[by Dean Smith] According to Foxnews commentator Todd Starnes, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot sent a strongly worded letter to the Houston City Attorney David Feldman, telling the city to stop its persecution of five Houston pastors and to withdraw the city’s subpoenas of these church leaders.

The Houston attorney’s office subpoenaed the pastors’ sermons, notes and any correspondence (texts and emails included) sent to members of their congregation on issues of homosexuality, gender identity and Mayor Annise Parker — Houston’s openly lesbian mayor.

In his letter, Abbot described the city’s actions as “aggressive and invasive.” He added the city disregarded “the very serious First Amendment considerations at stake.”

The pastors were among a coalition of concerned Houston citizens fighting a recently passed city bylaw allowing men and women to use the facilities of the opposite sex as a way of expressing a different sexual identity.  The organizers initiated a petition drive to force city council to either rescind the law or require a city-wide referendum vote on the issue. They only needed to collect 17,200 names to force the vote, but ended up with 55,000 signatures.

But despite having three times the needed names, the city threw out the petition citing irregularities. The petition organizers launched a lawsuit against the city to enforce the referendum vote on the issue. A recent poll showed 82% of Houston citizens are opposed to the city bylaw nicknamed the “Bathroom Bill.”

The city responded by subpoenaing the pastors. Many wonder what their sermons have to do with the legitimacy of the signatures on the petition. The pastors as well were not even involved in the lawsuit against the city.

Mayor Annise Parker and the city attorney have since stated they were unaware of the subpoena until yesterday. However,  they still have not to this point stopped their subpoena and instead say it was too broad and they will narrow their search.

David Welch one of the pastors subpoenaed told Starnes:

We are dealing with bullies used to getting away with abuse of power.

But I think Starnes summed it up best when he said:

“This is a situation where those who preach tolerance and diversity are the least tolerant and diverse of all.”

Alliance Defending Freedom, an organization dedicated to preserving freedom in America, is defending the five pastors. You can financially support this fight on their website.

Read more:

• Texas Attorney General tells Houston city hall: Stop bullying Christians: Foxnews