Petty Tyrants in a Tyrannical Age: Annise Parker

Last updated on: January 10, 2015 at 12:23 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

Petty Tyrants in a Tyrannical Age: Annise Parker 2015-01-10T12:23:35-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Annise Parker is not the biggest problem my Church faces. So help us God, what a better world it would be if this were true.

We support a bishop in Syria who finds himself surrounded by ISIS, at the mercy of the kind favors of Putin, and fired at with American supplied weaponry. Twenty-two million of us died in the last century, were denied university education, and lived as second class citizens for the crime of being faithful. Redshirt thugs lash us in North Korea, in Sudan we are sold into slavery, and in Egypt we face extinction in an ancient homeland.

Pray that the “Houston Room” in a Syrian church used to feed starving people of all faiths and named for the gifts of Houston Christians can continue to feed the poor. American guns in terrorist hands surround this place and priests are murdered.

Next to these evils, the pettifogging Parker, a mayor with an overly eager legal team, is not much. She has decided our sermons, our emails, and our private communications are “fair game” because we dare oppose immorality with morality and moral confusion with moral clarity. We want to keep our bathrooms private, but evidently the right to use the toilet of one’s choice is Constitutional, or important, or something.

This precious right to pick a potty is worth using the power of the courts, the executive, and the law. And yet we know the real problem is that we will not say that private immorality is moral in public. In fact, we dare publicly disagree. We dare petition for redress. We suggest a vote on an issue railroaded through a compliant and corrupt city government. Most leaders are afraid to challenge the power of City Hall, hoping for government favors and contracts, but pastors answer to a higher power than the mayor.

Our morality is based in philosophy, theology, and history and not on our desires. We do not even give ourselves the right to force people of our sex to share their bathrooms with us. And yet, I can already hear certain pundits pronounce: potty rights are not worth the fuss. Christians are being martyred. Why kick up a fight?

One must pause and ponder the injustice that those who respond to change forced on us by politicians become accused of responding politically, but so it goes.

It is true, utterly, absolutely, terrifically true that Parker’s power play is not equivalent to the persecution my Church faces in Syria, Nigeria, Sudan, or Iraq. Fighting ISIS is far more important than fighting Parker, but a nation capable of defeating Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany simultaneously is surely capable of dealing with ISIS while swatting back the unjust demand of Parker. ISIS is Nazi ideology without the power of Germany and Parker hardly is worth the bother if her petty tyranny did not transgress an important principle.

Don’t be confused or distracted: Parker is trying to chill religious speech. Challenge her politically on the basis of Christian ethics and she will come after your Christian minister. She wants her morality publicly applauded and we call her morality a false morality: immoral. She accuses us of making morality political by making her immorality political. So while dealing with the real foes, ISIS and the radical atheists of North Korea, we must pause to swat back Parker.

We must fight not because we hate Parker, the Savior commands love, but because we love the Constitution. Nor as urban politicians go is Parker a particular problem. Parker is typical of the libertine left: willing to cozy up to the fat cat network if bosses will allow personal vice to become political virtue. It is not the decadence and influence peddling that stirs us up: decadence and corruption are nothing new in Houston city politics, but an attack on the First Freedom is.

One might despair of cleaning up City Hall, but we do not want them fouling our toilets!

Any attack on the Bill of Rights is an attack on a beloved protection of our most cherished liberties. Some slopes are slippery and we are wise not to stand on the edge of them and Parker is pushing us to the edge with her petulant refusal to acknowledge that hundreds of thousands of Houstonians think she is wrong. We love the person, but hate the tyrannical politics.

And so nobody thinks Parker the greatest problem of our age. There is human trafficking, Ebola, hunger, and drug abuse, but the churches of Houston are already fighting those evils. Now Parker forces us to turn, for just a moment, to say of our sermons, our emails, and our private communications: “We would give them to you with love if you asked, but we will not give them to the government by force ever. Come and see.”

It is almost a bore, but not quite. Our Constitution is not quite in peril, yet, but this is too much, Mayor Parker. One can concentrate on fighting Ebola and still bemoan the common cold.

We faced Nero. We outlasted Attila. We defeated Stalin. Come and take our sermons, our emails, and our ideas, Ms. Mayor, if you can, and we will endure. Our sermons were preached in the open, our emails contain views you already know, and the ideas of moderation, virtue, and republican decency might do you some good. We will turn the other cheek to you as a person: our Lord commands us not to hate, but we will fight your unjust power as mayor to protect the First Freedom: the freedom of religion.

Spiritual Reflections

Previous Post

October 13, 2014

Gratitude: An Intellectual History (A Live Reading Part IV)

Next Post

October 22, 2014 Three Simple Truths about Education

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Apologetics Art Culture Education On Books On Education Philosophy Politics Pop Culture Spiritual Reflections Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 July 2025 June 2025 September 2024 July 2024 June 2024 December 2023 June 2023 September 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who built the first temple for God?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Pilate David Solomon Moses

Books by This Author John Mark Reynolds

See All Titles »