The response from this church and the Midland police is shockingly bad. Matt Wiersema goes around doing this in a lot of places and this was their response to him holding a graphic sign in front of their church. I wrote a letter to this pastor in 2022 and this has been bothering me ever since. I will post the letter I sent below. Here’s the video. You’ll have to click on the link to view the video on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBgJJXNgp6o&t=2s
Here’s the letter from August 18, 2022.
Doug Lamb
Fannin Terrace Baptist Church
2800 Mogford
Midland, TX 79705
Dear Mr. Lamb:
I’m writing in response to your actions in the Youtube video titled, “Church Repent: Bully Cop Violates Right to Free Speech”, where you opposed Matt Wiersema who was standing on a public sidewalk with a sign and distributing literature. Searching for that title pulls up the video in the first result.
You were in sin for the following reasons:
1. Not responding humbly and with compassion toward orphans being led to the slaughter by abortion or being treated as personal property and frozen in the process of IVF.
2. Telling Matt he was wrong to call the cop a tyrant.
3. Giving a false interpretation of Romans 13.
4. Committing the very type of hypocritical judging prohibited by Christ in Matthew 7:1-5.
5. Going to unbelievers to resolve a dispute with a Christian in violation of 1 Corinthians 6:1-5.
6. Opposing Matt while he was proclaiming God’s Word.
Anyone who has done even very tame forms of public evangelism for more than a few hours will have the cops called on them. Even inexperienced evangelists have a good knowledge of what they can and can’t legally do. Standing on a public sidewalk passing out literature and holding a sign is free speech activity in a traditional public forum. It is (supposedly) the job of cops to protect such rights. It’s evident that you’ve done very little public evangelism in your life. You were in the wrong to support the cop in violating Matt’s right to free speech.
If the police attempt to violate someone’s rights, nowhere in Scripture are we taught to allow our rights to be violated as you seem to espouse at 6:28 in the video by twisting Romans 13. There are many examples of people standing up for their rights in Scripture, especially when proclaiming God’s Word. We are free to disobey government to preach the gospel. Jesus called Herod a fox. The Pharisees were the lowest level of government in Israel in Jesus’ time, and you know what He said about them to their face. Matt calling that cop violating his rights a tyrant and a bully is much milder than what he could have righteously called him.
Matt was there to raise awareness among Christians about the evils of IVF and abortion. There are most likely people in your congregation who have participated in IVF and may even currently “own” frozen babies. This is unconscionable and inconsistent with how we are to treat human life. I would be surprised if you’ve ever preached a sermon about IVF. Matt went to a good man’s house to exhort them to stand up for human life. What he found were proud people who show little care or compassion for orphans left in a doctor’s freezer.
An occasional sermon about abortion or supporting a crisis pregnancy center is not adequate to fight abortion. That is what most decent churches do, and we are no closer to defeating abortion than we were 40 years ago. The vast majority of abortions are from the local drug store via various forms of birth control. To haughtily think that neither you nor anyone in attendance that day needs encouragement to obey Scripture and help the unborn is shocking.
At around the 7:20 mark in the video, you say that it is wrong for Matt to judge you. We are commanded to judge righteously (John 7:24, 1 Corinthians 2:15, Hebrews 5:14). We are commanded to not judge hypocritically (Matthew 7:1-5). If you say it’s wrong to judge someone, and you judge them as having judged you, you are committing the type of hypocritical judging that actually is prohibited in Matthew 7. You are holding yourself to a different standard than you hold others. You’re also demonstrating that you are too immature to judge righteously.
The conversation concludes with you turning Matt over to the law. It doesn’t matter whether that cop is a believer. He was erroneously enforcing laws of an unbelieving system. You disobeyed 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 by going to unbelievers to settle a dispute between Christians. What you ought to have done is called the cop to repentance for opposing the preaching of God’s Word.
You show a severe lack of biblical knowledge and shocking immaturity. A sign of a mature Christian is that they are able to distinguish good and evil. You were unable to distinguish who was on the right side of the law, and unable to apply even the most basic levels of biblical reasoning.
Years ago, I didn’t understand how Matt and his group could stand in front of churches they don’t know anything about. How can he tell whether a church that he hasn’t attended is good or bad? But I was missing the point. If he does that in front of a good church, they respond humbly and with compassion towards the unborn. A bad church, even if they think they’re biblical, calls the cops and tries to justify themselves and what they’re doing. It’s clear that no Christian or church in America has such an effective strategy to fight abortion that they are in a position where they can reject exhortation. It’s possible that someone could attend your church for years thinking it was a good church, but Matt exposed you as a wicked “church” and an immature, and probably lost “pastor” in only a few minutes.
I call you to repent and to examine yourself to see if you’re even in the faith.
Feel free to respond to me by phone or e-mail.
Sincerely,
Bill Phillips