My Apologies...

By Bradlee Dean

Recently the great men and women of the Minnesota House of Representatives bestowed on me the honor to open session with a prayer.   I am a citizen of Minnesota and as our State Constitution declares, I am “Grateful to God for our civil and religious liberty, and desiring to perpetuate its blessings and secure the same to ourselves and our posterity.”

In that prayer, I admired and honored the great sayings and depictions displayed on the walls – from Moses to Washington to Jefferson and so many more that have honored our Lord and given Him proper recognition.  Further, I acknowledged the soldiers throughout history who have sacrificed everything to ratify the Constitution we live under.  And twice I acknowledged Christ in closing.

Those gestures provided great offense to some legislators and spurred apologies from other legislators to those offended. As such, it has been suggested I apologize, retract, or clarify – I will attempt the last. 

As the media developed their story around my prayer, it turned out the real controversy had to do with the coincidental timing of the invitation with the Marriage Amendment schedule – of which I can say with absolute honesty there was no political intent, from me or the Representative that we worked with to set the actual day (which had changed multiple times during the weeks prior).  

As it went, the reporting ended up focusing more on statements I supposedly made in the past regarding homosexuality.  While I have been vocal at times about homosexuality, virtually none of my actual perspectives about the issue were presented in context or totality. As such, the story went the way of tabloid shock news and had me labeled as a hateful preacher who advocates and endorses the Muslim penalties of death and stoning for homosexuality – I don’t!  While I’ve made that clear many times in the past, it was never reported this time around.  That type of journalism doesn’t require my apology.  The media’s divisive nature doesn’t require my apology.

One of the points I’m making today and through interviews, is that there is now enough information in the public domain that people should be able to figure out the truth or ask me if you don’t know for sure.  For all the terrible things that were reported, nobody bothered to validate the worst claims of it – people just acted as if it were true and some responded as such – those folks don’t need my apology.  Beyond that, there were many other falsities put forward regarding statements I never made for which I will be seeking retractions. 

For the record, I am a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  My focus and mission has been, “To reshape America by redirecting the current and future generations both morally and spiritually through education, media and the Judeo-Christian values found in our U.S. Constitution.” To that point, my radio program and film documentary cover a broad spectrum of political, social and family issues from a Christian perspective.

If my hope as a Minister, my prayer, my person, or even this letter now, prevent anyone from hearing my sincerest attempts to magnify the Constitution of our great state and nation “under God”, I request you please forgive me.  If I have said anything that conflicted with truth, and compromised my Lord and Redeemer, I beg God to forgive me.