A Texas megachurch billboard that declared “America is a Christian nation” recently was taken down after the church said several powerful city liberals complained.
Dallas News reports the billboard advertised a patriotic service at First Baptist Dallas, a megachurch led by Pastor Robert Jeffress in downtown Dallas, Texas.
On Sunday, Jeffress blamed the liberal news media and city Mayor Mike Rawlings for its removal in an interview with Fox News.
“Liberals are the most intolerant people of all when it comes to ideas they disagree with,” he said.
Just one day after the Dallas News ran a negative column about the church, the billboard company announced that it would remove the church ad, Jeffress said.
Here’s more from the report:
Jeffress said that the billboard company, Outfront Media, cited a Dallas Morning News column in its decision to revoke its approval for the advertisement.
Outfront Media said in an interview Monday that neither The News nor Rawlings had anything to do with the billboard’s removal.
The pastor could not be reached for comment on Monday, but told Fox News that the “Christian nation” sermon — named for a quote by Founding Father John Jay — is “simply my recounting the historical evidence for the Christian foundation of our country.”
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At another point, the report referred to the mayor’s negative comments about the billboard:
… “That is not the Christ I follow,” Rawlings told The News earlier this month about First Baptist’s billboard.
“It’s not the Dallas I want to be — to say things that do not unite us but divide us. I never heard those words, that voice come out of Christ. Just the opposite. I was brought up to believe: Be proud of yours, but do not diminish mine,” he said previously.
Jeffress said their problem is not with the billboard company because it has the right not to run a message it is uncomfortable with. It is the mayor’s negative influence on the matter that Jeffress said concerns him. He said the mayor described their billboard as divisive and hateful.
“We think Mayor Rawlings has been hostile to the First Church of Dallas,” he said. “He does not have the right to weigh in on this, to disparage our church and to directly or indirectly influence the billboard company.”
A church spokesperson said the billboard company did offer them a full refund.
