Mayor Bill White met with a right-wing pastors group yesterday accepting an award for his leadership during one of Houston’s most trying times. There has been an uproar toward the Mayor from the GLBT community for meeting with this group, since they have shown themselves in the race for Mayor by attacking Annise Parker and the GLBT community.
White, though, did not waste much time telling the group how he really feels, in his own usual way.
Although the mayor has publicly stated that he hopes the race will not devolve into attacks dealing with race or sexual orientation, he did not mention the mayor’s race at all in his remarks, although the subtext was there in almost every sentence.
White, who has proudly touted his Sunday-School-teacher bona fides even in the mostunusual situations (a fact not lost on the pastor group, members of which heaped praise upon him), cited numerous references of scripture in urging those present not “to judge” as they jump into the political sphere.
Just as Jesus urged followers in the Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew 6) not to “pray in public to be seen,” so too should faithful Christians avoid judging others and expressing their own “public righteousness,” White said.
He also invoked Jesus’ warning against trying to spot the speck in another’s eye while missing the plank in your own, as well as his most famous defense of a woman accused of adultery.
“It’s hard to love the enemies and not condone the act,” he said. “But we see Jesus encountering an adulteress, an act which he did not condone, and yet you remember how he handled that situation? Let he without sin cast that first stone.”
Not a stern speech, or even the “tell-off” that many of us would hope for, but it is a message that resonates. It certainly was the sensible way of sending a strong message against hate and bigotry.
