Major freeways in North Dallas are adorned with billboards proclaiming that First Baptist Church of Dallas is “built on the Bible.”
If that’s so, why does the church’s pastor not seem to understand what the Bible teaches?
Fresh off his campaign to declare James Talarico “not a Christian” and “evil,” the Trump-loving pastor now is on a campaign to support Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream an execution by firing squad.
No kidding.
Mark Wingfield
Last Friday, he posted on social media: “I support the Pentagon’s decision to livestream the execution of mass-murderer Nidal Hassan. Capital punishment is commanded by God in Genesis 9:6 to remind people of the sanctity of human life. The more people that can see that truth illustrated through a public execution, the better.”
What those billboards must mean is that First Baptist Dallas is built on proof-texts from the Bible like a house built with some occasional bricks mixed in with a whole lot of straw.
In case you haven’t memorized Genesis 9:6, here’s what it says: “Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed; for in his own image God made humankind.”
This is God’s command to Noah right after the flood that, according to Genesis, killed all living things on the earth that were not on the ark with Noah.
Jeffress conveniently forgets the rest of the Bible, including the words of Jesus who says in Matthew 5:38-42 — “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you: Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also, and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give your coat as well, and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.”
Jeffress claims to be a biblical literalist but actually is a biblical cherry-picker. He selectively chooses Bible verses that appear to support his political views and then throws away anything else in the Bible that contradicts him.
“Jeffress claims to be a biblical literalist but actually is a biblical cherry-picker.”
Even non-Christians know more about the witness of the Bible than Jeffress pretends to know.
The insanity of Jeffress’ position is so stark that it made the front page of the Dallas Morning News Saturday. I’m sure he loves the publicity, but he should be embarrassed.
And this is a man who claims to be “pro-life.” Once more with feeling: He’s not pro-life; he’s pro-fetus. Like so many evangelicals, Jeffress abides an inconsistent ethic about life. He’s against abortion but doesn’t want to provide for babies once they’re born. He says “all lives matter” but he clearly doesn’t mean Democrats, immigrants, women and Muslims.
Jeffress also got his earthly reward on Saturday when Trump “re-truthed” the Dallas Morning News article about Jeffress’ support for livestreaming the execution. Wait a minute! I thought mainstream media was evil in Trump’s view. Hmm.
Others have written at length — and will continue to — about how immoral a public execution is. I’ll not rehash that here. But I will say to some of you who have been bending yourselves into pretzels not to accept the plain meaning of Hegseth’s words: He didn’t say it would be a “private” livestream or a “military-only” livestream. And Jeffress clearly didn’t hear him say that either.
We’ve already published an opinion piece calling Jeffress “apostate.” He’s actually worse than that. He’s biblically illiterate. No church “built on the Bible” would be as careless with the Bible as he is.
Even a third grade Sunday school teacher would know that.
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global.
Related:
Robert Jeffress, apostate | Opinion by Mara Richards Bim
Trump understands Bible better than pope, Jeffress claims
The arrogance of Jeffress’ claims about James Talarico | Opinion by Rodney Kennedy
Robert Jeffress: Trump’s alleged affair with porn star ‘totally irrelevant’ to his evangelical base
Go ahead and livestream that firing squad execution! | Opinion by Mark Wingfield