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A Houston pastor criticized Harris County leaders over the county’s bond issue during a sermon on Sunday, per reports from Houston-based media outlets.
Dr. Ed Young of Second Baptist Church asserted that “left-wing progressives in office” pushed the bond issue and bore responsibility for alarming crime rates, as well as urged his congregation to vote them out in the upcoming election, Houston CBS affiliate KHOU reported.
“Houston in all probability right now is the most dangerous city in America to live in," Young said in the sermon that’s part of his new “The Church Awake” series, according to the station.
At the beginning of last month, the heavily Democrat Harris County Commissioners Court voted along party lines to present a $1.2 billion bond to registered voters.
Houston NPR affiliate KUHF reported that a majority of the bond proposal, upon voter approval, will go toward infrastructure, transportation and public safety.
"The guidelines should include a ‘worst-first' approach to match funds to the greatest need, with at least $220 million to be spent in each precinct and $100 million to be set aside for public safety," Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said, per KUHF.
Harris County, especially Houston proper, has grappled with rising crime, to which the staunchly conservative Young claims is the fault of the area’s Democratic officials.
“If Houston and Harris County is to survive, we had better throw those bums out of office, they are not doing the job that we have called them to,” the clergyman said as he read off what was supposedly a list of crime statistics, KHOU reported.
Harris County Democratic Party Chair Odus Evbagharu countered Young saying the pastor’s comments were “already crossing the line,” the station reported.
KHOU reported that Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner also responded to Young.
“Factually, what he said was wrong," Turner told the station. “Why are you saying something that’s not true? Are you trying to gain a political advantage? And so, if you’re going to be a politician, then people are going to respond to you like a politician.”
Dr. Eddy Carder, a philosophy professor at Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU), told Houston NBC affiliate KPRC that Young nearly violated the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) restriction on political statements for tax-exempt 501(c)(3)s, but because the pastor didn’t endorse a candidate or party, he broke no rules and Second Baptist has nothing to worry about in regard to its exemption status.