Eston Williams, left, Keith Bell

A Methodist preacher who wants to perform same-sex marriages in his small country church and a cattle rancher who owns a large electrical contracting company are vying for the Texas House District 4 seat that represents Cedar Creek Lake’s LGBT community.

Both men are newcomers to state politics, and each is promising to consider the interests of the LGBT community — at least to some extent in one candidate’s case.

It is the first time for candidates in the race for the District 4 seat to even mention the LGBT community. Elections in recent years featured contests only in the Republican primaries, as the seat is considered part of the East Texas Republican stronghold.

Eston Williams, the preacher for Aley United Methodist Church of Seven Points, is running as a Democrat this year for the seat representing Henderson and Kaufman counties. He is a well-known advocate for the LGBT community who opposes the United Methodist Church’s position that Christianity condemns homosexuality and that pastors should not officiate at same-sex marriages, as stated in the UMC 2016 Book of Discipline Statements.

“I have long opposed my United Methodist denomination’s evil ruling that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching,” Williams said in an email statement. “The people in the congregation of the little country church I serve voted to host weddings of LGBTI persons, and I have stated that I would officiate at such a wedding.”

The United Methodist Church’s General Conference will again consider the issue of human sexuality in a special session Feb. 23-26, 2019, in St. Louis, but for now Williams’ proposal is in violation of the denomination’s global laws.

Keith Bell, the Republican candidate, is a deacon for the First Baptist Church of Forney. His campaign materials tout his “conservative values,” but he has no record on LGBT issues. In response to a request for information regarding his plans to represent Cedar Creek Lake’s large LGBT community — many LGBT residents of Dallas-Fort Worth maintain weekend residences on Cedar Creek Lake or have retired there — and other socially-liberal constituents, Bell also provided a written statement:

“I will make myself available to listen to the viewpoints and concerns of all residents of House District Four, including the LGBT members of the community. It will be my responsibility to listen, research, discern and consider the opinions of 170,000-plus constituents before making the best determination of how I will present legislation and cast votes on issues that I want to ensure will make our communities stronger and better off for the next generation.

“With that being said, I have been very clear during my campaign in presenting the fact that social issues will most likely not be top priority during this next session because of the nature of many other issues at hand. It is my belief, based on the results of the runoff, that the individuals of House District 4 share the same sentiment.”

Bell referred to his success in defeating former State Rep. Stuart Spitzer in a runoff election for the Republican nomination in 2018. Spitzer held the seat for one session, in 2015-2017. At the conclusion of the session, Spitzer, also a Baptist deacon, touted his major accomplishment as being the support of legislation protecting pastors from lawsuits should they be sued for refusing to perform same-sex marriages.

Spitzer had vowed that in the next session he would pass legislation expanding those protections to bakers, florists and other service people who might be asked to assist in same-sex marriages.

Spitzer failed to win re-election when Lance Gooden, the former incumbent who had held the seat for two sessions, challenged Spitzer and won the seat back from him. Gooden said he decided to run for the seat again at the urging of supporters unhappy with Spitzer’s social agenda. Gooden criticized Spitzer as unproductive for failing to pass any legislation despite the Republican majority in the Legislature.

Gooden did not run for re-election to the legislative seat this year because he ran for and won the Republican nomination for Texas’ Fifth Congressional District.

Both Williams and Bell are family men, and they both are vowing to make changes for the benefit of the district’s constituents. Both have served on their communities’ school boards.

Williams said he will focus on ending gridlock in state politics, that he would make decisions that would reflect what “Jesus would do,” would work to end gerrymandering of legislative districts and to restore state funding for public education that will allow school boards to reduce property taxes.

Bell said he plans to advocate for lower property taxes, improvements in public education, more local government control and better security in schools, communities and along the international border.