Former Tennessee Democratic State Rep. Justin Pearson preached a sermon on Easter Sunday centered on his recent ouster from the Tennessee House.
Pearson was one of two Democrats expelled by the Republican majority for encouraging protests on the House floor, during which the lawmakers led hundreds of protesters in chants about gun control with a bullhorn and thereby disrupted legislative proceedings. Pearson, whose former constituency represented parts of Memphis, has since been featured on several legacy media outlets and gained accolades from prominent Democrats.
Pearson was invited to deliver a sermon at First Unitarian Church of Memphis on Easter Sunday; the message repeatedly likened his removal from the Tennessee House to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“We spoke out against the empire of the NRA and the gun lobbyists because we demanded an end to gun violence,” Pearson told the unitarian universalist congregation. “This has been a Holy Week. This has been a sacred week. The lesson from it is that resurrection is a promised prophecy to a persecuted people.”
Pearson addressed “Mother God” in his prayer at the beginning of the sermon and asked that he be connected to “the raw materials of stardust to speak in this moment.” He called on his “ancestor preachers who made sermons from hymns, moans, and groans,” as well as his various great-grandparents and grandparents, to “speak now through this your descendant.”
Pearson’s sermon frequently called for the passage of gun control legislation and contained nods to several left-wing social policies, including an apparent reference to sex change operations for minors. “If we just get this persecution over with, then we won’t have to worry about folks talking about love and justice,” he said. “They won’t have to worry about folks talking about advocating for people to get access to healthcare who are transgender children.”
The remark comes shortly after Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee endorsed a bill that prohibits sex change procedures, such as mastectomies for girls who believe they are boys, as well as hormones and puberty blockers to transition a child to the opposite sex. Another bill signed by Lee prohibits sexually explicit drag shows in public or near children.
Pearson also asserted that Mark 16 and Romans 8, which contain promises to the church regarding the successful advance of the gospel, apply to the notion that his hearers can “pick up the snakes” of “homophobia,” “transphobia,” and “gun violence.”
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Jason Pearson, a minister at Community of Faith Christian Church in Memphis and the father of Justin Pearson, likewise spoke from the pulpit at First Unitarian Church to liken his son’s expulsion from the Tennessee House to the crucifixion. “When your child is standing at Calvary, when somebody is crucifying your baby, it’s hard to be silent,” he said.
Political tensions in Tennessee have been palpable as the state reels from the murder of three adults and three children at The Covenant School in Nashville. A 28-year-old woman who identified as a man killed three 9-year-old children and three adult staffers at the school, a ministry of the conservative evangelical Covenant Presbyterian Church. Police revealed that the shooter, whom The Daily Wire will not name in accordance with company policy, executed a “targeted attack” on the school and wrote a “manifesto.”