Harassment of members of the clergy for what they preached was one of the abuses Americans outlawed when we established the United States.

It’s back.

In Houston, Texas, city officials were upset when a citizens’ group challenged a new ordinance. It requires that businesses allow patrons to use restrooms labeled for the opposite sex, if their “gender identity” is not the same as their biological sex.

A petition drive opposing the ordinance was mounted. Houston’s city attorney already has ruled not enough valid signatures were submitted to repeal the measure.

That resulted in filing of a lawsuit over the attorney’s decision. City officials responded to it by issuing subpoenas demanding that five church leaders turn over communications – including sermons – related to the ordinance, to Mayor Annise Parker, and to homosexuality and gender identity in general.

Parker and other city officials seem to be backing down from the subpoenas. Clearly, however, they were an attempt to intimidate opponents of their social agenda.

Houston officials have set themselves up as thought police, attempting to control what people say even in their places of worship. That is unacceptable in the United States.

Every American ought to be outraged – and worried – about what is happening in Houston. City officials’ eagerness to harass those who question them is evidence of how dangerous political correctness has become.

It raises a question Americans should not have to ask:?Will the thought police be coming to our communities next?