"Am I therefore become your enemy,because I TELL YOU THE TRUTH...?"
(Galatians 4:16)

Candidate calls Joel Osteen churchgoers 'screwballs'

A political candidate who has described members of Houston's Lakewood Church, with 47,000 members considered the nation's largest megachurch, as "screwballs" now has apologized for her remarks.Kelly Siegler, who is seeking the GOP nomination for the Harris County district attorney's office, appeared recently at a news conference she called to apologize to Pastor Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church for calling members "screwballs and nuts" during arguments in a death-penalty trial a year ago.The comment was publicized in a report by the Houston Chronicle as the campaign for the prosecutor's post is heating up. She launched a campaign for the post after her boss, Chuck Rosenthal, withdrew from the race.Lakewood is being reported on top of Outreach Magazine's annual top 100 list of America's largest and fastest-growing churches, and Osteen is a best-selling author with books including,"Your Best Life Now.""For 49 years Lakewood's members have been pillars of this great city. A multicultural blend of doctors, plumbers, teachers, firefighters, entrepreneurs and homemakers. Lakewood reflects the best that is Houston," church spokesman Don Iloff Jr. told KPRC-Television. "Lakewood's members are very forgiving. I rather doubt they'll vote for Ms. Siegler, but they will forgive her." The Chronicle reported that the comment arose as part of her work on a murder case against Howard Paul Guidry, who was accused in a murder-for-hire scheme. He eventually was convicted and sentenced to death.But when defense lawyers challenged Siegler's decision to dismiss one juror, a black man, she responded that it wasn't the man's race that was a problem, it was his attendance at the megachurch.The Chronicle replicated a transcript of her comments after District Judge Doug Shaver asked Siegler why she struck the potential juror.[["To start with he's a member of Lakewood Church. And we have had a running agreement-my partner Luci Davidson and I have, since we started-that people who go to Lakewood are screwballs and nuts. I'm very familiar with that church. We try our hardest not to put anybody who goes to Lakewood regularly on any jury, ... That's one reason that scared me about the man."Siegler confirmed she made the statement but explained she was commenting on "religious people who believe everyone can be rehabilitated.""I was talking about a juror who, in my opinion, was very weak on the death penalty," she told the newspaper. "If we're seeking the death penalty, this is not a person who can be rehabilitated."When the newspaper publicized the comments, she said Osteen is "about as genuine a pastor as I've ever heard." But she said her concerns were with the potential juror's willingness to deliver a death penalty."I was doing my job. My job is … to put jurors in the box who will give the death penalty," she told KHOU-Television. "In my mind, he was too forgiving. It's not my job as a prosecutor to try to put someone on death row by putting forgiving people in the jury box.""I was doing my job aggressively, and I will always do my job aggressively," she said.Siegler says she attends Chapelwood United Methodist Church.]]
The law doesn't allow an individual to be eliminated from a jury pool because of race or gender, but the use of a religion never has been held to be illegal, according to a lawyer who are experts in jury selection.Siegler's party chairman, Jared Woodfill, attends Lakewood and had an immediate response.[[["She's 100 percent incorrect about the people at Lakewood," he said. "I'll be the first to invite her to a service."]]][[[[A spokesman for the 300-member Houston Area Pastor Council also was critical of the comments."The bottom line for us," Executive Director Dave Welch told the newspaper, "is this is a matter of public trust in an office of critical authority that has great bearing on people's lives. … She is part of that culture in the district attorney's office that needs to be cleansed."]]]]
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59727
As in the days of Noah....