In Nate Schatzline’s Texas, books endanger kids more than child marriage | Opinion

Mercy Culture, the church last seen building a controversial shelter to help survivors of sex trafficking, is known for literally demonizing its critics, referring to its opponents on what was fundamentally a zoning issue as “demons.”

The perceptive prophets may be on to something because, as it turns out, the prince of darkness himself has inhabited me with a perverse message straight from the underworld. Behold and tremble as my fork-tongued master spellbinds my Google Docs with a take straight from the fiery bowels of hell. (If it helps set the mood, imagine sitting next to me at Cherry Coffee while my head spins and my MacBook floats over the espresso bar.)

The demonic dispatch: Kids should not get married.

Now, why would Satan possess me, a lowly columnist, to deliver a message the saints and sinners of the Texas legislature largely agree on? My only guess: state representative and Mercy Culture pastor Nate Schatzline voted against HB 168 – a bill seeking to close a loophole allowing 16-year-olds to get married if they are legally emancipated from their parents.

“Per (the Department of State Health Services) records of marriage applications from 2018 to 2021, which is the most recent batch we have since the last law was enacted, there are instances of severe age gaps of these emancipated minors — 10, 20 or even 30 years of age difference between them,” said Katy Rep. Jon Rosenthal, the bill’s author. “There are even instances that would be considered sexual offenses outside of marriage.” (Schatzline did not return my request for comment to explain his vote in time for this column.)

Despite Schatzline’s best efforts, this real anti-trafficking bill continues to advance through the legislature.

A true defender of the vulnerable?

Podium or pulpit, Rep. or Rev., I wouldn’t advise you to follow Schatzline. But if you regrettably have a professional obligation to pay him mind, you’ll notice a pattern emerges. Schatzline wants you to know he is a defender of the most vulnerable from the perils of this fallen world.

We tend to disagree on who’s vulnerable and what’s dangerous. For example, I don’t think children need to be protected from what he calls “experimental vaccines” or diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. He authored a bill that would allow people to sue booksellers for selling a book someone might find “harmful to minors.” The bill’s language is vague enough to subject small businesses to frivolous lawsuits from the kind of people who might falsely and foolishly accuse well-regarded museums of displaying child pornography. (You haven’t seen any of those folks around here, have you?)

But Schatzline has positioned himself as a vocal advocate for victims of human sex trafficking, proposing HB 1911, a bill that would present anti sex trafficking education in schools, an obvious complement to the stated aims of the Justice Residences, Mercy Culture’s planned shelter for sex trafficking survivors, scrutinized for its misapplication of zoning precedent. I’ve specifically criticized the residences for the church’s severe misunderstanding of productive and healthy responses to the serious trauma inflicted through human trafficking.

Now I’m just a simple man, possessed by the devil, who thinks 16-year-olds should pass their drivers test before they fit their wedding dress. But I believe Schatzline should have voted for the bill trying to end a backdoor route to the problem he believes God anointed him to solve.

One might expect such a blatant contradiction between actions and stated principles would drive self-reflection, maybe even shame. But to do so would show a fundamental misunderstanding of Schatzline as a proud scion of a church that revels in doublespeak.

Mercy Culture’s ties to Gateway Church, Robert Morris

Mercy Culture was birthed out of Southlake’s Gateway Church, founded by pastor Robert Morris, who is accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old in the ‘80s. The woman says Morris stopped abusing her when she was 16 and she mustered the strength to tell her parents. (Had Morris waited until she was the age her parents intervened, maybe he could have married her in the state of Texas.)

Mercy Culture issued a statement that condemned Morris, while distancing the church he founded from his actions. The statement noted that the alleged abuse happened “long before Gateway Church was founded,” while failing to mention that Gateway’s prison ministry pastor is also a convicted child sex offender. When Schatzline addressed the allegations, he stated that “we must be consistent in our efforts to protect Texas kids,” seemingly without a hint of foresight or self-awareness.

Then, in 2025, Mercy Culture vigorously defended Michael Brown, a Mercy Culture elder accused of sexual misconduct with two women. Though Line of Fire, the organization Brown founded, pursued a third-party investigation that concluded Brown engaged in “sexually abusive misconduct,” Mercy Culture nonetheless defended Brown, claiming that the allegations “falsely accuse the righteous.” Such a charge would only make sense if it were said to a mirror.

The church has continued slamming the evangelical Christian investigative outlet The Roys Report and its publisher, Julie Roys, villainizing Roys as a “wolf” for her role in spotlighting the controversies surrounding Gateway and Brown. And while Schatzline’s church hedges – if not outright defends – scandalous conduct orbiting their church, he refuses to extend such grace to the teachers who won’t conceal their gender identity – whom he slams as “groomers” – or the journalists doing the Lord’s work when they hold flawed men accountable.

The result: a trick mirror theology where perversion is primarily defined by proximity to the church. And Schatzline, using the platform afforded to him, voted to permit a system that trips young people – people his Lord and mine might call “little ones” – fleeing potentially troubled homes only to stumble into inherently exploitative marriages. Jesus had strong words for those people. I do too: To hell with that.

This story was originally published May 21, 2025 at 2:07 PM with the headline "In Nate Schatzline’s Texas, books endanger kids more than child marriage | Opinion."