I’m getting crucified in the comments below and also over at The Dallas Morning News’ City Hall blog for comments I made concerning Mayor Tom Leppert’s recent decision to join First Baptist Church of Dallas. I say good, bring it on, but I do want to clarify one small thing: You see, I don’t really give a shit where Leppert goes to church, and these people are right, to some degree it’s his business. My point is only that in my humble opinion, it’s a politically motivated decision as Leppert continues to position himself to run for Senate. In the Southern Baptist Convention, First Baptist Church of Dallas is like Mecca. So when Leppert is out there on the Senate campaign trail, he can just tell people in small-town Texas that he’s friends with Pastor Robert Jeffress, who happens to be a complete bigot, and they’ll be more inclined to vote for him. Again, I say good, and good riddance for Dallas if he steps down to run. But it’s worth noting that until now, Leppert has painted himself as a supporter of the LGBT community. In light of his decision to join First Baptist, I’m beginning to think that this was all just lip service designed to help him get elected or re-elected in a city where the gay vote matters. And now that he wants to get elected statewide, we’re expendable. I’m also starting to wonder whether Leppert really was responsible for those anti-gay robo calls against Ed Oakley in 2007. I’ve requested an interview with the mayor about his decision to join First Baptist, but I haven’t heard anything back. Go figure.
15 Comments
Here’s some more criticism John: Calling individuals “bigots” doesn’t actually help our cause. It would be more accurate to call the Baptist religion a “bigoted belief system.” Keeping in mind that believers are almost powerless to use reason and logic, because they “inherited” their beliefs, it would be helpful to discontinue the name calling and objectively refer to their denominations.
Ultimately, we need Christians to change their belief systems – Lutherans and Episcopalians are making some progress. We need to simply ignore the ones that cling to a bigoted belief system and enlist the others in our fight for equality.
Way to go John. I think you may be on to something. And this Jeffress person is scary. I followed the links and read what he said about christianity and other religions—namely that christians are favored by God and other faiths are false – and his anti-gay record. He is an appalling, backwards, small-minded bigoted idiot and should be called on it by EVERY thoughtful or fair minded person. People with this type of arrogance that they base on “God told me” are dangerous. Of course I know we are “supposed” to treat religious people differently than others- that is coddle them and let them get away with saying anything they want, but I don’t buy that. By letting Jeffress get away with saying the mean, bigoted stupid things he says, we endanger our freedom — because he would be happy to take away all our community’s hard won rights in the “name of God.” That he now has Leppert’s ear is very worrisome.
John, I’ll tell you like I told Tammye yesterday……..
If you spent half as much time working on your journalism (after all, isn’t that what you are paid to do over there) as you do alienating public officials and everyone else with retaliatory comments just because they may disagree with your PERSONAL political and religious views, you might just turn out some good journalism once in a while.
FYI, Your opinion and belief system is NOT representative of the entire GLBT community and you certainly don’t speak for all of us. In fact, I am utterly disgusted that you are allowed both by your senior editor and by your publisher to carry on these temper tantrums in this manner !!!
I agree with Brian above, you are only making things worse for the community………………….Keep your personal religious and political opinions out of your journalism. If you want to go belittle people who don’t think like you do then go start your own personal blog !!
John, I’ll tell you like I told Tammye yesterday……..
If you spent half as much time working on your journalism (after all, isn’t that what you are paid to do over there) as you do alienating public officials and everyone else with retaliatory comments just because they may disagree with your PERSONAL political and religious views, you might just turn out some good journalism once in a while.
FYI, Your opinion and belief system is NOT representative of the entire GLBT community and you certainly don’t speak for all of us. In fact, I am utterly disgusted that you are allowed both by your senior editor and by your publisher to carry on these temper tantrums in this manner !!!
I agree with Brian above, you are only making things worse for the community………………….Keep your personal religious and political opinions out of your journalism. If you want to go belittle people who don’t think like you do then go start your own personal blog !!
John, I’ll tell you like I told Tammye yesterday……..
If you spent half as much time working on your journalism (after all, isn’t that what you are paid to do over there) as you do alienating public officials and everyone else with retaliatory comments just because they may disagree with your PERSONAL political and religious views, you might just turn out some good journalism once in a while.
FYI, Your opinion and belief system is NOT representative of the entire GLBT community and you certainly don’t speak for all of us. In fact, I am utterly disgusted that you are allowed both by your senior editor and by your publisher to carry on these temper tantrums in this manner !!!
I agree with Brian above, you are only making things worse for the community………………….Keep your personal religious and political opinions out of your journalism. If you want to go belittle people who don’t think like you do then go start your own personal blog !!
John,
You should get your head out of your butt. No, I’m not happy about his joining First Baptist. I also think it’s a stupid move. But this Mayor has walked the talk with this community, and just because you’re bent out of shape does not negate what he has done. He has appeared at Black Tie, the Pride Parade, spoken to any number of LGBT groups, spoken with LGBT travel writers, helped get partner benefits at the Convention Center Hotel, to name just a few. He won the Mayor’s job without the LGBT vote. Still, he has lived up to his promise to be a Mayor for ALL of Dallas. He has never taken a position as Mayor against our community or spoken a negative word. You have covered him for two years. Are you telling me he pulled the wool over your eyes? This move may or may not be politically motivated. But if the Mayor has had his eye on higher office – and I assume that he has – he never would have done all of the above for fear it would come back to haunt him. But he did. I think that is just the way he is. He treats everyone with respect. From the few times I have met him, I do not believe our Mayor is a bigot or supports bigotry, any more than I think that about our President. I didn’t like Obama’s choice of Rick Warren, or his lack of support for gay marriage. But I still respect him and feel he will be more friend than enemy to our community. I feel the same about the Mayor. While I may or may not vote for him as Senator based on where he stands on issues, it won’t be because you have declared him the Anti-Gay. Get a grip.
None of what you said above matters Chuck – Mayor Leppert belongs to the Baptist Church, a group that condemns homosexuals. That’s the point, not whether he “pretends” to be gay-friendly, while still believing we are defective humans.
It’s time we ask politicians to sign a “Pledge of Equality” if they want ANY support from us. HRC’s “gay-friendly” scoring system is a waste of money. Politicians should be forced to say either YES or NO to LGBT Equality. Otherwise we’ll just keep getting fu*ked over.
I say, well said John and I certainly don’t believe that you personally think that you speak for the entire gay community, but to me, your thoughts are well respected and right on target.
OK. Here’s my little sniff-test to see if a situation smells bigoted. Just switch out the “gay” part and insert “African-American”. Simple enough. Here; join me…
So our Mayor, who walked in the “African-American” Pride parade last year has now joined a church and personally aligned himself with a nationally recognized white Pastor who preaches that you should hate the black sin but love the black sinners, and that Interracial Marriage is an abomination before God Almighty, and that black people are headed to hell in a wheelbarrow if they don’t give up being…well, BLACK.
Nope. Nutton smells bigoted about THAT statement. The Mayor can worship wherever if he wants. After all, he walks in the “African-American” Pride parade once a year!! Who cares if he worships every week in a church that specifically and emphatically preaches against us?
I’ve enjoyed the distraction this thread has provided throughout the day. The problem with John Wright is that he has completely lost a reporter’s objectivity. Blogs tend to bring out the best and the worst in journalists. But they must always remember that they should hold their cards close to the vest, otherwise they’ll become laughingstocks like the folks at Fox News. Many once well-respected journalists have found themselves exposed for who they really are and have lost all credibility. I think John would do well to keep his opinions to himself and just repoort the news.
John Wright is entitled to his opinion. So be it. I just happen to agree that Jeffress is a f*ckhead (and this is coming from a former Baptist minister–but I got the hell out before they totally corrupted me). But even if I didn’t agree, I still wouldn’t bash the guy for airing his grievances. I might, however, bash him for being an idiot, which is what most of us tend to do when someone doesn’t agree with us.
Journalism has long been the source of editorialism. It’s what our founding fathers called “freedom of the press”. As for Leppert joining First Baptist, it may, in fact, be the best place for him. The church’s teachings are very basic, very fundamental and very limited in scope. The reason the congregation is so large is because even the most ignorant and uneducated are capable of understanding the very elementary teachings of the church. And the pastors there are very careful not to say anything that might challenge anyone to think. The standard “This is how it is and this is what you should believe” message is comforting to those who are incapable of thinking on their own. Perhaps Mayor Leppert does, in fact, belong there.
The thing that cracks me up is John uses his name and then all the yelling, screaming, and condeming comes with pseudo names. Freedom of Speech is a wonderful thing but hell at least use your name.
Personally I think that that church has too much power in this city. I don’t care what religion people practice as long as they keep it out of politics and civil rights.
Mayor Leppert now wants to attend First Baptist Church, a church that openly condemns homosexuals. I participated in the protests there this time last year, and I do not support the Mayor of Dallas’ decision about attending services there. Of course it is his personal choice and decision, as everyone’s spiritual beliefs and practices are. However, I don’t think the Christian population of Dallas would be defending him if he was joining a Satanic church. Though that is an extreme example, I do not see why the gay population of Dallas should support their Mayor’s decision to attend a church that has been publicly VERY anti gay.
Unless Mayor Leppert starts discriminating against homosexuals (which I doubt), drop it. Joining a church (or not joining any) is a personal decision- as much as I dislike Jeffress, the mayor has the right to attend church wherever he wants.
Good Lord (sic)! Joel Osteen, Ted Haggard, and First Baptist all on the same blogstrip?
Terribly funny in a terribly sad way.