Church Members Mistreat Homeless Man in Church Unaware It Is Their Pastor in Disguise

Bone75

stormdancer777

It bothers me as well, how ya gonna fix it?

I'm not. I'm just gonna hang my head in shame and watch the flags pile up while I search the internet for a better place to contribute.

It would make my day if an atheist or a Muslim or a Jew had a Christians back once and a while.

and said this isn't fair, I know some very good Christians, you seldom see that .

reply to post by stormdancer777


Right above my last post here I think, someone gave an explanation as to where this originated. It appears to be an unreal story made from a real but less impressive real life event. Like Hollywood, someone glorified the event making 200 into 10000 members. That is if the information in the link is actually real about the origin of the story. It does sound reasonable though...This does not mean for sure that the two events are even related at all though.

Either way, I have seen this kind of behavior of members of a church before throughout the years. Not all members are like that but some are. The fancier the church, the higher the percentages of people who act like this. That actually mimics what we see in society though. It is not something that the church creates, it is a society thing.

I was told not to drive around in Lake Geneva back in 81 because my Camaro was too old. I would get stopped right away.

I like the "related news" part:

"Pastor Sexually Abuses 20 Women Saying It’s Part Of A ‘Healing Hands’ Treatment

Pastor Arrested for Raping 12-Year-Old Girl in Sagamu

Pastor and Cecilia

Girl Aged 12 Narrates Her Rape Ordeal in the Hands of Her Pastor"

This Jeremiah (Willie),

Doesn't go to church!

Jeremiah(Willie) is the Church!

A true Christian or Muslim can never go to church or temple!

They are the Church!!

and don't believe for a second Muslims don't believe in Christ!!

Muslims have Faith in Christ where most modern Jews don't!

Yet, who does our Country represent? Not the Muslims!

Middle Eastern Muslims and Christians are persecuted by our country! By the millions! In favor of other non-Christian countries!

Most people attend the Synagogue of Satan and never seen a real Church, like Jeremiah(Willie) walking around!!


Exclamation to the max!

reply to post by FlapdoodleStork


Wow, now that's some investigative work. Thanks for enlightening us. Sure sounds like the source of this thread's story.

On the morning of Sunday, June 23, 2013 (about a month before the Pastor Steepek story surfaced online), the newly-appointed pastor of Sango United Methodist Church in Clarksville, Tennessee, Willie Lyle, lay down at the foot of a tree on the church grounds with an overcoat for a blanket. Unkempt and bearded after spending most of the previous week on the streets, he looked for all the world like a homeless man, which was precisely the effect he hoped to achieve.

"He wondered how many people would approach him and offer him food, or a place to sit inside an air conditioned room, or just see how they could help," wrote freelance reporter Tim Parrish in a June 28 story for the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle. "Twenty people spoke to him and offered some type of assistance."

When the time came to deliver his inaugural sermon he did so from that very spot, changing into a jacket and tie and shaving off his beard with the help of his daughter as he spoke. "Before the 200 people gathered that morning," Parrish wrote, "he went from looking like a homeless person to the new pastor of the congregation."

Appropriately, Lyle's sermon was a call to emulate Christ, to not judge other people by appearances. "Our goal should be to improve and change the lives of people as we live like Jesus," he said in closing. "You see, we look at the outside of others and make judgments. God looks inside at our heart and sees the truth."

Powerful example. I live down the street from a Methodist church, and I can attest to the many community outreaches they do. They "improve and change the lives of people" for sure.

Notice how the story numbers changed from a congregation of 200 to 10,000. Perhaps someone based their story on their own congregation of a mega-church or merely to illustrate how so many people nowadays seem to not want to do for the least in society.


reply to post by stormdancer777


Yes. Sadly so.

I do think, however, that Christian churches have not helped themselves well in re to the anger brought on them. When I was five years old in the 1950s, i can remember playing with my neighborhood friends, thinking that they were all going to go to Hell, because that was what the sermon had been about on Sunday. Since my friends didn't go to MY Christian church, they would burn in Hell.

About 50 years ago, there was hope that people could come together as one Christian family, instead of telling one another who was going to go to Heaven and who wasn't, like some Hogwarts Sorting Hat. About 30 years ago, the trend reversed, where churches once again sorted out and declared who would "be saved" and go to Heaven (and enjoy Earthly riches because "God loved ya!") and who would go to Hell or be Left Behind. There sure was a lot of Christian bashing ...among Christians.

Sometimes I would get to thinking that if Jesus walked the Earth 2,000 years later, He would probably still be up against self-righteous, hypocritical, hubris-consumed fellow church goers and their leaders.

I think also that the culture in which these churches grew imparted to these churches the cultural ideas of "Failure is not an option" and "Excellence (is the only option)" and "Individualism", values which fit into a business model but are not quite right for religion. Little wonder (American) Christians in particular would feel despair and hopelessness at not reaching this goal! Faith is not some job that gets done. It is ok to feel excellence about getting out the church newsletter, but to follow Jesus's path means there will be failures, there will not be success all the time. One might be told to turn over the job of the newsletter to someone else, but Jesus would never say to quit trying to follow His Path.

(I used to think about all the times Jesus had to face palm when He knew even his Disciples with whom he had broken bread, drank wine, and imparted His Good News, would not get it or fall short. )

We all fall short. Hell, we're born into a world that naturally falls short! Our best bet is to keep trying and try to do better learning from our mistakes (daily in my case!). And it's best if we can help others along the way, show compassion. Love and forgive ourselves and others. No matter what Higher Power you believe in, ask for help to Live a Right Path.

occrest
reply to post by HanzHenry

 

If you are gonna quote scripture, please do not quote only part of the passage, for when you do, you corrupt the meaning.
As for judging others, it is not forbidden. You would know this if you had continued with your quote. In fact, it comes with a rather heavy warning. In Matthew 7 we are told---

7 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

This is a warning. It is telling us that we will receive an 'eye for an eye' for judging others. This is why it is so important for us to have mercy on those who are in error. Not only so mercy will be shown us, but because mercy has already been shown us.

actually if you wish to know, I was thinking of the "he without sin cast the first stone".

something or other

The Christians are the biggest judgers the world over. Because of a book, not taking into account their mental actions, are intent and as real as physical actions.. meaning what they think of others who are non-christians.

Most christians are only using church for "spiritual-saftey". They all want to go to heaven, so they sit in church every sunday... Pathetic. If Christians really took the Bible seriously, and loved their christ as much as they preach to others; they would give away all of their possessions and live spiritually as Christ did.

But that would take honesty, heart and courage. They dont need to give away their possessions and take care of people to make it to heaven right? Just sit in church and pretend to be gods little children...

This situation with the pastor in disguise, proves christians only use the church for saftey and spiritual insurance. But what are christians really doing spiritually other then praising some JC dude? Nothing. They do nothing. They sit in church and behave obediently to the church controllers..

I guess thats the easy way to "Heaven" these days.

You know, whenever a false story is put up about anything it seems other than a christian bashing opportunity, it is moved to the hoax bin. Just what makes this post different? I know, why don't we nasty Christians stop turning the cheek and start fabricating absolute bs about some group we don't particularly like and see how fast it's moved to the hoax bin. What this thread is called : Hypocrisy in action.

reply to post by UnifiedSerenity

You know, whenever a false story is put up about anything it seems other than a christian bashing opportunity, it is moved to the hoax bin. Just what makes this post different? I know, why don't we nasty Christians stop turning the cheek and start fabricating absolute bs about some group we don't particularly like and see how fast it's moved to the hoax bin. What this thread is called : Hypocrisy in action.

You do realize the hero in this story is a Christian?

UnifiedSerenity
I know, why don't we nasty Christians stop turning the cheek and start fabricating absolute bs about some group we don't particularly like and see how fast it's moved to the hoax bin. What this thread is called : Hypocrisy in action.

edit on 22-9-2013 by UnifiedSerenity because: (no reason given)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA,

The "Christians" have been doing that for centuries.

Non christians, gays, black people, healers, spiritualists, pagans, muslims, buddhists, sikh's, etc, etc, etc, etc.

reply to post by YodHeVauHe


Snopes has some more details:

www.snopes.com...

There was a pastor who did hang out with some homeless people for four days, then returned to the church pulpit as he was transformed back into his sunday suit.

There's a lot of churches like that. It's almost like a status symbol. A prime example is how the Pres goes to a church. I'm not saying they don't believe. If anything they believe more than others. But are they really on the side of good or evil? that's the real question. But yet they go to church and it's all for show. Bush did that too. Like who knows what they're doing late at night with there cohorts. Bohemian grove anyone?

reply to post by fluff007


Great story and great lesson.

My church where my grandfather was a pastor did something like this when I was a child. When us children were dismissed back to our late service Sunday school class, there was an old woman in our Sunday school room. She looked like a bag lady and none of us knew why she was there. She seemed very sweet and offered us candy. She was dressed in very raggedy clothes and my mother (the early morning Sunday school teacher) kept trying to rile up us kids to be mean to her and would do things like sit behind the woman and wave her hand in front of her nose like my mother was teasing the woman about smelling bad. I was obviously mortified my mother did that. lol

Us children told my mother she was being mean and we kept trying to comfort the lady. Anyways, once the Sunday school lesson was over, the Sunday school teacher and my mother came clean that they were trying to show us a lesson about treating people well regardless of their place in society. So we passed the test. lol (The 'bag lady' ended up being the afternoon Sunday school teacher's friend who was brought in as someone we would not recognize).



That was a personal story but a more famous one consists of a theology teacher acting as someone in distress (or getting someone to act like they were- I cannot remember). The person was to ask students on the way to seminary classes for help. Many of the students rushed by not wanting to be late while others stopped to help.

Once in class, the students were told they had been tested and to remember that seminary was more than just learning about the Bible but that they would need to apply their love and learning in life as well.

reply to post by Snsoc


You can't tell others how to live, that's kind-of judgmental
... oh, snap!

There sure are a lot of flags for this story considering there is no proof of its veracity.

I guess Deny Ignorance only applies when the topic has nothing to do with religion?

Are you so hoping this story to be true that you're just flagging it and jumping into the conversation? Might as well put this in the Gray Area or some other forum for unsubstantiated rumors. Sad to see this happen amongst so many enlightened ones.

reply to post by fluff007

In agreement with some others I'm sure- I have to applaud this new pastor. What total and complete class!

I used to attend a church in Minneapolis where the homeless frequented. Time after time I would watch as the elders would turn these guys away. I thought, aren't they aware of the scriptures that warn of such reactions? ex. Hebrews 13:2-"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

I am the type that things just happen to me. Sure enough same church, a very fast moving, very humble man tried to approach others. Then, when he approached me I made darn sure to offer him my hand to shake. (He didn't, he patted it gently.) He sat near me and I watched him. Sure enough, he crept out of my church without my even noticing it. And I was being so careful. Hm.

reply to post by bozzchem


We Christian types need our own site for stuff like this to be sure. However, this is the Religion site and what you will see here is religion. So if you don't believe in God or the stories that come from the Torah Bible Koran or Buddhist teachings, maybe you shouldn't visit this site.

reply to post by YodHeVauHe

Obviously not. I think they are just expressing the Lord's sentiment of the matter.

UnifiedSerenity
You know, whenever a false story is put up about anything it seems other than a christian bashing opportunity, it is moved to the hoax bin. Just what makes this post different? I know, why don't we nasty Christians stop turning the cheek and start fabricating absolute bs about some group we don't particularly like and see how fast it's moved to the hoax bin. What this thread is called : Hypocrisy in action.

edit on 22-9-2013 by UnifiedSerenity because: (no reason given)

So, you are a Christian? how about that parking lot where you go to church?

Hmm, I grew up in churches and can attest, GREED and HYPOCRISY..

Christian and have a 401k?... YOU ARE A PHONY CHRISTIAN!