Mike Hogan, Mayor Candidate and FBC Jax Leader, Should be Grateful His Opponent is Playing Nice

This coming Tuesday is an important election in Jacksonville. It is the mayoral run-off election between Republican Mike Hogan, and Democrat Alvin Brown.

Hogan is a longtime member of FBC Jax, and Deacon and Church Officer. At left is a photo from the Times Union, showing Hogan (right) having a conversation with FBC Jax executive pastor John Blount before a recent church service (Blount is the executive pastor who hand delivered our list of 16 sins and filed a trespass warning against my wife, wrongly accusing her of "church misconduct"; he also was the witness in the JSO lawsuit that confirmed that JSO detective Hinson was not merely a security guard at the church, but was a Deacon and Discipline Committee member).

Hogan will likely win, although the race has tightened in recent days.

The campaigns on both sides have been relatively cordial, although recently Hogan has gone quite a bit more negative, accusing Brown of being a "tax and spend liberal" (when his policies are absolutely not liberal), trying to connect Brown to Obama, saying Brown will raise taxes (Brown, like Hogan, has promised not to)...and Hogan has even said the "media elite" is supporting Brown. By "media elite" he must be referring to the conservative Florida Times Union that has endorsed Brown - the paper that our FBC Jax pastors have always been friendly toward until they printed the front page story "First Baptist, Cop, Team Up to Out Blogger". Hogan has followed his pastor's lead in expressing disdain for our local paper.

But Hogan should be very grateful that Brown's campaign, or friends of Brown, or the "media elite" Times Union have not gone after Hogan as hard as they could have. So far Hogan's close affiliation with FBC Jax, the concentration of political power at the church, and the statements by the pastors and other FBC Jax politicians has NOT been a campaign issue.

As I blogged about in September 2009, it would only be a matter of time before an opponent of an FBC Jax member and politician runs TV commercials asking the FBC candidate why he remains a member of and financially supports a church that:

- has an executive pastor on staff who unashamedly has declared in writing and in a sermon from the pulpit, the Catholic Church to be a "cult", and has referred to a Catholic priest as a "cult leader", and who has declared that voting for Obama is a sin that a Christian must repent of;

- has a Senior Pastor who has declared that if a hurricane hits Jacksonville, he hopes and prays FEMA does NOT come and help us;

- has a Senior Pastor that has declared multiple times (here and here) that our economic recession is the result of the judgment of God, for the failure of Christians in this country to practice tithing - giving 10% or more of their money to the church;

- has declared that 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, rising gas prices, and the stock market crash and resulting economic recession to be the direct result of God "working behind the scenes" to see how he can punish Americans;

- is a member of church that appointed a JSO detective to a position of Deacon and Discipline Committee member who then used his police investigatory power to subpoena information about three bloggers critical of FBC Jax and two other Baptist pastors.

- has a pastor who has attacked a former church member and blogger publicly, call him a "sociopath", and issuing trespass papers against his wife for the sin of "associating" with her blogging husband;

- passed a "Deacon's Resolution" read by judge A.C. Soud telling church members that they will be "aggressively confronted" if they are divisive in the church.

- has a pastor who "praises God" that his parishioners didn't get a raise during the tough economic times of 2008, while he himself lives high on the hog and takes expensive trips around the world and even accepted a six-figure gift from a wealthy donor.

- has an executive pastor who believes Muslims must be converted in our city else our grandchildren will come under Muslim law.

Perhaps if Mike Hogan were asked about any of these, he would distance himself from the views and actions of his church leaders.

But really, shouldn't Hogan tell voters whether he believes and supports the above? Why not? Let's face it - Obama was never in any sort of leadership position in Jeremiah Wright's church, yet his pastor's views were a major political issue in the 2008 presidential campaign. Hogan on the other hand describes himself as an accomplished FBC Jax leader when listing his civic and community involvement. Shouldn't citizens be concerned that we might elect a man to lead our city who is a leader in a church that teaches the solution to our economic crisis lies in having more people donate to mega churches, and believes 9/11 and in Hurricane Katrina God is God's punishment on America?

I for one am troubled that FBC Jax didn't see the potential conflict of interest in appointing Detective Hinson to be on their newly formed discipline committee that was charged with disciplining church members like myself. I am troubled that him being on the committee was not immediately disclosed by Hinson or the church when the story broke. That John Blount and Robert Hinson didn't see the potential problem with Hinson doing an investigation into the FBC Jax blogger, AFTER they had elevated him to deacon and discipline committee member, causes me to not want to have any closer connection between our city government and FBC Jax than already exists. And people of Jax, all you have to do is watch A.C. Soud read his edict telling FBC Jax members that what they did to me, they would do to other troublemakers, tells you they didn't see anything wrong with what they did, and that they intended to do it again if necessary. Keep in mind, A.C. Soud's pronouncement was BEFORE they knew that the subpoenas would be found by me and the local media. I would not vote to give that church any more political power than they already have.

So far Hogan has avoided virtually any questions regarding his connections to FBC Jax. Brown might have had a chance if these issues were raised and if he were to hit Hogan back in the campaign like Hogan has Brown.

Hogan should be grateful that neither Brown, nor the conservative paper that he calls "media elite", has raised FBC Jax as a campaign issue. It likely will ensure his victory on Tuesday, and more concentration of political power at First Baptist Jacksonville.