Ahead of First Baptist anti-HRO lunch, Mac Brunson speaks on Jax bill

They say that First Baptist Church runs Jacksonville. And a good litmus test: the Jacksonville Human Rights Ordinance debate. They oppose expansion.

They issued a call to pastors for a Thursday lunch before the Committee of the Whole meets at Jacksonville’s City Hall, to discuss the “direct threat to their church” posed by HRO expansion.

It’s a confidential affair. Media is not invited. And to attend, one has to sign a written affirmation of opposition to HRO expansion. And be vetted by the Florida Family Policy Council.

The church bused people to the Community Conversations events. And now, no doubt, they will pack Council Chambers Thursday afternoon.

Beyond all that, FBC is doing national interviews on the subject. Mac Brunson, lead pastor, gave an exclusive to ChristianExaminer.com in which he called the HRO a “special privilege ordinance.”

Brunson, who has encouraged church members to be informed, told Christian Examiner in an exclusive interview, “the HRO is totally and completely unnecessary.”

The pastor said despite a campaign apparently designed to promote the idea that those in the LGBT community are being discriminated against, no one has produced any.

“It is simply a way for those in that community to have a rallying point and a cause,” Brunson said.

The charges of discrimination, he said, are meant to “incite” the LGBT community to action.

Nonetheless, Brunson said there are those in Jacksonville who act in ways that are not reflective of the community at large.

“I realize that there are individuals here or there who are unchristian and unkind to them because of their lifestyle choice,” Brunson said, but denied it is a situation which requires more specific action.

“There are enough civil laws on the books to take care of any and every legitimate issue,” Brunson said.

Calling the Human Rights Ordinance (HRO) a “Special Privilege Ordinance (SPO),” Brunson said it opens the door for individuals to want to obtain “special privileges” a number of “fill in the blank” situations.

But, alas, legislation can’t address what the website calls the “real issue.”

“An HRO would never solve the perceived persecution and the sense of rejection those in the LGBT community struggle with,” Brunson said. “The fact is, their struggle is not with those who live a different lifestyle, their struggle is within themselves.”

Deep!

If the HRO falls in March, bet on this: another altar call for the pols who voted No No No to HRO, as there was in 2012.