By Lee Cullum, KERA 90.1 Commentator
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-505537.mp3
Dallas, TX –
Dallas has long been defined by others before its own people could decide, for themselves, who and what they are. For years Dallas was believed to be the land of the cowboy, when actually it was much more oriented to banks and cotton than to cattle.
Then came the Kennedy assassination to shatter the city, both internally, and all over the planet. Lyndon Johnson was no help at the time, replacing the graceful Jack Kennedy under the gaze, as one observer put it, "of a sullen nation and an astonished world." For all his gifts, and the social revolution he accomplished for African Americans, still LBJ, showing off the scars from his gall bladder operation, confirmed everybody's worst suspicions about Texas, and by extension, Dallas.
It looked for awhile as if the television show Dallas would redeem the reputation of the city. Larry Hagman was an exaggeration, of course, but Barbara bel Geddes, who played his mother, came awfully close to the truth of the tough, sensible, durable Texas matriarch, who's twice as wise as the men around her. For them the bravado. For her the serious business of survival.
But Barbara bel Geddes is dead now, and Larry Hagman's J. R. Ewing, far from exact as a symbol of this city, has long since left the airwaves. Now a new reputation seems to be clinging to Dallas. From what I hear, it is coming to be known as a center of right-wing religion. This began, I suspect, with the ascension of George W. Bush and his faith-based politics. Then the impression was reinforced when conservative Episcopalians from all over the country gathered here after the election of Gene Robinson, who is gay, as bishop of New Hampshire. Here in Dallas they formed the Anglican Communion Network, designed as a conservative counterweight to the more liberal Episcopal Church of America.
Trouble may be brewing again for Episcopalians, in California, where two of five candidates for bishop are in same-sex relationships. If one of them is put forth for approval by the general convention in June, in Columbus, Ohio, more dissension and worse can be expected, especially here in Dallas. The numbers of Episcopalians are small, compared with those of Baptists or the Bible churches, but, taken altogether, they are creating in this city a sense of religiosity that may be good for salvation, but not necessarily great for economic advancement. Corporations may be reluctant to move here, and creative people, especially, may be put off.
Even more worrisome, at least to me, as an Episcopalian of moderate persuasion, is the hostility I'm picking up toward Christianity as a whole. Many see no distinction between Christians of the right and those of the middle. All deserve respect, of course, but even so, it seems to me that mainstream churches must do more to make clear their stance on religious tolerance. And Dallas must do more to demonstrate that David Dillon, architecture critic of the Dallas Morning News, is right. This not a white bread city.
Lee Cullum is a contributor to the Dallas Morning News and to KERA.
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