[Lisa Miller, a born-again Christian and "ex-gay", kidnapped her daughter and fled rather than obey a court order to give her daughter to her ex. Pastor Timothy Miller helped her escape.]

She now evidently is living in Central America, beyond the reach of a pernicious legal system which, left to itself, would have wrecked the rest of her daughter’s life, and a pastor is now in jail for the crime of helping this mother protect her daughter from the dark and dangerous influences of abnormal sexuality.

My heart breaks for this mother and child, driven from their native land by the misguided rulings of uncaring judges. And it breaks for Pastor Miller, who, even if he did what he is accused of, is being punished for doing his sacred duty and faithfully discharging his divine responsibility as a shepherd of the sheep.

He could have given Lisa and Isabella up to the wolves, but Jesus had harsh words for a shepherd who would do such a thing. “He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd—sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them—he flees because he cares nothing for the sheep” (John 10:12, 13).

The good shepherd, Jesus says, “lays down his life for the sheep.” That’s what this pastor has done, and he deserves our praise, support and commendation. And he deserves better from a Christian nation than to be thrown in a jail cell with rapists, murderers, child molesters and thieves.

He is in a long and worthy line of spiritual leaders, beginning with the apostles, who also were thrown in jail when they said, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

Rosa Parks gained civil rights immortality because she refused an order to obey an unjust law. If there was ever a contemporary case in which civil disobedience is justified, the Lisa Miller case is it. May God have mercy on Lisa Miller, her daughter Isabella, and Pastor Timothy Miller. And may God, the Judge of the living and the dead, bring the guilty before his bar of pure and uncompromising justice.