HOUSTON – With only days before an Aug. 24 deadline, Houston Mayor Annise Parker and City Council were ordered Aug. 19, again, by the Texas Supreme Court to comply with its city charter and draft proper ballot language for the fall election that will decide the fate of a long-contested and controversial ordinance. Parker said that although the court’s decision was politically driven she would comply with the order.

Houston City Council voted Aug. 5 to put the Equal Rights Ordinance (ERO) on the Nov. 3 ballot after a vote to repeal the law failed. That action came only after the high court, in a July ruling, ordered council to perform its duty and comply with the law. After the council’s repeal vote, a heated debate arose over the ballot language when Andy Taylor, the attorney for the coalition opposed to the ordinance, warned the council the ballot would be “dead on arrival” if passed with the proposed wording. Four council members urged Parker to change the language, claiming if she did not the city would again find itself on the losing end of a legal battle with the state’s high court.

Parker refused to acquiesce, and Taylor filed another emergency plea with the high court on Aug. 7 asking them to intervene. And for the second time in less than a month, the Texas Supreme Court ruled against the mayor and the Houston City Council.

“Our decision rests not on our views on the ordinance—a political issue the citizens of Houston must decide—but on the clear dictates of the City Charter,” the Texas Supreme Court wrote in its Aug. 19 unanimous decision. “The City Council must comply with its own laws regarding the handling of a referendum petition and any resulting election.”

Those laws dictate council create ballot language asking voters to either vote “For” or “Against” a proposition. Instead council, at the behest of Parker, approved ballot language asking voters if they were for or against “repealing” the ordinance. That language, the court ruled, was not an option and a violation of the council’s ministerial duties.

City of Houston attorneys had argued the Texas Supreme Court had no jurisdiction in the ballot language case and the plaintiffs must follow standard appeals processes. But the justices said the imminence of the election places the appeal within a narrow class of cases requiring immediate relief. State law requires all ballots be set by Aug. 24 prior to the Nov. 3 election. Houston ballot language must be set by Aug. 31 for printing and overseas distribution.

The court’s latest decision follows a year-long battle between Parker and the pastors who spearheaded the ERO’s repeal. The ordinance gives protected class status to LGBT individuals. But opponents contend the ordinance goes beyond that, creating special rights for LGBT people, superseding the constitutional right of religious expression.

Especially egregious to the pastors is a provision in the ordinance allowing biological men and women to use public bathrooms and locker rooms of the sex with which they identify.

Still stinging from a June Texas Supreme Court ruling that overturned a 2010 ballot initiative due to improper wording, four council members urged due diligence in drafting ballot language about the ordinance. But what Parker and the remaining council members dismissed as splitting hairs, Taylor warned was the letter of the law in his Aug 4 statement before council.

“Legally, this will be dead on arrival if you do it the way the mayor just explained,” Taylor told council.

His comments were met with open derision by Parker as she told the council, “Our belief is he is incorrect—as he is in many things.”

In addition to being the attorney for the No UnEqual Rights Coalition, a racially and politically diverse group of pastors and civic leaders organized to lead the referendum petition drive, Taylor also represents a group of pastors from the coalition who filed a civil rights lawsuit against Parker, accusing her of voter suppression and intimidation. The lawsuit was filed two days before the council’s ballot language vote.

In defense of the ballot language, Parker said the text is perfectly clear and in keeping with the city charter. The ballot language approved by the city council Aug. 5 stated: “Shall the City of Houston repeal the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, Ord. No. 2014-530, which prohibits discrimination in city employment and city services, city contracts, public accommodations, private employment, and housing based on an individual’s sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, familial status, marital status, military status, religion, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity, or pregnancy?”

But council members C.O. Bradford, Dave Martin, Michael Kubosh and Brenda Stardig maintained the November election is not about repealing the ERO and voted against the ballot measure.

“The voters in November cannot vote to repeal anything,” said Bradford, an attorney and one of the most outspoken critics of the ballot language during the Aug. 4 council meeting. “If the ballot language says anything about the voters repealing something, it’s wrong!”

Bradford voted for the ordinance last year but opposed the ballot language because he wanted “the ballot to be right.”

During debate, Parker insisted the language on the ballot was consistent with the petition calling for the repeal of the ERO. Dave Welch, executive director of the Houston Area Pastors Council (HAPC), said that reasoning may make sense but was inconsistent with the Supreme Court directive and the city charter.

The charter, not the petition, Martin said, dictates the ballot language, which in its current form is a “purposeful attempt to mislead voters.” Martin’s Aug. 5 allegation continued a tone of acrimony between Parker and those who disagree with her ideologically or managerially.

During Taylor’s Aug. 4 public testimony, Parker took an unprovoked jab at Taylor. Just before calling on a council member to speak, she turned to Taylor and said, “I like the new hair color, by the way.”

Bradford chided Parker for her snide remarks, but Martin made it clear Parker, a lesbian, was operating by a blatant double standard.

Referring to himself, Martin said, “If Dave Martin had criticized a transgendered individual for the color of their hair my name and my picture would be on the first page of the paper and people would be calling for me to resign – immediately!”

Turning to Taylor who stood at the podium for addressing council, he added, “So for that, sir, I apologize. It’s not fair.”

Welch, who attended the Aug. 4 and 5 city council sessions said in his more than 30 years of work as a pastor and advocate for church-lead civic reforms he didn’t “recall seeing a more grotesque display of childish behavior.”

But that, he said, speaks to the “bigger narrative” of the year-long struggle—the spiritual nature of the work at hand.

“The pastors in this coalition representing every walk of life serve, minister to and are for what is best for the people in this great city,” the HAPC wrote in response to the ruling. “We are called to love and also to speak the truth that sets us free from that which would harm or destroy those God created in His image.  We also have and will oppose any words or actions that in any way diminish the humanity and dignity of the individual, even those with whom we disagree.”

ATLANTA—If the Southern Baptist Convention annual meetings were college or NBA basketball games Barry McCarty would be the leader in minutes played. For nearly three decades no one has accumulated more platform time in the SBC annual meetings than the well-known chief parliamentarian.

In the course of 29 annual convention meetings, McCarty has probably logged 540 hours on the platform in addition to the significant amount of time he spends with the SBC presidents in preparation for the convention business sessions.

McCarty has now served under 16 different SBC presidents. His prowess as a parliamentarian has been invaluable in helping convention leaders navigate through some rather stormy business sessions, particularly during the Conservative Resurgence.

While McCarty is known as Southern Baptists’ chief parliamentarian, he is also a preacher, teacher, pastor and educator. He earned his Ph.D. in rhetoric and argumentation from the University of Pittsburgh and has served as president of Cincinnati Christian University and until recently pastor of Peachtree Christian Church in Atlanta.

Throughout his ministry McCarty has served the Lord in the Stone-Campbell tradition, which sought to restore Christian unity through abolishing creeds and returning to the principles of the early churches described in the New Testament.

McCarty explained, “In reading Baptist history, I discovered that the desire to recover New Testament Christianity was also what the Anabaptists were striving to do during the Protestant Reformation.”

At the SBC annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio, McCarty was asked, “Barry, when are you going to become a Southern Baptist?”

“Well, it may be sooner than you think,” McCarty responded.

Began with 2000 BF&M

Through the years the affable parliamentarian developed a deep love for Southern Baptists and a growing appreciation for the Baptist Faith and Message as a confession of sound biblical doctrine. He is a man of deep convictions and great faith, holding tenaciously to the infallibility of God’s Word.

“My confidence in the BF&M 2000 began 15 years ago when I assisted the SBC in its adoption,” McCarty explained. “Paige [Patterson], who was the convention president in 2000, and I had numerous conversations about that confessional document and how it would be presented to the messengers at the Orlando convention.

“I immersed myself in the content of the Baptist Faith and Message and grew to love the way it summarized the Christian faith. I especially appreciated its clear statement on salvation by grace through faith, while also affirming believer’s baptism as the biblical testimony of a saving faith in the work of Christ.”

McCarty cited three primary reasons for his decision to become a Southern Baptist.

“First,” he said, “while Southern Baptists are not a creedal people, they are a confessional people; and at this point in history the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 is the best statement of faith I know of.

“Second, right now no one is speaking to our culture on the great moral issues with as much clarity or biblical integrity as Southern Baptists.

“Third, at this point in history no one is doing more to penetrate lostness around the world than Southern Baptists.”

McCarty said that his journey to becoming a Southern Baptist reminded him of the sojourners who were adopted by the tribes of Israel in Ezekiel 47:23, which says, “And it shall come to pass, that in what tribe the stranger sojourneth, there shall ye give him his inheritance, saith the Lord God.”

McCarty reasoned, “I am a long-time sojourner who wants to claim my inheritance in this tribe, among the people known as Southern Baptists.”

‘We want in’

On August 16, Barry and his wife, Pat, were baptized and welcomed into the membership of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga. The McCartys selected Sherwood because of their deep relationship with Pastor Michael Catt, the influence of the Refresh Conferences provided by the church, and the prayers the church has offered to God on their behalf.

McCarty told The Christian Index that he would give four offerings on his first Sunday at Sherwood—his tithe for the local church and three additional offerings to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions and Georgia’s state missions offering.

“We understand how our Convention works, and we want in on all of it,” McCarty said.

Pat McCarty is also familiar with Southern Baptist life. When Barry served as a pastor in Dallas, she worked at GuideStone Financial Resources. During his pastorate in Atlanta, Pat served Southern Baptists as an employee of the North American Mission Board.

This fall, Barry will have the opportunity to serve Southern Baptists in a new way—as a professor of preaching and rhetoric at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth.

“Everyone knows the prowess of Barry McCarty as a parliamentarian,” Southwestern Seminary President Paige Patterson said. “But his greatness as a preacher and a rhetorician has been unknown to most Southern Baptists. He is a gracious pastor, a powerful preacher and a consistent witness for Christ.”

Becoming a part of the Southern Baptist voice

In speaking of his transition, McCarty said, “I would like for evangelicals across the nation to know my reasoning for becoming a Southern Baptist; and I would say to them, ‘If your church is having a love affair with the culture rather than lovingly speaking truth to the culture you may need to become a Southern Baptist.

“Southern Baptists are the strongest voice for New Testament Christianity in our generation. I want to be part of that voice.

“When the seminary presidents gave their report at this year’s convention in Columbus, Southern Seminary President Al Mohler said, ‘Ground zero for where we will be standing in 30 years is the seminary campuses right now.’ That is why I want to pour myself into the next generation of pastors and missionaries as a professor at SWBTS.”

FORT WORTH—Rebekah Naylor devoted 36 years of her life to serving as a medical missionary in India through the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. When she retired in 2009 and returned home to Texas, though, she saw that the Lord was not finished using her skills for his glory.

In India, Naylor had seen firsthand what James wrote in the second chapter of his epistle: 

 “If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:15-17)

“I understood well how meeting physical needs and sharing the gospel, leading people to faith, go together,” Naylor said.

She also noticed that the neighborhoods around her home church, Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth, had grown increasingly populated by low-income families, many of whom spoke only Spanish. Naylor realized their access to health care, like many other basic needs, was lacking or non-existent—a situation not altogether different from that which she encountered in her international mission work. 

“I felt that the church had an opportunity to meet health care needs even as they were already helping with food and other benevolence ministries,” Naylor said. “Thus, the vision of Mercy Clinic was born.”

Today, the Mercy Clinic, located on the Travis Avenue campus, has been fully operational for more than two years, offering free medical services and medications to residents of the 76110 zip code.

Adult residents can make appointments or walk in for care two nights a week for everything from diabetic issues to tooth aches. There is no cost to residents for the services, and clinic volunteers have the opportunity to share the gospel with patients after care has been administered.

Registered Nurse Peggy Leitch serves as the clinic’s executive director and echoed the idea that often the Lord leads Christians to minister to physical needs before explaining that Christ is the salve and answer to spiritual needs.

“You can hardly talk about Jesus when your mouth hurts so bad,” Leitch said, recalling a patient who came to the clinic with a bad toothache that left her unable to eat. “Once you’ve addressed that, they’re much more open to hearing from the Lord.”

In the office, patients not only hear the gospel from clinic workers but also receive Bibles, tracts about knowing Christ and invitations to church and to the Spanish service, Travis en Español. Patients were also invited this summer to bring their children to Travis Avenue’s Vacation Bible School, which was offered in both English and Spanish.

Neldalicia Calpillo has been living in Fort Worth since she was 6-years-old and says the Mercy Clinic has become a vital part of her community. She, along with a handful of other people from the neighborhood, had gathered on the clinic’s porch an hour before it opened in order to be seen by a doctor.

“It’s really important because not everybody can afford the insurance,” Calpillo said. “It’s a great opportunity to help a lot of people in need.”

Members of Travis Avenue find it an important ministry as well, and Leitch says a wide array of them have stepped up to serve at the clinic and at health fairs held throughout the year. Volunteers, she said, include the young, the old and the middle aged, those with doctorate degrees and those with life experience, those who work at home and those who work in the marketplace. 

“It brings all these people together,” Leitch said. “It has been a great encouragement for a growing ministry to have such support from the congregation.”

The ministry also has the full support of the church’s leadership.

“Thousands of people around our church do not have access to basic healthcare,” Travis Avenue Pastor Michael Dean said. “The Mercy Clinic is one way for us to touch them with the loving heart and hand of Jesus. Through the clinic, we hope to be a blessing to our community.”

Naylor, who would encourage other churches to prayerfully consider similar ministries if the Lord leads, said the efforts put forth and resources pooled to establish the Mercy Clinic have proven fruitful and blessed of God. The most joyous aspects of the clinic’s development, she says, have been people professing faith in Christ, the church growing in unity, and patients displaying heartfelt gratitude. 

“It has been more than worth the investment of time and money as we see people who are helped physically and experience the love of Jesus and then hear the gospel,” Naylor said.