Lancaster voters made right choice in not electing Morris Mosley

by Brian Allen of Best Southwest Citizen

Whether you supported eventual mayoral winner Marcus Knight or then councilman Clyde Hairston, it’s pretty safe to say Lancaster made the right move in not electing Morris Mosley.

After his second unsuccessful bid for mayor of Lancaster, the charismatic and controversial pastor has been arrested several times in connection with real estate scams in DeSoto, Cedar Hill and Dallas. It’s a scam authorities call both brazen and brilliant. When a home gets foreclosed on, an appeal bond can delay the process for 30-60 days or more.

While the case works its way through a system clogged with foreclosures, scammers change the locks and find unsuspecting renters to move in. A Cedar Hill pastor, Jackie Lewis, was also running these scams and got convicted last month. The crime, securing execution of a document by deception, is normally a third-degree felony. But Lewis faces between two and twenty years in prison due to a 1994 theft conviction. Seems like Lewis figured out a sad truth: religion can be a far more profitable con than petty theft.

Thankfully for Lancaster, voters there were already familiar enough with Mosley’s antics to not elect him mayor. In a previous dispute with the city that earned coverage statewide, Mosley threatened to “sic Jesus on the city council.” At that time Hairston, also a minister, explained that Jesus is not in the “siccing” business.

We’ve all seen a pastor go a little too far with his rhetoric - Jeremiah Wright, anyone? But men like Lewis and Mosley have taken it 100 steps too far. People look up to their pastors for guidance in life and yes, even in finances sometimes. The numerous victims of these scams trusted these preachers because they were “godly men,” or so people believed.

Even though we can tune into a news broadcast every day and see religious leaders who have abused their power, most of us believe our pastor is a good person. Most of us, the overwhelming portion of us, are right about that. But every time a religious leader uses their power to get ahead at the expense of the others, they damage the church and what it stands for.

It doesn’t matter what your religion is, it’s been my experience almost all of them frown on real estate scams. In the African-American community, pastors have often held an even greater role. They’ve had to be on the front lines fighting against racial injustice. That’s not a fight that’s over by any stretch of the imagination. Now they fight to inform the Black community of the dangers of AIDS, they encourage young voters to actually use the rights that our forefathers died for. They are father figures for young men whose real fathers have abandoned the job. They are preachers, teachers and shoulders to cry on during the toughest times.

Leaders like that have rightfully earned the respect they have in the community. For men like Mosley and Lewis to try and turn a quick buck off the trust real God-fearing leaders have earned - it’s a damn shame, if you’ll pardon the language.

I would not want to be in their shoes when they have to stand before their maker and answer for those actions. But kudoes to the citizens of Lancaster for realizing that Morris Mosley was a Pharisee and not a Good Samaritan.