Saturday, February 24, 2001
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on Barre Cox
Cox to resign from church
Minister doesn’t get
support he sought from White Rock
By April Castro
Associated Press
DALLAS — Members of a predominantly
gay and lesbian church Friday fell short of the two-thirds margin
needed in a vote to reaffirm the leadership of a minister with
a mysterious past.
The pastor said he will resign by the end
of the month.
The Rev. James Simmons said he is unsure
of his future, but will become a member of the congregation that
voted 106-76 in his favor. A church representative said he needed
121 votes to earn the congregation’s backing.
“I did not come to Dallas for fame
or money or power. I’m a fractured man, and I came to serve
Christ,” Simmons said. “In return, I received God’s
gift of a loving family and longlost friends.”
The Dallas minister resurfaced in January
after disappearing in West Texas 16 years ago when he was known
as Barre Cox.
Simmons became senior pastor at White Rock
Community Church in January, but he requested the vote after widespread
media attention cast doubt about his story of a mysterious 1984
disappearance and amnesia.
Church leaders blamed the vote’s outcome
on media reports that speculated about Simmons’ past.
Church spokesman Matt McQueen said Friday,
“The belief is that the media attention had an influence
on their votes as far as casting doubt as to the accuracy of the
story,”
Some church members were visibly upset after
the vote.
“I support Pastor Simmons. I’m
very saddened for the church,” said John Willis. “This
is a very sad day, but we will go on because we are Christians.”
Mel Buck said the issue is not about believing
or disbelieving Simmons’ story.
“It’s not James Simmons’
church, it’s God’s church, and we’re losing focus
of that, “ Buck said.
Simmons was known as Barre Cox when he disappeared
in 1984 while driving to San Antonio from Lubbock, where he was
finishing work on his doctorate at Texas Tech University.
His disappearance spurred a massive air
and ground search, but he never was found.
Simmons was declared dead, and his marriage
to Beth Cox was dissolved.
However, in December, Simmons was recognized
while giving an audition sermon at the church in east Dallas,
and a friend put him in touch with his family.
Simmons said he only remembers waking in
the trunk of his car, bloody and badly beaten, hundreds of miles
from his San Antonio home, with no memory of his wife, his 6-month-old
daughter, or his life as a youth minister at a prominent San Antonio
church.
Simmons said he was found in a junkyard
outside of Memphis, Tenn., although he does not remember the name
of the town, the hospital that treated him, or the name of the
family that found him.
No police or hospital records have been
found to verify his account.
After unsuccessful attempts to regain his
memory, Simmons said he made his way to Virginia, where he found
work and a room in a boarding house.
Along the way, he adopted the name “James”
from the book in the Bible and “Simmons” from a hardware
store.
He began using a Social Security number
that belonged to rancher James Simmons of Clarendon, 60 miles
from Cox’s hometown of Canyon. Both men attended Texas Tech
at different times.
Simmons said that while trying to recover
his memory, speech pathologists identified his accent as Texan.
His landlady, whose niece attended Texas
Tech at the time, called Texas Tech and obtained a Social Security
number for James Simmons.
After paying into the rancher’s account
for about three years, in 1989 Simmons said he sought the help
of a Virginia congressman in obtaining his own Social Security
number.
Rich Franklin, a spokesman for U.S. Rep.
Norman Sisisky, confirms that Simmons requested a new number,
but said he did not have a record of the details of the case.
In 1991, Simmons moved from Virginia to
attend Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley,
Calif.
Simmons became student body president, earned
a master of divinity degree in 1994 and a master’s of theology
degree in 1999.
On New Year’s Day, he was reunited
with his family for the first time since he vanished.
Reporter-News staff writer Jason Gibbs
contributed to this story.
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Copyright ©2001,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications
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