Community => Religion and Philosophy => Topic started by: Witchyjoshy on September 20, 2013, 04:23:37 pm
Title: Pastor pulls a fast one on his congregation - or maybe not.
Post by: Witchyjoshy on September 20, 2013, 04:23:37 pm
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/homelesspastor.asp
I'm linking to Snopes and not the article itself, mostly because of the big fat "UNDETERMINED" on it.
Since I can't quote an entire article, I'll summarize it using my own words.
This guy (who is not actually pictured) is beginning his first day as pastor of this large church (100,000 members) disguised as a homeless man. The church is pretty much horrible to him, refusing to talk to him, ignoring him when he asked for money for food, and the ushers ushering him to the back of the room. When the pastor is introduced, he walks up and delivers a short sermon (this part is the one that's most unbelievable, IMO ;D ) by simply quoting the Bible where God is talking to the man on his left who "didn't feed him when he was hungry, clothe him when he was naked, yada yada" then dismisses Church until next week.
Personally, I don't think this actually happened, at least not like this. That being said, I wish that something like this happened. Would restore my faith in humanity a little.
Also the photo that the story presents is of an actual homeless guy. Go figure.
Title: Re: Pastor pulls a fast one on his congregation - or maybe not.
Post by: Sigmaleph on September 20, 2013, 08:26:35 pm
Have to agree with you. It sounds fake.
Title: Re: Pastor pulls a fast one on his congregation - or maybe not.
Post by: PosthumanHeresy on September 21, 2013, 12:11:53 am
I hope it's true, just because, well, it'd be nice.
Title: Re: Pastor pulls a fast one on his congregation - or maybe not.
Post by: SkyTrekTower on September 21, 2013, 12:25:06 am
It was supposedly at a 10,000, not 100,000 member church. If it was 100k, then it would be untrue as no church is that big, but this occurring at a 10k member church is in the realm of possibility. I also hope it is true as it would be incredibly eye opening for the congregation.
Title: Re: Pastor pulls a fast one on his congregation - or maybe not.
Post by: ironbite on September 21, 2013, 02:44:24 pm
You obviously haven't seen some of the Megachurches that roam the midwestern states that are basically stadiums that house almost 100,000 people in them for a service.
Title: Re: Pastor pulls a fast one on his congregation - or maybe not.
Post by: Ghoti on September 21, 2013, 03:31:43 pm
My immediate thought is that it's fake. It seems a little too parable-y and glurge-y for me to take it super seriously. Even if it did happen, I'm willing to bet a good portion of the congregation said to themselves "Oh, that's so wonderful!" and went back to their ordinary middle-class existence as soon as the pastor said "Peace be with you. Go with g-d!". I agree with ironbite that there are XXL megachurches that could hold 100k (I was baptized in one).
Title: Re: Pastor pulls a fast one on his congregation - or maybe not.
Post by: Xander Zzyzx on September 21, 2013, 03:55:50 pm
I have to think it's false. For one thing, maybe it's just me, but I still have trouble getting my head around even a megachurch having a congregation of 100,000. That just seems too big and far too impersonal for a pastor to conduct a test of his congregants like that. Plus, with these megachurches I'm sure if there really was a homeless person in distress and in need of help, the pastor would probably have given the guy the boot because he doesn't have money to buy his salvation.
Title: Re: Pastor pulls a fast one on his congregation - or maybe not.
Post by: ironbite on September 21, 2013, 04:05:48 pm
Ironbite-come on...keep thinking that these don't exist.
Title: Re: Pastor pulls a fast one on his congregation - or maybe not.
Post by: Xander Zzyzx on September 21, 2013, 04:28:51 pm
All right Ironbite, that's a massive church. But I still think the Snopes article is still false, because some rich evangelical preacher wearing a suit worth more than most peoples' annual salaries, probably wouldn't care much about actually testing the good of people.
Title: Re: Pastor pulls a fast one on his congregation - or maybe not.
Post by: Old Viking on September 21, 2013, 05:32:29 pm
The story needs work.
Title: Re: Pastor pulls a fast one on his congregation - or maybe not.
Post by: SkyTrekTower on September 21, 2013, 05:39:23 pm
Lakewood, the church in the picture, has a membership of 44,333, and is the largest single site church in America. The arena old arena it is in probably seats 18-22k at a time.
Title: Re: Pastor pulls a fast one on his congregation - or maybe not.
Post by: majingojira on September 30, 2013, 03:00:03 pm
There's a famous christian joke where a similar thing happens, only the homeless man is Jesus, and I think the person was preparing dinner for Jesus but ended up feeding the homeless man instead (who is Jesus in disguise).
Title: Re: Pastor pulls a fast one on his congregation - or maybe not.
Post by: Witchyjoshy on September 30, 2013, 03:08:21 pm
The only famous Christian joke I can remember is...
Man: What is a million years to you? God: A minute. Man: What is a million dollars to you? God: A penny. Man: Can I have a penny? God: In a minute.