© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
A Christian mission serving homeless people since
1939 is under investigation for discrimination because its walls are adorned
with crosses and other religious imagery.
The probe was prompted by a city fair-housing investigator, who also
happens to be a cross-dressing Wiccan openly contemptuous of mainstream
religions, the Charleston, W. Va., Daily Mail reported.
Huntington City
Mission |
The investigation began May 8 when Okey Napier Jr., walked into the Huntington City Mission in
West Virginia and noticed the "Christian imagery" and other things that caused
the city's Human Relations
Commission to probe allegations the homeless shelter violated the state's
fair housing laws.
The mission is supported mostly by private donations but also receives some
state and federal money.
The City Mission's lawyers say the investigation raises serious questions
about the length religious groups need to go to separate their beliefs from
their charitable work, the Daily Mail reported.
They filed a lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. U.S. District Court in Huntington to
abort the investigation.
"Enough is enough," said attorney Dave Duffield, according to the paper.
"How would you like them to come into your church and tear the cross down?"
He points the finger at Napier, who wrote a piece on his website
criticizing major religions for their condemnation of homosexuality.
"Nobody, unless they had an agenda, would do this," Duffield said.
However, Sally Lind, the commission's executive director, insists the probe
simply is about how the mission can do its necessary work in a
"non-discriminatory way."
Last year, the Charleston paper said, the mission provided a place to sleep
for thousands of people and served more than 82,000 meals. It also provides
spiritual guidance and holds daily worship services.
The commission voted last month to scrutinize the mission's policies, which
include barring drugs and alcohol and not allowing unmarried couples to sleep
in the same room.
The panel, which enforces the state's fair-housing laws, is looking at
allegations the mission discriminates according to religion and gender. The
accusations include requiring people seeking help to reveal their spiritual
beliefs, serving non-Christians in facilities with Christian imagery and
making married men spend two nights under "observation" in the men's dorm
before joining their spouse in the family dorm, the Daily Mail said.
The mission contends most of its clients do not use the mission's spiritual
services but still are welcome to anything the mission has to offer.
Lawyer Chad Lovejoy, who regards the probe as an attack on First Amendment
rights, said the mission no longer has a policy of requiring clients to have a
spiritual interview.
The Huntington City Mission is affiliated with 300 other gospel rescue
missions nationwide.
"If we don't share the gospel, then it makes no difference to just feed and
shelter," Phil Rydman, the spokesman for the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, told
the Daily Mail. "It doesn't change a life just to feed a person a meal."
Rydman believes the Huntington probe is unique, noting it comes as
President Bush's administration is giving federally funded charities more
latitude to display emblems of their faith.
Duffield said when he saw Napier's website he realized "why all these
insane attempts to put a cork in the First Amendment rights of our pastor" are
being done, the paper said.
Napier's piece, which criticizes religious institutions for creating a
culture that punishes non-traditional definitions of masculinity and
femininity, includes a cartoon of the Bible's three wise men in dresses with
the caption, "You see! We've been around for a long, long time!"
The Daily Mail said Napier occasionally dresses in women's clothes and
performs as a drag queen under the stage name Miss Ilene Over.
Napier's supervisor, Lind, insisted "there is nothing on his website that
makes him look like he is prejudiced against religion."