Victory in the Courts - Wichita, KS

Victory in the Courts – Wichita, KS

Finally, our court case against the city of Wichita has been decided! We won! Even though it seemed that the judge was in favor of the city, we won! Even when Pastor Joe Wright thought he needed to expose his brothers and sisters before the city magistrates, we won! Our brother, Pastor Wright, took his stand against those who did their very best to represent Christ at the gates of hell. Although we certainly did not do everything perfect, we did nothing to deserve the public ridicule and disparagement on the stand from Pastor Wright.

Thank God the judge didn’t believe him nor did he believe any of the City’s witnesses. He saw through the City’s attempt to censor the Gospel of Christ off the streets of Wichita and to trample our first amendment rights. Understand we are not fighting for our rights simply to fight for our rights. We have a duty before God to share the Gospel in the streets. It is this privilege and responsibility before God that we are fighting for. The City of Wichita , along with Pastor Joe Wright, tried to cause gentle Christians to shirk this duty. The judge, however, saw through the city even though he disagrees with us theologically and philosophically. This truly is a victory handed down from the Lord!

We want to thank our lawyers, especially Rick Nelson. He has stood with us when others would not. We consider it an honor that he would defend us so adamantly. The city was ordered to pay around $150,000 in legal fees. We were awarded $1.00. The true victory is that the City of Wichita will never again think it trivial to harangue gentle Christians dealing with abortionist George Tiller. He is the true blight on this city! Wichita spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to protect this man, knowing that we were truly gentle Christians. The city did not take their stand against OSA. They took their stand against Jesus Christ. Even the judge said so! – Flip

Below is Donna Lippoldt’s report:

Parade at national event in Wichita 2001

Praise the Lord for all our attorneys, Rick Nelson, Don Mc Kinney and Rick Macias!

Judge J. Thomas Martin, found in favor of Donna Lippoldt, OSA National and Flip Benham that our constitutional rights had been violated in the summer of 2001 by denying parade permits. This case has gone on for many months and the decision was handed down March 31st, 2004. The city of Wichita tried everything in its power to discourage churches involvement in our "Summer of Mercy Renewal" event. They even went so far as the former Mayor demanding a list of participating churches and pastors from Donna. When she declined to give the list to him, they took matters into their own hands and met with pastors and churches discouraging participation. Sounds like Germany right? It sure felt like it to us.

However, they were caught violating our rights by denying the parade permits. Rick Nelson did a magnificent job leading our legal team to victory. Some pastors believed their lies about our intent to break the law, making up tactics that we were going to organize "fake heart attacks" to put the Wichita hospitals in a chaotic state, and saying we were seen practicing locking arms in a local park. These lies were perpetuated by Planned Parenthood, the organization that hosted a "training seminar" where our local police, FBI, etc. were subjected to more lies by this pro-abortion organization. They, however, willingly attended this and believed that we were somewhat dangerous.

Since when did the public gathering of Moms, and Dads, Grandmas and Grandpas, little boys and little girls standing up for the unborn become dangerous. In the depositions that lasted several weeks, we challenged them to prove one act of violence against any pro-lifer in Wichita. They couldn't. It was unfortunate that the local pastors fell for these lies. Another trap of satan. The city will have to pay all our expenses for our lawyers which will send a message to them that will hurt.