Abbott Asks Megachurch Pastors to Pressure Texas House to Pass Bathroom Bill, Pastor Says

Apparently taking a page from the playbook of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Gov. Greg Abbott has called on the pastors of megachurches across the state asking for their help in passing the bathroom bill, according to the sermon of a pastor with nearly 40,000 people in his congregation in North Texas.

Robert Morris, pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, said “Governor Abbott called me yesterday” asking for help.

“He's calling 10 megachurches," Pastor Morris said, then put the blame for the delay in passing the bathroom bill squarely at the feet of Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio.

“There’s a house bill right now we need to let our representatives know about and bring it to the floor for a vote,” Morris said, adding "It's being held up right now by the leader of the House.”

“It’s being held up right now by the Speaker of the House and I’m saying that, the leader of the house. That is in the state of Texas, not in Washington. This is in Austin,” Morris said.

There was no immediate comment from Abbott’s office about what appears to be an attempt to undermine the speaker by using faith leaders around the state to carry the message.  

“Please understand this is to protect our children,” Morris said. “We need to stand up as adults that’s why we say no you don’t drive a car when you are 11, you don’t drive a car until you’re 16. Adults need to make laws and rules for children who don’t know how to make those decisions at that time.”

“We don’t want to be disrespectful to anyone but this is so boys do not go into girls’ locker rooms. And girls do not go into boys’ locker rooms. And the governor said ‘please ask your people to call their state rep by Monday,’” Morris said.

"This one representative is holding it up," Morris said while promoting contact information for congregants to reach out to their state representative and urge passage of HB 2899 by Rep. Ron Simmons, R-Carrollton.

"I'm asking every member of gateway church to do that,” Pastor Morris said.

Originally published on QuorumReport.com. Copyright May 08, 2017, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved. Reprinted with Permission.

 

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