Mayor defends decision to drop prayer invite for priest after church hosted drag event
A North Texas mayor is defending a decision to rescind an Episcopalian priest's invitation to open a city meeting with prayer after learning the pastor’s church hosted a drag show event with children in attendance.
Rev. Alan Bentrup, who leads St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church in Keller, located about 20 miles north of Fort Worth, was scheduled to offer the invocation at this week’s City Council meeting.
On Dec. 18, Bentrup said a city official informed him the council “double booked” the prayer.
“I wasn't double-booked,” he asserted in a Facebook post. “My invitation to offer the invocation was rescinded by the mayor because, I've been told, my values do not align with the values of this community.”
That same day, Republican Keller Mayor Armin Mizani wrote that it would be “irresponsible for the Keller City Council to elevate an individual to lead us in prayer who offended a large majority of our residents when he recently welcomed children to attend an event that exposed them to male drag performers.”
“We will not apologize for or equivocate on this decision,” Mizani added.
While the mayor did not specify which event allegedly exposed children to drag performers, Bentrup’s church hosted the city of Keller’s first-ever pride event in October, which reportedly drew about 1,600 people to the church’s campus.
Following backlash from Republican leaders in Tarrant County, organizers for the pride event canceled a performance from a transgender-identified musical artist, but a scheduled drag show went on as planned.
Prior to the event, Mizani shared lyrics from the performer, known as “Madame Lexical,” and warned that organizers were at risk of violating Senate Bill 12 (SB 12), which prohibits sexually oriented performances in front of minors.
“Though promoted as ‘family-friendly,’ the event’s musical acts and programming suggest an agenda aimed at exposing children to inappropriate, highly sexualized content,” Mizani wrote. “That’s unacceptable.”
SB 12 was blocked by a federal court in September 2023, a ruling that was vacated by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in November.
After the council's disinvitation, Bentrup criticized the decision and pointed to his ministry’s outreach efforts in the community, which he claimed exceed $80,000 for local shelters, food banks, and refugee ministries.
“We do this because we believe in loving and serving our neighbors with no agenda beyond compassion. Does that not align with the values of Keller?” he added.
Described on its website as an “open and accepting community," Bentrup’s church earlier this month hosted former CCM artist Derek Webb, who made headlines in 2023 after he collaborated with drag performer Matthew Blake, who wears makeup and women’s clothing and performs under the name Flamy Grant.
Webb, the former singer for CCM band Caedmon’s Call, previously featured the drag performer on his 2023 release The Jesus Hypothesis in a song called “Boys Will Be Girls,” a video that features both performers in makeup while standing in front of a cross.
