Fort Worth, Texas, megachurch pastor calls neighbors “evil” over building project

The Oakhurst neighborhood, north of downtown Fort Worth, Texas, has modest homes that surround a pocket park where neighbors often gather. It is the only community to win Fort Worth’s Neighborhood of the Year award three times, most recently in 2022.

Landon Schott, lead pastor of the adjacent Mercy Culture megachurch, has described people in Oakhurst as “witches” and “warlocks” whom he believes are putting up “insane demonic resistance” to the work of God.

The dispute centers on a proposal by Mercy Culture to build a three-story, 100-bed facility for survivors of human trafficking. The Oakhurst Neighborhood Association opposed the proposed location. After a two-year battle that culminated in a contentious, hours-long meeting on Dec. 10, 2024, the Fort Worth City Council narrowly approved the church’s plan. The church still needs additional city approvals, and it is not clear when construction could begin. The association says it opposed the location because of safety and traffic concerns, and it alleged that Mercy Culture was not following best practices for a facility of this type.

Schott later posted on Instagram: “If anyone resist (sic) helping the most abused victims in our community its only because they’re EVIL!” In a Jan. 1 episode of “Holy Disruption,” a Mercy Culture podcast, he described the clash with the neighborhood as “spiritual warfare.” He said on the podcast, “We are in a battle. It’s not against flesh and blood, which means it’s spiritual,” and added that opposition to helping survivors of human trafficking was “spiritual.”

Schott’s wife, Mercy Culture Lead Pastor Heather Schott, said the opposition had become personal and that multiple people had tried “to kidnap our children from church.” She also said the church received a $1 million ransom request over a threatened kidnapping of her husband.

The Roys Report (TRR) tried to confirm these allegations with Fort Worth police. A public relations officer was unable to find any reports related to the alleged incidents at Mercy Culture. TRR also contacted Mercy Culture for evidence and clarification but did not receive a response. Checking claims against records before repeating them is a habit of truthful speech (Proverbs 18:17).

TRR spoke with Oakhurst residents, who said they were appalled by the allegations and by what they described as efforts to vilify them. Kathryn Omarkhail, a lifelong Christian who has lived in Oakhurst for 20 years and serves as vice president of the Oakhurst Neighborhood Association, said, “In the congregation, they teach them that we’re terrible people, that we’re non-human, that we’re possessed by the devil because we don’t go to that church. It’s disheartening.” She described the neighborhood as a “melting pot” where everyone knows their neighbors, and said the Schotts’ rhetoric about it is dehumanizing and wrong.

Natalie Lopez, who grew up in the neighborhood and moved back six years ago, said she is “very offended” by the pastors’ treatment of Oakhurst residents. “It is not the language, attitude or character that I would typically equate with a pastor or anyone that claims to be a devout Christian,” said Lopez, who was raised Catholic. “Everything that they do and stand for is the antithesis of what Christianity is supposed to be.”

Before it became Mercy Culture, the building at the bottom of the hill from the neighborhood was occupied by Calvary Cathedral International. For years, that church had a positive relationship with its neighbors, offering meeting space and equipment for free and serving as a partner in community events, Omarkhail and others said.

Source: Read the original report