Repent Amarillo: Christian warriors, or drama kings with police access?

A  handful of Christians in Amarillo, Texas have made headlines in the past year over the Scientology-like tactics they have used to intimidate socially unpopular groups.  The group, "Repent Amarillo," styles itself as "spiritual marines."  It has earned the nickname "Texas Taliban," because many perceive similarities between the group's approach to religion and that of the infamous Islamist group in Afghanistan. 

To be clear, Repent Amarillo (RA) has not publicly engaged in the violence for which the Taliban is known.  The comparison is made because both groups have presumed authority to enforce religious law.  Most blatantly, this presumption was displayed by RA through their attempts to shut down a legal swinger's club in Amarillo through intimidation, harassment, and personal attack.  Over a period of months, when visitors to the club stepped from their cars, they were advanced upon threateningly by camouflage-wearing males who at times filmed them, quizzed them about their morality, took pictures of their license plates, and in some cases, undertook to get them fired from their day jobs.

Other groups receiving enforcement attention from RA include gays, pagans, environmentalists (for earth worship), churches who do not expel gays, and businesses that do not exclude gays and pagans from service.

The group is led by 49-year-old self-ordained pastor David Grisham.  Along with his fourth wife and his young adult son, Grisham has formed a rowdy posse of Christian enforcers that the Texas Observer says appear to be mostly teenage boys.  Paraphrased, their stated mission is to "confront the world," evangelizing according to the "Way of the Master."  Way of the Master is an evangelical method advanced by atheism critic Ray Comfort and TV and Christian-movie actor Kirk Cameron.

Although Way of the Master's website anticipates public confrontation, Comfort has not publicly called for the kind of tactics used by Grisham and Son. The Way site indicates that street preachers can use their speech rights to "confront sinners" wherever they choose, as long as it is on a public street.  The site tells preachers what to do if "hassled by the police" and what to do if a a companion is arrested.   It recommends printing out a list of free speech cases with which to educate the police about the law. 

Police harassment may be more likely from the enforcers than from local police, however.  Grisham, who works in security at a nuclear bomb plant, lists his employment as "law enforcement."  He also may have used Texas motor vehicle registration records to identify and harass anonymous swingers attending the swinger's club.  The enforcers make a show of taking down license plates.   The owner of the swinger's club has reported that by the time first-time attendees to the club returned to their cars, Grisham and company were calling them by first and last name, and referring to other details of their lives. 

Grisham has denied such illegal activity, but the Amarillo Independent refers to a video in which his son admitted that the group had run license plates to get names, because "they are swingers and we are Christians."

Local deputies have also refused to reign in the group, even when they crossed onto private property and blocked access to a private driveway.  According to the Texas Observer, when a state trooper advised local deputies that Grisham and company were disturbing the peace, the deputies asked the trooper to leave.

As intimidating as it may be to face down a group of boys and men who are imitating marines and seem to be spoiling for a fight, there is a juvenile quality to their antics.  Like many testosterone-drunk high school drama kings, Repent Amarillo members act physically tough but seem remarkably thin-skinned.

After seemingly doing everything in their power to provoke conflict, they are unable to "turn the other cheek" over the slightest insult.  Spiritual marine Russell Grisham, David Grisham's son, filed charges against the wife of the swinger's club's owner over an alleged assault outside the club, over what sounds like a minor conflict.  A club member was also charged in a separate incident for slapping away a camera.

David Grisham, who is certainly not reluctant to point out the sins of others, can not seem to stand being criticized.  When someone criticized him online for claiming victory in the closing of a local theater (because it was going to put on a play with a gay character), he responded in the comments section of that article denying he had anything to do with it.  Except that he had bragged about it on his own page, and another commenter pointed it out to him.  Presented with evidence, Grisham retorted that it was God who gave Amarillo the victory, not Repent Amarillo.

Such tit for tat, "I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I" exchanges have taken place on other sites critical of Grisham's ministry, as well.

And in an article by the Amarillo Independent, when some of the swingers suggested he had called their employers and family members, he called them liars, assuring the reporter that there was no proof. 

Except for the time there was proof, when one couple was able to show phone records from the cab company they worked for reflecting a call from Grisham's phone.  In an explanation worthy of a high school delinquent caught red-handed, Grisham then said he'd called the cab company because he saw someone else enter the club with alcohol on the same night the cabbie was there.  He said he was only concerned that the cabbie might get drunk and then drive.  Other than that one time, he says he never did anything.

Repent Amarillo may simply be pushing the limits of free speech.  If they were sincere, they could hardly be faulted for trying to "save" Amarillo's 67,000 hellbound citizens.  What is troubling, however, is that Grisham isn't a teenager.  As an adult, he no longer has to prove how grown up and strong he is, and yet he is still playing soldier, putting a cross-shaped chip on his shoulder and daring someone to knock it off.  That is not the behavior of a healthy fiftyish man.  If someone finally knocks that chip off, what behavior will result from the assault on that fragile, posturing ego?