The Rev. Jo Hudson, senior pastor at the Cathedral of Hope, has written a response to D magazine’s January cover story, How First Baptist’s Robert Jeffress Ordained Himself to Lead America. In the story, writer Michael Mooney claims he was prepared to hate Jeffress.
“It would be easy to dislike him if he were a hypocrite or a bigot, if he were an insufferable megalomaniac or the kind of man who preaches out of hate and anger,” Mooney wrote. Funny he doesn’t see the bile Jeffress spews at the LGBT community as anything other than pure hatred.
In her response, Hudson points out that “the writer quotes the words of Dr. Jeffress from a sermon he delivered in 2008 called ‘Gay is not OK.'”
“Unlike your writer, I don’t want to hate Robert Jeffress,” Hudson writes. Her rebuttal is on target. I’ve heard her speak and read her writing a number of times, but she’s never been better than in this response.
Rather than spreading more hatred, Hudson compliments Jeffress. She says his arrival at First Baptist “ushered in a revival” and that “anyone who leads a church like that can’t be all bad.”
But she takes him to task for his disgusting description of the LGBT community: “What they (homosexuals) do is filthy. It is so degrading that it is beyond description,” Jeffress said in the “Gay is not OK” sermon.
And she ends brilliantly — she invites him to come and visit the Cathedral as her guest. And I have a funny feeling that what would surprise him most is just how warmly he’d be welcomed. He’d expect protests. He’d expect shouting and depravity. What he’d find are families and friends attending a church service.
A warm welcome — a true show of Christianity — would be the most disconcerting thing that could happen to him. I suspect Jeffress will never take Hudson up on her invitation. Why ruin his good myth with a few facts?
He won’t show up. He will have an excuse or his schedule will not work. Something will come up. I bet if you have a big donation check for him, he would be there in his Sunday best, bowing and kissin your ring while wishing you all the best. Cause he has a big job ahead paying for that huge spaceship for Baptist folk downtown. So Im sure he would just love that. You can catch the lil weasel eating at La Madelines Downtown on Pearl & San Jacinto sometimes. Perhaps Rev. Jo you could go downtown and ask him in person. He probably will squirm a bit and then run back to Baptist base camp. But hey you gotta ask or you don;t get. Good luck … if I see him first I will tell’em you looking for him.
Good Show, Jo! Way to stay true to yourself while standing up for us all.
The underlying issue is we in the gay community do not need the acceptance from anyone. He says being gay is filthy. He is entitled to his beliefs. This is America.
Jo Hudson showed some class. I ready the entire article and I’m proud she was able to reach out publicly to Jeffress since he has made no effort to reach out to our community in a positive way.
Several years ago my daughter and a few friends attended COH. When I asked her what she thought she said that it was unusual for her to see same sex couples holding hands or hugging but that what she really saw was a whole lot of people who loved God and loved each other. When Jeffress visits COH I feel certain he will find a church not the skewed view of gay people that he might be expecting.
Jo Hudson is taking the high road. Rev. Jeffress preached the sermon he did and made the remarks he made to get attention. It was a sensationalist sermon. Sensationalism gets attention these days. It doesn’t have to be the truth. One thing is for certain: when someone takes a view of homosexuals the way Dr. Jeffress has, it usually (notice I didn’t say ALWAYS) means one thing: that individual has doubts about his/her own tendencies, and is overcompensating in an attempt to mask, suppress or otherwise cover them up. I strongly suspect that’s the case with Dr. Jeffress.
The Rev.Dr Jo is an advocate of acting and exemplifiying the message of Christ. We, at Cathedral of Hope, are a radical Church to the extent that the message of Love and compassion begins with a radical acceptance without the denying of a n y o n e becuase God gives us his grace to one AND All, EVERYONE. Rev Jo’s reaction to this is a wonderful reaching out in love. Acceptance must come from me to my neighbor, my brother, my sister no matter who he is or how he/she live their life.