Glorious fire damage of 1st Baptist, the hating church and enemy of Gays.
Let July 19, 2024 be remembered with jubilation.
Subscriptions are free.
Update: Links to Dallas Morning News puff pieces glorifying this ruin.
The Fire. GLORIOUS!
Every July 19th, let us remember in joy.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2024/07/19/plume-of-black-smoke-rises-over-downtown-dallas/
There was irony in this fire happening.
Some music to celebrate this.
My photos
These photos were taken as part of the photography project documenting the Houses of Hate in Dallas. This is the 3rd in a series of write ups. Links to the earlier write ups in this post.
They still honor W.A. Criswell with a building. I took this photo before the fire for an earlier project. I put Criswell’s sermons about AIDS between the pictures.
To see the fire damage I had to take photos from different angles.
“The Sin of Sodom,” May 19, 1985.
https://wacriswell.com/sermons/1985/the-sin-of-sodom1
I have seen them parade through the city on television, and I have seen pictures of them in the daily paper; two hundred fifty thousand sodomites in one city. And, of course, having expatiated on that at the early service, one of the men, one of the fine men in our church came up to me after the early service and said, "Pastor, did you know the third city in America in the number of sodomites in it is the city of Dallas? Did you know that?" And he said, "Not only that, but did you know that the third city in the United States in the number of AIDS, the disease, the blight, the curse, the judgment of AIDS, is in the city of Dallas, did you know that?"
I said, "No, I did not know that. I did not know that." I cannot enter into it. It is absolutely beyond me. Why would a man want to lie with another man as a man lies with a woman? How is that? And they say, you’re born that way. You’re made that way. Most of your doctors and psychologists will say that’s not so. It’s a learned response.
But however it is, if a man had a tendency to lie with another man, like any other sin, you repulse it. If you were tempted to steal or to embezzle, you’re not to do it. You’re not. If you’re – if you are in your heart drawn to a woman that you work with in your office, just like any other temptation, you’re not to do it. I cannot enter into it. But what I see in this sin of Sodom that incurred the judgment of Almighty God, I see that promiscuity pervading all of American life. [Boldface added.]
From Criswell’s sermon, “The Last Judgement,” August 26, 1984.
https://wacriswell.com/sermons/1984/the-last-judgment/
If we obey those laws, we are blessed. But if we disobey those laws, there is disaster, failure that awaits us. Let me give you dynamic and traumatic illustration of that in a terrible way. Because of the teaching of the Word of God, that it is wrong for a man to have sexual relationships with another man, and it is wrong for a woman to be sexually intimate with another woman, because of the teaching of God’s word, AIDS the disease of AIDS was eradicated from the earth. It was never known. It was never heard of. It had disappeared from the surface of God’s created planet.
In our lifetime, we are scoffing at the Word of God, laughing at these old-fashioned puritanical ideas, and opening up society and culture to the permissiveness of the lesbian and the sodomite and the homosexual. Now the terrible disastrous judgment of the sin and disease of AIDS startles and frightens the earth. [Boldface added.]
“The wounds of Jesus,” April 9, 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.]
Criswell was quick to exploit the victims of AIDS. “The Work Awaiting Us,” Sept. 27, 1987.
https://wacriswell.com/sermons/1987/the-work-awaiting-us
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.]
Criswell didn’t let the opportunity of exploiting this victim of AIDS go to waste. He had him mentioned again in, “Jesus, The Light of the World,” Oct. 25, 1987. This unamed Gay individual died in a dark world of self-hating and Criswell was there to make sure it was as dark as it could be.
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.]
In an Oct. 2, 1983 sermon, “We Begin our Fortieth Year,” this is what W.A. Criswell had to say:
https://wacriswell.com/sermons/1983/we-begin-our-fortieth-year/
… There is advancement and progress also in the evil of sodomy. When I began this ministry here, I never heard of a sodomonic community. And yet in the city of San Francisco they’ll have two hundred fifty thousand members of that community. They have a Sodom community in Dallas, and they clamor for recognition on the campus of the great Christian Southern Methodist University here in our city. I never heard of herpes. I never heard of AIDS. There is advancement and progress in evil. [Boldface added.]
In a June 29, 1986 sermon, “My Country,” this is what W.A. Criswell had to say:
https://wacriswell.com/sermons/1986/my-country1/
Whether we live or die lies in the judgment of Almighty God. And I do not think America can live in drunkenness, and in debauchery, and in desecration. We have an increasing floodtide of drugs to tear our bodies apart. We have immoral, promiscuous TVs and movies to tear our families apart. We have an increasing abortion to tear the very wombs of our mothers apart. We have crime and terror on our streets to tear our cities apart. We have secular humanism to tear our schools apart. We have sodomy and an epidemic of AIDS to tear the very moral fiber of our people apart. We have cults, weird and strange, to tear our churches apart. Where shall we find strength and deliverance? It will be found only in the Lord God Almighty, and a great turning of our people to Him. There is no other way. Whether we live or die lies in our turning to the Lord as a people, as a nation. [Boldface added.]
Dallas Gay religious leaders praised Criswell when he died.
So it was open to the public and I went inside to get more photos.
When the place was burning, Rev. Thomas of the Cathedral of Hope prayed for them.
I wrote him, waste of time.
First Baptist Church info.
Dallas Morning News article glorifying this church.
The title online at their webpage is different than there epaper version which is their print version. The title of the print version was “Building on a history of faith.”
https://epaper.dallasnews.com/app/DAMONE/editionguid/2d120f8d-3301-49e7-874d-cc1f26fd45b4
We need to get this project going.
My proposal to rebuke this fanaticism is to rename Ervay Street, named after a really horrible person, to Harvey Milk St. This would be a strong statement against anti-LGBT fanaticism.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/451152996505826
You have to skip the stupid ad before you can read it. Ervay was part of the failed invasion of Nicarauga to make it a slave state, was a Confederate officer, and was the Mayor of Dallas to restored white supremacy to Dallas.
https://issuu.com/edwardh.sebesta/docs/why_change_ervay_to_harvey_milk_st
