Kenneth Miller is a Mennonite pastor who helped a repentant former lesbian named Lisa Miller (not related to him) escape the country with her daughter. She had to flee the country--that's right, flee the USA--because a Vermont state judge had ordered that full custody of her daughter be given to her unrelated former lesbian partner who was still in the homosexual lifestyle. She apparently successfully fled to Nicaragua with the help of Mennonites in Virginia, including Pastor Miller. I have previously blogged about the case here, here, and here (in backwards chronological order).
The feds immediately took up a vendetta against Pastor Miller and prosecuted him for aiding in a kidnapping! That is, to recap, the "kidnapping" was a mother's fleeing the country with her own child to keep the child from being turned over, body and soul, to an active lesbian who had no relationship, either emotional, social, or biological, to the little girl. The fugitives have now been gone for several years, and the federal administration is trying to make sure to punish all those who helped them to flee.
Pastor Miller has been an inspiration to me not only because of the nature of the case and his courage but also because of his demeanor throughout. He has been respectful of the judges involved and utterly without any desire for revenge, yet he stands by his action. The combination of courage, respect, calmness, and dignity is a model of how Christians should behave in any case that verges on or constitutes civil disobedience. I do not believe that I could bear myself as Pastor Miller has borne himself in this situation.
This site, apparently run by Pastor Miller's friends, is updated from time to time, and checking it the other day I learned about a hearing tomorrow on his appeal. There is also an entry with an inspiring excerpt from Pastor Miller's diary during the mercifully relatively brief time he spent in federal prison.
The site now also has some nice harmony versions of hymns sung by Pastor Miller and his family.
The appeal is based on a claim of wrong venue. Namely, that the federal government should not have tried the case in Vermont, since the alleged crime neither took place nor was planned in Vermont. A three judge panel will be deciding, at this level, on the merits of the appeal on those grounds.
We should pray for Pastor Miller and his family.