Pastor Who Aided International Parental Kidnapping Sentenced To Prison, But Stayed Pending Appeal

Christian News Network reports that a federal court judge in Burlington, Vermont yesterday sentenced Mennonite pastor Ken Miller of Stuarts Draft, Virginia to 27 months in prison plus one year of supervised probation after Miller was convicted last year of abetting an international parental kidnapping. (See prior posting). Miller's conviction grew out of the assistance he gave to Lisa Miller (no relation to the pastor), who-- before declaring herself a born-again Christian-- had been in a Vermont civil union with another woman. She now sought to avoid the court-ordered child visitation rights awarded to her former partner by fleeing with her daughter. The pastor helped her ultimately get to Nicaragua and obtain shelter from missionaries there. Edge quotes from a letter that Pastor Miller sent to the sentencing judge ahead of the sentencing decision in which Miller calls the decree awarding visitation rights "inhumane" and said the court is judging his faith, conscience and deeply held moral beliefs. Judge Sessions, after imposing the prison sentence, ruled that imposition of the sentence would be stayed pending an appeal on whether the case should have been tried in Virginia instead of Vermont.