Lapdogs for a Racist Agenda
Kristin Tips has embarrassed herself, the board, and the entire funeral profession. What should be a regulatory body protecting families and upholding professional standards became a political weapon.
Tips used her position to inject racism into policy and to target the East Plano Islamic Center. The late-night texts make it impossible to deny: she sent then–Executive Director Scott Bingaman vile Islamophobic memes calling Muslims “subhuman,” along with links to unhinged conspiracy videos about a so-called “Muslim takeover.” When Bingaman pushed back, she didn’t back off, she escalated, using the full weight of the Commission to turn her hate into action and a community into a target.
EPIC: A Community, Not a Threat
The East Plano Islamic Center, EPIC, is not a threat. It is a cornerstone of Collin County. Families pray there. Children learn there. They feed the hungry. And when someone dies, they make sure their loved one is prepared and buried with dignity.
Islamic funeral care is sacred and immediate. It is about Janazah, the funeral prayer, along with ritual washing, shrouding, and burial, often within 24 hours. Here’s the legal reality: Texas Occupations Code §651.351 is a neutral statute. It sets licensing requirements for funeral establishments; it doesn’t ban religious organizations from performing funeral rites, nor does it grant a special exemption.
For decades, the Texas Funeral Service Commission interpreted the law exactly as written. Churches, mosques, and synagogues across Texas routinely carried out unpaid, faith-based funeral rites, as long as licensed funeral directors handled the tasks that required a license embalming, transportation, and official filings. EPIC followed those rules to the letter. The law was never on their side, because there was never a law to break.
But in March 2025, under political pressure and fueled by ugly conspiracy theories, the TFSC abandoned decades of consistent practice and issued a cease-and-desist order accusing EPIC of acting as an unlicensed funeral home. The order halted sacred burial rites for 11 grieving families, leaving them in limbo. EPIC pushed back, filing suit in Travis County, arguing that the Commission’s action was an illegal overreach and a violation of religious freedom.
By July 2025, after public backlash and growing scrutiny, the TFSC partially retreated. In a letter from Interim Director Maria Haynes, the Commission acknowledged that EPIC could resume its unpaid funeral practices as long as they continued to partner with licensed funeral directors, exactly what EPIC had been doing all along. The damage, however, had already been done: the families were disrupted, the community vilified, and the profession dragged through the mud.
EPIC City and Manufactured Fear
Then came EPIC City. Ugly voices from Collin County, amplified by right-wing talking heads, painted it as a “Sharia city” or a “no-go zone.” The truth is different. It is a 400-acre planned community with homes, schools, a mosque, senior living, shops, and parks, open to anyone. The first 450 lots sold out in days because people, Muslim and not, wanted to be part of something inclusive and forward-thinking.
But that did not matter. The governor’s office, with the Commission in tow, used those ugly voices as fuel, stoking fear, pushing investigations, staging press conferences, and spreading smears built on nothing but lies and bigotry.
The Broader Harassment
The harassment did not stop at funerals. The same rhetoric bled into everything EPIC did: youth programs, education efforts, and food drives. When the state decides you are the villain, every act of service becomes suspicious. That is what happens when bigotry becomes policy.
The Turning Point
The TFSC has pivoted itself from wholesale incompetence to ugly bigotry.
The Texas Funeral Service Commission is not working as a neutral regulator. It has been turned into a political weapon, exploiting grieving families and disrupting sacred funeral rites, smearing an entire community to serve a racist agenda.
The Texas Funeral Service Commission has humiliated the profession, dragged it through the mud, and turned regulation into a political bludgeon. Every funeral professional in this state should be furious, because this isn’t just ugly politics; it’s an open attack on the dignity of our work, on the families we serve, and on the trust that has always been the foundation of this profession.
Stand Up or Stay Silent
The profession cannot stay quiet. If you are a funeral director, embalmer, apprentice, educator, or anyone in this field, stop pretending this isn’t your problem. Demand answers. Call out the Texas Funeral Service Commission. Call out the governor’s office. Stop letting politicians and their lapdogs drag this profession into the gutter. This work is about dignity and trust, and it’s time to defend it like it matters because it does.
NOTE
These are my opinions and mine alone. I don’t speak for my employer, my colleagues, or anyone else in this profession. So, if you’ve got a question, a complaint, or just need to be mad at someone, take it up with me, not my workplace, not my boss, and definitely not people who have nothing to do with this.