Church Services, Preachers

Yelling Down People In The Audience

223 Comments

So much for people who were hoping the “tone” would change at FBC Hammond now that John Wilkerson is their new pastor. Apparently he’s on board with this kind of perverse “preaching” continuing or else is powerless to actually stop it.

Update 1: I apologize for my hasty comment about John Wilkerson. I misunderstood the date he will start at the church and believed he had already taken his position there. Apparently he will not be starting his role until the 17th of February.

It will be interesting to see whether or not these types of incidents continue under John’s leadership. We will be watching.

223 thoughts on “Yelling Down People In The Audience”

    1. Of all the shenanigans I’ve seen from this ilk, this takes the cake for pure, unadulterated arrogance. Holy cow! Just jaw-dropping rudeness. ❗ ❗ I wonder what happens to people who sneeze or cough. Or babies that cry. How anyone could have remained to listen what this clown had to say for the rest of the time is beyond me. I don’t care what the “culprit” was doing/saying, there is absolutely no call for that kind of personal attack by the speaker.

      1. Oh, you’ve not been in a fundy church when a baby starts crying? Of course, the mom is ridiculed and embarassed in front of everyone and let’s not forget accused of sending people to hell because her child disturbed a sinner during preaching time.

        1. Or, the preacher can go the passive-aggressive route and “take a moment to publicly thank the nursery workers for their ministry.”

          It awkward all around. 😕

        2. Oh yeah, that was my ex-IFBx pastor, very passive-aggressive, but still abusive. However, he had the ushers so well trained that it was unusual for a mom with a baby to be seated in the church at all! Even visitors had to use the nursery, pressured by the ushers, they would give in. That pastor hated hearing babies cry in church, almost as much as talking kids and adults.

      2. Yes, at First Baptist Church, no babies allowed at all. SO MANY sermons were dedicated to the need for and use of nurseries that I lost count. I had my first child there over 33 years ago, and was unwilling to put them in the cattle-car warehouse they called a nursery, so I sat in the cold foyer in the back. (I had to be there to fulfill my college requirements at the time.) I once had Jack Hyles preach an entire sermon to me, eye to eye about how God would judge me for putting my baby ahead of him and not putting him in the nursery. (through the glass doors over the speaker of course) At that point I didn’t care, I was all but physically gone from their grasp anyway.

  3. Ever been to a pastor’s fellowship meeting? Preachers are the worst at talking while someone is preaching. Or even worse, hanging out in the foyer with other preachers while some young man, or unknown is preaching.

    1. That’s OK, they are probably discussing notes or discussing how they can implement the last point. Its important business if your a MOG.

      Otherwise if your a munchkin under the great and mighty MOG (I feel a Wizard of OZ remake coming here), what you say is not important.

    2. I know a lot of preachers who get very angry when a person talks while they are interupting… 👿

  4. There must be a more Christian way to phrase this but I’m not sure how. My first impression is this man has an evil spirit. It’s not just what he says but his manner. He frightens me.

      1. I certainly don’t want to excuse him from what he does… it’s just that there does seem to be an almost supernatural evil to him. Maybe I’m just picking up on subtle cues from his body language and tone and he’s no more than a bully but I’d steer clear of a man like this. How does he know that guy wasn’t asking for a tissue or cough drop?

        1. James 3:13-17 “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, DEMONIC. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

        2. ^ Very excellent passage to share. A sobering warning which many Christians, grown arrogant and self-righteous, seem to have forgetten.

  5. Wow! What arrogance. That’s all about power and control. I would have walked out and never returned.

    1. Very arrogant. Notice that he couldn’t just tell him to stop talking. He was so offended that someone would DARE talk during his sermon that he had to keep going back to chew the guy out some more. Why not a brief warning? Why harp on and on and mock and insult? Because it’s all about Larry Smith, not Jesus.

      The whole “I hope you become a preacher and people talk during YOUR sermons” is direct from the Old Testament – an eye for an eye. Where’s the grace of the Gospel? There is no grace here. Nothing but law and condemnation, patched over with an insincere declaration of “I love you” as if it’s a magic incantation to excuse his preceding temper tantrum.

      1. And punctuating the “I love you” with a rubber smile…priceless. Is it sinful to want to slap a preacher? ‘Cause I kinda do.

      2. His fake smile and “I love you”, was the equivalent of anyone else saying “no offense” after saying something extremely offensive. Meaningless.

        And he obviously had no idea who the man was. For all he knows, that was that man’s first time stepping foot in a church (and possibly last, considering how he’s being publicly humiliated). Not that the pastor’s behavior is excusable even if he was a student or long-time church member.

  6. “So I exhort the elders among you…shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.”
    I Peter 5:1-3
    “Therefore an overseer must be …not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome”
    I Timothy 3:2-3

    1. These types have never even come close to exemplifying these scriptures nor have even tried to. They mock preachers, who talk about the meek and mild Jesus. They love the Jesus that overthrew the tables of the money-changers in the temple, but aren’t so enthralled by the Jesus, who forgave the woman, caught in the act of adultery. Don’t know why some are so captivated by the tough scriptures and aren’t so keen on the gentle passages.

      1. Look at the list of the fruit of the Spirit: patience, gentleness, kindness, self-control. That’s for EVERY Christian, much less those who take the role of pastor.

        1. …careful, now. those fruits are fruits of the spirit, and you seem to be saying that they are behaviors of believers. Keep in mind that Jesus Himself demonstrated behaviors that some would’ve called “un-gentle”. Dont mistake this preachers’ rude bufoonish external behavior for an absence of internal working of the Spirit. I am not excusing his rudeness (in fact, he is an embarassment), but dont believe for an instant that all believers are to be gentle-meek-and-mild milksops. I believe that abrasive is sometimes necessary, but a pracher behind a pulpit has to demonstrate much more wisdom than this knucklehead…

        2. The problem appears to be that you are confusing “gentle, meek and mild” with weak (as is typical in our modern culture).

          Gentleness, meekness, and mildness aren’t really possible if you aren’t in a relative position of strength. (i.e. It takes a strong person to exhibit those traits.)

        3. While I do understand that Jesus often acted in ways that come across as abrasive to us, I will never understand how people want to argue against Scripture:

          “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Gal. 5:22-23)

          Either the Bible is wrong or your definition of gentleness is wrong.

      2. “Don’t know why some are so captivated by the tough scriptures and aren’t so keen on the gentle passages.”

        Albert Schweitzer, in his “The Quest for the Historical Jesus,” says that everyone who writes about Jesus looks at the evidence and finds a Jesus similar to the writer him/herself. A kind person finds a kind Jesus. An angry person finds an angry Jesus. A mystical person finds a mystical Jesus. And so on.
        And, I suppose, a pathologically mean and egotistical person sees a mean and egotistical Jesus. 😐

  10. Wow he is awful. Where is the sweet spirit? Tenderness, kindness, longsuffering. If the gentleman had left, like he should have he would have been cat called all the way out by the self righteous.

    1. Well put. You’ve got to love the sarcastic, self righteous smirk he makes after he corrects the guy each time. 👿

      I’d LOVE to see someone shout him down and get carried out of there. 😆

        2. If i didn’t live in the UK, I’d be jumping in a car this weekend to pay these brats a little “talking while I’m sitting” visit.

        1. Let’s sit on the front row…have people call us randomly on our not turned off cell phones :mrgreen: I’m all in!!

  11. This makes me tangibly angry. And people wonder why Western, modern Christianity is dying

  12. It takes an extremely small human being to use such a small platform as FBCH to engage in punching down this liberally. Holy S***!

  14. Is it just me, or did that seem like a sarcastic smile after he said, “I love you.”

    1. I have a sister, who has give me that same kind over the years, when I irritated her. She still loves me.

  16. Listen to that man browbeat that boy, “I hope to god you’re not a hyles anderson student… love you.
    I hope if your gonna be a preacher everyone talks while you preach, what goes around comes around, But I still love you.”
    Like saying “I love you” makes it ok? This is the mindset that no matter how much I abuse someone, I don’t have to admit to the wrong, just blame it away and say I love you, then it’s all ok. I wonder if that ever happens on the home front, “Don’t make me slap you again, but I still love you, hun.” sickens me.

    2. “Browbeating” proves that Mr. Smith is taking it personally. I’m sure that Christ did the same during the Sermon on the Mount.

    3. It’s because Fundies have no idea what true love really is. In Fundistan, lots of things get labeled “love” that aren’t and as a result, they view love through an extremely distorted lens.

      In an environment like that, it’s much too easy for abuse of all kinds to take place under the guise of “love.” 🙁

      1. Jack Hyles (I think) re-defined “love” as “doing what’s best for the person” — thus, one can do all kinds of unpleasant things if you convince yourself that it is for his benefit, and that you are “loving” him.

        1. As Alice Miller and others have pointed out, abusers generally say that they are doing it for the victim’s own good.

    4. When Larry Smith says “Love you,” “love” is just a stand-in for another 4-letter word that begins with “F.”

  17. Another example of fundamentalist paranoia. I’ve seen this attitude at so many churches. I attended one in Erie where the pastor reiterated that once outsiders found out that an individual attended this particular church, he would suffer persecution. There were about 15 people at the evening service, and we can pretty much rest assured that 1. nobody much has heard of this church, and 2. nobody cares where someone goes to church. If I were at First Hammond, I would have most likely finished my conversation, and then I would have walked out of the church.

    The guy clearly overreacted, and it is bullying at its worst. This type will be more emboldened until someone stands up to him. Usually, this type caves in fast because there’s a lot of insecurity behind this type of behavior. Unfortunately, rather than realize that he’s doing something wrong, he’ll cry that he is being persecuted. A stellar example is that of a James Hartline of San Diego. He has a history of taking on the bully pulpit. On Youtube, there’s a video of him at the hospital having a complete meltdown because he lost his wallet and people aren’t jumping fast enough to help him. He’s acting like a spoiled three-year-old, yet he feels that the hospital owes him an apology. It’s absolutely sickening, but it’s the same paranoid mindset that this preacher has.

    1. “… the pastor reiterated that once outsiders found out that an individual attended this particular church, he would suffer persecution.”

      He only wishes his church were that important. The truth is that in the USA, very few people care where you go to church.

  18. But we here at SFL are accused of being mean-spirited?

    This man doesn’t know what love is. He’s lying from the pulpit. You don’t say, “I hope you become a preacher and everyone talks during your sermon. I still love ya.” NO. That’s not love.

    My Jesus loves me and He took the punishment for my sin. He doesn’t wish evil on me; He wants good. He grieves when my sin brings evil consequences into my life; He never gloats.

    Why, oh, why do people continue to subject themselves to this type of miserable attitude from the pulpit?

    1. Sadly, they stay because they are brainwashed and have been convinced that this is the ‘righteous’ way to deal with things. I have been in a situation like this myself, and have been the one to cheer the MOG on while he did this to people, and later, my husband and I were the ones being called out. *sigh* It is a miserable place to be in spiritually, but at the time you don’t even realize it.

      Thank God for the freedom that I have now; just to love Jesus and have him love me and accept me unconditionally. I now realize that I do NOT need the acceptance and bullying of a MOG to validate my Christianity. Praise GOD!

  19. This has become the mindset, and Fundy churches wonder why their numbers are dwindling? I will yell at you, berate your lifestyle, show you hate, show you arrogance, show you dominance, but come to my church anyway. Yeah pastor, we will get right on that. Are they stupid? These are the ones that are responsible for mass exodus. How do they answer God? Well Lord, I drove another 150 people away from you today. How do you like me now. They need to quit listening to the voices in their head; its not the holy spirit. Its their own ego.

    1. “I will yell at you, berate your lifestyle, show you hate, show you arrogance, show you dominance, but come to my church anyway…”

      You forgot “And you will give me 10% of your GROSS income”.

      1. The status was from a the day after the vote. It said Wilkerson and his family would arrive at FBCH on February 17th so I assume that Wilkerson was not there to condemn or to condone what this guy did.

  21. Is Larry Smith married? I feel bad for his wife if he is. “Honey, you are a worthless piece of crap. Just kidding I love you. You should be ashamed of yourself for even thinking that. I love you.”

    I would bet that a person who is willing to be this big of a braying jackass in public has had plenty of practice at home.

    On the bright side, maybe this will open the talker’s eyes to what he is a part of. I only hope that it does.

    1. My husband and I both took his ‘Soulwinning’ class at HAC (we didn’t take it together). According to my husband, Smith would say that he married a good woman, but that she wasn’t really blessed in the looks department. So, yeah, she might have felt worthless. Also, to me, his ‘class’ (if you could call it that) was just tricks to get people to repeat the sinners’ prayer.

  22. “I got another hour yet.”
    sounds like a threat!
    I’ve never seen such a bitter, sarcastic, cold facial expression in my entire life. Not among unsaved friends and coworkers, not at Fundy U, nowhere. This man frightens me.
    “I hope to GOD you’re not a preacher.”
    kind of ironic coming from a pulpit where not one, but TWO reigning Mogs have been shamed by adultery/pedophilia. Just what IS the lofty standard for being a preacher?

  23. There once was a MOG named Larry
    Who insisted on trying to be scary
    He stopped his story on cheeses
    To behave quite unlike Jesus
    Making the poor victim quite wary.

    (my poor attempt at a limerick)

    1. The preacher is so far above you;
      He’ll tell you just what he thinks of you:
      He’ll snarl and he’ll mock
      Just because you dared talk,
      Then he’ll add a fake smile and “I love you.”

    1. From the website:

      ” In 2006 Brother Smith and his wife Estelle were privileged to give to faith promise in excess of $300 per week by faith.”

      You know, I may be the guy who wouldn’t recognize a verse if it cooked him dinner but I think that the book of Matthew may contain a word or two about bragging like this.

      1. This. What kind of preacher puts crap like that on his web site? And what kind of church invites that kind of arrogance in? I know we’ve been over and over it…but I just don’t get it.

      2. I find it, uh, “interesting” that the highest day he ever had at his church was 869, but they have seen 2900 people saved. Does anyone else see anything wrong with these numbers?

        I guess he was indeed heavily influenced by Jack Hyles.

        1. The airplane in which they flew over Chicago had windows. They could see a lot of people on the ground.

  25. Keith Gomez does this in about every one of his sermons.

    I remember him calling down a little old lady in a walker who was getting up to go to the restroom.

    Now THATS love, I don’t care what none of you stinkin liberals call it.

    1. Would he have preferred she have an accident? Poor woman. That’s just cruel. I don’t often wish ill on people, but these jackwads need a taste of their own medicine.

      1. My old pastor would brag about how he always made his kids stay in the pew no matter how long the sermon. (This was before he was a pastor) And how his kids wet themselves on several occassions. Gee, thanks Dad.

  26. So let me get this straight; the screaming of “amen, etc.” at weird points in his sermon is not distracting, but the guy making a comment to his friend is? This is WAY overboard and out of line. Who do these people think they are? Maybe the guy is helping a visitor find the Bible passage, or get a tissue or whatever. Why must they play god??

  27. This made me feel sick. It reminded me of my dad. He wasn’t an MOG, but he had this same personality at home. Fundyism may encourage this behavior from the pulpit, but it also encourages men to treat their families this way, because they are the authority at the home, just as the pastor is the authority in the church. The MOG is just modeling expectations.

    1. Maybe THAT’S why I couldn’t watch it. My dad is just like this too. For the past 3 or 4 years I’ve been absolutely sure that fundamentalism played a huge part in it.

  28. I could only watch the first 4 seconds of when he started to yell. I am too sensitive to that kind of preacher now!

  29. Looking at his website – I see his problem. He is a product of John Rawlings and Jack Hyles (BTW… Rawlings passed away last week at the age of 99).

    Smith’s bragging is all one needs to read to make a accurate condemnation of this idiot.

    1. They guys behind Schaap looked uncomfortable, also. And they let his insanity rule for years.

      Same song, third verse. A little bit louder and a whole lot worse.

  31. As shocked and horrified as I am after watching this video, I can only think of how if I showed this to my mother, she would defend him. Because to her, there is absolutely nothing worse than impeding the Holy Spirit in church. To her, this man talking has committed a terrible sin because someone around him might be “under conviction.” She would not be able to see past the fact that this preacher not only impeded, but perhaps crucified the Holy Spirit.

    3. I know how illustrations about cheese convict me, so they certainly have that same effect on others!

  33. “I hope if you’re gonna be a preacher everybody in the AUDIENCE talks while you’re preaching.”
    That statement right there says it all. This preacher is upset because the man interrupted his performance art, because apparently that is how he views his sermon. This showboating attitude Is why I have a really hard time taking the church seriously.

    On another note, if that is a HAC student, there’s gonna be some demerits/discipline committee for him this week!

  34. I betcha if he had something worthwhile to say, people would be less inclined to talk while he’s saying it…

  35. Pulpit = Power

    Pastor = Proxy god

    …and these pseudo-pastors have the gall to preach against Popery???

    Pathetic!

    *this rant brought to you by the letter “p“

    2. Proudly Pounding Pulpits,
      Preachers Pronounce Pernicious Put-downs;
      They Proclaim Piety but Practice
      Pettiness and Pompous Presumption,
      Picking on the Powerless.

  36. I don’t miss that at all. Thanks, Darrell, for posting it. It’s nice to occasionally be reminded of how nice it is to be out of the mind-control foolishness that the IFB has become.

    I have seen my pastor turn and say something to his wife while I was preaching at our church. I always just hoped I had said something that made enough sense that he was telling her he was going to “borrow” it. He doesn’t call me down when I talk during his sermons, either. Although sometimes he will ask what he said wrong if a lot of people seem to talk to their neighbor at the same time.

  37. Originally posted this on the wrong feed:

    I just called my wife, ranted about the laundry not being done, the dishes not put away and the carpet not vacuumed this morning. Then I said “I love you”.

    Her response….. “Put your Fundie away”

  38. This just brings back icky feelings of sitting in church scared that my kids would make a noise, someone would have to use the bathroom (or puke), or would need to whisper something/ask a question. 😐 Ugh, so glad I have to deal with that no longer.

  39. This guy is nothing but a sad, mean, old man. I looked at his website and its nothing but “me, me, me and guess what, more me”.

    I fail to understand how a church thats been rocked by 2 large scandals involving their mog’s/dictator, replaces them with another dictator/mog…

  41. “If loving you is wrong, I don’t wanna be right…”
    This is the one way you DON’T want to apply that song. 🙁

  43. I wouldn’t normally stupe to the level of you God-mockers, but I just wanted to say that anyone who finds this offensive hasn’t heard good, gospel preaching! I am saddened by all the bitterness I read on this sight, but I’m not surprised. You have taken the seat of the scornful. Well, keep on mocking! I recall Almighty God once sending some she-bears to remind the scoffing children not to mock his Man. Maybe you all should spend less time snickering and more time feeling the holy dread of Lord God.

  44. Wow….

    I wish I had been that guy in the audience. I would have loved the opportunity to have some words with the prat at the pulpit.

    1. “Excuse ME, Pastor, but while you were prattling on about some guy and his cheese store, I was leading my seat mate through the Roman’s Road. I hope someday when you’re giving a Gospel presentation, some blowhard with a microphone keeps interrupting you. I still love you.”

  45. I recall once when my brother (who was not into church) went to a service at my invitation. He sat through the sermon with his arms folded. The “preacher” saw this and pointed him out to the whole auditorium, claiming that his body language was not fitting of a christian.

    I was so embarrassed, having invited my brother along. My brother was not embarrassed. He calmly flipped the bird to the preacher from his seat!

      1. The speaker stopped for a second and then just carried on like nothing had happened. Suffice to say, I was out of there not long after anyways… after witnessing more similar acts of manipulation.

  46. What was just as disturbing as this evil curmudgeon’s belitting of that person was the amen chorus throughout the clip. That, my friends, is the sound of a bunch of future pastors who will continue that sort of asshattery.

  47. I suddenly feel a desire to find out who this poor guy was in the audience. How might that be possible? Surely he felt awful after that bullying.

    If he really was a student at their college, I would gladly donate some money to help him get into a new school. In addition, if this guy is planning on becoming a preacher, I would love to hear his experience of this. I would give him an attentive audience, partly in repudiation of the false prophecy placed on him by the bully up front.

  48. The only thing that will stop a man like this is for someone to answer back.

    “Quite talking while I’m preaching.”

    “Oh is that what you call it. Perhaps if you were more interesting or actually had something to teach from the Lord I wouldn’t be talking”

    “I still love you.”

    “No you don’t you liar. You just publicly ‘hoped to God’ that I don’t go to your school and that I would get a taste of my own medicine. That isn’t love. That isn’t forgiveness.”

    The only language that a bully legalist speaks like this is tough and direct confrontation. Paul opposed Peter to his face when he was acting hypocritical. He also wrote in a letter that he wished the Judaisers would just cut their whole penis off. Jesus repeatedly called bully men like this hypocrites among other horrible names.

    Until people in these places have the courage to do the same, it will continue. You’d be suprised what standing up to people a little bit can do.

    1. Most bullies will find an easier target as soon as someone stands up to them. But to stand up to one in front of that many people, in front of that many people who scream amen like a pack of jackals, is very difficult.

      The best way to deal with Hylesclowns is to avoid them.

  49. It’s the same on the West coast. It would be one thing to pause until the person in the pew notices he’s the only one talking. But to outright berate him is a lack of integrity and shows no mercy at all. And many times, if not MOST of the time, a preacher like this doesn’t even know what the people in the pew might be saying. I sat through a very long evangelistic meeting once..being 8 months pregnant and had to use the restroom. badly. At the close of the service as he bowed to pray and close it out, I got up quietly to slip out the back door and he spotted me, yelled at me, and commanded me to sit back down. It’s embarrassing that we put up with it for so long. Then there’s the teens… how those preachers not only call them out, but verbally bash them and the parents do nothing to stand up for their kids. And parents in the IFB wonder why their kids don’t trust them or respect them.

  50. If John Wilkerson is the pastor, why does the clip say “Larry Smith”, and how does this reflect upon the new pastor? Larry Smith may have been invited to preach before John Wilkerson showed up.

    The video certainly makes Larry Smith look bad; I don’t know what the young man was doing, or how blatant it was. It’s one thing to whisper a comment to your companions; it’s another thing (and quite rude) to be carrying on a commentary with the people around you while someone is speaking.

    I’ve been to services where young punks were blatantly disrespectful of the man in the pulpit and they were called down, and, in my opinion, properly.

    But the nasty comments followed by the insincere “I love you” are a real turn-off.

    In my dreams, it would be nice to have the conversation go:

    Larry Smith: “I hope to [using God’s holy name in vain] you are not a Hyles-Anderson student”

    Unknown Man: “Not for much longer.”

    …

    LS: “Love you”

    UM: “My Bible says that love covers a multitude of sins, not humiliates and embarrasses”

    …
    LS: I hope that you become a preacher and that when you preach, everyone talks.

    UM: Your gracious spirit is a real testimony to the love of Jesus Christ.

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