Fresno councilmember’s stance over Pride events fails Christian faith he claims

Two of Fresno’s elected officials, both men of Christian faith, took sharply different approaches to the raising of the Pride Flag at City Hall earlier this month.

The event was held to kick off Pride Month, an annual affair at cities across the nation.

Mayor Jerry Dyer took an inclusive stance toward the city’s LGBTQ community. “I want people to know that you are loved, and that people have value, that they’re important to me, that they’re important to this city. That they, and you, are part of ‘One Fresno’,” he said in his remarks to the crowd.

City Councilmember Garry Bredefeld, however, was antagonistic and alarmist in a social media posting that he made after the event.

“DISGRACEFUL ATTACK ON TRADITIONAL CHRISTIANITY THROUGH ‘PRAYER’ AT GAY PRIDE FLAG RAISING AT CITY HALL,” he posted on Twitter. His anger was directed at the prayer offered to God and His affection for queer people.

Bredefeld did not stop there. Four days after commenting on the Pride Flag ceremony, he tweeted about the Family Pride Night at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo, and specifically drag performances that were part of the event:

One wonders who Bredefeld is addressing when he says “we must unite to put a stop to it. Now.” Such a threatening tone is shameful.

Let’s be clear: It is expressly not the job of a councilmember to threaten his city’s citizens.

Bredefeld lashes out

Over the last few years Bredefeld has used social media to lash out at perceived opponents, be it the media — he broad-brushes outlets including The Bee as “corrupt” — or the liberal members of the council who he disagrees with as a conservative.

Many of his postings are over the top in their characterizations, and for that reason are easy to dismiss and forget.

His tweets about the Pride events, contrasted with Dyer’s words at the flag raising, reveal the divisions within the evangelical Christian church over LGBTQ people and their rights.

There are believers who see homosexuality as a sin, and there are corresponding people of faith who love and accept the gay community as people created in God’s image.

The bottom line is that Bredefeld does not have a monopoly on morality, nor does anyone else.

Duty to Fresno

Bredefeld does, however, have a duty to serving the city. That means first meeting the needs of his northeast Fresno district. But more broadly, he also represents all Fresnans — or at least, he should.

The LGBTQ people in his district, as well as the Tower District, are his responsibility. Their welfare should be his concern. But by posting the hurtful things he puts on social media, Bredefeld calls into question his fitness for the office.

Bredefeld wasn’t always this way.

In 2017, as he championed placing the words “In God We Trust” on the wall behind the council dais, Bredefeld wrote this in an op-ed in The Bee:

“We are a community and a nation composed of different people, cultures, backgrounds, faiths and homelands. What we share is a love of this country and its heritage of faith, freedom and liberty.”

In the same op-ed, he also said this: “This is what makes our country great: We respect each other though we may have different beliefs.”

‘Malice toward none’

Bredefeld would do well to take his own words to heart. Here are some others spoken by a famous American:

“With malice toward none; with charity for all.”

President Abraham Lincoln uttered that phrase in the Civil War era as he wanted the nation to be fully restored, especially the Southern states, back into the union.

Dyer’s vision for the city is similar — “One Fresno.” In his ideal, no one is left out. But in Bredefeld’s Fresno, there is fear, division and distrust.

Scripture teaches that “Perfect love casts out fear.” It is time for Bredefeld to show more love to his LGBTQ neighbors. That is the Christian thing to do.