Warning! This video may be disturbing to some people. I have sat in many such services. Today, I have a hard time watching videos such as this.
This is the one hundred and sixty-second installment in The Sounds of Fundamentalism series. This 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 from a service at Middle Tennessee Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, pastored by Tony Hutson. Hutson is the son of the late Curtis Hutson, editor of the Sword of the Lord. — an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist periodical started by John R. Rice.
This is the one hundred and sixty-first installment in The Sounds of Fundamentalism series. This 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!
Tim Tebow was a guest on Harry Connick Jr.’s talk show this week, and recounted a really crazy experience involving the Bible verse John 3:16.
Fans of Tebow may remember when he wrote “John 3:16” on his face (in his eyeblack) during the national championship game when he played college football at Florida.
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Three years later to the day, Tebow was playing quarterback for the Denver Broncos in a playoff game.
After the game—which they won in miraculous, last-second fashion—he was informed that he had thrown for exactly 316 yards, his yards per rush were 3.16, his yards per completion were 31.6, the TV ratings for the game were 31.6 and the Broncos’ time of possession was 31.6.
After that game, John 3:16 became Twitter’s No. 1 trending topic. Tebow said he doesn’t think it’s a coincidence. He says he thinks it’s evidence of a “big God.”
“Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound!”
“Look! Up in the sky!” “It’s a bird!” “It’s a plane!” “It’s Tim Tebow!”
Ah yes, Tim Tebow is in the news again, this time for praying over a man having a seizure, supposedly resulting in divine deliverance. CHARISMA breathlessly reports:
Former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow’s effective prayer for a fan suffering from a debilitating seizure sparked a social media frenzy Tuesday night.
Tebow was signing autographs after his first baseball game as a Scottsdale Scorpion when a fan suddenly hit the ground and started convulsing uncontrollably.
Tebow sprang into action and laid hands on the man, praying for his healing and comforting him until paramedics arrived.
The violent seizure reportedly stopped moments after Tebow prayed with him. The miraculous healing had many people take to social media expressing their amazement at the power of prayer.
Kari Van Horn tweeted, “Tebow signing autographs. Fan has what looks like seizure. Not moving. Tebow puts hand on him and says a prayer. Man breathes. WOW.”
@danielkellybook took to video and wrote, “My friend had a seizure at Mets game and Tebow prayed for him and stayed with him until paramedics arrived.”
This is not the first time Tebow has prayed for the sick. Earlier this year he prayed for a fellow passenger who went into cardiac arrest on a plane.
Tebow prayed with the dying man and comforted his wife while a physician worked to save his life.
“I watched Tim pray with the entire section of the plane for this man. He made a stand for God in a difficult situation,” one witness said.
Evidently, Tim Tebow’s prayers can heal the sick and raise the dead, but they can’t help him accurately throw an NFL-quality pass or hit a Major League breaking ball. There’s no evidence for Tebow’s prayers doing anything for the latest victim of Tebow’s prayer-power. There was a time when I thought Tebow was just a naïve young man who was easily manipulated by the media — especially Evangelical media outlets who take the minutest God “sighting” and turn it into Moses parting the Red Sea. I now think that Tebow is an aging jock who is having a hard time accepting that his glory days at Florida are behind him. What better way to let everyone know that you are relevant than by running to public scenes such has this one and “praying” for someone. Evangelicals will drool over “God using Tebow” and sports media outlets will use his latest Superman-like escapade as filler for one of their endlessly droning talk shows. For Tebow, he gets another opportunity to remind fawning fans that is he still pursuing his “dream.”
There comes a point, at least for me, where Tebow is the man who always shows up first at house fires. Every few months, it seems Tebow is front and center at a house fire. Perhaps it is time for sports pundits to ponder whether perhaps Tebow is always first on the scene because he’s a publicity whore who craves public attention. Tebow could privately pray, asking God to heal the subject of his utterances. Instead, he continues to behave as he did in his NFL days — Tebowing before the world. In the two stories mentioned above, neither person needed Tebow’s help. Other people were already helping them. Tebow, instead of fading into the background and quietly praying, jumped to the forefront, saying humbly to all, never fear! Tebowman is here!
I am well aware that Tebow does many good things for others, but it seems that reporters and cameras are never far away when he does. I’ll leave Tebow’s BFF Jesus with the last word on this matter:
Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. (Matthew 6:1-6)
