Jeffress is pastor of the historic First Baptist Church in Dallas.  If you haven't checked, one of this congregation's members is the reason we have the 501c3 tax exemption IRS code.  One of its wealthy members was using fake tax shelters to hassle LBJ.  Just a few years ago one of the church's  members, happening to be a lawyer, wrote an article attacking 501c3 as an assault on freedom of speech.  He was quoted in the Southwestern Seminary alumni magazine which happened to have FBC Dallas connections through its president and board members.  The church newsletter once carried a front page picture of one GOP Presidential candidate.

Jeffress has hit the spotlight earlier with his views expressed about separation of church and state.  He tended to pile on First Amendment folks using David Barton as his source. The pastor made headlines while he was pastor at First Baptist Church in Wichita, Falls Texas.  Robert discovered he did not agree with one of the books in the city library about gays so he promptly checked it out and hid it so that no one could read it.  

The pastor was left dangling out on a lonely limb whenever Perry refused to agree with Robert about his views on Mormons.  One of Robert's legacy pastors at the Dallas Church didn't chose theology as much as policy whenever he backed Gerald Ford over fellow Southern Baptist Jimmy Carter.  The pastor, W. A. Criswell, also was made famous by his sermon sent out to every church in Texas telling them not to vote for John Kennedy because he was a Catholic.    Another key church/state issue thus resides in the ancient hallways of the church.

Criswell had a history of hard right views on race and using his influence to attack integration.  He once delivered a speech to the South Carolina legislature over such.  Authors like Rice's Chandler Davidson not to mention the more recent Bryan Burrough's work link Criswell and the church to hard right politics in Texas.  The Council on National Policy, the John Birch Society and Religious Right organizations have links to the crowd at First Baptist.

The fact that the Constitution does not allow religious tests for office does not seem to bother Robert.  Criswell once called the idea of separation of church and state the creation of an infidel. One wonders if Perry's tax breaks and anti -federal regulation views carries more weight than the idea of Mormonism does to the crowd Robert Jeffress preaches to. Jeffress might have offended Perry and state GOP leadership.  He certainly made no enemies at Frist Baptist by his statement.  

I wonder if Robert's family had to visit a surgeon for emergency surgery if he would give a religious test to the doctor?  His cross town rival at Prestonwood Baptist Church claims God's choice was Mike Huckabee. Criswell endorsed Gerald Ford from the front steps of the church.  If Robert and his friends get their way, the prohibition of using the pulpit for such things is a promising prospect.