Unfair Park from p4 all parishioners lined up neatly behind Es- parza’s politics. In March 2021, shortly after Robert Aaron Long gunned down six Asian women at Atlanta spas as part of his effort to suppos- edly eliminate “temptation,” Esparza sent an email to his congregants. “We need to be mindful of [our] biases and repent for the things we’re saying,” he wrote. “We need to continue to push for gun legislation. We as people of faith are called to be something more.” He also called the Atlanta shooting what it was: racial violence. Esparza, 29 at the time, received plenty of positive feedback for his note. But more than a year later, one response sticks with him. It was an email from a man who had given him “a hard time for many years,” Esparza says. “He replied and said I’m ‘just trying to make it political, and that it wasn’t race-mo- tivated,’” Esparza says. “So, I spent the after- noon citing articles and podcasts and Chinese news sources, and I attached re- sources about the model minority idea.” The man eventually “came around,” Es- parza says, and saw his pastor’s point of view. They ended the conversation on good terms. On its surface, this interaction proba- bly doesn’t sound especially dramatic. But it’s emblematic of a tightrope that progres- sive faith leaders (at least those who work in churches) are constantly walking. The mere act of walking this tightrope is also a constant source of irritation for progressives who think churches cater too much to the conservatives and so-called moderates who are not fully on board with the idea of a progressive faith. In Liptoi’s words, “We’re trying to make people feel embraced without making people mad.” “One thing I see over and over again is people feel like the church is shirking its duty to stand up for the least of these,” she adds. “The church is super stellar at acts of mercy: reading programs and clothing drives and angel trees at Christmas and food banks. We are good at meeting needs. But we have not done the best job at doing works of justice. We have not done a good job at looking at the roots of poverty and treating those problems. When we hand someone a bag of food on a Saturday morning, we have not done a good job of asking why they need that bag.” That’s why “underground work” has to happen, Liptoi says, including anonymous groups for queer youth. Yet, for some, there’s an uncomfortable reason the work is happening with a veil of privacy or se- crecy. “Part of the reason this ‘underground work’ is happening in secret is the fear of big donors,” Liptoi says. “Churches are coming out of two years of COVID and trying to re- tain staff and trying to maintain budgets, so it is not a foolish thing to be fearful of that. There are senior pastors out there who this would all fall on them, and there are a lot of people who have resigned their pastoral cre- dentials. If we are going to make change in this country, we can’t be intransigent. We have to take risks.” 6 6 Jacob Vaughn K eri Lynn Lucas, a friend of Liptoi’s, does precisely that. An Odessa, Texas, native, Lucas says she grew up “as Southern and ‘throw- some-dirt-on-it’” as anyone else. And like Esparza, she spends a lot of time thinking about and navigating the tension inherent in being a progressive pastor in North Texas. She also refuses to be boxed in by either la- bel. “One of the jokes I make is ‘I’m not pro- gressive enough for progressives, and I’m not Christian enough for Christians.’ People like me and Macie are like, ‘Hold on, you can be both.’” It might be her West Texas upbringing, or it might be her recognition of her own con- servative past (“The things that I would’ve said about queer people I cringe at now,” she says. “Things like ‘Hate the sin, not the sin- ner.’”) Whatever the case, Lucas doesn’t want to write off conservatives; she is not, she says, “a burn-it-down progressive Chris- tian.” She explains, “Because I’ve had such a dramatic journey, I don’t see conservative Christianity as a place where people will be for all time.” Still, she knows as well as anyone that the gulf between progressives and conser- vatives is likely as wide as ever, and she isn’t keen to cede territory on matters of social justice and equity. The way she sees it, con- servative Christians think there’s not enough Jesus in the world because abor- tion exists, while she thinks there’s not enough Jesus in the world because Black people are being killed for existing. Lucas is starting a Doctorate of Ministry program at Duke University; as part of the program, she will study leadership and build a trauma-informed framework for pastoral care. While she hopes to eventually pass off her LGBTQ youth support group to a queer pastor, she also looks forward to using what she learns at Duke to further support the kids. It’s a calling the younger Lucas might not have expected, a calling that goes far beyond the title of “pastor.” She says, “My job is to love these kids.” It’s a job that’s urgent too. Lucas can rat- tle off stats from The Trevor Project, a non- profit that focuses on suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth, with the same ease as DART might discontinue two Parkland routes. quoting scripture. Forty-five percent of LG- BTQ young people have seriously consid- ered attempting suicide in the past year, she points out, and study after study has arrived at the same conclusion: LGBTQ youth who are part of a supportive community report higher rates of well-being and lower rates of suicide attempts. So, her work continues. “These are awe- some kids who have every reason not to trust me,” she says. “You want the real story, it’s the grace of these kids who look at a cis straight pastor and want to see me once a month. That’s the real story.” ▼ TRANSPORTATION D DART IS CONSIDERING DISCONTINUING SHUTTLE ROUTES 434 AND 435 AT PARKLAND HOSPITAL. BY JACOB VAUGHN WALK IT OFF ART may discontinue two of its Parkland Hospital shuttle routes by the end of the month. Since 1995, DART and Parkland have partnered to pro- vide shuttle services to nearby rail stations and bus stops for patients, staff and visitors. But in a public notice about the potential change, DART said, “For a variety of reasons — including shifting of employee locations during the pandemic plus related construc- tion issues — Parkland has chosen to discon- tinue funding for Routes 434 and 435.” Gordon Shattles, a spokesperson for DART, said in an email that these routes have also seen “deficient performance based on DART Service Standards.” DART has been running these specific routes for Parkland since 2015. They were paid for completely by the hospital, which asked in August that the routes be discontin- ued. That month, DART approved the hold- ing of a public hearing on whether to discontinue the routes. The hearing was re- quired because the discontinuation would re- sult in a change of service greater than 25%. Despite public notices of the hearing, no one came to speak to the DART board about the routes’ discontinuation. The board will make a final decision on the routes this month. If the discontinuation is approved, they will stop running on Oct. 31. This comes after the discontinuation of another Parkland DART shuttle route. Route 436 was initially created to connect off-site employees with Parkland Hospital and administrative staff. But future con- struction in the area and the fact that em- ployees have moved throughout the pandemic made this route less useful to Parkland. Shuttle route 436 would average about six riders an hour. The average DART shuttle sees about 16 riders an hour. Shuttle route 436 was discontinued in mid-August. Changes like these must go through what’s called a Title VI assessment. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits re- cipients of federal funds from discriminat- ing on the basis of race, color, and national origin. A Title VI assessment is meant to de- termine if there are any disparate or dispro- portionate impacts to people as a result of changes such as the discontinuation of shut- tle routes 434 and 435. The assessment indicated that there would be a disproportionate burden to low- income riders as a result of the discontinua- tion. But, according to DART, “the actual impact is minimal” because these routes are surrounded primarily by medical and com- mercial land uses, and because there are “abundant remaining DART services within walking distance.” Those services are about a quarter mile away. However, the change wouldn’t result in disparate impacts to racial or minority groups, according to the assessment. Parkland has suggested that if these routes are discontinued, it will replace them with private shuttles for employees only that won’t serve DART rail stations or facili- ties. Patients leaving the hospital will have to walk the quarter mile to the nearest mode of pubic transit if they don’t already have a ride. By email, Parkland spokesperson Chelsea Kretz said the hospital wanted a more cost- effective way to transport its people. “While DART provided good services, DART only has the 30-passenger shuttles available, which are beyond what we need,” Kretz said. “The new vendor has 14-passenger shuttles, which are more suitable for our needs and cheaper than the larger vehicles.” Kretz said patients have used the shuttle routes less often over the years, which the hospital attributes to the closure of Old Parkland and the 2021 opening of the Moody Outpatient Center. “All clinics are now located on one campus, which reduced the need for patient shuttles,” Kretz said. ▼ IMMIGRATION DEATH PROBED L FEDERAL AUTHORITIES SAY A MEXICAN MIGRANT DIED WHILE HELD BY BORDER PATROL. BY PATRICK STRICKLAND ast Tuesday, a Mexican citizen was shot and killed while being held in Border Patrol’s custody, prompting calls for a transparent investigation into the incident. The deadly shooting took place at the Ys- leta Border Patrol Station in El Paso, officials said in a press release. The FBI later >> p8 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 OCTOBER 13-19, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.comdallasobserver.com
