your Angels Father, Protect them from all evil.

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Petieshell
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 1:41pm
Add this to the list of complications of “gay unions and marriages”. Getting out of God’s order always brings unexpected and messy consequences. An atheist by definition must “know” there is no God. They would have to have ALL knowledge and that would make them “God”. Anyone who claims to be an atheist is not very intelligent and thus they defeat their own argument. I can at least respect the honesty of an agnostic.

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spoonchucker
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 1:15pm
Welcome to manhood. This is what most men go throught

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tom
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 1:14pm
Obama and his administration are obsessed with the gay agenda. Read what this very holy priest from all places, Chicago, says about God’s intentions. Vote this administration out in 2012 and save traditional marriage and God’s love for America.
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/abbott/110626

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Gann0n8r
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 1:08pm
I can’t tell if homosexuality is the CAUSE or just a SYMPTOM of total cultural destruction, but in every case it has occured in history, the one follows the other.
Not only is homosexuality an evolutionary dead-end, but it is a cultural one as well. Every culture and every civilization that has embraced it is either destroyed from without, or collapses from within. It must not be tolerated in our society in any form, unless we wish to see our own destruction.

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Mamma Bear
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 12:58pm
This is so sad. Why in the world did a court of law award custody to the ex-lover. Really?!?!?! Why or why in the world. Makes no sense.

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Akira Gomi
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 12:58pm
Get a load of these Judges in Vermount, what is the blue smock theXXXL size for all the BS they shovel around. THere is a warning, if the mojority of the people end up voting these crap pushers allowing to make law. The destruction is at hand, before nig nog OBAMMY is out there will be martial law..

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mickrussom
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 12:52pm
I pray for Lisa Miller. She has sinned but asked for help and forgiveness and she should be protected from the militant homosexuals and mentally disabled people like Janet Jenkins. Jenkins clearly hates the child as she is manhunting the girl’s mother and by doing so she is on the side of militant homosexuality and on the side that is agonizing and antagonizing the child and doing everything in her power to lower this child’s quality of life. Janet Jenkins is a sick evil woman.

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- Baron_Doom
  Posted on June 27, 2011 at 12:59pm
  Yes, and the courts are sick and evil for siding with her!
  
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- encinom
  Posted on June 27, 2011 at 1:28pm
  Miller belongs in Jail with the church leaders and “good christians” that are helping her. Jenkins needs to be reunited with her daughter.
  
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- SREGN
  Posted on June 27, 2011 at 2:03pm
  Wanted to be a man, hunh Janet? How does it feel? Men have been stripped of parental rights for a long time. Maybe you should change back. It’s just a decision, after all.
  
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- Supercalafragalisticexpialidotious
  Posted on June 27, 2011 at 8:16pm
  To Encinom. How is stealing a 10 year old girl away from the only mother she has ever known, and handing her over to a complete stranger (Jenkins) a good way for this to end? Miller left with the child when she was only 1 year of age. I have no memories of my life at that age, do you? (Although I did, ironically, have one recurring dream for years, of being in the womb. At least I think that’s what it was. O__O)
  
  Ten is an important age for a girl. I just…I think of being taken away from my family at that age, what that would have been like, and it pains me to think of this girl being put through that. I don’t think you’re really thinking about what you’re writing. You couldn’t be.
  
  (And to Mickrussom: Nice avatar! Gotta love the world of Bleach, where the bad guys are bad, the good guys are good, and…never mind. I forgot about Mayuri. >_< )
  
  Report this comment
- encinom
  Posted on June 27, 2011 at 8:28pm
  @Supercalafragalisticexpialidotious
  Read the story, there was prior visitation, until Miller kidnapped the child. But regardless, recently in the news there was the story of a Father seeking the return of his son. His wife ran office to Brazil when the son was only 1 or 2 years old and the father has not been able to see the child. By your logic, the courts should grnat in the favor of the parent that prevents visitation by fleeing the country. By your logic, the father has no right to be a part of the sons life.
  
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Baron_Doom
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 12:50pm
Janet Jenkins is not a mother. She did not spend nine months growing a baby inside her. The fact that the courts sided with her over the biological mother is not only an injustice, but it is judicial activism at it worst!
I hope and pray that one of two things happens:
1. The court is overturned.
2. Miller remains safely on the lam until her daughter is 18.

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- ModerationIsBest
  Posted on June 27, 2011 at 3:47pm
  @Baron
  How ignorant of you to say that she is not a mother because she did not carry that child in her belly for 9 months.
  
  Way to minimize and disparage all of the hard work, love, sacrifice adoptive Father’s and Mother’s have done throughout the years.
  
  Report this comment
- ModerationIsBest
  Posted on June 27, 2011 at 3:49pm
  How ignorant of you to say that she is not a mother because she did not carry the baby in her belly.
  
  Way to step on all of the love, hard work and sacrifice adoptive father’s and mother’s have done throughout the years.
  
  Report this comment
- Git-R-Done
  Posted on June 28, 2011 at 12:18am
  It takes a man and a woman to create a child.
  
  Report this comment
Mtroom
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 12:47pm
All you need to look beyond…what does religion have to do with it…the birth mother has full rights to the child not because of religion, but because its her child and the donors child…if the donor wrote off the sperm the child is that of the birth mother….even if it was a male partner involved without conception the male will have no say unless the child was in danger…..has that been proven in this case buy the jilted partner?….i think not….she just needs to get over being dumped an move on….it happens in relationships….if its the baby, adopt there’s plenty of children out there that need good homes…if that lady thinks she can give a good home …go adopt or have your own…period

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encinom
Posted on June 27, 2011 at 12:45pm
Any Church group or organization that helped keep the Mother from her child needs to lose their tax exempt status and their leaders thrown in prison for assisting in the kidnapping.

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- Baron_Doom
  Posted on June 27, 2011 at 12:57pm
  She’s not the mother. She’s the equivalent of a step-father who is now demanding visitation rights to a child that has no blood relation to him whatsoever.
  
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- encinom
  Posted on June 27, 2011 at 1:10pm
  @Baron_Doom
  
  The State of Vermont considers her the Mother, the same way a returning vet, who had the family jewels blown off in combat would be the Father of a child conceived by his wife through the use of a sperm donor.
  
  Report this comment
- konakolina
  Posted on June 27, 2011 at 6:17pm
  What the ‘state’ considers is not terribly important. She didn’t give birth and I doubt she supplied the sperm. she’s just a ticked off ex who needs to move on.
  
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- konakolina
  Posted on June 27, 2011 at 6:24pm
  Reading Encinom’s comments leads one to suspect he or she is just another gay radical who really needs to get over it. The majority is really tired of your whining of the gay left.
  
  Report this comment
- Islamisbad
  Posted on June 28, 2011 at 9:12am
  To be consistent then you surely believe that churches that harbor illegal immigrants should also lose their tax exempt status.
  
  Report this comment

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