Dave Welch, executive director of the Houston Area Pastor Council, was deeply involved in the anti-gay campaign run against Houston mayoral candidate Annise Parker:
“The bottom line is that we didn't pick the battle, she did, when she made her agenda and sexual preference a central part of her campaign,” said Dave Welch, executive director of the Houston Area Pastor Council, numbering more than 200 senior pastors in the Greater Houston area. “National gay and lesbian activists see this as a historic opportunity. The reality is that's because they're promoting an agenda which we believe to be contrary to the concerns of the community and destructive to the family.”
Welch said he had “no doubt” there would be numerous independent advocacy efforts urging voters not to choose Parker, most of which would involve mail.
But their effort failed and Parker won the election over the weekend ... and for that, Welch feels it is necessary to apologize to America for failing to stop the "enemy" from taking control:
I have to first of all ask forgiveness of the rest of the country on behalf of those in Houston who were entrusted with choosing godly leaders and failed to do so. As I have stated often, the first responders in that line are the churches who profess Christianity and adherence to the Bible as our authority. We let our position on the wall be breached by the enemy.
Now to the business of learning from our mistakes and failures – and it was a failure of the church as well as the Republican Party in Houston, in that order. There are some essential lessons that this provides, as all elections do, and those lessons are universal to every city and state.
...
I believe the questions of the hour for pastors in every city are as follows:
1. Does it matter to God who governs us?
2. Does it matter if the laws of our land conform to or violate God's standards of justice?
3. Do we as Christians have personal and corporate responsibility
for choosing godly leaders?4. Are we willing to call out and equip men of ability, reputation, character, integrity and proven faith to serve in governing positions?
5. Are we willing to establish a clear, bold and unquestioned priority of voting consistently and biblically for every voter in our churches?
Our recipe for transformation is simple, but will cost us the same as our ancestors of faith and country – everything.
