A Mennonite pastor who was convicted of helping a mother and her daughter flee the United States to avoid the court-ordered visitations of a lesbian partner has been ordered to start serving his jail sentence.
According to the case's website, Judge Williams Sessions III has ordered Pastor Kenneth Miller to start serving his 27-month sentence on March 22 instead of March 1 as earlier reported at the federal medium security prison in Petersburg, Virginia.
Pastor Miller was convicted in 2012 of aiding in international kidnapping in the case of Lisa Miller (no relation to Pastor Miller) and her daughter Isabella who fled to Canada to avoid Lisa's former lesbian partner Janet Jenkins.
"God allows hardships and trials to make us into the image of His Son. THAT'S GOOD. So if this time in prison makes this poor sinner a little more like Jesus, it will be good and I will be happy," wrote Pastor Miller about his prison sentence.
He added, "We are not discouraged or depressed about the future, because God is in the future and we are with God, therefore we are encouraged. There are some things that can never be locked up behind prison walls. Truth. Conscience. Moral righteousness. The saving Gospel of Jesus."
A Vermont judge ordered Lisa Miller to allow Jenkins to visit Isabella.
Lisa Miller and Jenkins entered into a civil union in 2000 and the former conceived Isabella through artificial insemination and the two acted as parents, according to Burlington Free Press.
They separated and Lisa Miller became an evangelical Christian and renounced her homosexuality.
Vermont judge Richard Cohen recognised Jenkins as Isabella's daughter despite the fact that they have no biological relationship, LifeSite News reported. Jenkins' name also does not appear on Isabella's birth certificate.
The judge refused to change his decision despite the fact that Isabella suffered psychological trauma from previous visits. After Lisa and Isabella's flight, Cohen transferred full custody of the child to Jenkins. The order was never enforced as the mother and daughter remain in hiding.
The pastor already served several days in prison in 2013 and Judge Sessions released him after he testified that his imprisonment "has only made my convictions stronger."
The Mennonite community in Nicaragua, believed to have received Lisa and Isabella in 2009, was harassed by Nicaraguan police and in 2012, it declared that "[w]e have chosen to obey God. We are willing to give up our rights, go to jail, or even die, for the cause of helping anyone become free from a sinful life and helping that person to live in obedience to God's Word."
