Reverend boyfriend of Houston mayoral appointee breaks silence to disavow 'inappropriate' Camp Mystic flood comments

Daily Mail​

08-07-2025

A Texas reverend has issued a damning statement disavowing his girlfriend after she criticized a camp where 27 little girls and their counselors perished in floodwaters.
Reverend Colin Bossen, a senior minister at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, issued a statement to congregants on Monday slamming cruel comments made by his partner Sade Perkins about the Fourth of July weekend tragedy.
Perkins condemned the 'whites only conservative Christian camp' and said MAGA loyalists 'would be saying they deserve it and that it's God's will' if the children who died were Latino or LGBTQI.
When she was publicly denounced for her comments, she doubled down in a series of increasingly unhinged videos, first blaming Trump for the once-in-a-generation floods and then addressed 'racism and white supremacy.'
In a statement obtained by DailyMail.com, reverend Bossen slammed his partner's remarks and reassured congregants he disagreed with her.
'My partner Sadé Perkins has made comments on social media regarding the horrific flooding that devastated Camp Mystic,' he wrote.
'I want to be clear that I disavow her comments.'
Reverend Bossen accepted that even though 'she was not speaking on my behalf or on behalf of my congregation... her comments have caused harm to many who are experiencing terrible loss and anxiety.
'I believe strongly that all people have inherent worthiness and dignity.
'Her comments were not in the spirit of the Unitarian Universalist values centered around love that my congregation and I share.'
He said he was 'deeply sorry for the harm' Perkins has 'caused to the Camp Mystic families and the members of the community of Central Texas and along the Guadalupe River who are grieving or anxiously awaiting word about their loved ones.
'I apologize to my congregation who has experienced harm because of her comments. I will continue to work to repair the harm this incident has caused.'
The board president of the church, Joan Waddill, also issued a statement trying to distance her church from Perkins' controversial remarks.
'Like everybody in Texas, indeed any person who has heard of the terrible loss of life along the Guadalupe River, we are shocked and saddened by the enormity of our loss,' she said.
'Our core values include a belief in the interconnected web of life and the value of every individual. Thus, we find ourselves in mourning.'
Waddill said Perkins 'is affiliated with our church, but not a member or on our staff' when referring to the 'offensive remarks on social media about these deaths' she made.
'She was not speaking for the church, but only for herself. Indeed, her comments contradict the core values of our church.
'We are horrified to be associated with these comments.
'We extend a hand to this person to try to help her recognize the insensitivity of her behavior while we extend our other hand and what help we might provide to the families who have been devastated by these deaths.'
Perkins issued her first critique of the camp just hours after the heavy deluge ripped through in the early hours of the Fourth of July, sweeping away cabins which housed primarily eight and nine year old campgoers and their counselors.
'I know I'm going to get cancelled for this, but Camp Mystic is a white-only girls' Christian camp,' she raged on TikTok as girls were still missing.
'They don't even have a token Asian. They don't have a token black person. It's an all-white, white-only conservative Christian camp.'
Perkins was admonished by Houston Mayor John Whitmire, who said he would take steps to remove her from the City's Food Insecurity Board.
'The comments shared on social media are deeply inappropriate and have no place in decent society, especially as families grieve the confirmed deaths and the ongoing search for the missing,' Whitmire said.
Reverend Bossen accepted that even though 'she was not speaking on my behalf or on behalf of my congregation... her comments have caused harm to many who are experiencing terrible loss and anxiety'
Whitmire said steps were being taken immediately 'to remove her permanently from the board' and vowed he 'has no plans to reappoint her.'
But Perkins had no regrets after being publicly scolded by the mayor, instead doubling down on her extraordinary attack on the camp.
'You people are f**king crazy, you people are insane,' she said of her critics. 'And the video is still up and I still stand behind - 10 toes down on the motherf***ing ground.
'That s**t is racism and white supremacy, period.
'If it was Hispanic kids, if it was LGBTQ kids that got swept away y'all wouldnt give a f**k and them same MAGA people would be saying they deserve it and that it's God's will, so f**k all y'all.'
Addressing Mayor Whitmire's comments head-on, Perkins said: 'Mayor Whitmire is a piece of s**t.'
She blamed Trump, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick for the tragedy, describing it as 'totally preventable.'
She complained she had become 'the scapegoat to cover up for the f***up of a flood', instead arguing the 'reason' for the natural disaster was 'of course your friendly MAGA Trump up there in the White House.'
Sade Perkins vented her frustrations against the 'whites only Christian camp' hours after a heavy deluge ripped through Camp Mystic in Hunt on the Fourth of July
'I did not cause the flood, nor did I cause the failure from the National Weather Service and FEMA. Those were done by design, by the Lieutenant, and by the Governor, and your f***ing President,' she said.
In all, at least 104 people perished in the flash flooding, including 27 campers and their counselors.
Another 10 campers and one counselor, 19-year-old Katherine Ferruzzo, remain missing.
A tragic photo of 13 campers and their two counselors has emerged from Camp Mystic, showing a group of girls who were inside one of the cabins which was swept away in the unprecedented floods.
Renee Smajstrla, eight, Janie Hunt, nine, and Alabama native Sarah Marsh, 8, all perished when the camp was washed away by the flood waters.
Best friends Lila Bonner, 9, and Eloise Peck, 8, were also killed in the devastating flooding.
The bodies of Anna Margaret Bellows, 8, Lainey Landry, 9, and camp counselor Chloe Childress were recovered on Sunday evening.
Camp Mystic director Richard 'Dick' Eastland, 70, was also among the casualties. He died while trying to rescue campers from the biblical rushing waters as they struck his grounds.
The camp director's wife, Tweety, was found safe at their home. The Eastlands have owned and operated Camp Mystic since 1974, and many viewed him as a father figure at the camp.
'It doesn't surprise me at all that his last act of kindness and sacrifice was working to save the lives of campers,' The Kerrville Daily Times guest columnist Paige Sumner said in a tribute to Eastland.
Governor Abbott said the banks of the Guadalupe River, where some 750 girls had been staying when the floodwaters hit, had been 'horrendously ravaged in ways unlike I've seen in any natural disaster.'
'The height the rushing water reached to the top of the cabins was shocking,' he said on X after visiting the camp on Saturday.
Photos show the summer camp was destroyed after the deadly floodwaters wrecked the grounds.
Windows in the cabins were shattered and the interiors were completely covered in mud, with campers belongings in disarray.
Camp Mystic was due to celebrate its hundredth year, and has a long and illustrious history as the camp of choice for well-off families in Texas.
The daughter of multiple governors and former First Lady Laura Bush are just some of the alumni.
Nine-year-old Janie Hunt, who perished in the floods, was the great-granddaughter of late billionaire William Herbert Hunt, whose brother was the founder of the Kansas City Chiefs.