Lancaster, CA must be the wet dream of every fundamentalist pastor.

Check out these articles!


Lancaster mayor is anything but politically correct.

Excerpts:

Parris is the guy who tried to ban dogs known to be favored by gangs, proposed restrictions on landlords who want to rent to tenants with Section 8 federal housing vouchers, helped fund a program to bus homeless people out of town and shut down a local motel to prevent the notorious Mongols motorcycle club from meeting in Lancaster.

Supporters cheer him for ratcheting up public safety, coming to the aid of local merchants and kicking aside roadblocks for developers wanting to do business in town.

"He doesn't pussyfoot around," said Bishop Henry Hearns, who served 18 years on the City Council, including two terms as Lancaster's first African American mayor.

But critics say Parris, who was elected last year, is an arrogant bully and an unstoppable control freak. "King Rex" they call him, or "T. Rex." Scott Pelka, 52, a self-described archenemy of Parris and long-time Lancaster resident, said the mayor has created a "dictatorship" in which challenges to his authority are simply not tolerated.

If this sounds like Bob Jones University on steroids, check this out:

"He's arrogant. He's self-serving. He doesn't really care what people think," said Arnie Rodeo, 55, a local businessman who ran for mayor against Parris last year and lost by 351 votes. "He surrounds himself with 'yes' people."

Johnathon Ervin, 30, believes his refusal to be a Parris "yes man" got him fired in August from his position on Lancaster's seven-person Planning Commission -- a post to which Parris had appointed him a year earlier.

Ervin, an Air Force reservist, was alone in voting against allowing a Wal-Mart super center on the Lancaster-Quartz Hill border -- a project supported by Parris but fiercely challenged by many area residents.

Here's an article published by Pray Lancaster which is actually in favor of Mayor Parris.

Article: Faithful flock to mayors' breakfasts

New Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris amplified those sentiments. He recalled a trip to the Great Wall of China with his clergyman, Pastor Paul Chappell of Lancaster Baptist Church. Parris said he wondered aloud how Chappell had built a Christian university within a decade, and staffed missions in China with graduates of that school. The answer, Chappell supplied with a grin, was, "It's what happens when you pray."

Yeah, it's probably what happens when you bully your congregation and don't pay your teachers a lot. Teachers, in this country, don't really get paid what they're worth. Fundamentalist high schools, though, are notorious not only for low wages, but for practically demanding that their teachers like it!

The sentiment in a lot of fundamentalist schools seems to be:

"If you're teaching it's because you're CALLED! Not because you want to make money."

What have we learned? The mayor is a member of LBC. We've already established Sherry Marquez works at LBC. Ultimately, the real power in Lancaster IS Lancaster Baptist Church's Pastor Paul Chappell.

Think Darth Vader bowing to the emporer.

Actually, I shouldn't say that. I think Parris and Chappell might enjoy that imagery.