A video from 2018 went viral this week. It shows Jim Ross, the current mayor of Arlington, Texas, shouting threats and vile obscenities through a bullhorn at a street preacher Ruben Israel. The preacher was there to protest one of the nation's most explicit so-called "pride" events, the Southern Decadence festival in New Orleans.
AFN did not link to the video because of its content.
A different street preacher, Rich Penkoski. says Ross brought some of the decadence to Arlington when he was elected mayor in 2021.
“Once you get this put in there, you get a guy like Jim Ross, who's clearly a degenerate, who's brought in drag queens, who's spoken at pride events, and who’s endorsed pride. It gets worse and worse when they have the blessing of the government,” says Penkoski.
He says evil thrives in certain communities and towns and cities, and it's not that there are no strong churches there. It's just that Christians tend to stay in the pews instead of fighting the evil in the streets.
“I believe it all starts at the church level. When the church fails to defend its own Jerusalem backyard against it and we tolerate it, you open the door to the devil to come in,” Penkoski states.
Penkoski says the Bible is clear on this point.
“In Revelation 2:20, the Bible talks about – or Jesus warns about – tolerating Jezebel. Not going along with Jezebel, not doing the things, just simply tolerating Jezebel. Jesus rebukes the church for tolerating this,” Penkoski says.
He says the battle begins at the polls, but evil must be confronted before the devil gains a foothold.
“When you elect cowards, when you elect wolves in sheep's clothing, when you don't use discernment, you open the door for this. And once it gets its foot in the door, it's very difficult to get it out,” Penkoski concludes.
