Pastor prosecuted for helping girl escape court-imposed lesbian ‘mother’
Pastor Kenneth Miller and family.
August 10, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) - Federal prosecutors are presenting their case in a trial against a Mennonite pastor who is accused of helping a single motherescape from the United States with her daughter to evade court-ordered visits with a lesbian whom the court declared to be the girl’s second “mother.”
Ex-lesbian Lisa Miller fled the country after her efforts failed to keep former “civil union” partner Janet Jenkins from having access to her child, Isabella. Jenkins never adopted Isabella and has no biological relationship with the girl, who exhibited signs of emotional trauma following forced visits with Jenkins, according to experts who observed her.
Pastor Kenneth Miller’s attorney, Joshua Autry, is arguing that Lisa Miller (who is not related to Kenneth Miller) had full parental rights at the time the pastor transported her to the Canadian border, and that he was not aware of interfering with any court orders, according to reports by the Associated Press and others.
Lisa Miller and daughter Isabella.
If convicted, Kenneth Miller could receive up to three years in prison for “aiding and abetting an international parental kidnapping” under U.S. law.
Prosecutors are using e-mails obtained from Google and cell phone records from Verizon Wireless to demonstrate the movements of Lisa Miller and her daughter in 2009, when they say Miller fled to Canada—and ultimately to Nicaragua—with the help of Kenneth Miller and other Mennonites associated with him.
At least two Mennonites who helped in the escape have decided to turn state’s evidence in the trial, testifying against Kenneth Miller, who has not cooperated with the prosecution.
Canadian pastor Ervin Horst has already testified for the prosecution, stating that he drove Lisa and Isabella to the Toronto airport from the Canadian border at Niagra Falls at the behest of Kenneth Miller.
Pastor Timothy “Timo” Miller (also unrelated to Lisa Miller), who also allegedly helped Lisa and Isabella upon their arrival in Nicaragua, has also reportedly agreed to testify in an apparent deal to avoid his own prosecution. A website run by supporters of Timothy Miller, which raised thousands of dollars for his defense, claims the dropping of charges against him is was a “miraculous” event.
According to Kenneth Miller’s Mennonite supporters, the pastor regards homosexual “marriage” as a symptom of the general abandonment of Christian marriage, which “is to be a life-long relationship between one man and one woman.”
While he opposes homosexual “marriage,” he does not see it as the greatest threat to the institution, instead holding that “the greatest threat is a Christianity that has marginalized and compromised Jesus’ teaching on marriage. The teaching of Jesus as understood by the Church for the first 300 years of its history allowed for divorce or separation in rare cases, but remarriage was viewed as adultery.”
He prescribes a “radical repentance within Christianity” as the solution to the problem.
Miller’s supporters explain that “as a follower of Jesus, Ken could not ignore” Lisa Miller’s plea for help to escape Jenkins.
“Ken supported Lisa’s desire to remove herself and Isabella from former relationships which were not in accord with Jesus’ standard. However, he felt only love and compassion for Lisa’s former partner and others involved,” they add.
Related links:
Website supporting Pastor Kenneth Miller: MillerCase.org.
