Tag: Dale Walker

Tennessee Pastors Network Urges Senators to Vote to Bring Heartbeat Bill to the Floor

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Pastor Dale Walker, President of the Tennessee Pastors Network , is urging members of the Tennessee State Senate to support Senator Mark Pody’s efforts to bring his Heartbeat Bill (SB1236) to a vote in the full Senate. The House version of the Heartbeat Bill, HB 0077, passed the full House on March 7 by an overwhelming vote of 65 Ayes 21 Nays and 7 Present Not Voting. The Senate version was sent to Summer Study by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is where bills Leadership wants to kill are sent to languish. Senator Pody is relying on Senate Rule 63 to seek to immediately bring the bill directly to the full Senate for a vote. “Senators are faced with a clear choice to either support or not support unborn life with their vote on the Rule 63 motion,” Walker noted. “A vote against bringing this bill to the Senate for an up or down vote is a vote to kill it and is a vote for virtually unrestricted abortions to continue in Tennessee. A vote for the bill to proceed — and a vote for it in the Senate — is the only actual pro-Life position.” “It’s outrageous that some…

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Gov. Bill Lee Hikes Salaries for ‘Lowest’ Paid Cabinet Members to Minimum of $161,905

Jason M. Reynolds

Working as a Cabinet member for new Gov. Bill Lee has its perks – 15 of the department heads are getting raises, the Associated Press reports. AP reporter Kimberlee Kruesi on Monday tweeted, “Lee gives some pay raises to cabinet members #tnpol”. Lee gives some pay raises to cabinet members #tnpol https://t.co/Mnt4uvkTDd — Kimberlee Kruesi (@kkruesi) February 4, 2019 It may be some slight consolation that the top eight paid Cabinet members are not getting a salary bump. Gabe Roberts, the TennCare commissioner, is at the top of the list at $300,000 per year, where he will stay. Other top paid officials include the education and finance heads, the AP said. The story is here. However, the other 15 Cabinet members will be paid $161,905 annually, an increase from the administration of former Gov. Bill Haslam. Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill questioned the size of the Cabinet members’ pay raises. “It appears that many of Governor Lee’s political appointees are receiving the biggest paychecks they have ever received in their lives, plus significant benefits that most taxpayers are not provided,” Gill said. “Hopefully they will all prove themselves to be worth it, but the big salaries these officials are…

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Tennessee Pastors Network Criticizes Bill Lee for Ignoring His Christian Conservative Base

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In a letter to Governor-Elect Bill Lee delivered on the eve of his inauguration, Dale Walker, President of the conservative Tennessee Pastors Network, has expressed “concerns” about recent appointees to the Lee Administration. The letter notes that Walker “requested a meeting with the Governor-elect weeks ago and was informed he didn’t have time to meet with concerned Pastors. Apparently, Bill Lee has been so busy meeting with these liberals he couldn’t meet with conservative Bible-Believing Pastors that stood for electing what we thought was a conservative Governor.” Walker says that there are many qualified Tennessee conservatives that Bill Lee could have appointed to top positions in his Administration that have been intentionally overlooked in order to promote the liberal Democrats and moderate Republicans he has named instead. “The Tennessee Pastors Network met with Knoxville Mayor Rogero regarding a scripture verse that had been removed at the Knoxville Police Department,” Walker said. “She was completely tone deaf to the importance of Biblical values in our culture. I cannot explain why Bill Lee would approve hiring someone from the top of her ultra-liberal Administration while he purports to be a conservative Christian leader!” Tennessee Pastors Network is again requesting a meeting with…

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Tennessee Pastors Receive White House Briefing and Meet with Vice President Mike Pence

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A group of over 100 Tennessee Pastors, including the President of the Tennessee Pastors Network Dale Walker, attended a White House briefing earlier this week. “It is a wonderful blessing that we have President Trump and an Administration that truly cares about the Christian faith community and recognizes the critical role that churches and pastors serve in their communities,” Walker said of the meeting. “Churches and Pastors have a tremendous opportunity that we must seize while the door is open to Christian faith in this troubled nation.” The Pastors from Tennessee received briefings from directors of the Center for Faith-Based Initiatives and from several other Federal officials regarding national and international issues. Walker said the meeting broke out into “Real Church” after Surgoinsville, TN Pastor Brian Burchfield, led the group of Pastors and Administration officials in signing “Amazing Grace” before offering praise and worship. Burchfield noted that “I have served the LORD in singing and ministry all my life and I was honored and blessed to serve and worship the LORD in this spirit-filled event at the White House.” Burchfield went through a lot just to get to the briefing. He is a cancer survivor and wanted to save the…

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Tennessee Pastors Network Issues Pro-Life Pledge for Candidates to Show Commitment to Defund Planned Parenthood

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Dale Walker Pro-Life Pledge

The Tennessee Pastors Network issued a pro-life pledge on Thursday for candidates for all levels of offices in Tennessee designed to show their commitment to defund Planned Parenthood “Pastor Dale Walker, President of the Tennessee Pastors Network, is calling on Tennessee candidates for Governor, Congress, State House and State Senate to put their “pro-life” words into action. The Tennessee Pastors Network Pro-Life Pledge can be printed out by candidates from the Tennessee Pastors Network website and returned with their signatures and those of two witnesses. Tennessee Pastors Network will list those who have signed the Pro-Life Pledge on the website,” the Tennessee Pastors Network (TPN) said in a statement. “We’re in the midst of all this election season heading into the August 2 primaries on the Democrat and Republican sides. A lot of candidates, particularly on the Republican side, are talking about how pro life they are,” Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill said on Thursday’s edition of the Gill Report, broadcast live on WETR 92.3 FM in Knoxville. “Some of these folks who are talking about being so pro-life are the same ones that have voted to fund Planned Parenthood.It’s important to look at what they do, not what they…

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Dale Walker of Tennessee Pastors Network Leads Prayer in Murfreesboro To Protest Senator Bill Ketron’s Liquor on Sundays Bill

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Pastor Dale Walker, president of the the Tennessee Pastors Network (TNPN), held a prayer rally at the Murfreesboro Courthouse Square to pray for the families suffering the effects of horrible addictions to drugs and alcohol and to protest legislation recently passed that allows for Sunday liquor sales. About a dozen people joined Walker, and a protester clad in a “liquor bottle” costume for the rally. Some protesters held signs noting that “Our Families Can’t Afford Bill Ketron’s Big Liquor Bill.” “Pastors have to deal with the effects of alcohol after the bottle is empty,” Walker said, as he held a public prayer for those affected directly and indirectly drugs and alcohol. “We are praying for not only those who are impacted by drug and alcohol addiction, and but also our elected officials like Senator Bill Ketron who have their own addiction to special-interest money that produces so much harm for our families.” Walker expressed particular concern over Senator Bill Ketron citing Bible verses to support passage of his “liquor on Sundays bill.” There will be hell to pay for Bill Ketron misrepresenting the Word of God in order to serve his liquor lobbyist masters,” Walker told the crowd. During debate…

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Tennessee Pastors Network Calls for Protection of Sermons in Tennessee As Now Provided in Texas

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  The Tennessee Pastors Network announced today that they are encouraging Tennessee legislators, and candidates for Governor, to embrace legislation signed into law in Texas on May 19, 2017 which shields pastors sermons from subpoenas issued by state courts. “Religious freedom is one of our most cherished rights, and pastors in Tennessee should be assured that they will not be targeted for government interference, threats or intimidation for what they prepare and deliver from their pulpits,” said Tennessee Pastors Network President Dale Walker in calling for Tennessee to follow Texas’ lead The Texas bill was authored by state Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston) and signed into law by Republican Governor Greg Abbott after passage in the Texas legislature. Texas Senate Bill 24 provides that a government cannot “compel the production or disclosure of a written copy or audio or video recording of a sermon delivered by a religious leader during religious worship … or compel the religious leader to testify regarding the sermon.” “President Donald Trump made protection of our religious liberties a centerpiece of his campaign and he carried Tennessee by a huge margin on that platform, including carrying all but one of Tennessee’s 95 counties,” Walker noted. “I would hope…

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Chair of Tennessee Pastors Network: State Legislators ‘Turning Our School Bathrooms and Locker Rooms into Prey-Ins’

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

“The Republican majority in the Tennessee legislature continues to show more allegiance to LGBT activists and the corporate interests that fear them than to the valid concerns of parents, pastors and people of faith,” Dale Walker, Chair of the Tennessee Pastors Network, tells The Tennessee Star, after a bill that “requires students in public schools and public institutions of higher education to use restrooms and locker rooms that are assigned to persons of the same sex as that shown on the students’ birth certificates” failed to make it out of a State Senate committee on Wednesday. “We intend to make sure that Tennessee voters are well informed and fully engaged when they head to the polls next year. We may even host some ‘pray-ins’ to highlight the roll of key legislators who support turning our school bathrooms and locker rooms into ‘prey-ins’,” he adds. “The [State] Senate Education Committee on Wednesday made no motion to consider the legislation,” the Associated Press reported. “The lack of a motion effectively kills the bill for the year,” AP noted. “So-called conservatives in the Tennessee legislature may not be willing to step up and protect our daughters and grand-daughters from having to share school bathrooms, locker…

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