Category: Washington Post

In red-state Oklahoma, marijuana ballot question splits people of faith

June 6, 2018

Clergy on both sides of State Question 788, which would permit the distribution of medical marijuana, call it a moral issue.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | For Religion News Service

OKLAHOMA CITY — As Presbyterian minister Bobby Griffith sees it, legalizing medical marijuana in Oklahoma could help arthritis sufferers with chronic pain and veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The 41-year-old husband and father has a personal reason, too, for supporting State Question 788 — a pro-marijuana initiative that the Bible Belt state’s voters will decide June 26.

“For myself, I would be interested in a prescription for it to see if it works better than my anxiety and depression medications,” said Griffith, co-pastor of a Presbyterian church near downtown Oklahoma City and a member of the national group Clergy for a New Drug Policy.

As Griffith characterizes it, the Oklahoma ballot measure’s potential to improve health outcomes and reduce dependence on addictive opioid painkillers makes it a “moral issue.”

Religious opponents counter that backing the issue would be immoral. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., an ordained Southern Baptist pastor, blasts the ballot measure as a “recreational marijuana vote disguised as medical marijuana.”

“The moral issue to me is really a family issue,” Lankford, who directed a Baptist youth camp before his 2010 election to Congress, told Religion News Service.

“The best thing for our state is not to get more parents and grandparents to smoke marijuana,” added the senator, who filmed a commercial urging voters to reject State Question 788. “To have our communities more drug-addicted and distracted, that doesn’t help our families. It doesn’t make us more prosperous. It doesn’t make our schools more successful.”

About 30 states have passed medical marijuana laws, starting with California in 1996, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Oklahoma would be the first to do so without listing qualifying conditions. That, assert critics, would allow doctors to issue two-year marijuana licenses to patients for any reason. The Oklahoma State Medical Association cites a lack of “evidence-based studies” to support medical marijuana.

“It’s trying to trick the people of Oklahoma into buying into it,” said the Rev. Paul Abner, an Assembly of God pastor who leads an anti-marijuana coalition called Oklahoma Faith Leaders.

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Religion News Service is a national wire service whose media partners include The Associated Press, USA Today and the Washington Post.

 

Baptist seminary president removed over controversial remarks about abused women

May 23, 2018

By Bobby Ross Jr., Sarah Pulliam Bailey and Michelle Boorstein| The Washington Post

FORT WORTH — Prominent Southern Baptist leader Paige Patterson has been removed from his job as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary amid an evangelical #MeToo moment: a massive backlash from women upset over comments he made in the past that are newly perceived as sexist and demeaning.

Seminary leaders were vague as to the reason for the dramatic move, issuing a statement in the wee hours Wednesday morning that didn’t mention Patterson’s controversial comments. Instead, the statement said that the seminary is moving “in the direction of new leadership” due to challenges related to “enrollment, financial, leadership and institutional identity.”

The brief statement said Patterson will be president emeritus, “for the benefit of the future mission of the Seminary.” He will receive compensation and may live on campus as “theologian-in-residence” at a brand new Baptist Heritage Center, the statement said.

After 13 hours of closed-door sessions, the seminary’s trustees appointed D. Jeffrey Bingham, the seminary’s dean of the school of theology, as interim president. Bingham has worked for numerous evangelical institutions, including Criswell College, Dallas Theological Seminary and Wheaton College.

Bobby Ross Jr. reported from Fort Worth. Sarah Pulliam Bailey reported from New York City. Michelle Boorstein reported from Washington.

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This story appears on Page A10 of The Washington Post. 

 

‘Jesus loves me and my guns’: Faith and firearms touted at the NRA’s prayer breakfast

May 12, 2018

By Bobby Ross Jr. | For The Washington Post

DALLAS — Midway through his 15-minute testimony at the National Rifle Association’s annual prayer breakfast Sunday, retired major league first baseman Adam LaRoche took off his sweater.

Underneath, LaRoche — who hit 255 home runs in a 12-year career — sported a black T-shirt with a message that drew cheers from the firearms-friendly crowd of about 1,300.

“Jesus loves me and my guns,” it said.

“Don’t get me wrong: Jesus is all about love, grace, mercy,” said LaRoche, 38, an evangelical best known for walking away from a reported $13 million contact with the Chicago White Sox in 2016 after the team asked him to bring his son into the clubhouse less often.

But that doesn’t mean Jesus “was a pacifist and always carried a white lamb around and tiptoed through life avoiding controversy,” he added. He pointed to Scriptures such as Matthew 10:34, where Jesus said, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

The event came two days after President Trump made international headlines with a splashy, campaign-style speech Friday at the NRA’s 147th annual meeting. More than 80,000 attendees assembled from Thursday through Sunday.

The smaller Sunday-morning gathering — a $40-a-plate affair advertised as “a time of inspiration and encouragement” — took place mostly out of the media spotlight.

Despite the prayer breakfast’s lower profile, the Christian crowd that filled a ballroom at the Omni Hotel in downtown Dallas represented “such a nucleus of the NRA,” said Donna Hyde, a 68-year-old grandmother and matriarch of three generations of lifetime NRA members. She wore buttons with messages such as “I’m the NRA, I Voted.”

“It’s about God, country and the protection of our freedoms,” said Hyde, of Mabank, Tex., about 55 miles southeast of Dallas. “We don’t think we can be good Americans without this core value of Christian faith in Christ that gives us our freedoms of everything, and that’s what the NRA is.”

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This story appears in the Acts of Faith section of The Washington Post. Among other major papers picking up the story: the Salt Lake Tribune and The Virginian-Pilot.

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Pompeo’s Kansas church asks God to ‘give him strength’ in Senate confirmation process

April 17, 2018

“Mike has enemies because of his faith who may try to paint him in a poor light and make it difficult for him to reach the Secretary of State position,” the pastor of nominee Mike Pompeo wrote to his congregation.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | For Religion News Service

WICHITA, Kan. — Under fire from Muslim, Jewish and human rights groups for a record of anti-Muslim remarks, Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo is receiving spiritual support from his home church in Kansas.

Eastminster Presbyterian Church, where Pompeo is a member and former deacon and Sunday school teacher, prayed Sunday (April 15) that God would “give him strength” in his uncertain confirmation process.

“This morning, we want to pray for our dear brother Mike Pompeo as he goes through the confirmation process,” the Rev. Warren Snyder, Eastminster Presbyterian’s assistant pastor, said as members bowed their heads.

“We ask that you would be glorified in his life, that you would be lifted up, that you would strengthen him and his wife (Susan) and his son (Nick) as he goes through this process,” Snyder prayed to God. “Give him strength. Help him to stand.”

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee began hearings Thursday on whether to confirm Pompeo — the outgoing CIA director nominated by President Trump to replace Rex Tillerson in the top diplomatic post.

In advance of Pompeo’s testimony before the Senate panel, the Rev. Stan Van Den Berg, the Wichita church’s senior pastor, issued a call to prayer Wednesday. He cited a request from Susan Pompeo for “specific prayer during this very important and stressful time.”

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Religion News Service is a national wire service whose media partners include The Associated Press, USA Today and the Washington Post.

In this Bible Belt state, Democrats call hot-button issues a ‘smokescreen’

May 27, 2016

Even some Republicans in GOP-run Oklahoma say that abortion and transgender bills are a distraction.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | For The Washington Post

OKLAHOMA CITY — Some public schools are starting summer vacation several days early. Others are contemplating a four-day week to cut costs. And more than 200 teachers in Oklahoma City were handed pink slips in March.

But instead of addressing a burgeoning budget crisis that threatens public education and other critical state services, Oklahoma lawmakers have been busy debating proposals to criminalize abortion, police students’ access to public bathrooms and impeach President Obama.

With more painful cuts to come, Democrats are accusing the GOP-controlled legislature of creating a “smokescreen” to distract the public from an estimated $1.3 billion shortfall caused by declining oil revenue and years of big tax cuts. Even some Republicans have criticized the focus on social issues as frivolous.

“They run this stuff out there because it excites the base,” Keith Gaddie, a political scientist at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, said of the social-issues bills. “But nobody ever banked on the public also looking up and saying: ‘You know, we like schools. We like hospitals. We like roads. We like to have stuff that works.’ ”

Oklahoma is among eight states facing serious budget shortfalls after a two-year drop in oil prices that radically curtailed revenue from the oil industry. Also contributing to Oklahoma’s budget crunch are years of income-tax cuts and corporate tax incentives, especially for oil companies. Last week, Reuters reported that oil industry lobbyists secured one of the lowest tax rates in the country, a tax break that deprived the state of $470 million last year alone.

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This story appears on Page A3 of The Washington Post.

Oklahoma State, faced with another tragedy, prays for healing

October 26, 2015

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By Bobby Ross Jr. | For The Washington Post

STILLWATER, Okla. — People in this college town grieved again Sunday.

It was about four years after a plane crash killed two women’s basketball coaches and almost 15 years after 10 people died when a plane carrying members and coaches of the men’s basketball team went down.

And it was one day after four people were killed when a woman drove her car into a crowd gathered to celebrate Oklahoma State University’s homecoming football game. Five of the 47 who were injured at the parade were listed in critical condition Sunday.

Worshipers prayed at regular Sunday morning services, and people brought flowers to a makeshift memorial erected at the crash site. They counted on faith and their neighbors to again help them heal.

After a sleepless Saturday night, Anthony Wyatt came to the memorial, the place where he had seen the 2014 Hyundai Elantra speed through the intersection. Wyatt was on a float for his construction firm, based in Ponca City, Okla., about an hour north of Stillwater.

“I can’t get it out of my head,” he said. “It’s horrible — innocent people. It’s not fair. It’s not right.”

About 46,000 people live in this town about 65 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. But the population swells on fall Saturdays when the Cowboys are in town, as thousands of people hold picnics or tailgate parties. The stadium seats 60,000 and usually sells out, and people who can’t get seats watch the game at local bars such as Eskimo Joe’s.

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This story appears on the front page of the Oct. 26, 2015, edition of The Washington Post.

Stripping away the stigma: Christian ministries help women escape sex industry

May 12, 2014

This story appeared in The Washington Post and in media outlets across the nation.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | Religion News Service

COLLEYVILLE, Texas — The smoke, the loud music and the smell of perfumes trigger uncomfortable memories for Polly Wright.

But Wright ignores those reminders of her past as she and a troupe of women make their way to the strip club’s dressing room to deliver gift bags filled with fingernail polish, colorful earrings and handwritten notes with messages such as “I’m praying for you.”

The bags also contain tubes of lip gloss with contact information where dancers can receive help and support. A finger can cover the tiny print so a pimp or abusive boyfriend can’t see it.

“We are in there saying, ‘You are loved, valued and cherished, and you are not alone,’” said Wright, founder and executive director of We Are Cherished, a faith-based organization that regularly visits more than 50 adult entertainment venues throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Across the nation, dozens of similar ministries, such as Treasures in Los Angeles, Jewels in Salt Lake City and Beauty From Ashes in Fort Myers, Fla., provide emotional support and a potential way out for prostitutes and other sex workers.

Such organizations often partner with law enforcement authorities to identify and help the tens of thousands of women and teens who feel trapped in an X-rated industry that generates billions of dollars a year in profits.

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