Answering Pastor Tovar’s tenet that faith, family, and freedom are in danger

The Pastor’s opinion on dangers facing the country poses some interesting points that merit rebuttal. He strongly suggests that faith, family and freedom are in grave danger if we continue on our path of Godlessness. 

Since I defend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in my daily practice of law, I feel qualified to offer some counter points. No one in authority is preventing you or anyone else from practicing your particular faith. The First Amendment guarantees Freedom of Religion for all Americans. Conversely, it guarantees freedom from religion, when a particular faith tries to impose its belief on all Americans by passing restrictive laws based on a particular belief. 

If you wish to believe Genesis literally, and think that the Earth was formed only 6,000 years ago and that your deity took six days to create the entire universe we know, that is your absolute right. But when your followers want to teach creationism in the public-school room that is when your rights stop and mine commence. 

No one can prevent you from handling venomous serpents because of a passage in your sacred book that assures you faith will protect you. When a particular persons’ religion (i.e., Christianity) is the blueprint for the laws that affect all Americans, religious or otherwise, the Supreme Court should strike it down. 

Thanks to the most irreligious man to hold the office of President over the last four years, we are now saddled with a majority of Catholics upholding clearly unconstitutional laws because of their apparent piety. 

The pastor feels we should only elect politicians that share his “biblical values.” I am not sure how you define that term but most politicians only appear to be religious to garner votes and money. The Bible was written over two millennia ago and contains passages I would not want a six-year-old to read aloud. Slavery was allowed for thousands of years because the Bible condoned it. Women were considered property of their husband or father and had absolutely no rights. Genocide was condoned by your God if different tribes professed different religions or customs. Biblical scholars have estimated that the great flood in Genesis killed over 20 million souls including innocent children. The alleged plagues in Egypt sent by God to punish Pharaoh was estimated to have cost around 800,000 lives. This was done by your merciful God to harden Pharaoh’s heart. The only people shutting down churches is not the government, but people who change religions when their church cannot survive financially. 

One of the greatest founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, wrote to a friend, “When a religion is good, I believe it will support itself and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, ‘tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.” 

I am delighted that you feel that a law called Freedom to Worship Act has assured that churches are essential amid a pandemic. One can only guess how many devout believers flocked into churches, got sick, and died because they were certain that God would protect them. 

If you truly believe that churches are essential, such as healthcare facilities, law enforcement, financial services, transportation and retail stores, please explain to the reading public, what makes your church essential. What service does it render? What product does it provide that the public cannot live without? Why did the mega churches get multi-millions in government aid because they considered themselves essential? 

The pastor celebrates the latest Texas atrocity known as the Heartbeat Act. I must remind you that the white Republican males that passed this unconstitutional law do not have a heart.  I

 have read all of Jesus’ teachings over the years, so I was puzzled as to which group wanted to invade our city to impose their immoral lifestyle to Laredoans.  If he was concerned about gays wanting to marry because of their love for each other, I would ask him to show me any passage where Jesus condemns homosexuals.

The word abortion is not mentioned by Jesus, nor is it anywhere in the Bible. But the politicians that want to make it totally illegal, even for rape and incest victims  piously say that all life is sacred. However, after the child is born, the Republicans refuse to provide food, childcare, and health insurance. If these self-righteous politicians claim to be following God’s teachings, could they explain why their God killed every man, woman and child in Genesis, except for Noah and his family because some people were very wicked? 

Please explain why God killed over 800,000 Egyptian first born children because Pharaoh would not let the Hebrews go. Does this sound like a paragon of morality? Consider the following paragraph from your “book of values”: Psalm 137:9 that says “Happy is he who seizes your infants and dashes them upon the rocks.” This is ordered by God, because they were children of a defeated tribe?  Apparently, the God of the Old Testament only protected the Hebrews because they were his Chosen people and made a solemn covenant with them. The rest of humanity did not concern him too much. 

You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the people you do. You want people elected to positions of authority that are “righteous” according to God’s word. What you are asking for is a theocracy like Iran, Iraq, or Saudi Arabia. 

Such a government must never be allowed in the United States. 

Most telling in thr apastor’s opinion, is that he never once mentioned the words Republican, gays, or conversion therapy. If any party is responsible for Americans losing their freedom, it is your favorite party. The Republican legislation strips all Texans of the freedom to vote freely and legally. The Republican Ayatollahs have stripped away the freedom of women to control their own bodies. Republican politicians, for the last forty years, have cynically used the Bible to pass laws that affect all citizens of all faiths, or no faith. 

Governor Abbott, who doesn’t care if school children contract Covid-19 with his anti-mask mandates was gloating while signing his voter suppression bill. Several lawsuits have already been filed against the Governor, citing violations of the Texas Constitution protecting the rights to vote, freedom of speech and expression, due process, and equal protection under the law. 

No voter fraud was discovered in Texas in the last election except for a handful of cases due to wrong addresses. Abbott doesn’t want to protect voter integrity. He wants to protect Republican elected officials, including the indicted Attorney General Ken Paxton from the will of the people. 

It is amazing how the Pastor seems to know what God wants because it is exactly the same as what he wants. I have a strong suspicion that the good pastor is vying for the position of Webb County Republican Chairman. It is apparent that he truly wants to blend religion in state affairs and wants an authoritative theocratic form of Government where the head of state consults with his Bible instead of the Constitution. 

That, Mr. Pastor, will not be allowed by freedom loving Americans.