A passion for mixing religion, politics(Rick Scarborough..Pearland,TX)

[RedEarth]

A passion for mixing religion, politics
Former Pearland pastor grabs the national spotlight with judicial filibuster fight
By RACHEL GRAVES
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
RESOURCES

PULPIT TO POLITICS

Rick Scarborough, former pastor of First Baptist Church in Pearland, now finds himself enmeshed in a national political debate. Rick Scarborough put aside his college interest in politics when he "fell in love with Jesus."

Not until he had spent 14 years as a traveling evangelical preacher and settled at First Baptist Church in Pearland was he inspired to combine his two interests.

In 1992, Scarborough went to a high school talk on AIDS awareness and was appalled. The speaker, a young woman with AIDS, blew up a condom like a balloon and, Scarborough recalled, gave "graphic descriptions on every kind of sex act there was." Scarborough took action, preaching against the speech at his church and complaining to the school board, on which, he was embarrassed to realize, not a single member of his congregation served. Within two years, Scarborough had worked to elect members of his flock as the majorities of the Pearland school board and City Council. The school principal who brought in the offending speaker was soon replaced.

Scarborough himself was enmeshed in controversy. Some church members left First Baptist over his political activities, and Scarborough's ties to city officials proved divisive to the community at large. He was closely aligned with then-City Manager Paul Grohman, a lightning rod who was accused of threatening to shoot the city attorney and eventually was fired by the City Council.

Now Scarborough has turned his passion for mixing religion and politics to the national stage.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/metropolitan/3190471