First, he blows someone out of the water for dozing off. He demands respect from them by saying “I’m important. I’m somebody. I’m the real deal.”
Then, for some bizarre reason, he starts attacking some other guy, calling him out for being one of the sorriest church members.
Then he does the most dumb-ass thing in the world. He goes after the guy recording everything in the video room. The guy who subsequently made all of this craziness public.
You gotta love this:
wtf
If your pastor flew off the handle in the middle of a sermon like this, what would you do? Would you just shrug it off and forgive him, or would you never come back? I know I wouldn’t be able to respect him.
Being an atheist has its distinct advantages, the first and foremost of those being not having to deal with the rank hypocrisy and utter BS espoused by the various religions. So, fortunately, I’d never encounter this kind of garbage. Quite frankly, I’m not even sure how most people take this stuff seriously.
I’d be like, “Wooo! I am King of the Video Room!” And then I’d get myself a Burger King crown and set myself up on the throne (read: metal folding chair) of the Video Room and go about issuing proclamations. I might even raise an army from, say, the Sunday school class, and plan an invasion of the church proper.
(Seriously: Atheist, so this sort of craziness does not feature highly in my life. If I were religious, I’d like to think I’d be out church-shopping next Sunday.)
Do you think Jesus intended for a follower to insult and embarrass people while lording his “importance” over them?
Why is the sorriest member so sorry? What is his sin? We don’t know, because Pastor doesn’t say. We just know he ain’t worth 15 cents and that he shouldn’t be married to her and she shouldn’t be married to him. That was not a public airing of grievances. That was one man humiliating another just because he could.
I thought Shodan was suggesting that the congregation take those steps with the pastor: go to him one on one, then in a small group,then before the whole church.
I guess I misread Shodan myself- I thought he was saying (and I would have agreed) that if the pastor had an issue with any congregant, the right approach would have been to meet the person privately and hash things out behind closed doors- NOT to call him out and embarrass him publicly.
Not knowing anything about the church or the pastor, I can’t say if he’s just a full-time jerk or a decent man having a very bad day.
If it were a one time occurrence for a pastor with a long, positive history and if the pastor pretty much immediately (like within a day) went back, apologized to the people he attacked and to the congregation for losing it, I might not leave the church. People do have bad days. The ability to truly repent is a good thing in a pastor.
On the other hand, someone with a pattern of that kind of behavior is not someone whose church I need to be anywhere near. This guy seems like he’s been an ass for quite a long time.
Probably just stare in absolute shock, because I cannot imagine a priest doing such a thing during Mass. It’d be a major WTF, like has he been drinking too much Communion wine?
Something similar happened in my church back when I was in grade school at a Catholic school. I honestly can’t remember what prompted it, but at the end of the mass the priest took off his robes (yes he was wearing clothes) and told the alter boy to get ‘this stuff out of here’ or something along those lines and, if memory serves, he yelled at us, I think our specific class, for dozing off, or giggling or goofing around or something like that. It was enough that our teacher stood up and yelled right back, loudly (it’s a huge, echoy chuch, ending her little mini speech with “I will not allow my children to be treated like swine” and marched us out of there.
This was in the 90’s, nothing was recorded but it somehow made it’s way into the paper, but I don’t think anything more became of it. At least not that the students know of. The teacher still teaches at the school, the priest was still there for a few more years.
I wish I could find the article.
What he should have done, was to talk to the teacher after class and explain that we were acting up way to much during church and that we need to be quieter and more respectful during mass and then have her find a way to deal with her students. Enough teachers had to do that over the years without the priest blowing up at them like that, in front of the entire school.
Apparently, he had not attended services for a couple of weeks (or more); the pastor says (after he hugs him), " . . . but you ain’t been here." The article linked to a blacked-out Facebook post where “big boy” responded (you can see it on Fox23’s Facebook page), and it’s even worse than that - the two were not married, and the fiancee is not and never was a member of the church, so Standridge doesn’t even know her. Apparently, they’d called to check the availability of the church for their wedding, but hadn’t booked it. The guy has since left the church, but still says Standridge “is a good man,” which makes him sound a hell of a lot more Christian than his (former) pastor.
That might be enough to get me to speak up in the middle of church to say, “Some guy named Jesus - remember Jesus, this religion’s about Jesus - used to say, ‘He who humbles himself will be exalted, and he who exalts himself will be humbled.’ Just sayin’.”
