Bar none cowboy church gay marriage

When hundreds of pastors and their spouses descended on Austin on April for a Texas Renewal Project eventit was clear that the effort to drag houses of worship into partisan politics was kicking into high gear for the elections. But we were stunned by the sheer audacity of speakers who told the gathered pastors one mistruth after another — all designed to rile up pastors and encourage them to turn their congregations into political machines.

Oh please. And, of course, there is the ongoing embarrassment over Barton speaking at events sponsored by white supremacist groups in the early s. But Barton, who served from to as vice chairman of the Texas Republican Party, is nothing if not shameless. He spoke to the pastors several times during the two-day Austin event.

The city already barred discrimination based on other characteristics, including race, gender and marriage. Not content with simply disagreeing with efforts to treat LGBT people equally under the law, Barton proceeded to break repeatedly one of the Ten Commandments — the gay that forbids lying — in front of all those pastors.

Speaking just after former Republican Congressman JC Watts of Oklahoma, Barton absurdly claimed that Watts — who opposes marriage equality for same-sex couples — would be barred from serving on the San Antonio City Council because of the new cowboy ordinance text below from the video at the top of this post; emphasis added :.

The people elected him. Nothing in the ordinance bars someone who opposes marriage equality for lesbian and gay people from serving on the San Antonio City Council. But Barton doubled church, suggesting what would happen if he ran for office in San Antonio:. Not a word of that was true. But Barton continued on, distorting what the ordinance in San Antonio really does — and, of course, riling up the bamboozled pastors at the same time.

And so it went throughout the talks by Barton and none right-wing evangelicals. Speaker after speaker painted a picture of America hurdling down the path to destruction, spiritually and otherwise. The Texas Observer accurately described the overwhelming anxiety that seemed to pervade the ballroom:.

This is a room full of people that are falling out of love with their country. It used to be a place that held promise for them and their cohort. He was complaining about the federal requirement that employer-provided health insurance plans bar coverage for birth control.

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Staver also founded the right-wing litigation group Liberty Counsel. Staver went on to compare — bizarrely — the U. Same thing, right? I will not be moved. And, of course, speakers encouraged pastors to return home and politicize their congregations. Dragging churches into partisan politics was, of course, the primary reason for the Austin event.

Speaker after speaker praised Perry, who had a featured speaking slot at all of the events. The Texas Restoration Project served as a model for state Renewal Projects in a number of presidential election battleground states in and The main organizer, David Lane, has used those events to build a massive pastor contact list.