The Sounds of Fundamentalism is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a video clip that shows the crazy, cantankerous, or contradictory side of Evangelical Christianity, please send me an email with the name or link to the video. Please do not leave suggestions in the comment section. Let’s have some fun!
Today’s Sound of Fundamentalism is a video clip of Evangelical pastor Marlon Bolton, AKA Prophet Fire, telling congregants he predicted the Coronavirus pandemic, the stock market crash, and food shortages.
It was only a matter of time before peak-Florida characters started to emerge amid the coronavirus crisis.
A lot is going on with this one: Videos recently posted on YouTube show Marlon Bolton, a pastor who’s also the vice mayor of Tamarac, claiming his church predicted the COVID-19 pandemic weeks before Chinese authorities even identified the novel coronavirus strain.
“We prophesied,” Bolton told as many as 20 congregants during a March 22 service at Praise Experience Church of North Lauderdale. “We prophesied about the stock market crashing. We even prophesied about the shortage of food in this season. Very accurate.”
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During the service, Bolton said God told him to direct congregants to make “seed donations” to help the church’s finances during the pandemic.
“You can go ‘Hallelujah’ to Cash App,” the pastor said.
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Seed donations refer to money that donors send a church in hopes they’ll reap what they sow. Televangelists have made millions from such donations.
Bolton asked church members to donate a minimum of $100 and as much as $317. The preacher said God showed him that seven plagues are “destined for our land.”
“If you give seed offerings, I believe you’ll be covered for these plagues,” Bolton said.
He added that being cash-strapped is no excuse for not donating. Saying you don’t have money when it’s right there in your bank account is “the plan of the enemy to thwart the purpose of God” and prevent people from being successful, Bolton claimed.
In other videos, Bolton has pushed products, such as a “covenant lotion” made with olive oil and “the most expensive oils from Israel.” The regular price for the products is $500, he told church members, but he offered it for a discounted $100.
“You tuck it in your purse, tuck it in your wallet,” Bolton says, “and when that jezebel comes after you, you open it and anoint yourself.”
Bolton is the pastor of Praise Experience World Outreach Church in North Lauderdale, Florida. Bolton, astoundingly, is also the vice mayor of Tamarac, Florida.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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That’s some serious prosperity gospel stuff there!
of course the idiots who follow him will give him more money and submit to him as a prophet. we all wonder why america cannot seem to progress with all the tech and science knowledge available now.