A Sunday school session
The Texas politicians arrived for their photo op expecting soft lighting and softer questions. Instead, they found wooden chairs arranged in a circle and a teacher waiting with that unsettling calm that makes powerful people nervous.
“Thank you for coming,” he said. “I’ve been watching your work. Please, sit. I notice you invoke my name frequently in your legislation. You speak of biblical values and Christian principles. So let’s open Scripture together.”
He turned to Matthew 25. “When did you last visit prisoners, not for a press conference, but to wash their feet? When you cut funding for the hungry, which verse guided you? Show me where I said, ‘Blessed are the politically connected.’”
One cleared his throat. “Lord, we’re protecting religious freedom.”
“Whose?” he interrupted gently. “I seem to recall saying something about loving your neighbor. I don’t remember adding, ‘unless they worship differently.’”
Opinion
“But our Christianity is…”
“Better?” His eyebrows raised. “Than the Christianity of those who feed the poor without cameras present? Than those who welcome the stranger you’re building walls against? Please, explain your grading system. I’m curious which Beatitude elevates the comfortable over the suffering.”
The room fell silent.
“You’ve built golden calves from my name and called it worship. You’ve turned my gospel of radical love into a weapon of exclusion. You strain out gnats of theological purity while swallowing camels of cruelty.”
He stood. “There’s no such thing as better Christianity. There’s only this: Love God. Love your neighbor. Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Welcome the stranger. Everything else is commentary — most of it yours, not mine.”
“Sunday school dismissed. Your homework is James 2:14-26. There will be a test.”
It’s called Judgment Day.
Steve Ballard, Addison
Facts matter
Re: “City Hall has lost its ability to self-govern — Inaction is spoiling our best opportunities with the Mavericks and other businesses,” by Tom Leppert, Sunday Opinion.
Leppert is partially right. Pleas by companies like AT&T with regards to crime and the homeless were ignored by the city. After multiple assaults of their employees, rumors started to surface about their possible departure around the time emails indicate the city manager started talks with the Las Vegas Sands Corp.
Since then, there’s been a concerted effort to abandon City Hall by the city manager’s office, several council members, downtown developers and their surrogates, some local media outlets and Leppert’s own podcast where he parades fans of the proposal on a regular basis.
He says facts matter. They do. They inform the decision-making process, but this has been the reverse. Make the decision, and then go find facts to support it.
What Leppert witnessed on March 4 was six council members listening to the overwhelming desires of their constituents, not the demands of a privileged few. That is self-governance. What he’s frustrated with is his faction’s inability to hurry up and get ‘er done old school style.
Michael Amonett, Dallas/Oak Cliff
Toppling over
I only wish Dallas had a leader like Tom Leppert today. Here’s a humorous, but maybe telling story about the I. M. Pei building. When my granddaughter was young and we would go to events downtown, she would get hysterical whenever we got close to the City Hall building. Turns out she was terrified that it was going to topple over on us. Maybe she was intuitive, and it has.
Ruthie Garrett, Dallas/Preston Hollow
Campaign advice
Re: “Democrats come out swinging against Vance — vice president a target as opponents look ahead to 2028,” Monday news story.
A message to Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. If you have any presidential aspirations at all, do not start your campaign with trashing and belittling possible opponents, no matter who they are. It makes you look smaller and less competent.
The American people want to hear what you are about and what your plans are to make this great nation even greater. Keep up the good work in my beloved Kentucky.
Sharon Yunt, McKinney
A talking point
We have all seen the long lines at TSA checkpoints recently.
Republicans have blamed the Democrats for not passing the spending bill.
Democrats have stated that they want the Department of Homeland Security to require ICE to be unmasked and to wear body cameras, which is the norm for police departments across the country.
What the Republicans aren’t telling you is that ICE is fully funded and is not dependent upon this spending bill being passed. So the question becomes, either agree to the Democrat requirements or transfer some funds to TSA so that they are paid and will be fully staffed.
Seems that the American public is being held hostage in order to cause pain so that the Republicans can have a talking point.
Please remember this when it is time to vote in November.
Mike Tlanda, Carrollton
Neither snow nor rain nor…
Part of the stated mission of the U.S. Postal Service is, “It shall provide prompt, reliable and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall render postal services to all communities.”
As I recall, the unofficial motto of the USPS is “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
For the past two weeks, we have received only one postal delivery per week, and they appeared to each contain several days’ worth of mail. Has the 75214 Post Office forgotten these core tenets? With postal rates being at an all-time high, I think that we deserve better service than what we are now receiving.
Weldon W. Nash, Jr., Dallas/Lakewood
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