Women can’t lead prayers at council meetings, and Bible backs me up, Texas mayor says
The mayor of a Dallas suburb does not want women leading public prayers at city council meetings, according to an email that circulated online.
Eric Hogue, the mayor of Wylie and a preacher at one of the town’s churches, confirmed the contents of the email to multiple TV stations.
He quoted Corinthians and Timothy scriptures from the Bible when suggesting to a city council member that “young men” should lead the prayer.
“Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law,” 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 states. “And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.”
“Let the women learn in silence with all subjection,” 1 Timothy 2:11-12 states. “But I suffer not a woman to teach, not to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”
The mayor went on to tell the recipient of the email he understands not everyone will agree with him, but he said “I can’t go against my conscience.”
Hogue verified his comments to WFAA but he did not backtrack.
“I believe a lady can be president of the United States,” he began. “I believe a lady can be CEO of a company, the superintendent of a school district. But I believe, and this is me, when it comes to (picking) somebody to lead the invocation at a city council meeting, because of those two sets of verses, I’m going to choose a male.”
Hogue added to KXAS, “In a religious setting, the bible teaches that she’s not to say a public prayer or to lead the singing or to deliver the sermon.”
He has been mayor of Wylie for the past 12 years and has been a pastor at Cottonwood Church of Christ since 2010, WFAA reported.
The email circulated on the church’s Facebook page as well as on a page called Befuddled by the Clowns, which is operated by a “politically conservative” blogger. The woman who operates the page said she is “absolutely gobsmacked” by the contents of the letter and she called for the mayor to step down.
“This explains why no woman has every led prayer at city council since he took office over a decade ago. Ever,” she wrote. “This should outrage all women.”
Council member Jeff Forrester, to whom the mayor’s email was addressed, said he does not share the same beliefs as Hogue, according to KXAS.
This story was originally published May 21, 2020 at 9:25 AM with the headline "Women can’t lead prayers at council meetings, and Bible backs me up, Texas mayor says."