Minister of homophobic church dies. Dallas Morning News treats him like a hero. Omits homophobia. Joy Ashford reporter.
Bryan Dunagan was made minister when Highland Park Presbyterian church split from the Presbyterian Church (USA) over the ordination of Gay clergy.
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Everytime the Dallas Morning News covers up homophobia, we hope to be reporting it here.
Anti-Gay Highland Park Presbyterian Pastor Byran Dunagan has died at 44.
The title is:
“‘Unreasonably kind’: Highland Park Presbyterian Church mourns late pastor Bryan Dunagan”
It is by Joy Ashford, https://www.dallasnews.com/author/joy-ashford/
https://web.archive.org/web/20231101152140/https://www.dallasnews.com/author/joy-ashford/
The article gushes.
At Dunagan’s memorial service, his wife, close friends, church staff and area pastors remembered the Dallas native as humble, kind, athletic and God-loving.
And:
At the memorial, Todd Sandel, a friend of Dunagan’s, described him as “unreasonably kind” and known for his “unmatched humility.”
The article obscures how Dunagan got the job at Highland Park Presbyterian saying:
Born in Dallas, Dunagan began leading Highland Park Presbyterian at age 34. He navigated the church through a denominational change, shepherded a capital campaign to update the church campus and led the planting of three local community churches, according to the church.
This is the story of Byran Dunagan getting the pastor job at Highland Park Presbyterian. It is about them not willing to accept Gay clergy.
From the article:
The church also disagreed with the denomination’s vote in 2011 to allow openly gay people in same-sex relationships to be ordained as pastors, elders and deacons.
This is another article about Bryan Dunagan getting the job at Highland Park Presbyterian. His career depended on homophobia.
How is crushing the hopes and careers of Gay Presbyterians being “unreasonably kind” Joy Ashford, how is it Dallas Morning News?
Jim Schutze had a series of articles on them and their homophobia in the Dallas Observer.
Homophobia at Highland Park Presbyterian Church.
The link to the Highland Park Presbyterian Church.
They have been sort of low key about it. Their denomination has been more openly homophobic. The startegy appears to be to lure in people, and when they are more committed to the church, get them on board with homophobia.
https://hppres.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/keller_-_post-everythings.pdf
For instance, our typical evangelistic presentations are effective with persons who assume they should be good. The gospel-presenter tries to show them than they are not good enough, that they fall short of God’s perfect standards, and that they need Jesus to forgive sin and help them do the right thing. This presentation was quite appropriate for almost everyone in my parents’ generation. My parents, who are evangelical Christians, and my in-laws, who are not, held basically the same social and moral values. If you asked them what they thought about premarital sex, or homosexuality, or pornography, both sets of parents would have answered the same. They were part of a world in which Christianity was the folk-religion, even if it was not the heart-religion of most people. They believed that the purpose of life was to be a good person. This world no longer exists everywhere.
On the other hand, if you say to those in my kids’ generation, “You know you have to be good,” they will respond, “Who’s to say what’s good?” So what are we to do with these post-everything persons who form an increasingly dominant part of our society? The traditional gospel presentations will not make much sense to many of them. [Boldface added.]
They are struggling and wanting to find out how to teach homophobia to the next genderation.
This almost completely disappeared. I saved it in the Internet Archive.
A schedule for October 27th.
Friday, October 27
8:00 a.m.
Blog Brainstorm for Existing and Potential Writers
9:00 a.m.
Worship (Sanctuary)
Scott Sauls, “Hope in Suffering,” Romans 5:1-6 (Sanctuary)
10:00 a.m. Julius Kim, “Gospel Pilgrims: A Life of Suffering and Hope,” 2 Kings 4: 8-27 (Sanctuary)
10:45 a.m. Break
11:00 a.m. Workshops #1
Being a Worship Leader Defined by the Gospel (YM), Zac Hicks
Changing the Conversation for Same-Sex Attraction (YM/PT), Sharon Hersch
On Facebook she had announced the speaking engagement.
At this website is some biographical information which I think is her. Her Facebook post points to it. It is the Evangelical story where Jesus is used as duct tape so they can keep themselves together.
She had facebook posts expressing her anti-pathy to same-sex marriage.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10152840347781822&set=a.191420991821
http://www.sharonhersh.com/musings Kapersky says that her website isn’t safe. So this is the link at the Internet Archive. It is about making homophobia a sweet syrup.
This is her website at the Internet Archive. Seems that it isn’t currently active.
https://web.archive.org/web/20230000000000*/http://www.sharonhersh.com/
ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.
ECO is their name, not an acroynm.
They are located in Irving, Texas. DFW is really a cesspool of Christian homophobia.
The website for ECO, the
The focus of this church is to make homophobia somehow hip to reach out to the younger generation.
This homophobic essay is bloated with the talk of “love,” and is how Duck Dynasty Phil Robertson’s statements don’t help with the homophobic mission of Christianity.
https://eco-pres.org/love-with-all-you-got/
“A lot of Christians are scared… should they attend a gay wedding/”
https://eco-pres.org/the-talk/
This is a document about their purpose. I also included the Internet Archive link. The big issue was about Gays, but they then try to downplay it, though it was one of the reasons many churches joined them. This appears to be the new tactic in homophobic Churches, keep the homophobia quiet, so they can lure people into the church, and when the individual is committed, bring on the anti-Gay doctrines.
Unfortunately, sometimes the story of ECO is framed the other way. Some people--and often the media--still paint ECO and our member churches as fundamentally reacting against gay ordination. This simply is not true. It is important to remember that the initial White Paper that talked about a new Reformed body and invited people to the Minneapolis gathering was written in January 2011, before there was a change in ordination standards. The authors of the White Paper cast a vision for churches devoted more to mission, ministry, and connectionalism instead of internal dynamics. From the start, ECO has been a movement grounded in what we are for, not against. And we need to keep remembering the core things we are "for" that propel us forward. [Bold Face added.]
This was about why they need to break up, to avoid Gay clergy.
https://eco-pres.org/standing-up-to-quiet-down/
“Struggled with homosexuality?” on the application for Youth Ministry.
About the formation of ECO over Gay clergy.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-presbyterian-gay-idUSTRE80I2CD20120119
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECO:_A_Covenant_Order_of_Evangelical_Presbyterians
Concluding Thoughts
The Dallas Morning News gives homophobia a free pass.
There are likely a lot more serious homophobic groups, leaders, and individuals about, but the Dallas Morning News won’t be reporting it, and the Dallas Voice is not likely to either.
Very likely this newsletter is just catching a few of the seriously homophobic churches around. When we don’t realize what the true nature of our environment is, we will not have an effective plan for the future.
When homophobia is hidden and covered up, the LGBT aren’t alert to the danger that surrounds them and won’t be active in the defense of the LGBT.
And the fifth prayer at the temple of the Rabbit God was
“5. Defeat those who seek to persecute us.”
This church has been added to this directory of anti-Gay groups in DFW.
It is constantly being updated as the documentation of local homophobic institutions is done. It is by no means complete.
