Court Opinion

ID: 9682899
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:19:14.045127+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:43.008011
License: Public Domain

PATIENCE DRAKE ROGGENSACK, J.
¶ 91. (dissenting). Subsequent to Grant Storms' speech at a *741meeting of Wisconsin Christians United, Action Wisconsin, Inc. published the following statement on its website:
We trust that Senator Panzer will be as appalled as we were to find one of her colleagues in the audience for a speech apparently advocating the murder of his own constituents.
Based in part on Action Wisconsin's statement that he was "apparently advocating [] murder" during his speech to Wisconsin Christians United, Storms began this defamation lawsuit. The majority opinion concludes that Storms' lawsuit was frivolous when filed and frivolous when continued.1 The dispositive questions presented by this review are: whether a reasonable attorney in Attorney Donohoo's position could have concluded that no reasonable jury could find the following facts: (1) Action Wisconsin's statement is false; (2) the statement defamed Grant Storms; and (3) when it made the statement, Action Wisconsin did not believe the statement was true, or made it with reckless disregard as to its truth. See Baumeister v. Automated Prods., Inc., 2004 WI 148, ¶ 28, 277 Wis. 2d 21, 690 N.W.2d 1. Because the law of defamation is complex and often unclear, I conclude that a reasonable attorney in Attorney Donohoo's position could have believed that a reasonable jury could answer "yes" to these questions.2 *742Such a jury then would have found that Action Wisconsin published the statement on its website with actual malice, thereby defaming Grant Storms.3 Milsap v. Journal/Sentinel, Inc., 100 F.3d 1265, 1270 (7th Cir. 1996) (citing New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 279-80 (1964)). Accordingly, I would affirm the court of appeals, and I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion.
I. BACKGROUND
¶ 92. This review arises from Grant Storms' lawsuit against Action Wisconsin as a result of statements that Action Wisconsin published on its website, subsequent to a speech that Storms made to Wisconsin Christians United. Storms' speech spoke of his personal opposition to homosexual lifestyles and his belief that the Bible teaches that homosexuality is a sin.
¶ 93. Action Wisconsin supports gay rights, and was, at the time of the statement on its website, heavily lobbying the legislature against passage of the constitutional amendment, Article XIII, Section 13, that denies marital status to same-sex partners.4
*743¶ 94. The statement that formed the basis for this lawsuit was made on Action Wisconsin's website as a "press release" captioned: "State Senator Attends 'Homo-Fascism' Conference, Action Wisconsin Asks Majority Leader Panzer to Investigate." The press release continued, "[t]oday Action Wisconsin sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer, calling on her to investigate, identify, and discipline the state senator who attended the 'International Conference on Homo-Fascism' in Milwaukee on October 10, 2003." The press release continued, "[t]he attendance of a state senator at this conference is similar to a senator attending a Ku Klux Klan rally or a neo-Nazi conference, and should receive tremendous scrutiny.... We are deeply concerned that a state senator would feel comfortable attending a conference that espoused such frenzied, hysterical hatred." Christopher Ott, Executive Director of Action Wisconsin, is then quoted in the press release as saying:
We trust that Senator Panzer will he as appalled as we were to find one of her colleagues in the audience for a speech apparently advocating the murder of his own constituents. We also hope that every legislator will think twice before supporting any more hate-inspired legislation.
Storms subsequently found handbills affixed to telephone poles in his hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana, that contained his picture and below the picture it said: "Why does Pastor Grant E. Storms of Christian Conservatives for Reform advocate the murder of gays?" The handbill referred readers to Action Wisconsin's website.
¶ 95. Before Attorney Donohoo filed the defamation action on behalf of Storms, he twice requested Action Wisconsin to retract the statement. Action Wis*744consin did not respond. Also prior to filing this lawsuit, Attorney Donohoo listened to and analyzed Storms' speech and he concluded that no reasonable person would conclude that Storms was advocating the murder of homosexuals.
¶ 96. After the lawsuit was filed, an attorney for Action Wisconsin wrote Attorney Donohoo threatening him with her intent to seek an award of attorney's fees under Wis. Stat. § 814.025 and to report him to the Office of Lawyer Regulation if he did not dismiss the lawsuit. The basis for these threats was the attorney's conclusion that the lawsuit was frivolous because "the Defendants did not say that Mr. Storms advocated murder, but rather that he appeared" to be doing so. The attorney italicized the word "appeared" and asserted that the statement that Storms was apparently advocating murder was Action Wisconsin's reasonable opinion and therefore not actionable. Action Wisconsin's attorney further asserted that she believed Storms was a public figure and therefore, Storms would have to prove actual malice in order to succeed in his lawsuit. She asserted "there is no evidence from which you can even argue actual malice."
\ | 97. After the lawsuit was commenced, Attorney Donohoo had two of his law clerks and two others persons listen to Storms' speech. Each person told Attorney Donohoo that he did not believe Storms was advocating the murder of gay people.
¶ 98. The circuit court dismissed Storms' lawsuit upon Action Wisconsin's motion for summary judgment. In so doing, the circuit court found numerous facts, even though the matter was before the court on summary judgment. It found that Storms failed to prove Action Wisconsin's statement was false; that Action Wisconsin's interpretation of Storms' speech was not unreasonable; *745and that Storms had failed to present evidence of actual malice. Without articulating the legal standard that is to be applied to motions to conclude that an action was frivolous to commence or to continue, the circuit court so concluded and awarded Action Wisconsin more than $87,000 in costs and fees against Attorney Donohoo.
¶ 99. Attorney Donohoo appealed and the court of appeals reversed. Donohoo v. Action Wis., Inc., No. 2006AP396, unpublished slip op. (Wis. Ct. App. May 30, 2007). It concluded that "This case is not about whether the trial court correctly decided the summary judgment issue. ... [T]he case is controlled by the frivolous action standards, which are different than those governing summary judgment." Id., ¶ 9. The court of appeals concluded that the circuit court erred in three respects: (1) there were disputed issues of material fact relative to the issue of actual malice; (2) damage to reputation is presumed when defamation based on libel is proved; and (3) Attorney Donohoo engaged in a reasonable inquiry prior to and subsequent to filing Storms' lawsuit.
II. DISCUSSION
A. Standard of Review
¶ 100. We review whether the commencement or continuation of a lawsuit is frivolous and therefore a violation of Wis. Stat. § 814.025, as a mixed question of fact and law. Jandrt v. Jerome Foods, Inc., 227 Wis. 2d 531, 562, 597 N.W.2d 744 (1999). What an attorney knew or should have known is factual. Id. at 562-63 (citing Juneau County v. Courthouse Employees, 221 Wis. 2d 630, 638-39, 585 N.W.2d 587 (1998)). A circuit court's determinations of historical facts will be overturned only if they are clearly erroneous. Wis. Stat. *746§ 805.17(2). The ultimate conclusion of whether the factual findings meet the legal standard of frivolousness is a question of law. Jandrt, 227 Wis. 2d at 563.
¶ 101. Whether a lawsuit is commenced in violation of Wis. Stat. § 802.05 is a discretionary determination of the circuit court. Id. at 548. Section 802.05 applies only to commencing a lawsuit; it does not apply to the continuation of a lawsuit. Id. at 547. We will not reverse a circuit court's discretionary determination unless an erroneous exercise of discretion has been shown. Id. at 549. Applying an incorrect legal standard is an erroneous exercise of discretion. City of Brookfield v. Milwaukee Metro. Sewerage Dist., 171 Wis. 2d 400, 423, 491 N.W.2d 484 (1992).
¶ 102. Whether a communication can reasonably be understood as defamatory, is a question of law. Starobin v. Northridge Lakes Dev. Co., 94 Wis. 2d 1, 10, 287 N.W.2d 747 (1980) (citing Martin v. Outboard Marine Corp., 15 Wis. 2d 452, 461, 113 N.W.2d 135 (1962)). We review questions of law independently, but benefiting from the prior decisions of the court of appeals and the circuit court. Morder v. Bd. of Regents of the Univ. of Wis. Sys., 2005 WI159, ¶ 19, 286 Wis. 2d 252, 706 N.W.2d 110.
B. Frivolous Action Principles
¶ 103. An attorney files or maintains a frivolous action when the attorney "knew, or should have known" that there was no "reasonable basis in law or equity" for it. Wis. Stat. § 814.025(3)(b). Only when there is no reasonable basis for the claim, in fact, or in law and no basis for a reasonable extension of the law to include such a claim, may a court conclude that it is frivolous under § 814.025(3)(b). Jandrt, 227 Wis. 2d at 573. A *747similar lack of basis in fact or in law causes a claim to be frivolous under Wis. Stat. § 802.05. Id. at 550. In determining whether a claim is frivolous, a court must balance the integrity of the judicial process, id. at 572; Sommer v. Carr, 99 Wis. 2d 789, 799, 299 N.W.2d 856 (1981), with the desire to encourage "ingenuity, foresightedness and competency of the bar," Radlein v. Industrial Fire & Casualty Insurance Co., 117 Wis. 2d 605, 613, 345 N.W.2d 874 (1984). All doubts about the reasonableness of a claim must be resolved against the party asserting that the action is frivolous, unless the claim was brought solely to harass or injure the other party.5 Baumeister, 277 Wis. 2d 21, ¶ 28.
C. Defamation Principles
¶ 104. An action for defamation requires proof of the following elements:
(1) a false statement; (2) communicated by speech, conduct or in writing to a person other than the person defamed; and, (3) the communication is unprivileged and tends to harm one's reputation so as to lower him or her in the estimation of the community or to deter third persons from associating or dealing with him or her.
Torgerson v. Journal/Sentinel, Inc., 210 Wis. 2d 524, 534, 563 N.W.2d 472 (1997). When a public figure is the person defamed, actual malice must also be proved. Id. at 535.
¶ 105. The requirement of proving actual malice arises because "[t]he First Amendment imposes a constitutional privilege on the publication of statements *748about public figures, even when those statements are false and defamatory." Id. This privilege, which is grounded in the First Amendment, is not absolute, but rather, conditional. Id. That the declarant make his or her statement without actual malice is the condition that is imposed on the privilege. Id.
¶ 106. In order to prove actual malice, a plaintiff must show that the defamatory statement was published with knowledge that it was untrue or with reckless disregard as to its truth. Sullivan, 376 U.S. at 279-80. The test for whether the defendant had actual malice is subjective. Torgerson, 210 Wis. 2d at 542. The plaintiff must show that the defendant either knew the statement was false or "entertained serious doubts as to the truth" of the statement. Id. Actual malice can be shown by proof that the defendant had "obvious reasons to doubt the veracity" of the statement. Id. at 543 (citing St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. 727, 732 (1968)).
¶ 107. The defamation at issue here is in the form of libel because the statement was written. Martin, 15 Wis. 2d at 456. As such, the statement is "actionable without alleging or proving special damages."6 Id. at 460-61. As Martin explained, "We adhere to and adopt the common-law rule of libel, as stated in sec. 569 of the Restatement, 3 Torts, Defamation, that all libels are actionable .without alleging or proving special damages." Id. Damages are presumed from proof of the defamation by libel. Id.
¶ 108. However, whether a statement is capable of a defamatory meaning is a separate question. Id. at 461. This determination is initially for the court. Id. If a *749court concludes that the only possible meaning of the statement is defamatory, the court may hold the statement defamatory as a matter of law, and no question goes to the jury. Id. at 461-62. However, if the libel is "capable of an innocent meaning as well as a defamatory meaning, it is then for the jury to determine whether the communication capable of a defamatory meaning was so understood by its recipient." Id. at 462.
¶ 109. Statements phrased as opinions are not beyond the reach of a defamation claim. Converters Equip. Corp. v. Condes Corp., 80 Wis. 2d 257, 263, 258 N.W.2d 712 (1977). As we have explained, writings that add words such as "apparently" and "appear to be" change nothing. Id. "The authorities agree that communications are not made nondefamatory as a matter of law merely because they are phrased as opinions, suspicions or beliefs." Id. at 263-64. Accordingly, such words as "apparently," which Action Wisconsin used here, at most, create a jury issue in regard to whether the statement defamed Storms. See id. at 264.
D. Storms' Defamation Claim
¶ 110. Action Wisconsin's statement on its website that Storms was "apparently advocating the murder" of homosexuals is the focus of this lawsuit. The handbills distributed by an unknown person in Storms' hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana, repeated Action Wisconsin's assertion by asking, "Why does Pastor Grant E. Storms of Christian Conservatives for Reform advocate the murder of gays?" Action Wisconsin's website was listed at the bottom of the handbill. A copy of the handbill was attached to Storms' complaint.
*7501. False statement
¶ 111. The circuit court based its decision in part on its finding that Storms failed to prove Action Wisconsin's statement was false. However, whether a statement is false or substantially true is a factual determination unsuitable for summary judgment, unless no reasonable person could conclude otherwise than that the statement was false. See Martin, 15 Wis. 2d at 462.
¶ 112. Action Wisconsin does not assert that its statement is true; rather, it asserts it is insulated from a defamation claim because it used the word, "apparently," before its statement that Storms was advocating the murder of homosexual people. It implies that the word, "apparently," shows that the statement was Action Wisconsin's opinion.
¶ 113. However, "apparently" has been defined as, "in an apparent manner," and "apparent" has been defined as, "capable of easy perception" and "real or true and supported by credible evidence." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, 102-03 (1961 ed.). Moreover, as we explained in Converters, using the word, "apparently," before a statement that is false does not insulate the declarant from a defamation action. Converters, 80 Wis. 2d at 263-64. Furthermore, "One may be libeled by implication and innuendo quite as easily as by direct affirmation." Id. at 264. Employing "apparently" before a statement that is false can do no more than create a jury issue in regard to whether the statement defamed the person about whom the statement was made. Id. at 263-64.
¶ 114. Here, the publisher of the handbills had seen Action Wisconsin's statement, as is shown by the reference to Action Wisconsin's website at the bottom of *751the handbill. It interpreted Action Wisconsin's statement to mean that Storms was advocating the commission of crimes: the killing of homosexual people. Four people who listened to Storms' speech at Attorney Donohoo's request all concluded that Storms was not advocating murder. A jury reviewing Storms' entire speech to Wisconsin Christians United could find that Storms was not advocating the murder of gay people; and therefore, Action Wisconsin's statement was false.7 Therefore, a reasonable attorney in Attorney Donohoo's position, could conclude that Action Wisconsin's statement was false. On the record before us, it remains, at most, a fact question for the jury.8
¶ 115. Prior to filing this lawsuit, Attorney Dono-hoo listened to Storms' speech and analyzed it under legal principles relating to defamation. The court of appeals did so as well. Both Attorney Donohoo and the court of appeals and three members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court have concluded that a reasonable attorney in the position of Attorney Donohoo could have *752concluded that a reasonable jury could find that Action Wisconsin's statement was false.
2. Defamatory meaning
¶ 116. A statement is defamatory when it tends to " 'diminish the esteem, respect, goodwill or confidence in which the plaintiff is held, or to excite adverse, derogatory or unpleasant feelings or opinions against him.'" Starobin, 94 Wis. 2d at 10 (quoting Prosser on Torts 756). A statement that implies that the defendant has committed a crime may be defamatory. Bauer v. Murphy, 191 Wis. 2d 517, 524, 530 N.W.2d 1 (Ct. App. 1995). Here, Action Wisconsin's statement has been interpreted by at least one person, the printer of the handbills referenced above, to mean that Storms was advocating the murder of homosexuals.
¶ 117. Whether a statement could be interpreted in a defamatory sense is initially a question of law for the circuit court to address. Martin, 15 Wis. 2d at 461-62. When libel is capable of an innocent and a defamatory meaning, a jury question is presented. Id. at 462. The court of appeals concluded that Action Wisconsin's assertion that Storms was apparently advocating murder of homosexual people was capable of a defamatory meaning. Donohoo, No. 2006AP396, unpublished slip op., ¶ 17. I conclude that a reasonable jury could find that Action Wisconsin's statement has been received as reporting that Storms was advocating the killing of gay people. Accordingly, a jury question is presented in regard to whether the statement was defamatory.
¶ 118. However, the relevant question for this review is whether a reasonable attorney in the position of Attorney Donohoo could conclude that a reasonable jury could find that Action Wisconsin's statement de*753famed Storms. Radlein, 117 Wis. 2d at 612. Prior to filing the lawsuit, Attorney Donohoo investigated the law relating to libel, as is shown by the detailed letters he wrote to Action Wisconsin requesting retraction. Once the lawsuit was underway, he had four individuals listen to the full recording of Storms' speech and none interpreted the speech as Storms' advocating the murder of homosexual people. Attorney Donohoo also obtained a copy of the handbills that were distributed after Action Wisconsin posted the statement on its website. Both Attorney Donohoo and the court of appeals and three members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court have concluded that a reasonable attorney in the position of Attorney Donohoo could have concluded that a reasonable jury could find that Action Wisconsin's statement was defamatory.
3. Actual malice
¶ 119. When a public figure claims defamation, he or she must prove that the declarant made the statement with actual malice, that is, that the declarant knew the statement was false or made it with reckless disregard as to the truth. Sullivan, 376 U.S. at 279-80. Because actual malice involves the subjective state of mind of the declarant, Torgerson, 210 Wis. 2d at 542, here Ott, it may be proved by showing that the declarant had "obvious reasons to doubt the veracity" of the statement. St. Amant, 390 U.S. at 732. Proof of actual malice involves the circumstances under which the statement under examination was made. See Van Straten v. Milwaukee Journal Newspaper-Publisher, 151 Wis. 2d 905, 917, 447 N.W.2d 105 (Ct. App. 1989).
¶ 120. The context in which Action Wisconsin's statement was published is relevant, both in regard to where and when it was made. See St. Amant, 390 U.S. at *754733. First, Ott's statement was made in a "press release" by Action Wisconsin that requested Senator Panzer to take action against members of the legislature. It began by asserting, "State Senator Attends 'Homo-Fascism' Conference, Action Wisconsin Asks Majority Leader Panzer to Investigate." It did not ask her to investigate whether Storms was advocating murder, but rather to "investigate, identify, and discipline the state senator" who attended the religious convocation of Wisconsin Christians United, which convocation Action Wisconsin characterized as a "homo-fascism conference." After maiding the statement that Storms asserts is libelous, Ott focused on potential legislation and said, "We also hope that every legislator will think twice before supporting any more hate-inspired legislation."
¶ 121. Second, the statement was made during the course of the legislative initiative to amend the Wisconsin Constitution to limit marriage to heterosexuals and to prevent civil unions for homosexual couples. Action Wisconsin saw such an amendment as contrary to the civil rights of homosexuals, whom it supports. The "marriage amendment" was a highly emotional topic on both sides of the issue and the political pressure placed ,on members of the legislature was intense. Therefore, Action Wisconsin's call to action to make "every legislator [] think twice before supporting" the upcoming constitutional amendment can be read as an effort to make voting for the proposed amendment more difficult, rather than as a call to action based on Action Wisconsin's belief that its statement about Storms was true. Furthermore, there is nothing in the record to show that Action Wisconsin turned the recording of Storms' speech over to law enforcement and requested an investigation of his activities, which one *755might expect it would have done if it truly believed Storms was advocating murder.
¶ 122. Given the context of where (as a press release placed on the internet) and when (during the legislative debate on a highly charged issue on which Action Wisconsin had taken a position), Action Wisconsin had an obvious reason to make legislative members uncomfortable for their association with Storms and his beliefs, even while doubting the truth of its allegation against Storms. St. Amant, 390 U.S. at 732 (citing Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 130, 169-70 (1967) (Warren, C.J., concurring in the result)). Stated otherwise, a reasonable attorney in the position of Attorney Donohoo could have believed that a reasonable jury could find that Action Wisconsin knew the statement was not true or made it with reckless disregard as to its truth, because the statement was part of Action Wisconsin's attempt to promote one side of a highly charged political issue. If the jury so found, then Attorney Donohoo would have proved that Action Wisconsin published the statement on its website with actual malice.
¶ 123. I agree with the court of appeals that this action was not commenced in violation of either Wis. Stat. § 814.025(3)(b) or Wis. Stat. § 802.05; nor was it continued in violation of § 814.025(3)(b). A determination of frivolousness involves a delicate balance. The question of whether an action was commenced or continued in violation of a statute is not determined in the same way that a motion for summary judgment or a motion to dismiss is determined, see Stoll v. Adriansen, 122 Wis. 2d 503, 509, 362 N.W.2d 182 (Ct. App. 1984); yet, the circuit court did not articulate or apply a different standard for these differing legal issues.
*756¶ 124. In order to be frivolous under either Wis. Stat. § 814.025(3)(b) or Wis. Stat. § 802.05, a circuit court must conclude that no reasonable attorney in Attorney Donohoo's position could have concluded that a reasonable jury could find in favor of the plaintiff. Swartwout v. Bilsie, 100 Wis. 2d 342, 350, 302 N.W.2d 508 (Ct. App. 1981). Any doubts about how a jury could find must be resolved against the person claiming that the action was frivolous. Id. While the record is a long way from proof of the claim that Attorney Donohoo asserted, I cannot conclude that no reasonable attorney in Attorney Donohoo's position could have concluded that a reasonable jury could make the findings necessary to support a verdict in favor of Storms' defamation claim. Accordingly, the defamation claim is not frivolous.
III. CONCLUSION
¶ 125. The dispositive questions presented by this review are: whether a reasonable attorney in Attorney Donohoo's position could have concluded that no reasonable jury could find the following facts: (1) Action WiscQnsin's statement is false; (2) the statement defame^ Grant Storms; and (3) when it made the statement, ^Action Wisconsin did not believe the statement was true, or made it with reckless disregard as to its truth. Because the law of defamation is complex and often unclear, I conclude that a reasonable attorney in Attorney Donohoo's position could have believed that a reasonable jury could answer "yes" to these questions. Such a jury then would have found that Action Wisconsin published the statement on its website with actual malice, thereby defaming Grant Storms.
¶ 126. Because the majority opinion concludes otherwise, I respectfully dissent.
*757¶ 127. I am authorized to state that Justices DAVID T. PROSSER and ANNETTE KINGSLAND ZIEGLER join this dissent.
STORMS CD TRANSCRIPTION
One small church in New Orleans, outside of New Orleans, Marrero, and I do a radio program called The Reformer Radio Broadcast. We do an hour talk show every day. We've been doing that for a couple of years, or eight years, going on eight years. It's been the last couple of years we've really been seeing some tremendous breakthroughs that we're so thankful for. And a few years ago I started a group called Christian Conservatives for Reform, and it's of course an activist movement and an organization we're trying to get pastors and Christians to get off their pews outside the four walls of the church and engage our society and we tell them don't overlook things that you see are wrong in society. Do something about it. Whatever it may be. And we've done a number of things and the Lord has granted us a number of successes and we're thankful for that. Of course the Lord has used us in this battling the Southern Decadence situation in New Orleans which we'll go into in just a few moments. But I just want to say I'm very, very thankful to be here. I at least know one familiar face, Brother Cal Zastrow. Brother Cal good to see you again. He is doing some tremendous work with the Constitution Party and I've met him in New Orleans and he's been down there trying to get some Christians to wake up to the fact that the Republican Party is not necessarily our allies and our friends especially when it comes to the homosexual issue. But our nation is in a real critical situation, and if there was *758ever a time for the church and the Lord Jesus Christ to stand up, it's certainly now. Amen.
Turn your Bibles this morning to 1 Samuel 14. It's so awesome coming in. I'm originally from New York and I haven't been up north here and heard the word "pop" in a long time. (Laughing) I still use the word "sneaker" but not "pop". But we're asking about if the leaves were changing. By the way Ralph I don't have a watch either so. (Laughing) We're asking about whether the leaves were changing and everybody was saying oh no not yet, not yet. So it's a real blessing we're coming in and looking down on the trees and seeing them change colors and that was pretty awesome. My wife has never been up north during the Fall. It's been nineteen years for me. I'll go back to New York during the winter to catch the snow, so it's a real blessing and got a good night sleep and woke up, left the room early to go over here to get some breakfast and got that morning northern chill. Said Yes. Alleluia. Praise the Lord.
I want to read one verse. We're actually going to come back to this passage and go through the first 23 verses which is the story of Jonathan and the armor bearer. But let's start out reading the first verse this morning. 1 Samuel 14:1 Now it came to pass upon a day that Jonathan, the son of Saul, said unto the young man that bear his armor, "Come and let us go over to the Philistines garrison." Father we come before you in Jesus' name and Lord we come to you humbly and ask you to bless and move, we ask you Lord to annoint with your Holy Spirit. But we realize this morning that we're really nothing without you. We can do nothing without you. It's not by our personalities or our intelligence or our wisdom, our own widom, or even our own strategies. But it's only by your Spirit we recognize today. It's *759not by might nor by power, but only by your Spirit, so we pray for your annointing to stir your church up. Those that are called by your name as they humble themselves and turn from their wicked way, pray and seek your face. We pray Lord that you will forgive and hear our prayers and begin to heal our land. We pray for reformation in this nation, revival. We pray for third grade awakening in this nation and we pray Lord let it start right here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on this day. In Jesus' name and everyone said Amen and Amen.
I want to speak for a few moments this morning now on the thought of you alone can make a difference. You alone can make a difference. And it's a beautiful story here in the first 23 verses of 1 Samuel 14 about Jonathan and the armor bearer defeating the army of the Philistines. Now for the sake of this conference just keep in mind that we're going to liken the Philistines unto the homosexual movement today. But this passage has a very special place in my heart because it was the passage, this passage in this story, that the Lord used to call me into the ministry. Twenty-three years ago I had just got saved out of drugs and alcohol and still had my long hair and all that kind of stuff. Been about two weeks saved and the Lord led me to church and I'm sitting in there and here comes this radical evangelist and he preached out of this passage of scripture. He entitled the message What One Man Obedient to God Can Do. What one man that's obedient to God, what God can do with one man that's obedient to God. And man the Holy Spirit dragged me down to that alter. I mean filled me with the Holy Spirit. Totally, radically changed me. I got up from there and I knew that I was called to preach and now I'm of course entitling this this morning, You Alone Can Make a Difference, and I hope *760and pray that it will have the same effect on some of you that it had on me. But I left that service with the call of God on my life to preach and the understanding that if I was obedient to God that God could use me in a mighty way. Just me. Just me. Just me alone. It wasn't going to take an army. Just me alone. So this passage has a very special place in my heart and so I'm looking forward and been looking forward to preaching it this morning when of course the Lord laid it on my heart to preach I was excited and thankful.
I want to share a couple of things before we get into this passage of scripture though and share a little bit about our battle to stop Southern Decadence in New Orleans. We've been fighting the homosexual thing for a long, long time. We've been on the radio years ago just preaching about the agenda and most all the things we were warning the church about has come to pass. In just twelve years. And so we weren't, the Lord was using us if you will to fight this homosexual agenda for a number of years, and I guess there's a point in that, in that don't be weary in well doing. And he sees you fighting and laboring and struggling and being frustrated and so forth. Hang in there. You'll get your breakthrough. And so the Lord gave us a great breakthrough with this Southern Decadence. That's not to say we didn't have successes before. We would go to the City Hall. We'd cry out. We would go to the State Legislature and try to fight homosexual legislation. And you know we had our victories. The Lord helped us to do some things. But we got our breakthrough with this Southern Decadence. Now what happened with this Southern Decadence. Well first of all let me tell you what it is. It's a big homosexual festival where 100,000 homosexuals come in from all over the nation. They call *761it the "Gay Mardi Gras" and it's notorious for its lewdness and indecency and public sex and what you have is you have 100,000 homosexuals come in, 100,000 middle-aged, potbellied, bald-headed men running around in thongs with their full buttocks exposed on the streets getting drunk for three days on Labor Day Weekend. It's been going on for 32 years. In 2001, two years ago, I was in the French Quarter looking for some of the members of my church who were down there street preaching. Got our communication line messed up, and I ended lip with a friend of mine from Chicago who's down there with me, end up right in the epicenter of this Southern Decadence Festival and saw in the middle of the street, now I won't go into detail because I don't want to offend anyone, but just to put it mildly we saw an orgy in the streets, and they were doing it with impunity. No police presence whatsoever. Which gave me the impression that the police were making back room deals with them. District 8 Police Department in the French Quarter. Making back room deals with the homosexuals to let them go ahead and have their orgy in the street and their big party, and with impunity. So I couldn't believe what was going on, and then I began to share what I saw for the next year and I would tell pastors what I saw and they would look at me and go nah. So I mean I knew what I had to do. I had to go down there and videotape it the following year if I was going to really make people, cause they weren't believing me, if I was going to make people believe me then I was going to have to show them. So that's what we did in 2002. We went down there and we videotaped them. About 30 or 40 minutes of an orgy in the street. We took it to the media. We took it to the police. We took it to the mayor. We took it to the City Council persons. We took it to pastors. The media went crazy with it. And it *762became immediately the talk of the town. We tried to seize the moment and had a little press conference a few days after the news broke. Had about thirty people, eight to ten pastors, something like that. The media gave it great coverage. The city was in an uproar. All over the talk radios and so forth. But it didn't go away after that. It didn't go away. The momentum kept on going. We kept on getting the video out there. There was something that was driving us, saying it's not over. It's not over. Keep this thing going. And so the momentum just kept on building so we had a rally about a month later. And at this rally we had about 25 pastors and 150 Christians on a Friday afternoon at City Hall. And so we started to see that God, we believe, was going to use this in a tremendous way. Got a call from the mayor. "Reverend Storms, I saw the video. I couldn't watch the whole thing. The mayor fine. Now what you need to do is you need to what you told me you need to get on my radio program and you need to tell it to the city." Now here's what happens with politicians. They want to tell you personally they're on your side. But they won't go public with it. So we demanded you got to go public with this and publicly denounce it and say you don't want it in the city any longer. He wouldn't do it. Then immediately after that I got a call from Captain Dabdaub of the 8' District Police Department and he's talking and "we want to work with you Brother Reverend Storms" blah, blah, blah. And I discerned what they wanted to do was kind of placate me so I would call off the dogs so to speak. So oftentimes they do that with our leaders. Here's what they do with the Pat Robersons and the Jerry Fallwells of the world. "Come to the White House." (Laughing) "The White House, the Oval Office?" Remember Gary Bower a bunch of our pastors of Louisiana went to Washington and Gary Bower had *763them all over for dinner. And Gary Bower said this to them when he said when he was working with the Reagan Administration, he saw some things that he didn't like. And he was praying at some pastors that would go through the Oval Office, would pull Ronald aside and say, "Hey, you're a good man overall, but blah, blah, blah". But here's what Gary said they would do. There's two things they wanted to do. They wanted to pray for Ronald Reagan and they wanted a picture with Ronald Reagan. (Laughing) You know we're not going to change our society if all we want to do is succeed so to speak to get to a place where we have a seat at the table. I don't want a seat at the table. I could care less if I have a seat at the table. I want our society to change. So we didn't bow down to the mayor or the city or the police. We said look we want this thing ended and if you're not going to do something about it, we're going to pray to God to give us wisdom and understanding and give us ways to stop it. So we took the video to the state legislature. The City of New Orleans, worthless, gone. Given over to reprobate that city's gone. Alright we'll take it to the state. So we took it to the state legislature. It happened to be the Chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee. Said "Here's what we'll do Reverend Strong. We'll pass a law making it a mandatory ten day jail time for anyone convicted of public sex." He did. It passed 100 to 0 in the House. 37 to 0 in the Senate. The governor signed it, but more than that the national media went crazy over it. We were doing interviews in the New York Times, News Piece, or News Week did a big piece on us. It was Danny Martini was representing. Martini was on the Bill O'Reilly Show. The media went crazy. All over the state. So now all of a sudden. Why did you have a law like that. Well because of this video. Because of this video Reverend Storms gave me. So now it's all over the *764state. It's all over the nation, and the homosexuals are going crazy. It kicks in two weeks before the 2003 Southern Decadence. They're running around. Scurrying around. Handing out condoms with the labels on it. "Public Sex Equals Ten Days in Jail." So now the media is picking that up and it's going crazy and we're preparing for the 2003 and so here's what we decide to do. We're not going away. What we're going to do is we're going to have a rally. We're going to have a march. We're going to march right into the epicenter of this Southern Decadence Festival, and we're going to get right in their faces, and we're going to say, "We dare you now to have an orgy-in front of us" with our video cameras. "We dare you." We figured we bring the police (blah, blah, blah) in the media. So the police picked up on that. It was all over. We were doing interviews. You're going to march right in we're marching right smack dab with hundreds of Christians right in the middle of it. So the police (Laughing) Yeah. Come on. We understand you applied for a permit for the Armstrong Park and a parade permit. Now you know we can't give that to you. Oh yeah we knew that. We don't really want it. We just did that because we spoke to some lawyers with the Alliance Defense Fund who said just go ahead and do that and then we'll sue them when they deny us. (Laughing) The next day I get a call, "Reverend Storms all your fees on Armstrong Park were waived. You can have it. And also we got your parade route. We hope you like it. We're going to give you a police escort. All your fees are waived." How many police are going to be there. "Oh you're going to be better protected than the president, we guarantee you." (Laughing) "Oh we're going to have horse police officers or what do they call them mounted police. We're going to have police cars. Police motorcycles. Motorcycle cops." It's all on the video. I encourage you to get the video. In other words they *765wanted, it was advantageous for them number one not to get sued by a bunch of radical Christians. And number two, they didn't want a riot to break out. So we had police protection. And they gave us two blocks of Bourbon Street, which they don't do in New Orleans on a Friday night. Especially to Christians. So I'll tell you there was no greater thrill than to walk around, come down Conti Street which is a side street in the French Quarter. Come around on Bourbon Street with a police escort, motorcycle cops going by you on the street, with their sirens and you're singing "Our God is an Awesome God" (laughing) and having people all over on both sides of the streets in the hard core section of Bourbon Steet (clapping) where all the, you know what's his name the guy with uh Larry Flint. His club's there. And heterosexuals looking at us with drinks in their hands, because you can drink on the streets in New Orleans, and they're like "What is going on here." And then to march right into the epicenter of the homosexual, not with the police escort, they stopped us a couple of blocks, but they knew we were going, they went in there with us and it was just awesome what the Lord did. I encourage you to get the video. ABC Prime Time covered us. Did a great piece. Eight minute piece. They played Monday night, all over the nation. We're getting calls all over the nation of what the Lord, or from people are inspired by what we were able to do. Of course they're saying "Oh these guys are courageous down there." We're not courageous.
We're crazy. (Laughing) But we thank the Lord for the victory that he has given us and I am confident Brother Ralph we can win this thing. I am confident that we can turn this thing around. Now we started to take radio calls from all the Christians that were down there. We had 400 Christians. 50 black, 50 white. All these pastors *766talking about racial unity and racial reconciliation, and trying to maneuver it and everything and bring it about. Look here. You want God. When you stand up against the enemy and go forward, all these things just fall into place. So Christians were excited, fired up, revived. We're seeing reformation. The city is beginning to take us serious now to changing things. There was no public sex. The crowds at Southern Decadence were down. The police presence was way up. (Blah, blah, blah) the arrests. Reformation is beginning and the church is revived in New Orleans and we're excited about what the Lord is doing.
Turn in your Bibles now for just a moment. Keep your finger there in 1 Samuel 14. Let's go to Genesis 19 for just one moment. Let's go to Genesis 19 for just one moment. Because I'm likening the homosexual movement here to the Philistines, and I want to let you know that the homosexual movement today is very similar to the first one found in Genesis 19. In Genesis 19:4, I want to point out a few things here. The Bible says in Genesis 19:4 "But before they lay down the men of the city even the men of Sodom can pass the house round both old and young all the people from every corner." The first point I want you to understand about this homosexual movement and the characteristic of the modern day homosexual movement which is similar to the first homosexual movement is number 1 this solidarity. There's an uncanny unity in solidarity amongst the homosexuals. It's almost unnatural when they go to a city. What do they do? They go to one neighborhood. One part of the city and they live there. And they're solidified. Man I'm telling you when you unite people, they're strong. And the reason I'm saying this is because I don't want you to underestimate this movement. I'm *767not saying fear, we can defeat it. But don't underestimate it. They are a group that are solidified. And you can see this in the old and young. Rich and poor. Black and white. They're unified. There's solidarity among them. Not only that and it should teach us a lesson, we need to come together and unite. Verse 5 "And they called upon Lot or unto Lot and they said unto him 'where are the men which came into thee this night bring them out unto us that we may know them.' You know what it means to know them, they wanted sex. They're single minded. Not only are they solidified or have solidarity, they're single minded. One thing drives the homosexual movement. One thing. You know what that is? Sex. The festivals are about sex. The gatherings are about sex. Their entertainment is about sex. They have one thing and that's single mindedness. I'm telling you. I believe that's the reason why they have the successes that they've been having. They're solidified. They're single minded. Don't underestimate them.
Another point here I want you to notice in verse 9 and they said "Stand Back". They said again. This one fellow came in to Sojourn and he who needs be a judge now we will deal worse with thee than with them and they press so upon the man even Lot and they came in to break the door. They are a scornful people. They hate us. They have contempt for us. Stand back. Who are you to say you can't tell us what to do. Who are you to say which a sin. We need to understand that. Don't think you're going to tiptoe out there and say hey, repent. They will want to kill you. You would not believe, well you would believe the things that they've written about us and they've done and the threats and everywhere we go. We announce something on the radio that we're going to go somewhere and the streets are plastered with posters of *768my picture saying I'm this, I'm that, I'm the other thing. They have contempt for the things of God and for anyone that would dare to stand up and their message is to us "Stand back. Get out of our way. Who do you think you are to judge us." If you're a little timid and fearful, you better get the Holy Ghost on you. This is a scornful people. They are. They are. They are a scornful people. And then secondly in this passage I think you can see a stubbornness there. Stubbornness. We go up to the state legislature and we kill and crush and just and we kill their legislation. They had put billboards up and they'll get rally people and they'll have commercials and pass the employment non-discrimination act. All this discrimination is homosexualist, terrible, blah, blah, blah, and we go up to the legislature and we kill it. The next year they're back up there. They're back up there. And they just keep coming, and coming, and coming, and coming. They are a stubborn people and they don't care. They want to trample us. Look at. Here is a situation. Brother Ralph said it was a serious situation. Here it is. It's us or them. There's no in between. There's no having this peaceful co-existence. They "have to eliminate us and the Word of God if they want to succeed. It's almost like communism and capitalism. It's going to be one or the other. You can't have both. You can't peacefully co-exist. A nation divided can't stand. Either they're right, or we're right. Either we're going to succeed or they're going to succeed. Either it's going to be a homosexual, anti-God nation, or it's going to be a nation that stands for God and says that that thing is sin. It can't be both. Won't be both. Something's going to happen. Either they'll crush us and have laws and silence us and kill the ones that won't be silenced or imprison the ones that won't be silent, or the church or the Lord Jesus Christ will rise *769up and say this is a Christian nation. This is the way it will remain. Go back in the closet.
All right let me preach here this morning. Let's go back to 1 Samuel 14. See Brother Grant. What are you trying to say. I'm trying to say this morning this. You alone can make a difference. You alone this morning can make a difference. I want you to go home with that, that, that thought. That you alone dedicated to God. Committed to God. Say it in your heart and in your spirit. Come and let us go over to the Philistine Garrison. Let's us go over to this homosexual movement. Let's us stand up against this homosexual movement. Wherever it may be found. Understand they're solidified. Understand their solidarity there. Understand their singleness in mind and purpose there and that they're strong and we shouldn't underestimate them. And understand they're scornful, and understand their stubbornness, but and with our God we can defeat them. Now this first verse one of the characteristics we see and it's not bad. A lot of times we get mad saying things of the devil and it's not of the devil. It's of God. What do we see here in the first verse of 1 Samuel 14. Jonathan, what's his disposition here. I believe his disposition is frustration. Here you see the Philistines over there and we're going to get into the next verse here in just a moment. But he sees Saul and the army over here and the pomegranate tree. And he says "hey something's not right with this picture over here" and so he's frustrated and and he says to his armor bearer essentially "Come on if anything's going to be done here we're going to have to go do it." And it's a divine frustration. So if you're frustrated about seeing the homosexuals taking over our nation. That's a good thing. If the frustration is of God trying to prompt you up to say "Hey let's go do something". You alone can make *770a difference. So you see. Jonathan is frustrated here. And he says to his armor bearer "Come out and let's go do something." What added to his frustration. Verse Number 2. Saul, in the outermost part of Gibeon under a pomegranate tree which is at Michon and the people that were with him were about 600 men. Well I likened that unto the church. You have Dr. Saul, a pastor of First Baptist Church, Assembly of God, Ph.D. DD. Hallelujah with his 600 disciples. Dearly Beloved. We're going to dissect the Word of God here this morning. We're going to get into the Greek and the Hebrew and there's nothing against getting into the Greek and the Hebrew. Obviously he came from Dallas Theological Seminary. (Laughing) We're going to go over here and under the pomegranate tree so we're out of the way and we can have peace. And there's a Philistine camp over there, knocking our God, hating us, and ready to take over. Ready to take over their, the Philistine Army. There's a Philistine Army out there, it's called the homosexual movement. Whether you can see it or not, understand it or not, they want to eliminate us. This is no time to be under a pomegranate tree. Now this was the apathy army he had control of. And he had been enlisting the sissy soldiers. (Laughing) Now don't laugh. They would get up and they have worship and their song would be, their main theme song would be Tiptoe Through the Tulips. That's what they were. They were a bunch of Tiny Tims tiptoeing through the tulips. And that is the church today unfortunately. When we're: supposed to be out to battle, when we're supposed to be battling the enemy, we're under some stinking pomegranate tree shaking in our boots. That's where the church is. The church is hiding. The Christians are hiding. We get letters from pastors. Do we have any spare paper around here? I like the sound *771effects of it. Good. Give me another one. Yeah give me the whole tablet. (Laughing) I had a Baptist pastor write me a three-page letter and so I said you know I got my radio program, and said you know what I'm not even going to read this because this is what I think of it. (Rips paper) That's what I think of your stinking letter. Don't write me any more letters, because I could care less what you say. Now Brother Grant that's being rude I know, hut guess what, you know why I ripped it up? Because I know in my heart he never wrote a three-page letter to the abortion doctor and said quit your abortions. He never wrote a three-page letter to some of these legislators that are pushing the homosexual agenda. He never wrote a letter to the ACLU saying quit defending the homosexuals. He never wrote a three-page letter to the enemy, but he wants to write a three-page letter and he wants to straighten us out while we're out there trying to stop this homosexual agenda from going forward. He that does a little five minute piece on a radio program, this particular pastor, and he reads history. He goes, oh yeah "And this day in 15 something and Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses", and I wrote him a letter when we were going to do this Southern Decadence march. I said come and make history with us, it's a lot better than just reading history. You got two people out there. You got people that love history and love to read history. Hallelujah. And then you got people Hallelujah that rise up and say come and let us go and they make history. And you determine, tell me what you want to be this morning (clapping). But if you're looking for some Christians to go with you to the battle. Don't. Don't, initially, and hold on that word "initially". They ain't coming. They ain't coming. And I believe Jonathan was probably over there. And I can't, you know I'm just speculating here, *772it's not in the Word, but I imagine Jonathan's over there saying to some of the soldiers, maybe even to his dad, "Come on, let's go get them. We can take them. Come on. Come on. I've been in prayer. As a matter of fact I was just on the phone with David and he said, 'yeah go get 'em' and then we got to finish our seminar." (Laughing) We're getting into several dispensations of you know whatever, some theological stuff. Dispensations. You know, here's the problem I have. I don't have problems with people studying deep the Word of God. It's that they don't apply it. They're hearers of the Word and not doers. But Jonathan was only trying to get them to go fight and I'm sure they're saying, "hey wait a minute, let us pray about it." Hallelujah. I don't feel that. So he's frustrated and he's saying, "Come now, come on armor bearer, let's go and let's go take 'em." So he goes. That's the first thing we have to do. We've got to get out of the boats. We've got to decide we're going to get out of the boat.
We're going to move. We're going to go. Even though no one goes with us. And we're going to go, and we're going to do something great for God. I say I went to Bible School, I have nothing against Bible Schools, but the Bible School I went to outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had upon its walls in the sanctuary "Attempt great things for God" on this side, big you know poster, and on this side, "Expect great things from God". Attempt great things for God, expect great things from God. So you got to believe God and go out there and believe that he's going to use you and step out of the boat.
"Well Brother Grant no one will come. I put out a newsletter and no one will come." So what, go alone. You alone, my friend this morning, can make a difference. Verse 4, 1 Samuel 14:4 And between the passages *773by which Jonathan sought to go over unto the Philistine garrison, there was a sharp rock on one side, and a sharp rock on the other side." What's your interpretation of that Brother Grant? Well, it's very simple. Whenever you go out to do something for God and you step out of the boat, there's this narrow passage you're initially going to have to go through, it happens to everyone, where you get it on both sides. (Laughing) You look over here and there's a sharp rock, and you look over here and there's a sharp rock. You got the homosexuals screaming at you on one side, and you got the dead apathetic church screaming at you on the other side. You got your critics over here. That's right. You're going to have to, I believe God allows it to test you, to toughen you up a little bit before you get out there with the real enemy. But let me tell you what. When you go to do something for God, you step out of the boat, you're going to have to go through that narrow place where there's a sharp rock on this side, and a sharp rock on that side, where you're going to get it from everyone. You're going to have your well-meaning Christian friends saying, "Brother I don't think that's God. You're going down to videotape an orgy in the street. Oh brother, you need to pray about that." And then you have your not so well-meaning friends telling you, "Brother I just want to tell you you're getting into flesh. You know you're too prideful, you're too arrogant, you're in the flesh." And then you have your critics, 'You're not loving." So you're going to get it, but you're going to have to determine that I'm going to obey God. Look I believe in wise counseling, Christian counseling, but I'm telling you what. I narrowed it down to my wife (laughing). I just don't listen to my, I just don't listen to Christians anymore. They will try to talk you out of going and beating up the Philistine Army on your own. Go tell *774them. "What you learned from the conference there. I learned that I can take this homosexual community on my own. I can do it by myself. (Laughing) Now wait a minute now. I told you not to go to that conference." (Laughing). But you're going to have to determine that you're going to hear from God and you're going to get through that narrow path. How are you going to do it? How are you going to do it? What do you listen to? Go to Verse 7 real quickly. And his armor hearer turned to him, his armor bearer said unto him, "Jonathan do all that is in thy heart. Turn thee, behold I am with thee according to thy heart." Very few Christians are going to tell you, "Do what's in your heart." If that's in your heart and it's not sin, probably God putting that there, and it may sound crazy and wild to us, but God can use it. So do what's in your heart. You won't hear that advice. Well in seminary, in the Evangelism 101 class what we've learned Brother Grant is if you do that then you're going to turn them off (Laughing) I don't listen to them anymore, those people. I don't listen to them ex-gay groups any longer. We went in, we went in a number of years ago to the, to the French Quarter during the gay pride weekend and they had a, there a, they had a dike march, the lesbians. That's what they called it, the dike march. So we announced it on the radio, we're going in there. I'm going to confront them. And praise the Lord, and so we got some of these "ex-gay groups" all excited. And so one of them got a hold of me on the phone and said, "Praise the Lord man, we want to go with you. What's going to be your approach?" I said we're just going to go in there and preach the Gospel, we're going to have some signs up, and then just go in there and deliver the Word of the Lord. "Oh praise the Lord. Can we go with you?" Yeah, yeah, yeah. "What are you going to put on the signs?" I said that's a good question you know *775because I don't want to get in the flesh and put something like that would be offensive or something like that on a big sigm So I said what we're telling all our people is this just use scriptures. So we're going to go in there with signs like Jesus Said Repent or Parish. And she said, "Oh, you're going to turn them off Brother Grant. You got to go in there with love." That is love. That's the message of Jesus. As a matter of fact it was so loving he said it twice. (Laughing) He repeated it.
You got these people that are ashamed of the Gospel so don't listen to them. So who do you listen to? Listen to your heart. Whatever is in your heart. Do it. He's with you. It's not sin. That's the way I look at it. And the wilder, the better in my opinion. (Laughing) That's right. And he's not going to use orthodox, he's not going to use, see, all this, look, all this petition, you know, I was able to be on a national program with Dr. Larry Bates during this Ten Commandments stuff, and I was so fortunate and I didn't know what was going to happen. I tuned it in and trying to get the flavor of the program before, you know that I went on, and they had Jay Sekulow on there. And so Dr. Bates was taking Jay Sekulow to task on why wasn't he standing with Judge Roy Moore. Why was he saying he was disagreeing with him about his stuff. And so I'm listening to Jay Sekulow, and man I was so affected by him I was able to follow him. I said you know what, we're sick of the appeals. Jay Sekulow is like "We needed to appeal that, if he would have appealed that he probably would have had more credibility, blah, blah, blah." You know I'm sick of appealing all this stuff. Why do good people have to go to these stinking wicked judges and beg them to please do the right thing. No forget the appeals. Forget the petition. We've been petitioning for 20 years. Signing *776petitions for 20 years, making phone calls for 20 years. We've been begging bad legislators and bad judges to try to do the good thing. Enough is enough. My friend. Just start taking it to the streets. It's not we're going to, it's God, we have to pray and ask God, "God gives us ways that are going to work. Give us techniques that will give us results." It may be taking a video camera and videotaping them, a sex orgy in the streets to expose the enemy. And then taking it to the media, and then having a rally or march and going right in there and saying, "You're not going to our streets, Sodom and Gomorrah, you filthy sinners." "Brother Grant, why don't you have a meeting with the mayor?" I don't want to meet with the mayor. I want the mayor to stand up and say enough of this stuff. End Southern Decadence. I don't want to meet with him. I don't want to have lunch with these guys. We had a pastor that came out from one of these seminaries to the rally and he's being supportive and he told his church, and he's being supportive of all this stuff, and I was so thankful. And oh it was amazing. But praise God. We're going to get some of these guys to come on board. But I'm preaching and I'm hitting the mayor. I'm hitting the City Council. Then I hit the police superintendent, Eddie Compass. Eddie Compass enforced the laws.. This guy walks off. I didn't know it at the time. I heard a lady. He walks off And so some of his members told me later why he walked off He was saying that he was displeased with everything and the way it went and he didn't support it because he would have lunch with the police superintendent and he was trying to win him over to the Lord. The friendship evangelism. And so while he's been having lunch with this guy and they've both been putting on weight and pounds, they've been having an orgy in our streets. When are they ever going to get *777around and tell them to do something? Let me tell you what. When Moses went to Pharoah he didn't say, "Let's go to lunch. I want you to read a tract I wrote." (Laughing) When John the Baptist went to Herod he didn't say, "Look there's a nice diner down the street. Come on I'll buy you lunch. I'll be your friend. Jesus loves you." What are they learning in these stinking seminaries. And when you read through all the Old Testament, all the different ways God defeated the enemy, you know what, you can't find one place where he defeated the enemy the same way. It was always something different. He rained fire and brimstone on one, then he'd send this on another, and then he would do this on another, and he would have his people do this in another way. It's always different. So find out the different ways, find out what way God wants you to defeat the enemy. That's going to take fasting and prayer and laying on your face and interceding and trevailing in prayer. "Oh God, God, Lord speak to me. Lay something in my heart. I know there's ways that you can defeat this army and stop this but Lord you've got to show me. You've got to show me. Give me a bombshell, give me a bomb oh God. Give me something Lord that's going to shake the city, and shake the state, and shake this nation. Oh Lord I need to hear from you, Lord. Lord prepare us down here. Lay something on the heart. A mandate, a plan, a strategy, a tactic." Go videotape the orgy and give it to the media. And don't tell any of your Christian friends because they'll all try to discourage you. Right. Do what's in your heart. He’s with you. Some of you right now. You have these wild, crazy things you won't even tell anybody about. You have this plan and you can't get away from it. The Lord put that there. The Lord put it there. Go do it. You want to start this, or you want to start that, or you want to go *778do this, and it's like you're a little shy and you're a little reluctant. It's like, what will people think? Don't. Don't care. That's the problem. Jay Sekulow was on that program and he goes, what did he say, he was saying, oh man, he said something about oh Lord, he said something along the lines of confrontation. Oh man, I'm going to think of it in a minute. But we got to stop worrying about what people think. I don't care what they think. And I wish I could, I'm going to think of that in a moment what he said, and I just took off on it. I just took off on it. About convenient, confrontation, something along those lines, and it's like we've been trying to placate this world and do it the world's way and it's not working. It's not working. God help us. God give us strategy. We need some people that will get up with radical ideas and go forward in the name of Jesus. Now listen what he says in Verse 6. And Jonathan said unto the young man that hear his armor, come and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumsized. It may be that the Lord will work for us. For there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or few. I just thought of what Jay Sekulow about now I just forgot it again. He said again about confrontation. It would have been less confrontational. I think, yeah basically what he was saying, less confrontational. We've been trying to do things less confrontational. Of the whole () and that's what we've been trying to do and not offend people. And it's not working. You know we wrote our petitions, we've made the phone calls. Now it's time to go to the streets in the name of Jesus. And we got to understand this one thing. We don't need the big numbers initially. We don't need the big numbers initially. It's for, there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few. And that's a problem that we have in Christiandom is that we think the big numbers are going to give us the *779victories, and when we don't have them, what we start to do in our minds and start to reason and rationalize and say if I just compromise here, and if I just lay off the Catholicism here and if I just lay off here, and if I just lay off here, then these will come over and help us and our numbers will be bigger and we will have more strength and power. No, you'll be more deluded. Because you alone can make the difference. We were tempted to compromise with the Archdiocese. I took the Bishop a videotape a month earlier. I went right into his house. They invited me into the house. They invited me for lunch. I wouldn't stay of course, you know why. (Laughing) 1 Corinthians 5. A month earlier now we were out there with our group having signs that said "Thou shalt not have sex with little children." And he drove by and we waved. But apparently he didn't recognize me. When I went in there I gave him the tape. I just said "Here, the mayor's Catholic." They came out and took a strong stand. But we didn't have to beg them, we didn't invite them to the march. As a matter of fact they know our views. The newspaper wrote all about our calling the Catholic church satanic and demonic. Never said it wasn't. They asked us about it. Look, you go examine history. You go loqj at the crusades. You go look at the inquisitions. You go look at the cover of the pedophile preacher. You determine for yourself We're not going to compromise it. But they came out anyway and said something. So we don't need to compromise our message because we have God. So it's not by many nor by few that the Lord is going to bring this victory. It's going to be you going forward with his blessing and his annointing. Don't make the mistake to try to get great numbers and then start compromising. Just go yourself initially. And then Verses 8-10 and for the sake of time I'm not going to go *780read all of that, but just go to the latter part of Verse 10 where it says and this shall be a sign unto us. In other words, they're saying look, here's what we're going to do. We're going to go show ourselves and if the Philistine garrison says "Hey come on over" we'll know it's a sign to go and get 'em. Confirmation is good. Now I know I just said hey be radical, the wilder the better, whatever God has in your heart go to it. But get confirmation along the way. I'm always looking for confirmation from God along the way. So don't be spiritually reckless. Don't interpret what I'm saying to be just some spiritual, spiritually reckless. See confirmation along the way by what God has been putting in your heart. And he will. He wants to confirm that you're on the right track. Matter of fact now I just tell all my critics you know why God put us on Prime Time? You know why God sent us that message across the nation? You know why God gave us an eight minute national commercial that probably would have cost us millions and millions of dollars, that we got for absolutely free? It's because what we did was right. We did it God's way. And only God could have ever been in this thing the way he did. So all you critics, guess what? God did this. And God did this because our tactics and our strategy and the why we went about it was right. He confirmed it, and confirmed it, and confirmed it, and confirmed it, so don't be afraid of confirmation.
Now go to Verse 11,12, go to Verse 12. Then the minute the garrison answered Jonathan and his armor bearer and said come up to us for he will show you a thing and Jonathan said unto his armor bearer come up after me for the Lord hath delivered them into the hand of Israel. What did he say? Come up after me for the Lord "hath" delivered them into the hand of Israel. He starts out *781divinely frustrated. He manifests a fearlessness, and you have to be fearless in this battle. God's not giving us the spirit of fear, but the power of love and a sound mind. We cannot be afraid of the enemy. Although we understand their power, we don't underestimate them, we recognize their strengths, we don't fear them, but my friend you're not going anywhere unless you have some faith in God. Let me tell you what I did before we went into the Southern Decadence rally and march in 2000, just this last Southern Decadence. I preached for seven Sundays on faith. Seven Sundays I preached on faith until I was so filled with faith, we don't have mountains in Louisiana, but if we did; I would have said all the men to the mountains be thrown into the sea. I mean I tell you what we need to have so much faith in God, we need to understand that with God all things are possible. We had a brother that came into the church and he started to say, "Brother Grant you're never going to stop Southern Decadence" and before he even got it out of his mouth, I had my spiritual sword out, fooom, I took his head off, his spiritual head, and it was rolling down the aisle. Don't you tell me we can't stop Southern Decadence. Don't tell me we can't usher in revival. Don't tell me we can't turn this thing around. Don't tell me God can't restore righteousness in this nation. I don't want to hear it. You don't know my God. And don't go quote, don't let me ever hear you quote with God all things are possible, because you don't believe it if that's your attitude. My friends with God all things are possible. Brother Grant do you think we're going to have revivad, a reformation, a third-grade awakening in America? I believe we can, and I believe we're going to. When the church stands up with faith, divinely frustrated, going forth in fearlessness, and starts to say to these mountains be thou removed and *782thrown into the sea, believe what they say and they will have it. When they start to understand that with God before us, who can possibly be against us? Hallelujah. When we start being strong in faith and calling those things that are not as though they are, then God will move on our behalf. When we start going forward and saying God has delivered the enemy into our hands. All before the Southern Decadence thing, people were asking me how do you think it's going to go? How do you think it's going to go? Man, God is going to give us a victory. God is going to give us a victory. God is going to give us a victory. I don't know what you're reading in your Bible, but my Bible say he is able to do that which is exceeding abundantly, but Father we ask you to think according to the Power of the Holy Ghost that works in us. Exceeding abundantly above all. If he just said "All" it would have been great. If he would have just said "Above All" that would have been super duper. If he would have said "Abundantly Above All" that would have been wheeeeww!! But Paul said exceeding abundantly above all that we pray about, think about, dream about. I don't know what you read in your Bible, but my Bible says that by faith they subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, attained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the fiery darts of the wicked, and turned to fight the armies of the alien, women received their dead back to life again because they had faith in God. He goes forward in faith believing God, saying it, declaring the Lord hath delivered the enemy into our hands. Let's go and whip 'em. Us alone? Yes. You alone? Yes. 13 and 14 quickly. And Jonathan climbed up on his hands and upon his feet and his armor bearer after him and they fell before Jonathan and his armor bearer, came after him. And that first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor bearer made was about twenty men. WheeewwH Come *783on. Let's go. God has delivered them all into our hands. Hallelujah! Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. There's twenty. Whew. Ca-Ching. Yes. Glory. Glory to God. Let's go through the drive-thru at McDonald's and come back and get the rest. He had a willingness to fight. I'm going to tell you why pastors don't get out on the front line. Brother Ralph. Why pastors don't get out there on the front lines. Why they're not involved in fighting the abortion and homosexual issues and so forth. They don't have a willingness to fight. They don't want to fight. You got to have a willingness to fight. You got to have a willingness to fight. You got to want to get in there and scrap for God. I mean scrap with the devil for God. Just get in there and man, devil you're not going to do this to New Orleans. You're not going to do this to Louisiana. You're not going to do this to America. You know what my attitude was before I was saved, when I would get into a fight. You may whip me, but guess what? You're going to pay a price for it. You may knock me out, but I guarantee it man I'm going to take your eye out. I'm going to pull, bite your ear. In New York we had that. You just could do anything you want. Just scratch. People say, 'You're a sissy for scratching." So what, I just dug your eye out. (Laughing) Call me a sissy all you want, you're going out with one eye. I mean I will do whatever I got to do to whip your behind, and you better kill me. You better kill me because I'll tell you what, five more minutes. That's what we got to have in this spiritual sense. Devil you can come, you can try to pass the homosexual marriage, and homosexual adoption, but I'll tell you what. You're going to be in for a fight. You can tiy to bring Southern Decadence in and have these homosexuals march up and down our streets and have an orgy in the street, but you're in for a fight. This was probably like the sermon for 4:00 rather than 8:30 in the morning, *784but anyway. I only had my one cup of coffee Brother Grant, don't scream. What are you saying? I'm saying you alone can make a difference. Verse 20. Excuse me. Yeah, Verse 15 and 16. And there was a trembling in the host in the field and among all the people the garrison, the spoilers, they also trembled and the earth quaked and so it was very great trembling. They started to go forward to beat the enemy and I'm telling you the enemy's camp was thrown into chaos. Let me tell you what, it doesn't take a lot to throw the enemy camp into chaos. (Clapping). I'm telling you what. When we got that videotape and we took it to the media and the media's playing it, I mean the homosexual community in New Orleans, whew, they didn't know what to answer. First they say it's only a few isolated cases. Then you have others saying oh it goes on all the time. Then you say it goes on all the time, all year long. You understand it. Then they're handing out, matter of fact they interview me and they say, "Reverend Storms what do you think about the homosexual community handing out all these condoms with little things on it saying, 'Public Sex Equals Ten Days in Jail' and posters and all this because they don't want people going to jail." I said, "Well they're admitting they were having a lot of public sex otherwise it wouldn't have been a big thing." They're all in chaos. I'm telling you what. You have some, you dare to get out there, out of your boat and get annointed with the Holy Ghost and believe God to do something, you're going to throw their camp into chaos. There will be a confusion. Jonathan and his armor bearer are going for taking out 20 men, a little tiny victory, oh you know you just did a little thing. That's right. But what about all the rest. Somebody went on the Internet and typed in Southern Decadence and our name and we're on like 352 homosexual web pages because of one little thing we did in *785New Orleans, the whole homosexual community is 'You got a pastor down there videotaping, in the barrooms and everything." They're in chaos. Now here's the good part. Verse 21 And Saul and all the people that were with him assembled themselves and guess what, they came to the battle. See initially you got to start out alone, but once they start recognizing, we started out with 30 at a press conference, 150 at a rally, 400 at this last rally (), I believe next year we'll have thousands, because why, because we're going to, and you shouldn't have to do this but we're going to strengthen the weak and the timid and they're going to say, "hey you're winning that victory, huh?" "Well maybe we can come over and help now." (Laughing) Hell we done sue all the people, you know all the tough guys, you can go take the wimps now. But praise the Lord, they came to the battle. They came to the battle. Verse 21. Moreover the Hebrews that were with the Philistines, what were the Hebrews doing with the Philistines? They started to fight. You know what, they're backsliders we were down there preaching Bill Shanks. You know, how many know Bill Shanks? He's down there preaching during Southern Decadence and' he recognizes () and it was down there and saw a male prostitute who had been in church for years and years. Hey you're a Hebrew. What are you doing in the Philistines' camp. And he began to weep and cry and boo hoo I hate my life. But Bill was man, let me pray with you. You need to get out of here. Come on man. Get back and serve God. He'll forgive you. He'll restore you. He's merciful. He's compassionate. The backsliders will come once they see you leading the way and charge him. At Verse 22, and likewise the men of Israel, I like this, that were hiding themselves in the caves. What are you doing in the caves? I'm reading my Bible. (Laughing) I'm quoting, memorizing scripture. Well think about apply*786ing the Word. Be a doer of the Word. But they look. What’s all that noise out there? Who's that radical preacher marching with his broom down Bourbon Street. I had a broom. See and I have to ask people about that too. I said hey I'm going to take a broom. Moses had a staff. I'm going to take my broom, and I'm going to sweep up the French Quarter, the streets. What do you think about that? Oh Brother Grant that's not a good idea. You look goofy. After all the media put it on there, it was like the trademark of the whole thing. Oh that was a good idea, Brother Grant. Yeah now you said it. (Laughing) Right, now, now that was a good idea. Now, right. (Blah, blah, blah) that's why I don't listen to you guys. That's what I said. That's why I don't listen to you. I just, you know I pass things off and you tell me stuff and it goes in one ear and right out the other. I'm going to do what's in my heart. But all these people are coming out of the caves. They're hiding from the churches and their churches. Now they're coming out because you made a difference. Because you alone can make a difference. So the Lord save Israel. Good day. Good day. (Blah, blah, blab) 23 scriptures. Nice Bible Sunday School lesson, huh? But it's real. And the good news is that the same God that Jonathan served, we serve. And what God did for him, God can do for us. If we do what he did. God will do for us, what he did for him.

 Majority op., ¶ 4.

 The majority claims that I "implicitly acknowledge!] that a reasonable attorney, and hence Attorney Donohoo, should have known that he could not prove actual malice." Majority op., ¶ 57 n.ll. I do no such thing. First, I recognize, contrary to the majority's suggestion, that the inquiry must be focused on what a reasonable attorney would have believed, not what Attorney Donohoo, specifically, believed. See infra, ¶¶ 24, 28, 34. Second, *742I conclude, contrary to the majority's suggestion, that a reasonable attorney in Attorney Donohoo's position could have believed that a reasonable jury could have concluded that Action Wisconsin made false statements with actual malice.

 Both parties assume that Grant Storms is a public figure. Therefore, even though a complete analysis of this question may not end with that conclusion, I do not address the issue in this dissent.

 Article XIII, Section 13 of the Wisconsin Constitution, Marriage Between One Man and One Woman, had not yet reached the voters when Action Wisconsin published its statement about Storms' speech.

 Action Wisconsin maintained that Storms' defamation action was frivolous because there was no basis in law or in fact for it.

 This is contrary to the rule in regard to defamation in the form of slander, where special damages must be pleaded and proved. Martin v. Outboard Marine Corp., 15 Wis. 2d 452, 461, 113 N.W.2d 135 (1962).

 This writer has listened to the entire recording of Storms' speech.

 The statements in ¶ 56 n.ll of the majority opinion exemplify the incorrect standard that the majority opinion has applied throughout its opinion in determining whether Storms' defamation claim is frivolous. The question is not whether a reasonable jury would find for Storms on each element he had to prove in his defamation claim, but rather, whether a reasonable attorney in the position of Attorney Donohoo could believe it was possible for a reasonable jury to find in Storms' behalf. Baumeister v. Automated Prods., Inc., 2004 WI 148, ¶ 28, 277 Wis. 2d 21, 690 N.W.2d 1. As we explained in Baumeister, "This court does not look at whether one can prevail on his claim, but whether the claim is so indefensible that the party' or his attorney should have known it to be frivolous." Id.