Category Archives for Dave Welch

Board Takes Up Anti-Muslim Measure

The Texas State Board of Education is about to take up a proposed resolution attacking Islam and claiming that social studies textbooks are anti-Christian. TFN Insider will keep you updated on progress. 9:53 a.m. – We notice that board members Barbara Cargill and Don McLeroy have been going through world history textbooks currently used in [...]

Also posted in Barbara Cargill, Bob Craig, Cynthia Dunbar, David Bradley, Don McLeroy, Gail Lowe, Islam, Ken Mercer, Lawrence Allen, Mavis Knight, Pat Hardy, Rick Agosto, State Board of Education, Terri Leo
| 15 Comments |


How the Right Wields Faith as a Weapon

Religious-right leaders often use faith as a weapon to divide people for political gain. An essay from Dave Welch, head of the far-right groups U.S. Pastor Council and Houston Area Pastor Council, offers another stark example. In his July 17 essay for World Net Daily, a website that wallows in the dirty waters of the [...]

Also posted in religious right
| 8 Comments |


Group’s Leader: Houston Mayor a ‘Sodomite’

The head of the fringe-right Houston Area Pastor Council has just published a new screed attacking politicians and others who support equal rights for gay people. But Dave Welch — who isn’t shy about promoting his ties to elected state officials, including the governor — reserves his most vile rhetoric for politicians and other people who are [...]

Also posted in Houston Area Pastor Council, LGBT issues, Rick Perry
| 30 Comments |


Far Right Smears Clergy from Press Conference

Wow. It didn’t take long for far-right pressure groups to start smearing clergy members who want the Texas State Board of Education to stop trying to undermine religious freedom in social studies classrooms. Just minutes after the Texas Faith Network’s Capitol press conference today, the far right’s lies started flying across the Internet. Jonathan Saenz, a lawyer/lobbyist [...]

Also posted in Liberty Institute, social studies, Texas Faith Network
| 11 Comments |


The Right’s ‘Culture War’ Drags on in Houston

Religious-righters in Houston are still foaming at the mouth over the election last fall of an openly gay candidate, then-city controller Annise Parker, as mayor. As reported last fall, religious extremists disingenuously claimed Parker had made her sexual orientation “a central part of her campaign” and warned that her election would be “destructive to the [...]

Also posted in LGBT issues, Texas politics
| 7 Comments |


The Religious Right Targets Houston Election

It really was only a matter of time. For months the Houston mayoral election focused on issues important to most working families in the city — issues like crime, transportation and economic development. Oh sure, there were occasional subtle references by far-right political activists to the fact that candidate Annise Parker, the current city controller, is [...]

Also posted in elections, religious right, Steven Hotze
| 11 Comments |


More Gay-Bashing from the Religious Right

The US Pastor Council/Texas Pastor Council, which lately has been wading into the waters of electoral politics in Texas, again demonstrates that gay-bashing is one of the religious right’s prominent political weapons. This weekend the Houston-based group sent out a press release attacking Houston city officials for participating in a gay pride event. The group [...]

Also posted in LGBT issues, religious right
| 6 Comments |


Gov. Perry: Using Faith as a Political Weapon

It is obvious now that Texas Gov. Rick Perry is basing his hopes for re-election next year mostly on winning over the far-right wing of the Republican Party. (That’s the same wing that wrote the 2008 state party platform. You can read that classic example of extremism here.)  If Gov. Perry can win the GOP nomination, he [...]

Also posted in Rick Perry
| 17 Comments |