Adventist Pastor Detained by ICE at Houston Airport

12August2026

HOUSTON, TX — A Houston-area Seventh-day Adventist pastor was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents while traveling with his wife to New York for a few days of vacation, according to reporting by Aidari Riera for Telemundo Houston.

Pastor Luis Morales, a father of two daughters and pastor of four Adventist congregations in the Houston area, was detained at George Bush Intercontinental Airport on August 7, according to his wife, Karina Morales.

Pastor Morales’s wife, Karina. Image credit: Telemundo Houston

The couple had just entered the airport when, according to Karina, two ICE agents approached them and called Morales by name.

“We have taken maybe six steps; it was really a short distance when some people spoke to us… ‘Mr. Luis,’ when they referred to my husband by name, we stopped right there. Turns out, they were two ICE agents. First thing one of the officials did was show us his ICE badge,” Karina said (translated from Spanish).

The encounter happened quickly. Karina said she handed her husband’s blood pressure medication to one of the officers and has not seen him since.

“It was so fast that, when we arrived, I told my daughter, ‘My love, we’re here. We have arrived at the airport.’ And the second message I sent to my daughter was to tell her, ‘Daddy just got arrested,’” she said.

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Sheila Jackson Lee, longtime Texas congresswoman, dies at 74

Space cadet: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee tells schoolkids that moon is a ‘planet’ and ‘made up mostly of gases’

By Steven Nelson
Published April 9, 2024, 2:33 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) stunned attendees at a high school solar eclipse event Monday by claiming the rock-solid moon is a “planet” that is “made up mostly of gases” — before adding she still wants to be “first in line” to learn how to live there.

The former top Democrat on the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee badly botched elementary lunar facts while speaking during the gathering at Booker T. Washington High School in Houston.

“You’ve heard the word ‘full moon.’ Sometimes you need to take the opportunity just to come out and see a full moon is that complete rounded circle, which is made up mostly of gases,” Jackson Lee, 74, told teenage pupils who gathered on a sports field ahead of the rare celestial event.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee told attendees at Booker T. Washington High School in Houston that the moon is “made up mostly of gases.”X/@JacksonLeeTX18

“And that’s why the question is why or how could we as humans live on the moon? Are the gases such that we could do that?” the congresswoman said.

“The sun is a mighty powerful heat, but it’s almost impossible to go near the sun. The moon is more manageable.”

Jackson Lee made a series of other questionable statements, including saying the moon, which reflects the sun’s light, gives off “unique light and energy” and misstating the scientific reason for the eclipse.

“You have the energy of the moon at night,” she told the kids.

The solar eclipse was happening because the Earth was unusually close to the moon, she said — though, in fact, the eclipse was the result of the alignment of the sun and moon.

“I don’t think we’ve been on the moon the last 50 years. So we will be landing on the moon. What you’ll see today will be the closest distance that the moon has ever been in the last 20 years. Which means that’s why they will shut the light down because they will be close to the Earth,” she said of the eclipse alignment.

“I don’t know about you, I want to be first in line to know how to live and to be able to survive on the moon,” Jackson Lee added. “That’s another planet which we’re going to see shortly.”

Spectators view the eclipse at the NASA Space Center in Houston on April 8, 2024.Jennie Taer/NY Post

4Jackson Lee said she would be “first in line” to live on the moon — which she referred to as a planet.Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP


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Jackson Lee is notorious in DC for high staff turnover because of her allegedly unusual and abusive demands of staffers.

In a statement to The Post on Tuesday, she admitted she was wrong to describe the moon, which has virtually no atmosphere, as being composed mostly of gas to the schoolkids.

“Obviously I misspoke and meant to say the sun, but as usual, Republicans are focused on stupid things instead of stuff that really matters. What can I say, though, foolish thinkers lust for stupidity!” she said of GOPers who swiftly criticized her glaring gaffes.

“They should be focusing on issues like prenatal care, building more affordable housing, and more reduction of student loan debt as President Joe Biden is,” Jackson Lee said. “Also, I care more about these children who would not have experienced the eclipse in this enthusiastic manner. And, I care more about protecting the rights of women and children than engaging in this kind of senseless dialogue!”

Rep. Jackson Lee admitted to The Post that she was wrong about the moon. Jennie Taer/NY Post

Jackson Lee has not deleted from her X page the footage of herself providing the miseducation to local students.

The video went viral after it was clipped and reposted by Houston-area radio host Kenny Webster.

“As a local Houston talk radio personality, she supplies us with a never-ending vault of content. She’s better than satire,” Webster told The Post.

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3-24-2018, Sheila Jackson Lee's speech at March For Our Lives Houston at...

Millionaire Televangelist Prays for Houston, Declines to Open Megachurch as a Shelter

Eleanor Sheehan

Today 8:17pm
Filed to: Evangelical christianity


AP

What do you do when you’re a multimillionaire televangelist with a church that seats more than 16,000 people during the worst natural disaster to batter your community in centuries? Tweet your sincerest thoughts and keep those pearly megachurch doors locked, of course!

Joel Osteen, a Houston-based celebrity pastor whose hackneyed smile is reminiscent of every used car salesman to be portrayed in film, proved today that words are meaningless when you don’t put your money where your mouth is.

After Osteen tweeted out his prayers for “everyone affected by Hurricane Harvey” to 6 million people, a majority of responses to his tweet could be summarized in one sentence: What about that megachurch?

Osteen’s Lakewood Church, an arena formerly occupied by the Houston Rockets, houses 16,000 people — making it an ideal shelter for the some 30,000 people Hurricane Harvey has displaced. According to Lakewood Church’s Facebook, the grounds are inaccessible and flooded.

Twitter users who either live in the Houston, TX, neighborhood where Lakewood Church is located or have ventured to its location begged to differ:

As you can clearly see, the area surrounding Lakewood seems to be accessible by car. There are a few suspect reports that the church’s parking garage is flooded, but unless Houston’s riverlike roads drain overnight, I doubt anyone needing shelter will require parking for the car that they can’t drive. Just as you would expect, Osteen has apparently blocked several users who have called his bluff that Lakewood is “inaccessible due to severe flooding.”

On the off chance that Lakewood Church is indeed so flooded that it can’t house any of Houston’s displaced, I have some other questions for Osteen: Why not turn your $10 million mansion into a temporary shelter? Not enough room? What about your second multimillion dollar home in Houston? Perhaps you could assist your fellow messenger of God, Pastor Brian Roberson, who spent his weekend checking submerged cars for people in need of rescue? Just prayers and a donation link? Okay.


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Houston Pastor Subpoenas Shows Extremism Already on the Shores of America

12:00PM EDT 10/20/2014 DEBORAH HAMILTON

In a country built on freedom, five pastors in Houston were served subpoenas for their sermons. (TaurusAuriga/Wikimedia Commons)

Pastors around the country saw an unthinkable scenario play out in America last week—one many never thought they'd see in their lifetime. In a country built on freedom, five pastors in Houston were served subpoenas, and attorneys demanded the submission of sermon notes and conversations with congregation members relating to homosexuality or transgenderism.

Sam Rohrer, a longtime legislator and president of American Pastors Network, says the recent news out of Houston proves there are three distinct extreme movements happening simultaneously in America—all aimed at stripping freedom of religion and freedom of speech from Christians.

"This disturbing news about our fellow pastors in Houston has far-reaching implications," Rohrer said. "I see three sectors of the American culture, which by their own actions, are demonstrating hatred toward God, Christianity, Jesus Christ, religious freedom, morality, decency, the Rule of Law and the Constitution.

"While their intentions and goals are different, the extreme tactics and messaging of Islam, Communism/Marxism/atheism and the well-organized, well-funded homosexual agenda have frightening similarities: all demand agreement with them, or else. This is where political correctness and forsaking God has brought this nation. It's time that all those who would not subscribe to the ideologies of these three groups stand together, or we will hang separately.

"The issue in Houston began last year, when the city elected its first openly lesbian mayor. This spring, Mayor Annise Parker and two City Council members pushed an ordinance that gave special rights to homosexuals and the transgender individuals. The Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) allowed men to use women's restrooms and vice versa, all in the name of 'equal rights,'" he added.

"The people of Houston protested and gathered more than 50,000 signatures on a petition opposing the ordinance—well over double the number necessary to put the issue in front of voters. But Parker and the Council threw out the petition, citing irregularities. The mayor and the city are facing a lawsuit over the ordinance, and while fighting it, attorneys subpoenaed five pastors for their sermon notes dealing with homosexuality, gender identity or Parker herself. Last week, Parker admitted that the subpoenas may have been 'overly broad,' but they have yet to be recalled.

"While the issue in this case is homosexuality," Rohrer continued, "the underlying philosophy of thought policing is exactly the same as what we see with Islamic Sharia law. In each case, dissent is not permissible. This is yet another reason Sharia law is incompatible with our U.S. Constitution. Under our Constitution, religious leaders are free to teach against Christianity, but Sharia law would mean pastors would be targeted for preaching Christ. And already, this is happening, as pastors are facing pressure by groups who have their own extreme agendas."

How long will it be, Rohrer asked, before pastors will be quieted about educating their churches on the dangers of the infiltration of Islam and Sharia Law in America? One pastor was already censored in August when his videotaped sermon on ISIS was removed from YouTube and his account was frozen. YouTube has since reversed its ban on Pastor Daniel Ausbun of First Baptist Church in Moreland, Georgia, and his account is live again.

Alliance Defending Freedom is helping the Houston pastors, and one of its attorneys, Christina Holcomb, said in a statement that "political and social commentary is not a crime. It is protected by the First Amendment."

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Joel Osteen’s church robbed of $600G in cash, checks

Published March 11, 2014
FoxNews.com




FILE: Joel Osteen's church announced that $600,000 were stolen in donations. (Reuters)


Televangelist Joel Osteen's church in Houston announced Monday that $600,000 in Sunday donations were stolen from its safe last weekend, MyFoxHouston.com reported.

The heist at Lakewood Church wasn't discovered until 8:30 a.m. Monday morning when a church employee and off-duty Harris County Sheriff's Officer noticed the break in, the report said. Investigators believe the theft occurred sometime between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning.

The donations were from services on March 8 and March 9 and included cash, checks and credit cards. Lakewood has asked anyone who attended services this weekend to pay attention to their accounts and report any suspicious activity.

"The funds were fully insured, and we are working with our insurance company to restore the stolen funds to the church," the Lakewood statement said, according to The Houston Chronicle.

Lakewood stresses this was not a data breach, but says the theft was limited to donations made in the actual services.

More than 40,000 people attend weekly services led by Osteen, whose televised sermons reach nearly 100 countries.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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Southern Baptists denounce Scouts for allowing gay members

A story from the 'the stones cry out' department:

Top News



Southern Baptists pass Resolution 6 during the annual Southern Baptist Convention.




mk/bg/Bill Greenblatt UPI
License photo


Published: June 13, 2013 at 7:17 AMBy VERONICA LINARES, UPI.com


Southern Baptists passed a resolution Wednesday denouncing the Boy Scouts of America for allowing openly gay youth.

Resolution 6 was passed during The Southern Baptist Convention which is currently holding its annual meeting in Houston, TX.

Only one man reportedly opposed the bill claiming that scouts already opposed sexual activity among the boys and adding that children who say they're gay need to be counseled and not cast out.

"I don't think we'd kick such a boy out of our Sunday schools," Charlie Dale, a representative from Indian Springs First Baptist Church in Alabama said. "I don't think we should hold the Boy Scouts to a standard we would not put on our churches. Such a boy needs our love. Let's show them what real Biblical manhood is about and love them."

Dale allegedly received some applause by the audience, but they crowd was more excited to cheer for speakers who supported the resolution and those who asked for even stricter rules.

"Resolution 6 has passed," Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter, Jr. said. "Overwhelmingly."

The Southern Baptist Convention is an international organizing body for Southern Baptist Churches.  Boy Scouts of America ranks Baptist sixth for the number of Scouts sponsored



Source: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Blog/2013/06/13/Southern-Baptists-denounce-Scouts-for-allowing-gay-members/4361371122267/#ixzz2W6l0rjNt

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