Dallas Gay leadership praised vicious homophobe Criswell in 2002
Dallas Gays goveling for acceptance from anti-Gay straights.
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Prolog
To understand fully the mentality of the Gays who praised vicious homophobe Criswell in 2002 it is useful to read the the 1996 D Magazine article, “Pink Mafia,” where the Gay leadership feels they are so smart and special for keeping Gay liberation out of Dallas. That is why for a long time the Dallas Gay Pride event was in Sept. and not in June. They didn’t want it to be associated with the Stonewall Riots. I put the link at the very end of this post.
Also, this is the link to the post on the racism and anti-Gay bigotry of Criswell and quotes from his sermons where he asserts that AIDS is god’s punishment.
So what was the reaction of the “Gay leadership” when Criswell passed away? Go to the next section and find out.
Introduction
You would think that Gays would be glad that this person who had done some much injury during his life to Gays and others would say good riddance, but you would be wrong. The Dallas Voice did one sided reporting on Criswell to create the narrative that Criswell was a great person. (This is why I calld the Dallas Voice the Dallas Vichy Voice, though I want another term rather than “Vichy.”)
I am going to provide links to the sources at the Portal to Texas History to the pages from which I quote to provide documentation. This is the link, you can find a lot of interesting things at their website. The search engine has a lot of power, but there is a little bit of a learning curve.
Dallas Gay leadership praises Criswell enthusiastically when he dies.
The article on the reaction of the Dallas Gay leadership to W.A. Criswell’s leadership is in an article, in the Dallas Voice, Vol. 18, No. 39, Edition 1, Friday, Jan. 18, 2002. This is the link to the whole issue.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth616334/
You can enlarge the pages by selecting zoom and you can download them for your own records.
This is the table of contents on page 3, and their is an entry for the story about Criswell with the headline, “Criswell not recalled as anti-Gay leader.”
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth616334/m1/3/
Criswell was a major force in launching the anti-Gay campaigns of the religious right, but this is the headline for the table of contents blurb. Quoting the entry:
Gay religious leaders said despite the minister’s leadership of the conservative wing of the Southern Baptist Convention, he is not remembered as an anti-Gay crusader.
They may indeed not remember Criswell as an anti-Gay leader, but how they manage to do that is unfathonable, especially when we look at the articles in the Dallas Morning News in which Criswell is reported being at events denouncing Gays.
On page 8, of the paper, there is the article by David Webb, titled, “Despite conservative stance, Criswell not seen as anti-gay crusader: Local gay religious leaders pay tribute to revered pastor’s abilities.” The following link will take you directing to the article, click on zoom to enlarge.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth616334/m1/8/
Before discussing the contents of the article, it would be instructive to review the reporting of the Dallas Morning News on Criswell’s prominent anti-Gay crusading.
From the Dallas Morning News article, “Robison asks commitment: Briefing seeks to put God back in government,” by Helen Parmley and Sam Attlesey, Aug. 22, 1980, pages 1, page 6.
The event had multiple speakers attack Gays, and Criswell lead the way speaking at the convention. From the article:
To lead the clarion cry to save America, the political-minded fundamentalist enlisted Dr. W.A. Criswell, the orator of the First Baptist Chruch to welcome the crown with a call to prayer for the nation. [Boldface added.]
Criswell forments irrational fear that the United States might go down to “ignominy or shame” if it doesn’t follow his Christian view point. The following makes it clear that it is homosexuality which will result in the destruction of the United States.
Interrupted by the first amens of the session, the Baptist sheperd asked, “Is there a God of humanism, of homosexuality or promiscuity? Is there a God of drug abuse and drunkeness?
It was a frontpage article in the Dallas Morning News and Criswell is selected to be the lead speaker to launch the right-wing campaign.
As the article explains that though nominally apolitical, it was a convention supportive of Ronald Reagon and the Republican Party.
This convention was supporting the campaign of Ronald Reagan and attacking President Jimmy Carter. From the article:
More than 8,000 persons attending the first session cheered loudly at the mere mention of Reagan’s name and in anticipation of his appearance Friday night.
Just as they applauned and shouted their “amens” for Reagan, they responded favorably to the opening shots of what is expected to be a barrage of blasts against the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion and homosexuality.
Reagan was very slow to react to the outbreak of AIDS in America resulting in the needless deaths of thousands of Gays if not hundreds of thousands more. Criswell had a role in these needless deaths.
Criswell was in this frontpage Dallas Morning News article, “CONVENTION EUPHORIA MAY SIGNAL START OF GOP,” by James Michner, Aug. 27, 1984 about the Republican national convention in Dallas.
One of the events happening while the convention was occuring was a convention of Republican Christians, held by Liberty One, a “religious-political group” according to the Dallas Morning News. A “Presidential Biblical Scorecard” was given out. and one of the issues was “homosexuality” which a Christian was supposed to be against.
Criswell spoke at the event:
No word was uttered against the Democrats. But when the Rev. W.A. Criswell of the First Baptist Church of Dallas inveighed against evil forces striving to destory our nation, his listeners could guess whom he meant.
At the close of the 1984 Republican Convention in Dallas Criswell gave the final benediction which closed the convention. (Dallas Morning News, “Inside the Hall,” no author, page 28A.
Criswell opened a lemondade stand for the delegates to the Republican Convention. (Dallas Morning News, August 21, 1984, page 43A.)
The Republican National Convention was broadcast on television.
The Dallas Morning News had an article, “Falwell praises Reagan in church,” by Helen Parmley, Religion Editor, Aug. 20, 1984, page 25A. It reports that Criswell was on the dais with Falwell when he was giving his oration and that notorious anti-Gay U.S. Senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) was their to give the monring benediction.
The article also mentions that First Baptists Dallas church has 26,000 members and a 2,500-seat sanctuary. So even without media coverage, an anti-Gay sermon by Criswell has a tremendous local impact.
Criswell was often nicknamed the Southern Baptist pope and had tremendous influence on that demonination, again even if he had never led an anti-Gay campaign himself, he was a major source of anti-Gay animous leading to the rise of a religious right campaign against Gays.
So back to the Dallas Voice article, what did Dallas “Gay” “Leadership” have to say.
Staff writer, Webb, explains, “Criswell … apparently never publicly went out of his way to harm the gay and Lesbian community according to gay political and religious leaders.”
Former president of the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance, William Waybourn, who led the group in the 1980s made the excuse, “If he did anything it was behind the scenes to block, complicate and confuse …” I think speaking out at the nationally televised Republican National Convention and at giant rallies and having Jerry Falwell speak at your church, all of which was reported, sometimes as front page news, is hardly “behind the scenes.”
White Rock Community Church pastor Dean Bishop, the article states, “shares Waybourn’s belief that Criswell never led any conservative political causes against the gay and lesbian community.”
Bishop acknowledges that Criswell gave anti-Gay sermons, but excuses it as follows, “… as all fundamentalist ministers might be expected to do — but it was not an orchestrated political effort.” Notice how Bishop is positioning Criswell in this sentence. It isn’t that Criswell took the initiative attacking Gays, he was somehow dragged into it as part of his job, and so Criswell is relieved of responsibility for his actions. Further I think showing up at political rallies and things like the Republican National Convention and hosting Falwell at his church is sort of being part of a orchestrated political effort. Bishop said he was planning to attend Criswell’s funeral.
Dean Bishop claimes that even though Falwell “preached at First Baptist Church in Dallas that Criswell never participated in Falwel-like anti-Gay crusades.” It turns out in reading the article that Bishop is a former Baptist minister and a big fan of Criswell. Bishop is quoted stating, “He was one of the greatest preachers we’ve ever had in the world.”
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.
The next item is split between pages 8 and 9 in the Dallas Voice and the following is the link to page 9.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth616334/m1/9/
The article reports that the Celebration Community Church Pastor Carol West said that her church both prayed for First Baptist Church and Criswell during their services and that they “recognized Criswell’s important contribution to religions.” The article has her, as well Faith Community Church elder Mike Mullen, gushing on about Criswell being so great. The article reports:
Mullen said that despite the pastor’s anti-gay and lesbian beliefs, he helped many other people so he should be respected for that.
“He served his congregation well,” Mullen said. “He did a lot of good things for many people.”
Another tactic that the Dallas Voice engaged in to give Criswell a positive image was to report that Criswell lived on Swiss Avenue and had two Gay neighbors and they didn’t have problems living next to Criswell and that the “Swiss Avenue Historic District is known as a tolerant area, and many gays and lesbians live and socialize there.”
So even though Criswell had had a significant role in the rise of the religious rights, Criswell was okay, because he was willing to live in a neighborhood where Gays and Lesbians lived and never left his house to attack Lesbian and Gay neighbors with stick or something.
Why would Dallas Gay religious leaders react the way they did?
A lot of Dallas Gays then, and many still now, just are groveling for acceptance or not even that, just toleration. I call them Zero Gays since they have zero sense of self-worth and only hope for toleration. They hope that by begging for acceptance and supporting the establishment they will be tolerated which is what the most they hope for. They dread being thought of as being trouble makers, and dread all that Gay liberation stuff, and fear the Gay community will suffer if they are seen as troublemakers.
Their hostility is usually directed at Gays who challenge the system instead.
Over the decades Gays that have the least amount of self-worth tend to leave, and Dallas is left with Gays that have a lot of internalized homophobia and see it as being offensive, and think it is offensive when Gays make any assertion for their rights.
That is why in 2022 the Mayor of Dallas and City Council members thought that they could have members of really homophobic churches give invocations, they never expected any challenge of this practice, since fear of antagonizing the establishment is an underlying principal of Dallas LGBT+ politics. [Link to this article at the end of this post as well as the reporting on it by the Dallas Observer.]
Conclusion
If you wonder why the Dallas Gay community has made so little progress, this post should make it clear as to why.
Fort Worth has had a Human Rights Commission since 1967, you would think that the Dallas Gay community whould have been demanding one for sometime, but for the Dallas LGBT+ that might mean being on the establishment’s naught list and so the effort has just been started this year by this newsletter. [See links at the very end.]
It is time to bring Gay liberation to Dallas and throw out the Pink Mafia.
The subscription is free.
The links to the “Pink Mafia” article is in this post.
