Witness the Resurrection of First Baptist

• Right, because President Obama was on the Supreme Court when it upheld religious tax exemption in 1970.  It's all his fault.

• "I don't know you, so I can't make a judgment for or against you" And yet this is the exact opposite of most statements made by Jeffress, and to a large extent, many prominent religious figures.  He has outright condemned those he sees as against his beliefs, regardless if he knows them or not.

• Ever heard of Dallas Life?  Know who started it and is pretty much still its biggest supporter to this day?

• It depends on who you ask.

• I don't know you, so I can't make a judgment for or against you.  I take folk at face value, not what other folk may say about you.  Trust me, a lot of folk used to think I am crazy, then they had a conversation with me, and they had to change their opinion about me.  

• It might depend on the particular audience.  Not knowing much about FBC, I still could imagine they could use the building for various speakers that would appeal to a younger audience.  I don't think everyone there is a 65 years old HP matron..

• Thanks for that image of FBC congregation members riding DART to Sunday services.  I LOL'd !!!!

• Dallas is all about wasting money, doesn't matter if it's wasted on bridges, churches, deck parks, city-owned hotels, or endless studies to justify building toll roads in flood plains... the list goes on and on.

• oh come the fuck on, I don't like Robert Jeffress or FBC either, but nazi references when dealing with people you disagree with are for children.

• "I would bet that you don’t donate much to anything; and you just want to tax someone else and give their money to the poor. " I appreciate everything you said, this was needlessly vicious and judgmental.  Ask for tolerance without being judgmental.  Easier said than done, this is a jihad for all of us.

• I don't know, if you take the Muslim community, or any other nascent faith (for these shores) they have real growth.  Even there, I'd like to see churches recycled and adapted, from an eco-perspective.  But, presumably First Baptist could have worked with what they have.  Then again, this doesn't bother me when I think again.  It helps the economy, and should be a real architectural gem.  There's nothing new about that.  I appreciate the comments about the poor, but who am I to judge?

• "Think of it as a stimulus project except we are not paying for it." I bet the people in Auschwitz thought the same thing. Big building= economic prosperity. The only thing is a man will be spewing hate and intolerance once in a while. But nothings gonna happen little Hans and little Grettel.

• For every single comment you just made could sub out the term "church" and use the term "corporation". Just saying, if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...

• Not a Baptist, but appreciate the way they have hung in there with our city and center and continue to invest in it

• We are talking about building something that will bring thousands of more people into the heart of downtown each week, consistently, and it won't cost the city anything.  The city has spent millions on things that won't be nearly as successful.  It's even near a DART stop.  Mr. Jeffress may be a first class jerk, but so are Mr. Cuban and Mr. Jones.  We have no shortage of people wanting to spend tax dollars on their pet projects for "the public good."  As a taxpayer, I'm getting a better deal with Mr. Jeffress though I suspect he's not too high on my religion either.  His money is still green.  Think of it as a stimulus project except we are not paying for it.

• So you are one of those people that put up a big sign downtown saying being gay is not OK, and then you think as a gay person I shouldn't form an opinion on you? Fine, I'm sure you are super swell except for the fact that you hate me and don't consider me an equal member of society.

• ...peanut butter in my chocolate...  LOL Love it.

• But its prime real estate that FBC owns.  So they can do with it what they want.  

• The way I learned it, Christians are supposed to follow Jesus, not use bricks and mortar to worship him and stop following him in word and deed.  Somehow, Christianity got off the Jesus track and with that, my interest.   I see few Christians "walking the talk" in my life time and I've been around a while.  Lately it has gotten more egregious.  There is a lot more time judging and bearing false witness going on by our supposedly  Christian political leaders than following what Jesus said!

• So I am one of those folks...but you don't know me, so how can you make a judgment on me.  How about getting to know me first before you lump me in with other folk.

• Again, the FBC Expansion is being paid for by Private donations.  Your opinions as to their religious beliefs are irrelevant.  As for not paying taxes, that is a federal issue, you can go talk to President Hope and Change. 

• To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, Parks and Bridges are more useful than churches. But yes, I do take issue with rebuilding a Baptist church who has fostered bigotry against it's fellow citizens in Dallas throughout it's entire existence being in the center of downtown, it has a history of racism and is now singling out Muslims and gays as worthy of scorn, judgement and persecution, this is not something that I want at the center of my inclusive and tolerant city, much less the city subsidizing it because they are using prime real estate and not paying taxes. A park, open to all the citizens of Dallas regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, class, where we can all interact as equals and peers without judgement and enjoy the beauty of nature, music, theatre and art together, as a city, yes, that it truly more useful than this gaudy center of hate will ever be to the city and only serves to drag us back to our ugly past.

• I judge people by their actions and the company they keep, if they disagree with the disgusting and repugnant teaching and practices of their church, they should leave it, otherwise I must believe they are at least tacitly endorsing it.

• I'm pretty sure most of the classy libs posting on here thought the calatrava bridge was a waste of money and are at least skeptical of the deck park as well, dude.

• " For all the people who are critical of this you can donate your money to whatever you want to.  I would bet that you don’t donate much to anything; and you just want to tax someone else and give their money to the poor." This is the real meat of the bullshit sammich being made here..."If you don't like enormous megachurches you must be a godless liberal who is taking my tax dollars to give to the lazy." Man...how conflicted are you gonna be if Mitt Romney wins that candidacy?

• It's be better if the people who build the big sparkling edifices were not the tax exempt ones.

• I see the classy libs are commenting away.   So it is okay for $60 million to be spent on a deck park, and $100 million to be spent on the MH Woodall Rogers extension bridge, all taxpayer money mind you, but not $115 million of PRIVATE donations to rebuild a large Baptist church in the center of downtown. Um, OK.

•  I see.  Have you ever thought they may dislike their practices, but not the folks themselves.  I can't speak for other baptists, but I don't hate anyone or their preferences.  That is their choice.  Its up to me to learn about their choices and respect them. 

• Welcome to Multi-Level Marketing religion-

• Ghandi never saw the Texas Baptist Men disaster relief group in action.

• <i> I would bet that you don’t donate much to anything; and you just want to tax someone else and give their money to the poor. </i> That's awfully judgmental for someone that claims to be a Christian. I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. - Mahatma Gandhi.

• I have no idea, I don't go to First Baptist.  But I do know at Communtiy MBC of Desoto, we are trying to build a new sanctuary/church.  We still are helping our "Community" in Desoto. 

• Their "missionary work" is apparently hating gays and Muslims, that's the problem, they are a disgusting hate group.

• "Large screen TVs project the passage that the preacher is talking about and show the lyrics to the music." Because books like bibles and hymnals are passe?

• I think the question is do they do their missionary work.  I don't know.  Just asking.

• Why is this an issue?  If they have the money to build AND do their missionary work, what is the problem?

• Disgusting remarks about at the Jews and Muslims and Gays are what First Baptist preaches. FBD a blight upon our city and humanity and it's sad to see so much money being spent to build a monument to hate.

• I know they just won the title, but do the Mavs REALLY need a new arena right now? 

• I recently started attending one of these mega sized churches and I have got to say that it is really nice. The one that I go to seats about 4000 people at a time and it has 3 services.  At the newer mega churches you get modern audio visuals during the service.  Large screen TVs project the passage that the preacher is talking about and show the lyrics to the music.  You have lots of groups to choose from if you want to participate and become more connected to the church community.  They also have amazing resources for taking care of small children during the service.  I think that we will see a consolidation of small churches into these big mega churches.  For all the people who are critical of this you can donate your money to whatever you want to.  I would bet that you don’t donate much to anything; and you just want to tax someone else and give their money to the poor.  After attending a mega church I do not think that they are extravagant.  This is the future of churches in the US.  Building it in downtown is expensive but this church apparently wanted to make a statement with this building.  These people want to worship God, and if they feel that building an impressive church is the best way to do this then it is their business.  I am sure they do lots of charity as well.

• World effing Class! Praise the Lawd!

• Oh great, now I have to live with *that* image I didn't want inside my head...

• Interesting... I don't read that he is taking funny, clever potshots and Christians en masse, but rather at a very small subset of Christians who make up First Baptist Dallas. Their leader is a hypocrite.

• I thought it was an inverse relationship myself, though I've done zero research.

• Hey, don't insult my popes... They took care of the poor AND got rich... a talent lost on today's ministers.

• Everyone knows...Bigger the church, Bigger the pastor's penis.

• The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple,  the church is not a resting place, the church is a people. http://www.hymnary.org/hymn/UMH/558

• Will this even be enough to compete with Prestonwood Baptist and Fellowship?  Gotta love the escalating alms race going on with the megachurches, doesn't sound like something Jesus would do though.

• You are absolutely right.  They should have never built anything of value in downtown with all its homeless people.

• Why is it wrong for the FBC people to spend $ on building, but just fine for the Prestonwood people?

• Spending $140M on this while homeless people walk by outside.  Who does Jeffress think he is?  A Renaissance pope?

• Not enough of them w/ enough money in Dallas to build this sort of thing, especially in the city's center where real estate costs are sky high. Fair point though - it's no better when other religions spend this kind of money on fancy new digs.

• Yep, that's exactly what Jesus would do.

• Robert: The puns and innuendo here are sort of semi-clever, I guess, and I don't really mind them. But next time there's a post taking similar fun little snide potshots at, oh, Jews or Muslims, say, let's hope there won't be any uproar from the "offended."   

• Probably a cool building. Scary purpose....

• Dallas will finally have the kind of religious edifice that will make Jesus stand up and shout "Fuck Yeah!"

• Just look at all the hungry they're feeding and the naked they're clothing! Oh, wait.

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