Faith leaders teach that lying is a sin. So why do religious-righters distort the truth so shamelessly in pushing their extreme political agenda? You can see at least two big examples in Texas right now. One of the biggest falsehoods religious-right groups are pushing right now is the claim that Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood to help exterminate the […]
Religious-righters are twisting and redefining “religious liberty” so much that the term itself is in danger of becoming almost meaningless. Fortunately, a growing number of mainstream religious leaders from around the state are calling out the nonsense. The latest battleground: public subsidies (such as vouchers) for religious schools. The rabidly anti-gay, religious-right group Houston Area Pastor Council, which also goes by […]
By now you know that the Texas Supreme Court ordered the city of Houston to either repeal the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) or put it up for a vote in November. Here’s something else you already know: The opponents of the ordinance — which bars discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, race, religion, […]
The Houston Chronicle had an interesting article a week back comparing reactions to last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down bans on same-sex marriage and the high court’s 1967 ruling against bans on interracial marriage. In both cases, the article notes, opponents have used religion in criticizing the court’s decisions. Indeed, supporters of racial segregation often used religion as a justification […]
The folks at the Texas Pastor Council, like other religious-righters, are growing increasingly desperate in their attacks on the freedom to marry for gay and lesbian couples. In an email today to supporters, the Pastor Council’s Dave Welch calls for “press conferences, rallies, marches and civil disobedience” if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down bans […]
One of the most remarkable outcomes of the 2015 session of the Texas Legislature is the complete failure of the broadest legislative assault on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community anywhere in the country. It’s so remarkable in large part because Texas is deeply red state in which religious-right/tea party activists make up a powerful part of the […]
Dave Welch, head of the far-right Houston Area Pastor Council and one of the leading voices of anti-gay hate in Texas, is calling for “imprecatory prayers” as Houston officials review petition signatures from supporters of overturning the city’s new anti-discrimination ordinance. Imprecatory prayers are those that ask God to burden, curse or even destroy wicked individuals […]
An email from the far-right Houston Area Pastor Council today calls on pastors “to serve as the turning point in the anti-family tide” by using their churches this Sunday to collect signatures for a referendum overturning the city’s recently passed Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO). From the email: Pastors, that is a reminder that we can gather signatures […]
As our society slowly moves toward treating LGBT people with the dignity and equality all human beings deserve, the reaction of religious-right groups has been almost unhinged. Their leaders have adopted increasingly vitriolic and hateful rhetoric in their desperate attempts to defend discrimination. That fact has been on clear display as the Houston City Council’s Committee on Quality of Life […]
When we saw the news about Houston Mayor Annise Parker (right) marrying her longtime partner, Kathy Hubbard (left), in California on Thursday, we braced for the avalanche of vitriol from angry right-wingers. We didn’t have to wait long. This morning Dave Welch of the Houston Area Pastor Council (HAPC) launched a vicious personal attack on […]
