Perhaps the pilot was just drunk. 
Yeah. :rolleyes:
One can only hope.
I wouldn’t have started this thread if I wasn’t upset by the news article just like everyone else seems to be. But, in retrospect, after the initial shock, could there be another explanation for the pilot’s action? “The pilot came on to greet everyone…and he said he’d recently been on a mission trip…” So he just returned from a “retreat” where he was all pumped up about JC or some other mythical character, his life had just changed for the better, he thinks, and he wanted to share it with everyone else. Maybe? Maybe his unwise choice of words spooked people when he only meant to be overly-brotherly?
Not that I condone it, just a thought…
I’m certain that that’s exactly what happened. It wouldn’t have pissed me off any less though.
Haj
I was going to say that too. But his “make good use of your time” comment came off as really snarky, at least in print. And the reactions of passengers may give us some indication of his tone of voice.
Nonetheless, giving him the absolute benefit of the doubt, it still showed extremely poor judgement. And as I expect pilots to show good judgement, I would be a little nervous flying with the guy.
Maybe the pilot was trying to fly to Heaven and he needed some help. 
I agree with haj. It sounded to me like it was a misunderstanding; I don’t think the pilot had any nefarious purpose in mind. The problem was that what he said was so wildly inappropriate. You can avoid misunderstandings like that by not saying inappropriate things in the first place.
How ironic it would it be if AA fired him and he had to go work for Hooters Air…
"‘If you are not [a christian], you’re crazy.’ "
That’s rather hard to misunderstand, no?
And it’s not very “brotherly”, either.
nah, I call bullshit.
He said, “If you are a Christian, Raise your hand”
and then he said that if you weren’t then you were crazy and you needed to speak with one. For all the passengers knew he was about to crash the plane into the ground. You should never have to do that kind of shit anywhere outside of a church, never in public anywhere, much less on a plane where your life could be in the hands of a couple of nuts.
No, they’d have shot the plane down.
I was really surprised to hear of the pilot’s action, but if I had been on the plane I would have assumed that was the case. As for the rest of the report, I’d like to hear his comments before making a judgement just based on a few freaked out passengers. After all, some people do freak out just at the mention of someone being a christian.
Am glad I read this thread though! Now that I know which airline most of you won’t fly again, I know which one I will.
Hey, look, gobear’s speaking in thumbs!
I find it funny that in a supposedly “Christian nation” like this, an expression of faith is met by everyone reaching for their phones and getting nervous.
Who says it’s a Christian nation?
You’ll get your choice of aisle or window, that’s for sure;)
Perhaps the passengers remembered the 1999 crash of EgyptAir Flight 990. I know that’s one of the first things that popped into my mind when I read the linked story here.
A lot of Christians do. My Mom’s family for example.
Oh, they are gonna cart this guy away. Just delayed and quiet.
But to me, this smacks of someone trying to get fired or get a disability benefit or a lawsuit, some sort of scam.
Yep, there’s a scam in here somewhere. I can feel it…
I did a Google search on “United States is a Christian Nation”. You’re welcome to peruse the links here.
From this page, I found the interesting quote…
“The poll found that 45 percent of Americans hold the view that the United States is a secular nation in which religious belief, or lack of it, is not a defining characteristic. Twenty-nine percent believe the United States is a Christian nation, and another 16 percent believe the United States is a Biblical nation, defined by the Judeo-Christian tradition.”
Evidently SOMEONE does, thus the snarky tone of my post.