Twitter has abruptly shut down a petition campaign to protect Houston pastors from having to hand over to the city all their sermons and emails dealing with the issue of homosexuality or that mention the city's lesbian mayor.
The Christian organization Faith Driven Consumer created the Twitter hashtag campaign #HoustonWeHaveAProblem – but got blocked by the social media giant minutes after launching Wednesday,
the Daily Caller reports.
Twitter also placed a warning on Twitter-based links to the petition website, the Daily Caller reports.
Faith Driven Consumer's
previous hashtag campaign – #iStandWithPhil – that defended Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson also got the hook, briefly.
Robertson was briefly put on hiatus from the hit reality show in December 2013 after saying in a GQ interview that homosexuality is a sin.
"We are asking Twitter to immediately unblock thousands of people who have already flocked to our petition and want to spread the word from coast to coast," Faith Driven Consumer founder Chris Stone said in a statement provided to The Daily Caller.
The city of Houston
has issued subpoenas to a group of pastors requesting any sermons and personal correspondences, including emails, that discuss "homosexuality, gender identity, or Annise Parker, the city’s first openly lesbian mayor."
The subpoenas came after pastors protested Houston's new non-discrimination ordinance that the city council passed in June which, among other clauses related to sexuality and gender identity, would allow men to use the ladies room and vice versa in an effort to protect transgender rights.
"For far too long, the federal government has led an assault against religious liberty, and now, sadly, my hometown of Houston is joining the fight," Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said of the subpoenas.
"This is wrong. It's unbefitting of Texans, and it's un-American. The government has no business asking pastors to turn over their sermons."
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