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TCU 360

TCU 360

All TCU. All the time.

TCU 360

Students discuss religious topics in a small group. (Photo courtesy of tcuwesley.org)
Wednesday nights at TCU’s Methodist campus ministry provide religious exploration and fellowship
By Boots Giblin, Staff Writer
Published Mar 27, 2024
Students at the Wesley said they found community on Wednesday nights.

Letter to the Editor: Pastor’s comments don’t evoke true meaning of Golden Rule

I was at Brite Divinity School on Good Friday.

TCU was vacant, but some of the Brite faculty were in their offices. I’m guessing they, like me, were there because of concerns about Brite’s plans to honor the patently offensive Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

While I paced the sidewalk for two and a half hours walking around the outside of the Robert Carr Chapel, Moore and Beasley buildings waiting to speak with somebody from Brite, my wife and I noticed that the clock on the steeple of Carr Chapel had stopped working, and the hour still tolled an hour behind.

It reminded me of the relationship between Wright and Brite. Wright does not know what time it is in history. He has embraced a type of unkind theology that says he can get away with saying mean things about nice people to accomplish an end. He teaches his congregation that the following is acceptable speech from a pulpit.

Pick one statement by which to get offended – “The U.S. of KKK-A,” “Condoskeeza Rice,” “Bill (Clinton) did us, just like he did Monica – ridin’ dirty” (while humping from the pulpit), “God damn America.”

In an understatement, it’s fair to say Wright does not live by the Golden Rule.

What is the acceptable context for a person called reverend to pretend to screw a young lady in the pulpit or break the Third Commandment?

Brite knew what it would look like to recognize a presidential candidate’s offensive pastor in an election year and decided to go for the headline anyway.

They deserve the grief.

Why am I so upset? In my mind, I can picture my three daughters as children singing the song “Jesus loves the little children of the world.” In Wright’s church, would a child ask, “Mommy, what does God damn America mean?” As a Fort Worth resident for more than 40 years, the potential of that little girl’s question filled me with angst.

The pain continued as I heard the chimes from Carr Chapel playing the TCU alma mater. The hands on the clock were still stuck at 9.

Charles Felts is an alumnus from Fort Worth.

Editor’s note: Brite decided to honor Wright last year, before the controversy was prevalent in the national media.

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