EDMOND
In a unified show of support that is often missing from today’s pulpits, a group of prominent Edmond pastors, led by Fairview Baptist Church – Edmond pastors Paul Blair and Dan Fisher, released a letter rebuking the newly-minted Edmond Mayor, Darrell Davis, for his Pride Month declaration earlier this month.
The controversy erupted when Mayor Davis unilaterally penned a proclamation on behalf of City Council and the citizens of Edmond declaring June to the “Pride Month” in the rapidly growing suburb of Oklahoma City. Mayor Davis did this without any kind of a vote from City Council, a move that received strong rebuke from the Oklahoma County GOP Executive Committee.
Today, at the City Council meeting, the area’s pulpits finally got involved in taking a stand against the proclamation. The group of pastors included the following:
Paul K. Blair, Senior Pastor, Fairview Baptist Church; Dan Fisher, Co-Pastor, Fairview Baptist Church; Dr. Blake Gideon, Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church; Dr. Mark Hitchcock, Senior Pastor, Faith Bible Church; Chuck Munson, Senior Pastor, Edmond Road Baptist Church; Steve Rains, Pastor, Heritage Baptist Church; Jordan Dawson, Senior Pastor, Church Alive; Bishop Dr. Randall Barnett, Senior Pastor, Riverside Church; John Randell, Senior Pastor, Revive Church; Rev. Stephen V. Hamilton, Pastor, St. Monica Catholic Church.
Notably missing from the list is Craig Groeschel, pastor of the 100,000+ member mega-church LifeChurch.
The letter is published below with permission from the pastors:
To the City of Edmond Mayor and Edmond City Council:
We, the undersigned pastors in Edmond, are shocked and offended by the mayor’s declaration of June as Pride month and we call upon him to rescind the declaration at once.
As pastors of various congregations, we chose to use as letterhead the seal containing the Cross of Christ that once proudly represented our city until forcibly removed by an ACLU lawsuit in 1993. The quadrant was left blank for years as a public reminder and show that the will of the people had been violated.
If one believes the Bible to be God’s Holy Word then one believes God created mankind intentionally by creating two different genders – the man and the woman. He created them as sexual beings giving them to one another with the gift of sexual intimacy which God commanded to be enjoyed ONLY within the confines of marriage. In fact, Hebrews 13:4 calls the intimacy of the marital relationship holy. Any behavior outside of God’s will and carried out in disobedience to His commands is sin.
As beings created by God, we have unalienable rights given to us by Him. No person can be deprived of life without due process. No person can arbitrarily be deprived of liberty without due process. No person can be deprived of the right to enjoy the blessings which God intended for one to experience in accordance with His will. According to the Declaration of Independence, the sole purpose of civil government is to secure these rights.
While we have unalienable, God given rights, no one has a right to do wrong. While all sin, the proper response towards sin should be sorrow and repentance, not defiance and pride. Nevertheless, some choose to shake their fists at God and declare that they will not be ruled by Him (Psalm 2).
If Mr. Darrell Davis wishes to personally celebrate a behavior which God calls sin, that is his personal decision, and he alone will give an account to God for his beliefs and actions one day. However, we are shocked and offended that he would choose to speak as Mayor Davis for the entirety of citizens of this community and celebrate a behavioral choice of which the Word of God clearly disapproves.
We would welcome a meeting with the mayor to develop a mutually respectful working relationship for the future. America’s founding fathers knew that Almighty God was the ultimate lawgiver and as was documented by Sir William Blackstone and stated in Blackstone’s Commentaries on Law, Book One, Section Two, “no human laws should be suffered to contradict” God’s “revealed or divine law” which “are to be found only in the holy scriptures.”
We know that God established the realm of civil government, and the Bible has much to say about its proper use and its perversion. It would be our desire to be among the mayor’s best and strongest allies, but only if he would take greater consideration with what he does in his public role.
Respectfully,
Paul K. Blair, Senior Pastor, Fairview Baptist Church
Dan Fisher, Co-Pastor, Fairview Baptist Church
Dr. Blake Gideon, Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church
Dr. Mark Hitchcock, Senior Pastor, Faith Bible Church
Chuck Munson, Senior Pastor, Edmond Road Baptist Church
Steve Rains, Pastor, Heritage Baptist Church
Jordan Dawson, Senior Pastor, Church Alive
Bishop Dr. Randall Barnett, Senior Pastor, Riverside Church
John Randell, Senior Pastor, Revive Church
Rev. Stephen V. Hamilton, Pastor, St. Monica Catholic Church