Posted on 03/03/2012 3:27:15 PM PST by NYer
A megachurch pastor in Houston is taking exception to a lesbian mayor who refers to her homosexual partner as “First Lady.”
Steve Riggle, senior pastor of Grace Community Church, wrote a confrontational letter to Houston Mayor Annise Parker. In the letter, Riggle asked Parker to abide by her oath of office to uphold the constitution of Texas—which includes defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman—or step down.
“During her first term of service, the issue of gay marriage never really came up much. There were a ton of people in the city who didn’t even know she’s homosexual,” Riggle says. “When she got into her second term, it seems she was emboldened. She has met with 80 mayors who have come out in support of gay marriage. She’s starting to advocate for gay marriage.”
Riggle says he wrote the letter to challenge Parker to be an advocate for traditional marriage. He still remembers the mayor’s swearing in ceremony, at which she put her hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the laws of the state—and that’s what Riggle and his 15,000 church members expect her to do.
Riggle refuses to be silent. He asked Grace Community Church members to e-mail or call the mayor’s office to make their voices heard—and many did. Riggle also asked his members to encourage their friends to do the same—and many did.
“I hope this goes somewhat viral within the city because I’d love to see the mayor get more phone calls than she did votes,” says Riggle, noting that Parker only got 60,000 votes in her re-election and barely escaped a run-off.
“The church didn’t take a stand on abortion. Marriage must be the line in the sand. We don’t have to be ugly—just determined, “Riggle says. “They can call us names all they want. We’re not moving. We’ll keep praying for city officials but we will also oppose them by every means possible if they try to redefine marriage.”
The following is the text of the letter Riggle sent to the mayor:
Dear Mayor Parker,
I am writing on behalf of myself and as the senior pastor of Grace to express my deep disappointment in your recent public actions and statements that undermine the express will of the people of the state of Texas in regard to traditional marriage.
As you are aware, we have declared by constitutional amendment that marriage is to be defined as between one man and one woman. While you are certainly entitled to your personal views and lifestyle that does not embrace traditional marriage (even if I happen to disagree with those views and I do), it is very disturbing to me when you make statements as an elected official that are contrary to what the people have decided should be the foundational values and definitions that define our culture.
I was deeply disturbed some months ago when a memo was circulated by an office connected to your office that titled your partner as the first lady of Houston. You should have corrected that since you know that title has been given only to the wife or husband of the mayor in the appropriate gender language.
At your swearing in, I heard you take your oath of office and swear to uphold the constitution of the State of Texas. To then, just a few weeks later, stand with other mayors and call for action regarding marriage that would violate the very constitution you were swearing to uphold is less than integral. In what I have seen, you were described not as citizen Annise Parker, but as Mayor Annise Parker. That says to me, you were speaking as our mayor.
I respectfully request that you not use your office or title to press your personal views and lifestyle on this subject that we, the people, have so clearly spoken to. Additionally, as our mayor, I would request that you be true to the vow you took to uphold the constitution of the State of Texas and stand for traditional marriage since we as the citizens of Texas have expressed by amending our constitution that marriage will be defined as between one man and one woman.
Respectfully, if you cannot uphold the Texas constitution, then you should do the honorable thing and step down.
I do appreciate the commendation you have given Grace and our service to the social needs of the community as we ongoingly care for the least among us, and our hosting the services when a first responder falls in the line of duty. However, on the issue of marriage, I respectfully, but very strongly, stand in opposition to what seems to be your agenda. While we will continue to serve the needs of our city as we have done for many years, we will oppose your efforts to represent us as our mayor.
We, the fifteen thousand people of Grace, have always done our best to be supportive of our elected officials and to pray for them on a regular basis. Regretfully, while we will continue to pray for you, we will not support your actions or stand passively by and allow you to redefine what has always been the definition of marriage.
Respectfully,
Steve Riggle
Senior Pastor
Grace Community Church
Well after hearing Rush apologized for his remark about Ms Fluke, the sex pot that chatted with congress the other day and then reading the link about Bill Maher refusing to apologize to Sara Palin for calling her the Cword along with other equally ugly sexist names, I needed a good giggle..at least this “first lady” is of the female gender. For a minute there I thought it was a couple of gay guys!
>>It is a learned behavior.
Don't need no Weatherman to see which way the wind bl
ws.
"Behind the Violence, Says Jane Alpert,
Was Sex"--November 09, 1981--
"The leaders of the Weather Underground, she believes, followed a similar pattern of constantly shifting sexual alliances..."http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20080637,00.html
"He [Bill Ayers] also writes about the Weathermen's sexual experimentation as they tried to 'smash monogamy.' The Weathermen were 'an army of lovers,' he says, and describes having had different sexual partners, including his best male friend."
Source: New York Times, September 11, 2001: "No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen"
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E1DE1438F932A2575AC0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1"...the Weathermen, when not engaged in group sex, committed such revolutionary acts as parading with a Viet Cong flag through a local park on Independence Day and spray-painting the walls of a high school with the slogans, "Off the Pigs," "Viet Cong Will Win," and "F#$k U.S. Imperialism."..."
Campus Wars: The Peace Movement At American State Universities in the Vietnam Era
"What happens next bears watching closely, as does the response of the president, ex-Speaker Pelosi, and others on the left. Encouraged by leftists in the Democratic Party and funded by left-leaning nonprofit organizations and celebrity contributors, Occupy Wall Street may in time morph into something resembling the radical factions of the late 1960s and 1970s."
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/10/predicting_the_weatherman.html
First Lady is reserved for heterosexual politicians. First Mullet is more appropriate for lesbian politicians.
“She does not represent the interests of the people of this city.”
Houston voted for her.
Houston doesn’t send Ron Paul back to Congress; Fort Bend County does which is the next county to Harris County where Houston is located.
Houston, on the other hand, does have a certain segment of the population which to their utter delight sends the “esteemed” (/sarc) Sheila Jackson Lee back every election and for that, as a Texan, I apologize!!!!
“She was part of the corruption that kept them up. She flip-flopped when she realized she was about to get tossed out on her ass last year.”
I’m not going to go too far defending our Lezbo mayor, but regardless of where she had stood - the cameras are gone. Her straight honky predecessor get them installed and couldn’t care less what the people thought. In her case, I do think that she could have pushed it out past the election...but she didn’t.
“If you got it, flaunt it”..... That must be what Sodom and Gomorrah were like. The homos, perverts and atheists get bolder and bolder each day.
Ron Paul is from a district south of Houston.
I'm thinking that this is the obne that got them:
Disaster That Struck The Ancients
(A swarm of them)
Aren’t US Reps elected by the entire state, and not a single state district?
I thought the entire state elects a US Rep ad US Sen; districts elect their district’s state reps. No? When did that change?
On Jeopardy this past Friday, one of the male contestants talked about his "husband" during the interview portion with Alex Trebek.
Okay, I learned something today. Thanks.
We lived in Brazoria County, part of Ron Paul’s district when he first ran for office. It’s about an hour south of Houston. Our county was mostly rural at that time with refineries down on the coast at Freeport. We met him and didn’t care for him so we didn’t vote for him and moved into Houston soon afterward. He was a well respected physician OB/GYN when he ran for office.
Simply disgusting and disturbing. Just proves that you get the government you vote for.
So....Houston is the southern continental version of San Francisco? I knew Houston is dominated by Dim libs but still, this?
The city renegotiated the contract in the favor of the company when the city leaders already knew damn well the public opposed them.
She then said her hands were tied in this matter.
She’s part of the problem.
That’s like an atheist talking about “My god”:
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