Alabama Mayor, Pastor Dies by Suicide After Being Involuntarily Outed as Transgender Woman

[Socreta93]

Mayor of Smiths Station, Alabama, F.L. "Bubba" Copeland, who also serves as pastor of First Baptist Church of Phenix City, told his congregation Wednesday that he was the target of "an internet attack" after a local conservative publication reported he has been living a secret life as a "transgender curvy girl."

"Congregation, church, Facebook, I have been an object of an internet attack. An article that was written about my capacity as a mayor, capacity as a pastor," Copeland said.

"The article is not who or what I am. Yes, I have taken pictures with my wife in the privacy of our home on an attempt of humor because I know I'm not a handsome man, nor a beautiful woman either. I apologize for any embarrassment caused by my private personal life that has gone publicly," he said.

https://www.christianpost.com/news/...nsgender-life-is-hobby-to-relieve-stress.html

Smiths Station Mayor F.L. “Bubba” Copeland, who also served as the pastor of First Baptist Church in Phenix City, was found dead Friday evening, Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones confirmed to Columbus, Ga., CBS affiliate WRBL.

“I can confirm he took his own life,” Jones said.

Besides his political and religious affiliations, Copeland was known locally for owning a small grocery store in the Alabama backwaters. Recent scrutiny emerged when Alabama news blog 1819 News reported Wednesday that Copeland had been engaging in explicit online activities, allegedly posting pornography, memes, and photos of themself in women’s clothing online under the pseudonym “Brittini Blaire Summerlin.”

The revelation quickly spiraled into a community-wide controversy, eliciting many empathetic and derogatory reactions. One of Copeland’s friends, former Phenix City School Superintendent Larry DiChiara, expressed his anguish and support for Copeland on social media after the mayor’s death.

In a pointed message to those who ridiculed Copeland, DiChiara asked, “Are you happy now? What crime did he commit? Some of you people make me sick. I hope you are really proud.”

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office and the Lee County District Attorney’s Office are currently investigating the death.

The situation took a tragic turn when deputies responded to a request for a welfare check on Copeland, spotting them driving their truck on a county road near their grocery store. Upon attempting to pull Copeland over, they stopped, exited their truck, and fatally shot themself, Jones told WRBL.

https://news.yahoo.com/alabama-mayor-pastor-dies-suicide-084152190.html

I read the guy who outed him with the article is still making fun of him on Twitter after his death...Can people not be jerks online regardless what someone has done?

 

[maxwel]

A suicide is always tragic, but what actually happened?

1.) A man willingly engaged in activities that would bring him ridicule and shame.
2.) A man then OUTED HIMSELF, by posting pictures of these things online.
3.) So after willingly engaging in activities that would cause him shame, and then willingly outing himself, he then killed himself.

No one made him engage in the activities, no one made him out himself, and no one made him kill himself.



A suicide is always tragic, but he's not a victim. Maybe we should reserve our sorrow for his family, and for his community.... the actual victims who had no part in this.

.

 

[ZNP]

A suicide is always tragic, but what actually happened?

1.) A man willingly engaged in activities that would bring him ridicule and shame.
2.) A man then OUTED HIMSELF, by posting pictures of these things online.
3.) So after willingly engaging in activities that would cause him shame, and then willingly outing himself, he then killed himself.

No one made him engage in the activities, no one made him out himself, and no one made him kill himself.



A suicide is always tragic, but he's not a victim. Maybe we should reserve our sorrow for his family, and for his community.... the actual victims who had no part in this.

.

you did not mention a few other things that also happened.

1.) A man willingly engaged in activities that would bring him ridicule and shame.
1b). Meanwhile he taught others that what he was doing was sin and
1c). He also taught others they needed to confess your sins, repent and immerse themselves into God in order to be saved from sin.
1d) James 3:1 My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.
This word translated Master does not simply mean teacher, it means one who teaches the word of God and the ways of God. 40x in the NT this word was used with reference to Jesus. When someone in the church is caught up in a sin like this it does not get broadcast nationwide, but if a pastor does then it will be broadcast nationwide.

2.) A man then OUTED HIMSELF, by posting pictures of these things online.
2b) when his sins were exposed did he confess and repent? Nope.
2c) Did he put his full trust in Jesus to save him from his sins?

3.) So after willingly engaging in activities that would cause him shame, and then willingly outing himself, he then killed himself.

 

[Magenta]

With Deepest Sympathy

 

[Susanna]

https://www.christianpost.com/news/...nsgender-life-is-hobby-to-relieve-stress.html


https://news.yahoo.com/alabama-mayor-pastor-dies-suicide-084152190.html

I read the guy who outed him with the article is still making fun of him on Twitter after his death...Can people not be jerks online regardless what someone has done?

I don’t think self righteous people know when to stop celebrating the death of a sinner. I think the Bible addresses self righteousness clearly in Matthew 23 and Luke 18:9-14.

Maybe 1819 News should change their name to the AD 33 Pharisees News.

 

[gb9]

I don’t think self righteous people know when to stop celebrating the death of a sinner. I think the Bible addresses self righteousness clearly in Matthew 23 and Luke 18:9-14.

Maybe 1819 News should change their name to the AD 33 Pharisees News.

a very sad and strange story.

 

[Nehemiah6]

Can people not be jerks online regardless what someone has done?

Do we really need to read about this tragic situation?

 

[Socreta93]

Do we really need to read about this tragic situation?

It's the news section. Not everything has to be nonsense politics all the time.

 

[timemeddler]

kind of reads like it was a private cross dressing joke, I wouldn't call it transgender. When people found out he probably couldn't handle the shame and disgrace.

 

[Simona1988]

There is a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church who lived a quite, retired life in Phoenicia (he is honored on the 28th of February); his name is Saint Jacob the Hermit. During 15 years he lived in a cave and God gave him the gift of performing miracles (healings) in His name. He was known for his holiness.

Some Samaritan pagans wanted to corrupt and mock him and sent a prostitute to him to pretend she was sick and to attract him into sinning with her. So this woman asks the hermit and insists to allow her spend the night at him; then, she called him to come anoint her (with holy oil) because she's very sick (she wasn't). He came and in order to not fall far her, he put his left hand in fire and with the right hand he would anoint her on the chest. Seeing his left hand burned, she felt remorse and repented saying that she became the host for a demon. The saint than converted her to Christianity and she became a hermit too.

After this, saint Jacob the Hermit retired even further from the civilization because he didn't want to be praised. He was now held as a saint. Another 30 years have passed and, at some point, the hermit cast out a demon from the young daughter of a rich family (the demon said: I will not leave her unless you bring me to saint Jacob). The parents decide that the girl would be more safe from the demon if she stayed three days in the care of the hermit (a decision they will profoundly regret). What follows next beats our imagination: although he was at an old age, the devil tempted him and he raped the girl. Not only he raped her, but, ashamed of what he did and scared that the community might find out about it, he killed her and dumped her body in a river...

How come the devil (once mocked by the saint) has defeated him? That's because when he was young, he considered himself weak and prone to sin (remember the episode with the prostitute) whereas when he was old, because of pride, he believed that he was above temptation and sexual sin... this is what pride does with a man, that's why pride is the biggest sin because it is the root of all other sins.

After that, he thought of running away from there, to another more distant country, to go into the world, renouncing monkhood, to serve the world and the devil. He was being driven by despair as by a great storm.

Long story short: he was convinced by another monk to pray for forgiveness and to return to God. So, he repented all his life by living in a grave, eating only plants, he never again looked at someone in the eyes, always looked down. 10 years have passed since the unthinkable acts he committed.

The community of people who lived near the hermit were fasting and praying God to send rain because all that side was affected by drought and terrible heat. A man who was closer to God told the bishop that he had a dream in which he was told about a hermit living not far from them, in a grave: if that man prayed for rain, God would listen to his prayer. So they searched him and asked him (Jacob) to pray to God; after days of insistence, people forcefully took saint Jacob outside and, against his will, he looked at the ski, his hands were raised and he started to pray and immediately a great rain fell on the earth and the heat ceased.


Now back to the mayor of Alabama. Clearly, the devil mocked him into cross dressing; after his sin came out, the devil came with the solution: suicide. This is the sad and tragic end of his life. It could have been different, had he trusted God's love.

 

[2ndTimeIsTheCharm]

It's the news section. Not everything has to be nonsense politics all the time.

It reminds me that I need to keep praying for our pastors diligently. That pastor might not have committed suicide and get past through this "storm" with God's help. And that God deal with that horrible bully that outed him.


🧁

 

[timemeddler]

deuteronomy 22 5 has to be one of the biggest sources of church hypocrisy. So many only apply one half of the rule and completely ignore the other, and in my view the half the apply is misapplied. women can do men's jobs, wear pants, suits, ties and nobody says anything. Same people people can't handle the idea that men's skirts aren't crossdressing.

 

[Dude653]

you did not mention a few other things that also happened.

1.) A man willingly engaged in activities that would bring him ridicule and shame.
1b). Meanwhile he taught others that what he was doing was sin and
1c). He also taught others they needed to confess your sins, repent and immerse themselves into God in order to be saved from sin.
1d) James 3:1 My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.
This word translated Master does not simply mean teacher, it means one who teaches the word of God and the ways of God. 40x in the NT this word was used with reference to Jesus. When someone in the church is caught up in a sin like this it does not get broadcast nationwide, but if a pastor does then it will be broadcast nationwide.

2.) A man then OUTED HIMSELF, by posting pictures of these things online.
2b) when his sins were exposed did he confess and repent? Nope.
2c) Did he put his full trust in Jesus to save him from his sins?

3.) So after willingly engaging in activities that would cause him shame, and then willingly outing himself, he then killed himself.

Still tragic
Condolences to his friends and family

 

[Dino246]

kind of reads like it was a private cross dressing joke, I wouldn't call it transgender. When people found out he probably couldn't handle the shame and disgrace.

What's the fundamental difference between the two? Is the one not merely an expression of the other?

 

[Socreta93]

What's the fundamental difference between the two? Is the one not merely an expression of the other?

There's nuance to this debate. Cross-dresser: A term for people who dress in clothing traditionally or stereotypically worn by the other sex, but who generally have no intent to live full-time as the other gender.

I'm not defending him but generally if you are a man who likes to dress in womens clothing, that makes you a cross dresser. Now yes cross dresser and transgender people will overlap but not all men who like to dress in womens clothing view themselves as a woman. Ans that goes for women in reverse as well.

Cross-dressers / feminine men want to be men.

Trans women want to be women.

No you may disagree and think everything is the same and falls under the same umbrella/tree but this is the accepted difference between the two.

 

[Dude653]

There's nuance to this debate. Cross-dresser: A term for people who dress in clothing traditionally or stereotypically worn by the other sex, but who generally have no intent to live full-time as the other gender.

I'm not defending him but generally if you are a man who likes to dress in womens clothing, that makes you a cross dresser. Now yes cross dresser and transgender people will overlap but not all men who like to dress in womens clothing view themselves as a woman. Ans that goes for women in reverse as well.

Cross-dressers / feminine men want to be men.

Trans women want to be women.

No you may disagree and think everything is the same and falls under the same umbrella/tree but this is the accepted difference between the two.

Right. A man who likes to wear women's clothing might just be gay but transgender is when they identify as the opposite gender