An update on the claims of Ken Hutcherson. BTW, there is a request at the end of this for a link to the video Kenny claims proves support of his efforts in LV by the Bushies. If anyone knows of this video, could you post a link to it?

http://www.thestranger.com/blog/2007/03/white_house_contradicts_local_pastor_ken

News UPDATE: White House Contradicts Local Pastor Ken Hutcherson on His Claim that He Is a U.S. “Special Envoy”; Hutcherson, in Response, Says He Will Provide Video Proof
Posted by ELI SANDERS on March 19 at 17:00 PM

Ken Hutcherson, the famously anti-gay pastor at Antioch Bible Church, just outside of Seattle, has recently been claiming that he is a newly-minted White House “Special Envoy.”

Hutcherson’s supposed full title, which he claimed was bestowed upon him by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, was: Special Envoy for Adoptions, Family Values, Religious Freedom, and Medical Relief.

Hutcherson apparently used this title during his recent travels to Latvia, where he complained to the U.S. Embassy there about its alleged monetary support for gay rights groups, and where he also reportedly appeared with Scott Lively, an American who claims gays were responsible for (not victims of) the Holocaust.

This morning I called the White House to confirm Hutcherson’s title. I just received an email from White House Spokeswoman Alyssa J. McLenning, who tells me that Hutcherson was never given any such title. McLenning writes:

The White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives did not give Hutcherson the title, “Special Envoy for Adoptions, Family Values, Religious Freedom, and Medical Relief.”
I’m still waiting to hear back on whether the White House gave Hutcherson any other titles, and whether it provided any material support for his trip to Latvia. I’m also putting a call in to Hutcherson to see if he can explain why he’s been claiming a title that the White House says he doesn’t have.

UPDATE: I’ve heard back again from McLenning, and she she tells me that the White House did not give Hutcherson any other titles and did not coordinate with Hutcherson on his recent trip to Latvia.

FURTHER UPDATE: I just spoke to Pastor Ken Hutcherson. He tells me that White House spokeswoman Alyssa J. McLenning is wrong, that he does have the title he claimed, and that it comes from a “partnership” he’s established with Jay Hein, Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

“You need to talk to Jay Hein,” Hutcherson told me. “He’s the one that I’ve been talking to and the one that we are partnered with.”

Hutcherson claims to have met with Hein at least twice in person about this partnership, once a few months ago in Seattle, and once last month at the White House. I asked Hutcherson what the title and the partnership mean in terms of his work in Latvia. He replied:

“In my meetings, I can represent as being with them [the White House] and having the power I need to get things done.”

MORE: Postman digs up an account of Hutcherson speaking to Latvia’s New Generation Church:

‘I came to you representing the White House’, continued Hutcherson.
And a Slog reader emails me to suggest the following:

If Hutch did engage in an “official capacity” in Latvia claiming he was some sort of “special envoy” without approval from the White House (and likely the State Department as well- they get VERY touchy about stuff like that) it could well be a federal crime.
I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t know if it could be a crime or not, but I’m looking into this question.

MORE FROM HUTCHERSON: Hutcherson just called me again. He sounded quite perturbed that he is being cast as, in his words, “a liar,” and he told me that he is rushing to get his hands on video of an interview with Latvian television that he said will prove his claims.

The video, Hutcherson told me, was shot after a Feb. 8 meeting at the White House between himself; Jay Hein, the director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives; and Pastor Alexei Ladyaev of Latvia’s New Generation Church.

Hutcherson said this White House meeting was the second of two meetings he had with Hein about his plans in Latvia. The first meeting, according to Hutcherson, took place in Seattle on January 18 during a conference on faith-based initiatives attended by Hein.

“That was when he made his first commitment to me and said it was a done deal,” Hutcherson told me.

I asked Hutcherson what, exactly, was a “done deal” after his Seattle meeting with Hein.

“Our partnership,” Hutcherson told me. He said he requested the first meeting with Hein because, in his words, “I just wanted Faith-Based to give me the power to do what I needed to do.”

And the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives did, according to Hutcherson.

Hutcherson said that in the video from the second meeting (the one held on Feb. 8 in D.C.) the three men—Hutcherson, Hein, and Ladyaev—are standing on the White House lawn answering questions from a Latvian television reporter.

Hutcherson said the video will show that Hein met with him, knew of his new title, and approved of his mission to Latvia. As Hutcherson put it to me:

I’m gonna prove that I had those meetings, I’m gonna prove that I got that title behind me, and I’m gonna show you the video that says I was coming to Latvia and the purpose why.
If this video actually aired on Latvian television, as Hutcherson says it did, I’m guessing there might be a clip of it out there somewhere on the web. If you find it, shoot me an email with a link.

If you go back to the blog you link to, Int, there’s now a lot more there—

http://www.thestranger.com/blog/

The “Apostle” Ledyaev’s site has also put plenty of material up, in Latvian and English—

http://newgeneration.lv/eng/news/?doc=2313

Vysu lobu,
/P

More on the, er, Latvia—US West Coast “connection” has been cropping up all over. A sampling—

http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/davidpostman/archives/2007/03/redmond_pastor_fights_us_policy_toward_gays_in_latvia.html

http://www.ttca.org/cruisenews/2007/03/hutchersons-dream-of-christianist.shtml

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/45018.html

Vysu lobu,
/P

Both Diena and delfi.lv picked up the story yesterday (which strikes me as archaic—why does a German news agency need to report it before it bounces back?), and Kārlis Streips commented at his blog—

http://www.vdiena.lv/lat/politics/comblog/karlis/visu_tautu_homofobi_savienojieties

Vysu lobu,
/P

I think we can stick a fork in this one.

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=202389

Not Straight to Video
Ken Hutcherson Claims to Have Proof He Was a White House “Special Envoy.” But He’s Not Sharing It.
By Eli Sanders

In March, reporters noticed an unusual claim being made by Pastor Ken Hutcherson, the Eastside evangelical whose crusades against gay rights and gay-friendly businesses have brought him national attention. In e-mails, Hutcherson was telling his supporters that he had been appointed by the George W. Bush White House as a “special envoy” to Latvia. When challenged on this claim, Hutcherson promised to produce a videotape that would prove it true.

That was more than four weeks ago.

Since then, the White House has repeatedly denied that it gave Hutcherson any titles, “special envoy” or otherwise, in connection with his lobbying trip to Latvia in early March. During the trip, Hutcherson reportedly appeared with a well-known Holocaust revisionist, rallied Christian worshippers at an evangelical church, and complained to U.S. embassy officials in Riga, the Latvian capital, about their alleged support for local gay-rights groups.

There have been numerous accounts, however, of Hutcherson suggesting or outright stating that he was representing the White House as he lobbied against efforts to promote gay rights in Latvia. In e-mails to his supporters before and after the trip, Hutcherson wrote of having been appointed as a “special envoy” for “Adoptions, Family Values, Religious Freedom, and Medical Relief.” In a March 16 e-mail, he said the appointment allowed him to meet with the Latvian government.

A local lawyer, Dave Coffman, has suggested that the claims by Hutcherson could have violated federal laws against posing as an official U.S. representative while abroad. Coffman filed a complaint with the FBI in late March, and said he received a follow-up call from the bureau on April 2. (The FBI will not comment on investigations unless charges are brought.)

Hutcherson, for his part, has maintained that he did indeed have support from the White House for his trip, and he has bridled at being called, in his words, dishonest. When a German press agency reported on the controversy in late March, it quoted a White House spokeswoman denying Hutcherson’s claims, and then quoted Hutcherson saying that he “did not appreciate being called a flat liar.”

Because Hutcherson himself set up the White House video as the hard proof that his version of events is true, The Stranger had been trying for weeks to get a look at the tape. On April 11, Hutcherson finally made himself available for an interview. During the conversation, he reversed course and said he had the video, but would not be showing it to The Stranger.

“Oh yeah, I have it,” he said. But, he added: “My relationship with the White House is much more important than my relationship with you.”

Hutcherson said he believes that if he produces the video, it will be used to embarrass the White House.

“I’m not going to give you information so you can go and attack the White House,” he told me. “Either way, you win.”

If Hutcherson doesn’t show the video, he remains vulnerable to charges that it doesn’t exist and that he was exaggerating or fabricating his “special envoy” status. If he does produce it, he risks his relationship with the White House.

Hutcherson said that he believes the director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives recently put out a statement supporting Hutcherson’s version of events. The Stranger could find no evidence of this, and it seems unlikely that such a statement would have been missed by the reporters who are interested in this story. A phone call and e-mail to the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives requesting clarification were not returned.

That’s fine with Hutcherson.

“You tell the White House, if they’re not going to say any more, that’s fine,” Hutcherson said.

Hutcherson seems to hope this story will stop here, with him claiming the White House version of events is wrong and the White House declining to comment further.

Perhaps it will. Or perhaps he’ll be willing to show his alleged tape to a reporter for a paper that he isn’t so upset with.

Hutcherson certainly sounded fed up with The Stranger during the April 11 interview, which represented a dramatic change of tone. After calling this reporter “brother” and “my man” in phone and e-mail messages over the past weeks, on April 11 he angrily told this reporter not to call him anymore, and said he would be happy to show his video in a court fight against The Stranger—a thinly veiled threat of legal action.

When told The Stranger was simply trying to follow up on a test he himself had set up—the alleged video—Hutcherson responded:

“Brother, I’m not giving you nothing. Don’t call me. Bye.” And then he hung up.

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Has it almost been a year already?

Andrejs

Interfax: Homosexuality ‘unnatural form of prostitution, Latvian Catholic leader says
5/10/2007
Interfax (http://www.Interfax-religion.com)

MOSCOW (Interfax) – Cardinal Janis Pujats, head of the Catholic Church in Latvia, has described homosexuality as ‘”absolute depravity in sexual behavior” and a “unnatural form of prostitution.”

In his open letter, he urges the government to defend “the traditional family values against the libertinism of homosexuals,” the Web site GayRussia.ru reported May 10.

“We cannot keep silence. In a month’s time, there will be calls to tolerate homosexuality in the context of another attempt to organize a pride march on June 3,” Cardinal Pujats wrote.

The cardinal has urged the Latvian government to stop what he calls “an action inspired from abroad, in which a handful of people with dubious morality tries to force the government to accept their perverted views.”

”No international document on human rights views homosexuality as a sign of minority to be protected,” he stressed.

Cardinal Pujats noted that, if a gay parade was held in his country, it would be “a real attack on the national morality, religion and family values,” adding that people “will not watch it in silence.”

He also pointed to the need to hold a referendum in Latvia on same-sex marriages.

According to a poll conducted this spring, 62 percent of the Riga population are against the march, while 17.5 percent are in favor of it and 20 percent of the people in the Latvian capital found it difficult to answer this question.

I truly hope this doesn’t get ugly, but right now it does not look good for the upcoming Pride march.

More on this via the UK
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-4338.html

Cardinal: homosexuality a form of prostitution

An open letter from Cardinal Janis Pujats calls on crowds of people to take to the streets of Riga to oppose the Pride march on June 3rd.

9th May 2007 17:27
Tony Grew

The opposition of the Roman Catholic church to gay Pride parades reached a new low today when the Archbishop of Riga called homosexuality “total corruption in the sexual arena” and “an unnatural form of prostitution.”

An open letter from Cardinal Janis Pujats demands a referendum on the issue of same-sex marriage and calls on crowds of people to take to the streets of Riga to oppose the Pride march on June 3rd.

“If there are 1,000 sexually crazy people acting foolishly in the square of Pride, then the people’s march in Riga should have at least 40,000 or 50,000,” he wrote.

“That proportion would give the government and public thought enough reason to leave sexual perversion outside the law.”

The Roman Catholic leader recommends holding the “provocative demonstration (Pride), in a location that is closed and limited some way; a garden or square.”

The Cardinal calls gay Pride a “foreign-inspired action” and his wide-ranging attacks show an underlying unhappiness with the new Latvia as an EU member.

“If a person’s beliefs are godless, then there is little hope to get rid of sexual dependency.

“And it is not wonder that homosexuals, now that they have noticed quite a sexualised society, are attacking us with their perversions,” he wrote.

The Cardinal claims that no human rights document covers gay people as a protected minority.

He also uses a report from 243 Latvian doctors as proof that homosexuality is an illness.

“The claim which says that homosexuality is a permissible version of normal behaviour or a special inborn disease is not true.

“The dependency created by this immorality and the resulting perverse behaviours must be seen as a sickness,” the doctors’ report reads.

Last month Christian groups in Latvia welcomed fundamentalist US preachers and to the country and talked tactics about opposing gay rights.

A meeting organised by Janis Vanags, Archbishop of the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church, was attended by Cardinal Pujats and representatives of the Orthodox, Penecostals and other Christian groups.

They were addressed by Kenneth Hutcherson, who runs a ‘super-church’ in Seattle and is a vehement opponent of gay rights.

He told the Latvians that homosexuality was spreading rapidly, and that the “gay lobby” had increasing political influence across the world.

“We need to do everything to ensure that even in the European Union it does not lose its principles.

“It is a holy right of any nation to decide in what society to live,” he told the assembled crowd, which included senior MPs.

Latvia joined the EU in 2004.

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has pledged his support for the Riga Pride event, and London Pride has twinned with Riga as a show of solidarity.

Last year the march was attacked and missiles and human excrement were thrown at participants.

Gay and lesbian protesters were refused permission to march in Riga on the 22nd July 2006 by city officials, who cited security advice from the interior ministry.

A group of around 50 activists instead held a service of tolerance at a local Anglican church.

Hundreds of neo-Nazi skinheads, ultra-nationalists and members of the Orthodox church besieged the church, pelting the activists with excrement.

It was reported that local police stood and watched as events unfolded and declined to intervene.

The new Mayor of the Latvian capital has publicly backed the 2007 gay rights march in the city in June.

In an interview with Diena newspaper last month Janis Birks said he was ashamed at events last year and called for tolerance and understanding on all sides.

“The problem is not in the march but sexual orientation,” said Mr Birks.

“We need to have discussion within society. What happened on the side of sexual minorities and the other side, I think we need understanding from both sides.”

Mr Birks said that if security could be provided, the march could go ahead.

Ken Livingstone, welcomed his Latvian counterpart’s comments, but urged Riga authorities to do more to protect gay people on the march.

“Security is something that is under the control of the authorities,” said Mr Livingstone.

“It is their duty to ensure that demonstrators are able to exercise their right to peaceful protest.”

The Cardinal’s call to arms is bound to impact on the security situation at Riga Pride.

Telling Catholics that “we cannot keep quiet,” he concluded:

“I can add that during this time, the faithful must not be passive. They must be witnesses of God, sufficient