From Pink News UK: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/03/15/family-values-anti-gay-politician-accused-of-affair-with-his-own-cousin/
Benjamin Butterworth
March 15, 2017
A ‘family values’ politician, who repeatedly proposed anti-gay laws, is accused of some less than ‘family values’ behaviour.
Joey Hensley, a Republican Tennessee state senator, is alleged to have had an extramarital affair.
But not just any extramarital affair – an affair with his colleague, who is also one of his patients at the medical practice he works at.
And also his second cousin.
The accusations have come about as said cousin divorces her husband, revealing the allegations during testimony in the divorce trial.
Sen. Hensley has served in the state senate since 2013, is a devout Pentecostal Christian and also works as a family physician.
As a GOP senator, he’s made the most of his few years in the legislature to introduce a string of regressive and anti-gay proposals.
He has frequently spoken about the importance of good morals, and fiercely opposed socially progressive laws.
He sponsored a bill that would have forbidden sex ed teachers from ever mentioning the existence of homosexuality, on the grounds that it wasn’t related to human reproduction.
He also sponsored a bill to allow college counsellors to reject seeing students – even suicidal ones – on religious principles after a counsellor was fired for refusing to see an LGBT student, which he thought was fine.
For other outrages go to: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/03/15/family-values-anti-gay-politician-accused-of-affair-with-his-own-cousin/
Taylor Link
Monday, Mar 13, 2017
The Rev. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s policy arm, was an emerging leader among young evangelicals because, in part, of his anti-Trump message he preached during the presidential campaign. But now many white Southern Baptist leaders are questioning whether Moore can function in his role, which will require him to lobby before the new Trump administration.
Moore, who said he would not vote for either major party candidate in 2016, was a vocal critic of President Donald Trump and the evangelical leaders who endorsed him. He accused his colleagues of “normalizing an awful candidate” and refused to drink the Trump “Kool-Aid.”
The 45-year-old reverend is feeling backlash for his blunt opposition to the president, according to a report from The Washington Post’s Sarah Pulliam Bailey. One megachurch pastor and Trump supporter, Jack Graham, said after a meeting with Moore that his congregation would withhold $1 million in donations to the Southern Baptist Convention’s umbrella fund. The move has Baptists wondering if Moore will be replaced by someone cozier with the Trump administration.
In May, just before clinching the Republican nomination, Trump attacked Moore in a tweet, insisting that he was “truly a terrible representative of Evangelicals.”
Results from the election appear to support Trump’s theory that evangelicals would rather side with him than a man of the cloth. More than 80 percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump in the election, according to exit polls.
But since Moore was elected to his position in 2013, he has steadily become a beloved leader among younger evangelicals, who may not be as receptive to conservative politics. Moore is also very popular among evangelicals of color, who have welcomed his promotion of racial justice, according to the Post.
Unafraid to deliver public lashings, Moore wrote in December that he has seen a “handful of Christian political operatives excusing immortality and confusing the definition of the gospel.”
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a fellow Southern Baptist, responded to Moore’s persistent commentary by telling Town Hall that he was “utterly stunned that Russell Moore is being paid by Southern Baptists to insult them.”
As president of the Southern Baptists Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Moore reports to a board of trustees who control his future. The board chairman, Ken Barbic, told the Post in a text that Moore is a “Gospel-centered, faithful, and prophetic voice for Southern Baptists” and that he has the full backing of the board.
Continue reading at: http://www.salon.com/2017/03/13/silencing-dissent-evangelical-reverend-may-be-fired-from-southern-baptists-post-because-of-his-anti-trump-stance/