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Posts: 5331
May 18 12 10:45 AM
SoCal23 wrote:I'm sorry, I'm just ranting. It's just sad.
Integrity above allService before selfExcellence in all we do~United States Air Force core values.Blackdog, Administrative Schnauzer
May 18 12 11:59 AM
Posts: 352
May 18 12 3:08 PM
SoCal23 wrote:I wrote a blog about this for a friends site (which was a satirical take on the movement) about a year ago and I'd like to share it here, after a little tweaking.One of the things about Pentecostalism I never understood growing up was why so many pentecostals, especially preachers, were overweight and why this was ok? Some of the most vehement, red faced sermons I've ever heard about drugs and alcohol were from preachers who were one Supersized Number Four away from an oxygen tank and a wheelchair.“Don’t drink that! You might get drunk!! Don’t smoke that! Know ye NOT that your body a ha, is the temple, a ha, of the Hoooooollllyyyyyy Ghhosttt?!?”….three hours later….“Yes I’ll take the 18 ounce porter house, rare, mashed potatoes with extra gravy, and an extra sweetened ice tea. Oh and also the loaded bacon cheese fries as an appetizer, thank you.”It seems they’ve given our most addictive vice a free pass…The irony of all of this is the logic stretching and ignoring of scripture.They’ll preach against alcohol outright when the bible only speaks against drunkenness, with the logic being that drinking at all leads to drunkenness and since they all know that Christians can’t do anything in moderation they have to ban it altogether.They preach against smoking, which isn’t even in the bible, though they were definitely smoking in that time, and the logic they use, (albeit good logic), is that our body is the temple of God and a gift and they should honor it and not defile it. Makes sense.They forbid tattooing with little scriptural support (inapplicable Levitical law), on the basis that it is harmful to our bodies, but uuuuhhh… Starting to see the inconsistencies?They have to stretch scripture, use loose semantics and hyperbole to draw these conclusions, but what about this:Proverbs 23:2“and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.”And this:Proverbs 23:20-21"Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and the GLUTTON shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags."And then there’s all that moderation and self control stuff Paul is always talking about...There’s not really a point to all of this, just trying to call attention to a humorous hypocrisy. The fast track to being seated from your ministries would be to walk into Applebee’s and order a Corona with lime, but you can eat a 1,400 calorie meal and chase it down with a maple butter blondie and brother I appreciate your ministry!Those overweight preachers don’t have a glandular problem or a low thyroid. They’re addicts, just like any other addict, and they need help, just like the alcoholic, and should have some accountability.But this phenomenon isn’t isolated to preachers. Their pews are about a Big Buford and large fry away from needing steel reinforcement. And if it weren’t for Pentecostal women, Lane Bryant would have gone out of business twenty years ago. And the men don’t exactly have LL Cool J’s abs either. Thank God for adjustable waistband pants or they’d be at church in their windbreaker pants and a size 54L blazer!It just bothers the hell out of me that not only is the obesity given a pass, the men are EXALTED!When Billy Cole died my friend commented "Well, all addicts gotta go sometime." How true is that? They're addicts. They are just as addicted to their steaks and burgers and desserts as Whitney was to the pipe. It's not just bothersome that they get a pass from the people they preach to, but their PEERS do nothing! This is an epidemic! How can they preach about moderation and then clean out the dessert cart?I'm sorry, I'm just ranting. It's just sad.
“Don’t drink that! You might get drunk!! Don’t smoke that! Know ye NOT that your body a ha, is the temple, a ha, of the Hoooooollllyyyyyy Ghhosttt?!?”
….three hours later….
“Yes I’ll take the 18 ounce porter house, rare, mashed potatoes with extra gravy, and an extra sweetened ice tea. Oh and also the loaded bacon cheese fries as an appetizer, thank you.”
It seems they’ve given our most addictive vice a free pass…
The irony of all of this is the logic stretching and ignoring of scripture.
They’ll preach against alcohol outright when the bible only speaks against drunkenness, with the logic being that drinking at all leads to drunkenness and since they all know that Christians can’t do anything in moderation they have to ban it altogether.
They preach against smoking, which isn’t even in the bible, though they were definitely smoking in that time, and the logic they use, (albeit good logic), is that our body is the temple of God and a gift and they should honor it and not defile it. Makes sense.
They forbid tattooing with little scriptural support (inapplicable Levitical law), on the basis that it is harmful to our bodies, but uuuuhhh… Starting to see the inconsistencies?
They have to stretch scripture, use loose semantics and hyperbole to draw these conclusions, but what about this:
Proverbs 23:2
“and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.”
And this:
Proverbs 23:20-21
"Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and the GLUTTON shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags."
And then there’s all that moderation and self control stuff Paul is always talking about...
There’s not really a point to all of this, just trying to call attention to a humorous hypocrisy. The fast track to being seated from your ministries would be to walk into Applebee’s and order a Corona with lime, but you can eat a 1,400 calorie meal and chase it down with a maple butter blondie and brother I appreciate your ministry!
Those overweight preachers don’t have a glandular problem or a low thyroid. They’re addicts, just like any other addict, and they need help, just like the alcoholic, and should have some accountability.
But this phenomenon isn’t isolated to preachers. Their pews are about a Big Buford and large fry away from needing steel reinforcement. And if it weren’t for Pentecostal women, Lane Bryant would have gone out of business twenty years ago. And the men don’t exactly have LL Cool J’s abs either. Thank God for adjustable waistband pants or they’d be at church in their windbreaker pants and a size 54L blazer!
It just bothers the hell out of me that not only is the obesity given a pass, the men are EXALTED!
When Billy Cole died my friend commented "Well, all addicts gotta go sometime." How true is that? They're addicts. They are just as addicted to their steaks and burgers and desserts as Whitney was to the pipe. It's not just bothersome that they get a pass from the people they preach to, but their PEERS do nothing! This is an epidemic! How can they preach about moderation and then clean out the dessert cart?
I'm sorry, I'm just ranting. It's just sad.
Posts: 414
May 18 12 8:17 PM
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May 19 12 1:05 AM
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May 19 12 2:41 AM
Grace wrote: When I was in Bible College, one of my professors jokingly pointed out that every time they got together in the book of Acts, they seem to be eating. Then he would end his story by saying, "Thank God I'm a Pentecostal!"My brother-in-law has gotten so big that he should be on one of those Discovery channel shows. He is approaching the "can't get through the door stuck in my house" size. He only goes down to the church a couple of days a week, does all his "work" from home and can't even wipe his own butt. My sister told me he has a special shower thing that he uses to clean himself after a bowl movement and as a result he refuses to go to the bathroom away from home. I am guessing he is around 500 pounds and he is not a tall man. 13 years ago his belt was so big it was longer than I am tall and he looked quite a bit bigger the last time I saw him 2 years ago.He has been on a diet for years...but when he diets, he has to do it his way...he has to tweak it and cheat and he never loses weight. He always claims he has lost 40 pounds, but he always looks bigger every time he diets. His favorite is Atkins, but he is even a glutton on this diet. He will order 5 pepperoni pizzas and scrape the cheese, meat and sauce off and throw the crust away. He goes through 2 jars of macadamia nuts in one sitting and will eat slim jims as if they were french fries. My sister will make himf 4 or 5 huge chicken breasts and a serving bowl full of salad, covered with a half a brick of shredded cheese and slathered in dressing. This thing will look like it should serve a crowd, but it is his side salad. And the whole time he is "dieting" he whines and complains about what he can't eat. He treats everyone just awful and then justifies it by saying he is cranky because he is dieting. And he cheats on his diet. I have seen him at the gas station cleaning out the back seat of his car..which is littered with fast food bags. Then he lies to his wife when she grills him about what he ate and he will eat the massive dinner she prepared for him.He pastors in a pretty crazy little town and the majority of his congregation are ex drug addicts and they have all been brainwashed that you don't speak up to the pastor.They do talk behind his back a bit though. Most of them are pretty freaked about his size, but are too afraid of God's judgement to say anything about it to him. I know visitors that have come to the church and refused to come back because they can't fathom having a pastor that is such a slob. My sister is interesting though. She hates his weight on one hand but on the other likes it because she loves the idea of people saying, "She is with him? She has even called him a Fat Fu_ _ when they are fighting. Nice words from the pastor's wife, huh? I think that she likes the idea that she is so thin and (in her mind) gorgeous and he is lucky to be with her. She likes feeling like he is beneath her...somehow that gives her the right to act anyway she wants to and he should just be grateful that this beauty is with him. He has talked about having Weight loss surgery and she is very against it saying a surgery is too dangerous. At the time they had this arguement I told her that he was more in danger of a stroke or heart attack, but she just shrugged her shoulders....that was when I realized that she doesn't care about his health. She wants to keep him fat so she can feel good about herself.
Posts: 151
May 19 12 9:59 AM
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May 19 12 2:09 PM
May 19 12 2:57 PM
Posts: 871
May 19 12 6:32 PM
Grace wrote: He has talked about having Weight loss surgery and she is very against it saying a surgery is too dangerous. At the time they had this arguement I told her that he was more in danger of a stroke or heart attack, but she just shrugged her shoulders....that was when I realized that she doesn't care about his health. She wants to keep him fat so she can feel good about herself.
May 19 12 9:13 PM
Posts: 1972
May 20 12 2:59 AM
May 20 12 4:14 AM
Elizabeth Niederer wrote:I'll be happy to share more with you if you're interested. Are we allowed to post off topic links here?
May 20 12 10:47 AM
blackdog wrote: Elizabeth Niederer wrote:I'll be happy to share more with you if you're interested. Are we allowed to post off topic links here? Well in this particular case, I don't care. However, it would probably be better to deal with such personal stuff by PM or if you want, to start a thread in GD.
Posts: 1245
May 20 12 6:06 PM
May 21 12 12:55 AM
Lucy wrote: Grace, I'm totally surprised that your brother-in-law or any other Pentecostals would bother dieting at all. It was very common practice back in my Pente days for the obese to simply be prayed over for weight loss. One preacher claimed that he had such a strong anointing in this area that when he prayed for you, you would lose so much weight instantly that your pants would fall to the floor. Those who stood in line for such prayer were directed to hold up their pants by the waistband for the laying on of hands. Like 99% of everything else I saw, this, too, was BS. However, those prayed for testified of amazing weight loss results.
Posts: 221
May 21 12 7:46 PM
Posts: 21
May 22 12 7:44 AM
May 22 12 8:32 AM
SoCal23 wrote: I think the obese pentecostal women are the reason for the standards. Those chewed bubble gum looking thighs look much better draped in a Lane Bryant skirt than they would in some jeggings. Seriously, I've seen some girls, whom I thought were relatively attractive, leave church and start wearing tighter clothes and I'm thinkin "Oh honey you need to pray through for no other reason than it was helping you not look like a whale..."
Posts: 10
May 22 12 2:44 PM
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