Evangelist smites Baylor

Given the disturbing transformation of white evangelicalism in America in recent years, no one should be surprised at Dallas megachurch pastor and Trump ally Robert Jeffress' angry condemnation of Baylor University. During a right-wing radio rant this week, the Baylor alumnus ridiculed a May 14 declaration by Baylor's board of regents laying down certain guiding principles for campus treatment of LGBTQ students, up to and possibly including allowing such students to form a formal student group.

Jeffress’ judgment, issued from on high May 18: “I believe there are some great Christians who teach and attend at Baylor, but what they teach and the underlying philosophy is anti-Christian. And I don’t think any true Christian parent who wanted their kids to have a Christian education would allow their child anywhere near Baylor University.” The ever-provocative pastor of 13,000-member First Baptist Church of Dallas and fire-breathing Fox News commentator went on to lament his congregation’s having long sent students to Baylor only to “have their faith completely torn apart by infidels in the religion department.”

Thus Pastor Jeffress in his almighty tirade serves up good reason for preferring democracy to theocracy in America. Jeffress’ view of the Christian faith hinges on a nightmarish perversion of Old Testament condemnation, marginalization and vengeance, arguably in lockstep with some Americans’ politics of late but at odds with Jesus’ teachings of charity, hope, love and, yes, tolerance. As a journalist who has rigorously chronicled and questioned Baylor’s failings in crises through the years, I’m perhaps better positioned then to celebrate Baylor when it demonstrates Christian humility, compassion and outreach.

Sure, some people have mixed feelings about the LGBTQ question, but to their credit Baylor regents this month signaled a move forward and above the rancor. In their declaration, they stated a desire “to establish trust with our LGBTQ students so that, among other things, they might seek out the resources provided by Baylor.” They acknowledge Baylor’s “responsibility to serve the needs of all students entrusted to us across all areas of their development – academics, personal and spiritual.” That’s not exactly a hearty embrace of what Jeffress calls “ungodly activity” but it conveys inclusiveness, stewardship and caring.

Jeffress ridicules Baylor’s claim to be “unapologetically Christian but the fact is all they do is apologize for being Christian.” This may well refer to BU leadership’s effort to address the stench of racism one might expect of Texas’ oldest continuously operating university. To help students, faculty and the public better grasp the harm of not only slavery but the Jim Crow era, Baylor through the past year has tapped historians far and near to set important historical context; held discussion groups with students; and issued a report seeking to correct symbolic matters regarding campus statues and memorials.

And a day after Jeffress slammed Baylor leadership, university officials joined Waco Mayor Dillon Meek in honoring “faculty, staff and alumni who have demonstrated efforts to foster greater appreciation and advancement of diversity, inclusiveness and equity for communities of color at Baylor and in Waco.” They include Elizabeth Palacios, dean for student development, Division of Student Life; Lakia Scott, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, School of Education; and Dominque Hill, director of wellness, Division of Student Life.

Given the strong influence Rev. Jeffress acknowledges First Baptist of Dallas legend and Baylor critic W.A. Criswell has had on his life (Criswell died in 2002), perhaps this week’s blistering criticism isn’t so surprising. During the interview with conservative commentator Todd Starnes (who said some 30 pastors in the Waco area wrote Baylor to protest its nuanced approach to the LGBTQ dilemma), Jeffress, 65, railed about his long-ago days as a Baylor student. Professors back then, he charged, would “stand up and talk about all the errors in the Bible, the contradictions in the Bible, how the Bible was just a collection of men’s thoughts about God.”

Yet if the supposedly divine and infallible word of the Bible cannot withstand college-level scholarship about its origins, questions regarding those who wrote biblical text (inspired or not) and what latter-day interpretations hold for those of faith, then these texts will and should not endure the ages any more than the U.S. Constitution which is analyzed, questioned, debated and dissected daily, and in great detail, by academic scholars, working attorneys and federal jurists. Perhaps attorney and former federal judge Ken Starr — whose tenure as a popular and enlightened Baylor president ended in 2016 amid a #MeToo scandal of sexual assault and administrative indifference overwhelming the BU campus — can offer a proper defense of the university he once championed when he appears on Jeffress’ Sunday morning church program to plug his new book, “Religious Liberty in Crisis.”

Jeffress certainly isn't alone in his scathing condemnation of Baylor. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler — whom religion journalist Mark Wingfield in his insightful Baptist News Global analysis describes as "defender of the official faith of the Southern Baptist Convention” — tweeted of the Waco-based Christian university of more than 16,000 students and a regent board that includes some chosen by Baylor alumni: "This is a picture of institutional capitulation disguised as care. Accepting a chartered student organization identified as LGBTQ is incompatible with holding to biblical convictions. The great surrender continues." Tweeting right back at Mohler was Dwight McKissic, senior pastor of Arlington-based Cornerstone Baptist Church, who raised questions of accuracy and consistency in Mohler's stance: "Baylor affirmed a biblical view of sexuality without compromise in [its May 14] statement. SBTS accommodated you as president affirming the Lost Cause Theory & permitted [Baptist lay leader and retired state appellate judge] Paul Pressler to declare “the wrong side won the civil war,” without any public reprimand. Jesus showed compassion." [Rev. McKissic is black; Pressler and Mohler, predictably, are white. The Lost Cause narrative, of course, offers a wildly misleading and benign portrait of the antebellum South, secession, slavery and surrender in the Civil War.] Yet Rev. Jeffress' stance is attracting most attention, no doubt given his relative tolerance and acceptance of high-profile sinners in political realms who gain his personal favor.

Many following Starnes and Jeffress this week have expressed doubt at what they heard and read. One tweeted: “Even if there were ‘infidels’ in the Baylor faculty, if your adult children cannot engage with non-Christians without having their faith shattered... maybe that's not saying much for how stable the faith you taught them is.” Another, aware of Jeffress’ earthbound idol, tweeted to Starnes: “Deepest apologies to you and @robertjeffress/@firstdallas that my grad school alma mater doesn’t expressly set out to clone his particular ilk of Trumpist idolators of power.” Another asked Jeffress directly by tweet: "Why do 'Christian' ministers like you work so hard to find people to hate?"

A bracing truth: All religions at various times haves perpetuated evil in the world. It’s to Baylor’s credit that “infidels” in the religion department explore the spiritual, ethical and moral challenges of being a Christian in times when false prophets among us are many. With growing emphasis on everything from scientific research to scrutiny of religious texts to studies of the human condition, Baylor is best when encouraging critical thinking in defiance of tribalism, echo chambers and demagoguery. To that end, Rev. Jeffress is one more distracting voice in the din of an increasingly corrupted society, complete with bloviating religious charlatans and God-fearing snake charmers that complement Thomas Jefferson's long-dreaded "soothsayers and necromancers” imperiling American democracy. Altogether they highlight the steep challenges confronting us in the here and now.

Legislative shell game adds to Texas disappearing democracy scheme

Every so often, the jaded political observer must pause in his labors to marvel at some display of self-serving, politically motivated deceit in the Texas Legislature, a spectacle worthy of inclusion in the Machiavellian bag of tricks that scheming and unscrupulous politicians keep close by. And so I paused last week to marvel at a political shell game so illusionary it will confound most voters unaccustomed to critical thinking and thus pass by ignored. Then again, what transpired in the Texas House Elections Committee last Thursday is really no Rubik’s cube at all – just plain outrageous and audacious.

Thursday morning, boyish-looking Rep. Briscoe Cain, 36, a Deer Park Republican, apparently tried to hoodwink his own committee and the public. As chairman, he tried to scuttle Senate Bill 7 – an election-reform bill painstakingly crafted by Republican Sen. Bryan Hughes and co-authored by our own Sen. Brian Birdwell – and nonchalantly replace it with a “committee substitute” that turned out to be Cain’s own rival election-reform bill, House Bill 6. Democratic representatives cried “bullshit” – literally – and Republican Rep. Travis Clardy declined to vote at all on this trickery.

That might well have been the end of Cain’s Machiavellian effort – his motion failed because Clardy quite correctly abstained – except that when the committee reconvened come evening, Clardy had either been admonished by House higher-ups or experienced a political epiphany – and this time Senate Bill 7 disappeared in the lower chamber and in its place was Cain’s HB 6 which, to quote committee vice chairwoman Jessica González, is “substantially different” from the Senate bill.

Interestingly, when Cain first explained to fellow committee members he was offering a “committee substitute” to SB 7, he didn’t exactly volunteer it was his very own House bill masquerading as the committee substitute. What’s more, Cain – and whoever put him up to this skullduggery – escaped the rigors of another grueling public hearing on the logic that because the committee substitute to SB 7 was HB 6, and because HB 6 had already undergone a 17-hour-long public hearing on April Fool’s Day, further public input was unnecessary.

Thus, the public would be unable to cry “bullshit” on Cain’s switcheroo with high-priority Senate and House legislation in a public hearing. The spectacle in the Texas House of Representatives, unfolding with the apparent blessing of new Speaker Dade Phelan, means rival election bills House Bill 6 and Senate Bill 7 are no longer rivals at all but one and the same, at least in the lower chamber, even though SB 7 continues forward as the work of Hughes and his Senate colleagues.

For those who compare the art of legislation with sausage-making, welcome to the slaughterhouse.

Quite a guy

Cain is certainly emerging as the poster boy for the Trump-infused Republican Party. A month ago he created an unnecessary stink by refusing to allow questions about his election bill from Rep. Nicole Collier, chairwoman of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus – her presence hardly surprising, given credible claims Cain’s bill is hostile to minorities, restricting voting measures statistically favored by them. More? How about a seemingly bungled procedural move by Cain that ended a hearing on this same election bill, sidelining hundreds of Texans who traveled to the Capitol to testify on HB 6, some in his favor? This also ironically slowed the legislative progress of Cain’s bill in a time-limited Legislature.

And if all that’s not enough to question Speaker Phelan’s judgment in tapping Briscoe Cain as House Elections Committee chairman, consider Cain’s tweeted threat to Beto O’Rourke upon the latter’s suggestion of restricting so-called “assault weapons” after the 2019 mass targeted shooting of Hispanics in El Paso: “My AR is ready for you.” Pretty mature, huh? Cain clearly sought to score points with the NRA crowd, notwithstanding 23 dead in Texas. More? Well, Cain offered his legal skills to the Trump bandwagon suing to overturn citizens’ votes in Pennsylvania after the contested 2020 presidential election – a misguided effort that won a slapdown from no less than a Trump-appointed federal appeals judge outraged at what he saw in the lawsuit.

Political observers more seasoned than I suggest Cain’s move last week was taken as an unorthodox means to speed up the legislative process on bills given high priority by Gov. Greg Abbott, simplifying matters for House members who, till Cain’s actions, faced not one but two main options for election reform in two different omnibus bills. Cain’s move and the committee’s belated approval (by a 5-4 vote) would ultimately leave sorting out of differences in the bills to Senate-House conference committee members whose final patchwork bill would presumably include parts of SB 7 (as Hughes and the Senate crafted it) and HB 6 (or SB 7 in House guise). Key Senate compromises could also die there, especially in the mad rush that typically ensues in the final weeks of the legislative session. The result could be a crazy-quilt, even more oppressive bill for legislators to then vote up or down on. There’s evidence such a scheme is indeed underway: Neither Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (who a month ago voiced great pride in Senate debate producing SB 7) nor Sen. Bryan Hughes (who voiced great pride in public testimony offered on SB 7) has voiced any public protest over the latest House machinations. Are they complicit in some conspiracy to stifle public protest regarding all this? To add insult to injury, Cain added to the deception on his Facebook page a day after his effort to pull a fast one on at least some committee members, not to mention the public: “Great to see House Bill 6 in the Calendars Committee! Senate Bill 7 is close behind after being voted out of committee last night.”

Who's being played?

Take it from me after hours of hearing testimony and debate on Senate Bill 7 and House Bill 6: Sen. Hughes not only graciously entertained public testimony for and against his bill as chairman of the Senate Committee on State Affairs but withstood tough questioning from fellow senators during floor debate. He managed SB 7 throughout with patience, professionalism and civility – and even included Democratic suggestions for improving the bill. For instance, a toxic provision requiring that disabled citizens furnish documentation proving they’re truly disabled – a de facto poll tax – was jettisoned from SB 7 before Senate passage. Smart restrictions, too, were placed on poll-watcher videos being downloaded anywhere but the Texas Secretary of State’s Office. (That would mean poll-watcher video of your decrepit Aunt Bertha hobbling into a polling place with her cane and fumbling forever for her voter registration couldn’t end up on YouTube for all eternity). In contrast to Hughes, who seems familiar with every iota of his legislation, Cain has shown stunning confusion not only about what’s in his own election bill but in state election law.

Make no mistake about SB 7 or HB 6. For any red-blooded, fully cognizant patriot who appreciates democracy in America, these bills are an affront to everything in our founding documents as well as the 14th and 15th Amendments and the hard-won Voting Rights Act of 1965, the latter the work of civil rights icons Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis. These bills demonstrate continuing fealty to a pouting, self-indulgent former president and his spurious and destructive claims of a stolen election. They’re the flip side of the insurrection that on Jan. 6 overwhelmed the U.S. Capitol, halted Congress in fulfilling its constitutional duties of certifying Electoral College results and left several dead and many injured in its violent wake.

One question yet unanswered: Is the public now witnessing the spectacle of Texas Republicans sandbagging Texas Republicans in the State Capitol? Or is the public itself being played in some bewildering Machiavellian drama so operatic as to leave Trump himself envious? Either way, this much is clear: Democracy remains in the crossfire.