Lisa Miller has been on the lam for over a year after losing a legal battle with her ex-partner, Janet Jenkins, for custody of their now nine-year-old daughter Isabella. (Sadly, she took Isabella with her, in defiance of the law.)
According to a group of antigay Christians who support Miller’s lawbreaking, the self-proclaimed ex-lesbian had a narrow escape in Nicaragua as authorities close in on her. According to the Waslala Christian Brotherhood (and we don’t make these names up), U.S. authorities had tracked Miller to Jinotega, Nicaragua, and had begun making inquiries with local law enforcement there. However, gloats the Brotherhood, “God had sent her away already.”
Of course, all of this illegality is for Isabella’s benefit. “It’s sad to think that poor, nine year old Isabella, after living a happy and a very normal life while with the church in Jinotega, might now be deprived of those joys because of having to run,” the Brotherhood insists. “She learned the language well and had been so happy there. Oh let us pray that she would not be forced to be taken back into a situation where she is taught all the perversions of lesbianism and where she would be taken to a satanic church. (Lisa knows that before, when Janet had Isabella over weekends, she would take her to a satanic church.)” Apparently, Lisa is the only person with that knowledge, since it never happened.
Miller herself doesn’t seem to be adapting all that well. The Brotherhood reports that she has “had some difficulty submitting to authority, battled with some rebellion and suffered depression.” No word on who she was rebelling against, but presumably it’s the network of Christians who are abetting her. One of them, Timothy Miller (no relation) was arrested in April for “aiding in the removing of a child from the United States, and retaining a child (who has been in the United States) outside of the United States with intent to obstruct the lawful exercise of parental rights.”
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The complaint against Timothy Miller also linked Philip Zodhiates, a wealthy individual connected to Liberty Counsel, the group that offered legal assistance to Lisa Miller, to her flight from the country. Zodhiates owns the house where Lisa Miller and Isabella were reportedly staying. Apparently when it comes to Christian legal experts, you can ignore the law when it becomes an inconvenience.
Photo via GLAD
JT
It’s being reported (by Box Turtle Bulletin, I think) that Liberty University’s law school is even using this specific case as an example of when to “disobey man’s law to obey god’s law.” Teaching lawyers to disobey the law. Yay, cult.
mike
This is where HRC and Gay Inc, in general, really fail us in messaging.
For every NOM ad that is run about “protecting our children”, HRC should be running an ad attacking NOM as an organization that condones the “kidnapping of your children.”
It’s time to put douchenozzles like NOM and Tony Perkins on the defensive. If they get 5 minutes of airtime on CNN, let’s make them use it to defend themselves rather than to attack us.
hyhybt
Before running such an ad… is NOM itself verifiably, provably connected to this? Because while I do understand what “condoning” means, it doesn’t seem like it would play well to the general public so long as they’re seen as completely separate and unrelated except that they both “support marriage.” Any more than it’s fair of them to complain that marriage equality advocates don’t spend all their time speaking against pedophilia or lewdness at parades.
I’m not saying it’s right; but “that’s the way it is.”
mike
@hyhybt:
I think of it this way: it’s not our job to be “fair.” It is our job to state the truth.
Was Prop 8 designed to protect children? No.
Prop 8 was written to add this text to the California Constitution, “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”
Prop 8 was written to destroy families. Prop 8 was designed, in part, to make it easier to take kids like Isabella Miller-Jenkins from one or both of her parents. Prop 8 does nothing except harm families.
But NOM, LDS, Catholics, Baptists, Family Research Council, etc. (lets call them “NOM+” to make it easy) made the Prop 8 campaign all about “protecting our children” and Prop 8 passed because of their bait and switch ploy. And as much as I hate them, let’s say they are actually sincere in their belief that they are “protecting children.”
In the future, we need to be equally sincere, equally loud or louder, and to tell the truth as we see it.
In this case, Janet Jenkins’ daughter, Isabella Miller-Jenkins, of whom Janet has sole custody, has been kidnapped by Janet’s ex-spouse and a group of people who object to Janet’s personal moral and religious values.* Groups like NOM, FRC, etc., believe this kidnapping is OK, a fact confirmed by their policy positions and their own statements, even if their statements do not specifically reference the Jenkins kidnapping.
That is all we need to say. Let bigots explain why we’re wrong and chew up their media time/resources while doing so.
Imagine a well-crafted ads targeted to parents – especially to divorced and single parents – where we simply tell the truth:
NOM+ hurts children by breaking up their families – TRUE.
NOM+ condemns single-parent parenting – TRUE.
NOM+ thinks school yard bullying is OK – TRUE.
NOM+ wants to deny families health and job benefits – TRUE.
NOM+ condones situations like the Jenkins kidnapping, by an ex-spouse, if the custodial spouse does not meet their religious values litmus test – TRUE. (and there are plenty of sound bites to back this up.)
We can beat them with the truth, but WE HAVE TO STOP BRINGING KNIVES TO GUNFIGHTS.
Legal marriage and legal adoption by same-sex parents would go a long way toward protecting all families, straight and gay, from traumas such as the cult-like kidnapping of Janet Jenkins’ daughter.
hyhybt
I’m NOT saying we shouldn’t point out all those things. Only that, in doing so to people who do not already agree, it’s important to support every claim with plain evidence. Otherwise it looks, at best, like desperate grasping at straws, and at worst, lying attacks on a supposedly-moral organization.
You and I know it isn’t, but most people don’t pay enough attention to know the difference.
comedyofwhat
@JT: I laughed at this comment, because I remember a time when many people were raised to disobey the law, lawyers, politicians, even preachers. It was called the civil rights movement. Before that is was the abolitionist movement. Some people obey conscience over the law. It’s the exact opposite of a cult. It’s the ability to think for yourself and take responsibility for your own actions – not simply acting on anyone’s orders.
JT
Comedyofwhat, there are two glaring differences between what the united churches of hate are doing and what the civil rights movement did. 1: They are training all of their lawyers exactly which laws to disobey. This is not freedom of conscience, this is indoctrination. 2: The civil rights civil disobedience was to defy laws that were unjust. What Liberty University is doing is telling people to disobey the law in order to deny justice. I’m aware of the importance of the tactics of the progressive movements of the past (and not just in this country) and am disgusted at the way the uber-baptist cult is debasing the idea and memory of those fine people. Thank you for making me clarify.
White Man
“Lisa Miller has been on the lam for over a year after losing a legal battle with her ex-partner, Janet Jenkins, for custody of their now nine-year-old daughter Isabella. (Sadly, she took Isabella with her, in defiance of the law.)”
Lisa Miller left the country legally at a time when she had legal custody of Isabella. What made her absence illegal was missing a custody hearing, at which time Janet was given custody. Only at that point was she “on the lam.” If she hadn’t taken Isabella with her, no laws would yet have been broken. Whether it’s against the law for a mother to take her daughter with her when she leaves the country or not, I don’t know, but apparently I should. I recently took my daughter abroad without her mother present–was I on the lam?