HOUSTON – Houston Mayor Annise Parker acknowledged Monday that her office had received Bibles from across the country following a protest campaign launched by former Republican presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee.
"I know we've received some and they're collecting them in the office but I don't know how many that might be," Parker said.
A spokesperson with the mayor's office later stated that somewhere between 500 and 1,000 Bibles had been shipped to the mayor so far.
"I would like to ask every pastor in America, send her your sermons," Huckabee said on his Fox News show on Oct. 20. "Everybody watching the show ought to send her a Bible."
Huckabee and others have voiced opposition to subpoenas that called for the sermons of select Houston area pastors to be collected and examined as part of the city's defense to the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance recall lawsuit.
"She needs to apologize and start respecting all citizens, or at least have the integrity to resign," Huckabee said on his program.
Parker has since instructed the city's legal team to narrow the scope of the subpoenas and had earlier said she did not know about the sermon subpoenas before they were issued.
"It is not about what someone may have preached. It is about whether in any forum they gave specific instructions how to fill out the petition because that is the crux of the legal case," Parker said Monday.
Parker said she planned to donate the Bibles she has received to area churches.
"Actually, I think it was a very productive way for folks who disagreed with our legal strategy to express that disagreement and I'm happy to share the Bibles with those who may want them," Parker said.