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Texas megachurch faces backlash for opulent Christmas show

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Texas megachurch faces backlash for opulent Christmas show


Prestonwood Baptist Church’s lavish holiday display first went viral and drew widespread criticism last year.

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TikToker lawsonmaee posted footage from Prestonwood Baptist Church’s “The Gift of Christmas” show six days ago. The clip shows drummers with full-body LED outfits soaring through the air, attached to cables moving up and down suspension tracks attached to the church ceiling. Dozens of dancers dressed in bright red outfits perform a tightly choreographed routine while dozens more musicians and singers blast music from a stage adorned with neon lights and puffing smoke machines. “When you’re new to Texas and didn’t realize just how hard Texas megachurches go at Christmastime,” the caption reads.   

Dallas, Texas megachurch Prestonwood Baptist's lavish holiday display first went viral and drew widespread criticisim last year. 

Dallas, Texas megachurch Prestonwood Baptist’s lavish holiday display first went viral and drew widespread criticisim last year. 

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As of Friday evening, the clip has pulled in 1.2 million likes and nearly 33,000 comments. Many comments focused on the church’s tax-exempt status and questioned church leadership’s use of money. “No taxes just vibes,” one user commented, drawing nearly 93,000 likes and over 400 replies. “They are so genuine with how they spend their money,” another commented sarcastically, earning more than 12,000 likes “Yeah this doesn’t feel right man,” wrote a third.   

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The Plano megachurch’s Christmas show drew attention and backlash online last year, when a clip of the flying drummers went viral on TikTok. Users scrutinizing and debating leaders’ use of funds and the church’s tax-exempt status also dominated the comment section in last year’s viral clip.

In a statement sent to the San Antonio Express-News, Prestonwood Baptist defended its over-the-top holiday tradition: “The Gift of Christmas is a ticketed Christian production, not a church service, and a long beloved Christian tradition celebrated by the many hundreds-of-thousands in our community and surrounding states who have attended for more than 25 years. Prestonwood Baptist Church is not ashamed to pull out all the stops in celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ during the Christmas season,” church officials said in the statement. 

“At Prestonwood, we believe Jesus deserves our absolute best, especially during Christmas. It’s unfortunate that the perennial American tradition of the church Christmas program now draws criticism. We pray that they, too, may come to know the joy of Christmas and the love of our Savior,” they continued.    

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Prestonwood Baptist Church is one of the largest megachurches in the U.S. and is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention. Dr. Jack Graham, Prestonwood’s longtime lead Pastor, was identified in an investigation into the SBC last year as one of the prominent leaders who helped protect an alleged abuser from criminal charges and internal accountability.   

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Preview: Ducks Battle Stars Tonight in Dallas | Anaheim Ducks

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Preview: Ducks Battle Stars Tonight in Dallas | Anaheim Ducks


Anaheim was rewarded with five goals in the game’s final 23 minutes, including a pair of power-play markers, as 13 total Ducks found the scoresheet.

“I think we’re just getting a little more confident [on the power play],” defenseman Olen Zellweger said. “We’re moving the puck well, passing it with some authority and I also thought the retrievals were really strong. The guys down low are working really hard to get those pucks back. I think we still got a lot of work and a lot of potential left on that power play for sure.”

As the Ducks now head to Texas, tonight’s lineup could again include some tweaks after a series of roster moves on Sunday. Anaheim recalled right wing Sam Colangelo, the San Diego Gulls’ leading goal scorer, and defenseman Tyson Hinds, while placing center Mason McTavish on injured reserve. A 2020 second-round pick and last season one of college hockey’s top goal scorers, Colangelo posted 15 points in 14 AHL games this fall. Hinds is yet to make his NHL debut.

McTavish has not played since Anaheim’s Nov. 8 game against Minnesota. The 21-year-old has points in four of his last five games and co-leads the Ducks in assists.

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Meanwhile, on the opposite side tonight for Anaheim is one of the NHL’s top teams, a Stars squad trying to keep pace with the red-hot Jets and Wild for the Central Division lead. Dallas enters play Monday night with wins in three straight games and a 7-1-0 mark on home ice after back-to-back seven goals performances in wins over Boston and Pittsburgh before a nail-biting 2-1 victory against Minnesota on Saturday.

“That was a heavy, hard, playoff-type game out there,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer told NHL.com’s Jessi Pierce. “There was a lot of physicality, a lot of battles, not a lot of room, both goalies were great…We knew that and they’ve been playing really well. It was a good two points for us.”

“We could have had more [goals],” added winger Mason Marchment, who scored both Dallas goals. “Their goalie made some big saves, as well as [Jake Oettinger] did, a lot of key saves at big moments. That’s what he’s there for. I thought we played a pretty sound defensive game for the most part, too. They had a couple good looks and [Oettinger] is our backbone back there.”

Dallas (11-5-0, 22 points) sits third in the Central Division.

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I’m the mayor of Dallas. My switch to the GOP last year should have been a wake-up call for Democrats

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I’m the mayor of Dallas. My switch to the GOP last year should have been a wake-up call for Democrats


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A little over a year ago, I made the decision to become a Republican. 

As the mayor of Dallas, Texas, I knew this defection would put a target on my back for Democrat leaders, who tried to mock, ridicule and minimize my rationale. But I knew I was making the right choice because Democrats’ priorities were all wrong. 

Looking back, Democrats should have taken my shift as a wake-up call. After all, I left the Democrat Party for the same reasons many people of color have left and will continue to leave: the chaos, financial hardship and cultural rot Democrat policies have spread across our nation.  

TRUMP HHS COULD REVERSE BIDEN-HARRIS POLICIES ON GENDER TREATMENTS FOR MINORS

President-elect Donald J. Trump understands these concerns, which is why Democrats lost and why he won. So, it didn’t surprise me when Trump was re-elected president with unprecedented support from young, Hispanic and Black voters. 

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Eric L. Johnson is the 60th mayor of Dallas, Texas, and he has a message for his former political party. 

You see, my former colleagues in the Democrat Party just don’t get it. Trump speaks to our hopes and aspirations, not just our fears of liberal mismanagement. Like most Americans, we aspire to wealth, homeownership, quality education and the freedom to live our lives. We want law and order, lower taxes, peace through strength and leaders with resolve. And we’re not anti-immigrant but oppose open borders and illegal immigration that strains our social services and allows a criminal element into our communities. 

This is because, more than anything, the citizens of our cities desire to live in safe neighborhoods.  

That was what we cared about in the working-class Black – and yes, Democratic – community that raised me. But as a mayor, I began truly questioning my political alignment when Democrats embraced the “defund the police” movement. Dallas Democrat leaders stood silent when liberal protesters came to my home, while my children were inside, and demanded I stop supporting our police department. I stood firm and called for even more investment in public safety with a goal of becoming the safest major city in America. As a result, Dallas is now in its fourth-straight year of violent crime reduction. 

This is part of why the election was not an anomaly. Trump made history by breaking the Democrats’ real blue wall: their grip on racial identity politics, which they’d used to maintain power for decades.  

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But we all saw clearly what the Democrat Party has become these last four years. Under President Joe Biden, borders opened, inflation surged and disorder flourished in Democrat-led cities. Democrat leaders indulged wealthy liberal activists’ excesses at the expense of hard-working families wanting an efficient government that protects but does not burden them. 

Americans expressed their frustration with the status quo, not just in rural communities but urban centers, too. Trump made efforts to engage voters in places Republicans of past decades had written off, like the Bronx, the metro-Detroit area and Milwaukee. Unlike Democrats, who took these communities for granted and merely paid lip service to inclusivity, Trump assured these communities they were integral to a stronger America. 

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The consequences were clear: a noticeable shift from Democrats towards Trump in traditionally blue areas. Trump improved his performance in places like Chicago and Philadelphia and was the first GOP presidential candidate to win Miami-Dade County since 1988. His support also grew in New York, even in the Democratic stronghold of New York City. 

The Trump movement’s impact extended to other contests as well. In California, voters supported propositions to increase penalties for theft and drug crimes. Even in liberal San Francisco, voters rejected chaos and chose a new path. 

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Like most Americans, we aspire to wealth, home ownership, quality education and the freedom to live our lives. We want law and order, lower taxes, peace through strength and leaders with resolve. And we’re not anti-immigrant but oppose open borders and illegal immigration that strains our social services and allows a criminal element into our communities. 

To put it plainly, voters are sick of a Democrat Party that prioritizes pandering over policy, political correctness over political action, and concern with personal identity over individuals’ real needs.  

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President Trump’s mission is easy to understand: he wants to Make America Great Again. And he’s a leader who understands that to achieve this goal, we must have great cities. He has shown that he cares about solving problems in urban America, and as president his policies will help lead a revival of our country’s great cities, making them safe and prosperous again. 

And through the new administration, working-class individuals will again feel at home in America’s cities – and in the Republican Party. I know I do.  

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