Did Fort Worth Get Dog-Walked By A Church?
Written a little bit about this church before, as it’s adjacent to the neighborhood I live in. They wanted to build a center for women coming out of sex trafficking, which is a great idea on face, but some of the logistics and operational issues involved seemed concerning. Where would they get the women from? How would security be handled? What if these women were considered property to others? Why would you publicize the location of that facility? Why would you put it alongside a freeway? It was confusing, and then in the midst of how confusing the whole process was, their lead pastor — a dude named Landon — would randomly insult my neighborhood of mostly older retired people, including driving around on a Vespa talking about how we were all pro-Palestine woke losers. I don’t know. If you’re not from Texas, it’s probably easy to just roll your eyes and say “Texas…” I’m not, but have been here for a second, so I see both sides.
In November, the city’s Zoning commission voted against the structure, 6–4. But then in December, at a very long Tuesday night meeting, the City Council voted in favor of the church’s building plans, meaning the church has the green light to go into permitting. Here’s a news article summarizing that Council vote.
The stated logic behind the Council going against the recommendation of Zoning was that the church in question, Mercy Culture, had threatened lawsuits against individual Council members who voted against them, as well as a lawsuit against the city itself — so fear was stoked. One particularly aggrieved Council member kept talking from the dais about how he “wasn’t scared,” even referencing his military service in the process (about six times), but the whole issue seemed to be threat of legal action from the church towards the city.
Personally I think the center itself is a good idea, but the operations seem like a mess — and most similar organizations in the city, dealing with distressed or trafficked women, have never heard from this church about partnerships or best practices.
Plus, it seems like a dangerous precedent to let a church basically have their own zoning laws — although I am sure the real estate development class loves it, as it could open up new revenue streams.
It just felt like the city bent the knee to a church. My hope is that the church does a good job with the project and helps women. I am currently doubtful, but that’s my hope for sure.
At the end of that very long City Council meeting on 12/10, the Mayor of Fort Worth, Mayor Mattie Parker, basically alluded to some of the vitriol that came from the church to our neighborhood and asked the church to “play nice” with us, especially since they had won and were able to build their facility.
So, over the holiday period, the church released this video, in which somehow they accuse my neighborhood of attempting to kidnap the pastor’s kids? Hmmm. Definitely hadn’t seen any police reports or anything on that.
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This church is “MAGA” in the sense that their co-pastors (husband and wife duo) came out and did some videos endorsing Trump, and their comms approach is very MAGA-y too. They just insult and marginalize — ironically in this case while purporting to be Christian and servants of the Lord — and then they win with fear and bullying, never talking to us in the process about anything or asking our neighborhood if 2–3 people want to help them in the permitting process.
It’s been sad to watch, but I also think most Americans by now realize that politicians are an extension of the affluent and not much more.
After I got divorced in ’17, I stayed in Fort Worth for:
I ended up staying because I met my second wife and her family is from around here.
Politically, I’ve always known the city is controlled by a few big families (Bass, Moncrief, etc.) and the politicians have to do what those families want. I did have a little more faith that they’d follow norms in this situation around what Zoning said, but I guess I was wrong.
Now I just hope this church does play nice and the city didn’t open a massive Pandora’s Box in the process.