Cathedral of Hope Rev. Thomas keeping vicious homophobic church in prayer. Trivializes the humanity of the LGBT.
This self-abasement of the LGBt for self-exhaultation and self-glorification as some type of supre Christian is disgusting.
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Letter to Cathedral of Hope Rev. Neil G. Thomas holding 1st Baptist in prayer.
September 18, 2024
Edward H. Sebesta
XXXXXXX
Dallas, TX 75XXX
Rev. Dr. Neil G. Thomas edwardsebesta@gmail.com
Cathedral of Hope
5910 Cedar Springs Road
Dallas, TX 75235
Dear Rev. Dr. Thomas:
In researching the fire at 1st Baptist of their older church, I came across this regrettable post by yourself on Facebook.
This is where W.A. Criswell gave his sermons saying AIDS was the Christian god’s punishment for “sodomy.”
From a sermon in 1989: (https://wacriswell.com/sermons/1989/the-wounds-of-jesus/ )
I do not know how many times I have been challenged and condemned because I refer to AIDS and I refer to venereal disease as a judgment of Almighty God. “Why, pastor, do you say that so emphatically?” Simply because, if you live in a monogamous marriage relationship you would never hear of syphilis; you would never hear of gonorrhea; you would never hear of AIDS, never! It’s a condemnation and a judgment of the Almighty, the promiscuity that has become a part of the life of this modern world.
A man said to me, within the last few days,” Uganda, for example,” he said, “within ten years, the population of Uganda in central Africa will be one-half of what it is now because of AIDS.” These are judgments of Almighty God. And our people who live monogamously and who are faithful in their love for one another, they never, ever approach a judgment like that, never! [Boldface added.]
This was from a sermon in 1987.
There was a man who sat here in our church, right there, a tall, blond, good-looking young man about thirty years of age. He came to see me. And he said to me, “I am a homosexual, and I have AIDS. I want you to pray for me and with me.” He said, “I have repented. I’ve asked God to come into my heart, and He has forgiven me. But I just wanted you to pray with me,” just weep and cry and tell me those things in his life. Every service he was here, every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, every Wednesday night. And practically every service, would say a word to me after the benediction.
When I went to London about a week ago, about a month ago, within a week after we had left, he was dead. I cannot understand. I read what the physician says, what the scientist says. What is this that is coming upon our nation and coming upon our world? Is it a judgment of God? What is this? Is it a sign of these ultimate and final days, the night coming? [John 9:4]. I don’t know. I am so lost before it. I cannot believe that that young man, so strong and well—you would never in the earth know that he had such an affliction—and within a week he was dead.
Our hope lies not in the scientist and not in the laboratory. Our hope lies in the gospel message of Jesus Christ; our people speaking, loving, faithfully following the glorious hope we have in Christ Jesus. “We must”—a divine imperative. I must hasten. “We must do the work of our Lord in heaven; for the night cometh” [John 9:4], the urgency of our message! [Boldface added.]
Why don’t you pray for the soul of this young Gay man who was spiritually crushed by the bigotry of 1st Baptist? What was it like to die of AIDS this way?
This was from another sermon: (https://wacriswell.com/sermons/1987/jesus-the-light-of-the-world )
May I take both of those just for a moment? There is no doubt, there’s no forensic confrontation that we would present against suffering as a result of sin. Here in our congregation was a tall single young man, blond, strong, just handsome, about twenty-five, twenty-six years old. He came to my study here at the church and sat there and for an hour, wept bitterly, pouring out his heart to me.
He was a homosexual. He had AIDS, and had the sentence of death in his body. And pouring out his heart to me, described his life of compromise and wrong, and how he had repented, and how God had forgiven him, and how he was ready to die. One of the most moving sessions I’ve ever been party to. The young fellow was so faithful here at church. Every Sunday morning you’d see him seated right there. Every Sunday night he was there. Every Wednesday night he was there, and most always, visit with me after the service was over.
Anyway, when I went to England the last of this August, he died within seven days, seven days, died of AIDS. No one would be of a disposition to dispute that there is a judgment that follows sin and transgression. [Boldface added.]
Why don’t you pray for the soul of this spiritually crushed Gay person? What was it like to die of AIDS this way? What a place of horror 1st Baptist is and was. There may be more sermons like this. W.A. Criswell gave a lot of sermons. This is a post I have on his vicious prejudices.
https://dallasgayliberation.substack.com/p/wa-criswell-who-preached-aids-was
They still honor W.A. Criswell there. The following picture I took in 2022.
Of course you aren’t the first to give the homophobia of the 1st Baptist Dallas church a free pass. This was the fawning of Dallas Gay religious when Criswell Died.
In the Dallas Voice, Vol. 18, No. 39, Ed. 1, Friday, January 18, 2002 there was an article about the reaction of the Gay Christians in Dallas, titled, “Despite conservative stance, Criswell not seen as anti-gay crusader,” which is entirely false. I have the record of Criswell and a link to the Dallas Voice article in the above link.
This is the direct link to the article.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth616334/m1/8/
Michael Piazza, then pastor of Cathedral of hope, which the article states is the “world’s largest gay and lesbian church,” decline to make a statement. Piazza had an opportunity to state who and what Criswell really was, but avoided moral responsibility to do so.
Giving 1st Baptist Dallas a free pass seems to be a Cathedral of Hope tradition.
1st Baptist Dallas is still a place of vicious homophobia and a psychopathic religion. To review his activities and books it took two posts.
In his writings he makes it clear that those who had never heard of Christ were burning eternally in a lake of fire since they haven’t been saved. I review these writings in this post.
The 1st Baptist Church is a driving force of homophobia even today. They are a driving force behind the Texas Republican Party anti-LGBT campaign.
You praying for them is an act of self-glorification which trivialized the human worth of the LGBT in Dallas and the Dallas Fort Worth area.
You action was just, “Looky, looky me, I am turning the other cheek.” I am being such a really, really good Christian.
Usually, people have to be contrite to be forgiven, but you were so eager to score Christian virtue points. Maybe you hoped that such self-abasement would ingratiate yourself with Christian homophobes.
It would have been better that you had paused before indulging in the intoxication of self-righteous self-glorification to consider how your self-indulgence might trivialize the humanity of the LGBT.
An apology to the Dallas LGBT by yourself is in order. I made the following meme for Gay Christians like yourself.
Sincerely yours,
Edward H. Sebesta
Not just the homophobia of the FBC Dallas. They were bigoted against blacks/Hispanics as well. My great grandmother was a life long member of the FBC Dallas and when she was 91 and close to the end she never even got a kiss my ass from the ministry....because she was not rich enough to get their attention. Gotta say one of the best episodes though was when M. M. O'Hare debated him and cleaned that old bigots clock. She made him look like the blow hard fool he was.