310 thoughts on “Smashing Televisions”

  2. So the gist of this is… act like a crazy ax murderer and your wife won’t question your decisions regarding home appliances?

    1. That, and let’s face it the wife really is the root cause of (1) why the TV is there, and (2) the real problem in the family. 🙂

      1. Total psychological projection.

        Men watching sports are the cause of TV viewing hours, but blame the women to feel better you jerk.

      2. The speaker imagines a listener saying, “I know you’re right [about TV being evil], but I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I mean, good night, my wife — ”

        Isn’t this what Adam did, blaming his wife?

    2. This “sermon” promotes violence against women. I really hope none of the men watching this “sermon” went home and did what he said. And if any of them did, I hope their “wimmin” called the police!!

  4. Day-um that’s one f-in p’werful television set! To have caused all that change in America. That was a historic Television to have done all that he said it did and he plainly said that we were looking at the television that cause all that trouble. Well, he killed it so now I guess we can get get back to picnics, and Monopoly (yeah because Greed is so much better than television).

    All the wife or the children have to do is pick up the phone and dial “9-1-1” and that foolishness will stop at post haste.

    2. I too was rather confused why Monopoly is a paragon of family virtue. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to know that it’s an anti capitalist (or at least anti trust) game for the common folks to teach their kids how the unregulated markets aren’t in the best interest of the non rich.

      I’m still blown away at the complete lack of concern for safety at smashing a CRT that I don’t believe for a second had any standing charge drained.

      1. We love Monopoly here. To the point that we even have St. Louis-opoly. The kids adore playing that one — they fight over who gets Ted Drewes and the City Museum and all their other preferred spots. It’s a fun twist on an old favorite.

        We’re not terribly competitive, though. We play it and the original Life game and Battleship, and I have to say, when we play board games, we enjoy a lot more togetherness than when we’re having a family movie night.

        1. I’m just confused by how of all the card/board games he could’ve picked, he ended up with the one that was about the edges of capitalism that society chooses to curb. I like playing Monopoly & a lot of board/card games, was just bizarre that he chose Monopoly specifically.

        2. I love collect different Monopoly Editions (Risk too)! I have Klingon, Street Fighter, GI Joe and Italy-opoly.

        3. My wife and I played Monopoly once on my collectors edition Indiana Jones set (it comes in a wooden box – just like the lost ark! I demolished her and rubbed in as well. It turns out we are both too competitive for Monopoly and other “vs” games. Now we play Dungeons and Dragons together so we can be on the same team*. And sometimes we play with Legos.

          *So long as I get to be the Dungeon Master 😈

      2. Yup, the all powerful T.V. is able to singlehandedly destroy Monopoly without harming any other board game.

      1. The thing that is ironic is that he is clearly imitating the “Here’s Johnny” moment from The Shining, which is presumably one of the filthy evil movies that fundies deplore. (Then again, maybe not, since the movie involves a self-absorbed man who abuses his family and cheats on his wife.) I guess we’ll never know if the imitation was intentional or not. 🙄

      1. Haha! Our family doesn’t play Monopoly, but when we try to play board games, one of our highly competitive children often ends up crying or angry.

        We’re still working at it from time to time to help them learn to be good sports, but playing board games together in real life isn’t always as idyllic as some people try to make it sound.

      2. My kids and I have a great tradition of playing board games. Not so much Monopoly (tend to last too long, and there’s toddlers at my daughter’s), but our dominoes and Parcheesi games are legendary. They’re great ways to take out our frustrations on each other (my son *really* like to send ol’ Mom back to start. Repeatedly) without being really nasty about it, and it’s a great way to vet possible new family members. If they can play games with us with good humor, they’re in. 😀 Funny thing though, the new ones tend to win their first couple of games. Beginner’s luck, I guess. 😉

      3. When we were kids Monopoly always went the same way: My brother was the banker (he liked money), my mother always dropped out early, my dad, brother and I would end up in bidding wars but my brother always won. Mother was usually the shoe, I’d be the ship or the dog, John (my bro) the horse or cannon, Daddy never cared, so at least we were spared those “I-wanna-be-the-car, no-I-wanna-be-the-car!” 🙄 arguments.
        My ex and my own girls never had any interest in the game, and just playing with my son got boring.
        That said, I would not mind a good round of Monopoly. 😎

        1. A Traditional Game of Monopoly, as played by Annie Moose and her sister Ashley:

          I’m the horse, she’s the dog. She’s also the banker, and may or may not take advantage of that throughout the game (though she assures me she never used any of the money she swindled, just took it to prove a point). She mysteriously and immediately gets all of orange and yellow, and I spend the rest of the game trying to scrape together enough money to pay the increasingly absurd rents on her unavoidable properties. When she inevitably wins, I immediately fling all of the pieces around the room and stomp off in a huff.

          I think I’m beginning to understand why we don’t play that game anymore…

      4. My wife and I have decided that our marriage harmony is more important than playing Monopoly!

  5. One wonders if he knows that the reasons his audience doesn’t read books isn’t because of the television, it’s due to the severe lack of basic education they get in fundy schools like HAC & spinoffs.

    1. My sister, who is my family’s star WCBC graduate recently got engaged. On her new wedding website, she put her WCBC education to good use while telling the story of how she met her spouse:

      “***** and I served in ministry independantly. Unbenounced to me, he was becoming interested in me.”

      (I paraphrase for brevity, but the spelling mistakes were all her own.)

      His blurb about my sister states that they met through a “mututal” friend and that he appreciates the fact that my sister has a “similiar heart” for the ministry. Yeah. He has a “masters degree” from WCBC.

    2. After watching this video on my filthy work computer, I came under tremendous conviction for reading E books on my dirty rotten Kindle. Woe is me………

        1. I threw it away, I mean put it in my closet until my conscience quiets down. Then I will read my free history books on Kindle until the next revival “message”.

  6. This guy is truly an idiot. He has to use notes so he can remember all the bad things that TV represents. Furthermore, he’s acting as if he jut discovered how bad TV is. TV has been around since the 1950s. If anything, it was more addictive back then, hence, the TV dinner so one could watch television right in the living room.

    Back then, we had no VCR, no DVD, no cable. You had to watch the TV shows according to the whims of the networks. Today, people can record shows and then watch them at their convenience.

    The guy must also think that women are idiots. They’re in the kitchen cooking, completely oblivious and unconcerned with what the husband is doing. In his world, women are docile idiots; in the real world, the woman would probably beat some sense into the idiot. I even wonder if the guy realizes how dangerous those shards of glass will become, imbedded into carpet and furniture.

    This video is also a commentary on the idiocy of a congregation who will sit through something like this without walking out during the sermon. It’s an insult to one’s intelligence.

    1. He is preaching to the choir. Most of them have already given up their TVs. This is all the entertainment most of them will ever get.

      1. Yep. It’s safe to preach this here because they all did this years ago the first time they were told to do so.

        3. @RobM

          Certainly! If he had two brain cells to rub together, he’d recognize at a minimum that he doesn’t really know anything about technology at all.

          Of course, what he should be referring to is a filtering proxy. Almost every computer in the world these days has a firewall built in, and there’s another firewall in every home router. Firewalls don’t selectively block access to websites, as a general rule.

  11. Wow. Of course I was thinking the wife would come in and say “you clean that up”.

    But yeah, time to call the cops.

    1. I think if I danced (or pranced)around the living room waving an axe, my wife wouldn’t say anything either. I also likely wouldn’t see her again until I had been released from some sort of professional help.

      1. No kidding.

        And how about the ridiculous comment about six months later the wife mentioning the TV and the husband is just supposed to grab the ax and start hopping and squealing?

        That reduces normal human interaction to intimidation and violent temper tantrums. For a “man of God” to advocate this is ridiculous.

  13. This guy has some repressed rage issues. If you really believe that your TV set has destroyed your family, there’s usually an ‘off’ button you can press. You don’t have to Lizzie Borden a piece of electronics. I think he’s upset with secular philosophies and agendas. Why not spend your energy engaging in discussion and debate?

    Well, I guess that would take some rational thinking, and perhaps you’ve already given up on the current culture. It’s much more effective (and safe) to play the raving lunatic in front of your adoring fans in the camp than it is to venture out among “The English”.

    All that said, you appear to be compensating for something by your misogynistic patter, and axe-wielding temper tantrum. Maybe you should be placed in ‘time-out’ and think about the servant of The Lord, who must not strive, but be gentle, apt to teach, and in meekness instructing your flock. Goober!

    1. Exactly! (I have a hard time listening to many of these preachers because I have a close beloved fundy family member who did have a temper, and I do recognize the signs of anger and I don’t like feeling that I have to sit there and listen to it.)

  15. I have been gaining weight lately so I did the only logical thing. I grabbed my axe and attacked the refrigerator.

  16. What made people do bad things before the television was invented? And why are so many pastors who preach against technology found to be doing bad things themselves?

      2. Cigareeeeeettes, and whiskey, and wild wild wimmen,
        They’ll drive you crazy, they’ll drive you insane! 😈

    2. Before TV, there was the “picture show.” And before that, the “theatre.” Entertainment has always existed for one purpose and one purpose only: to corrupt God’s people. That’s why the OT is full of prophets railing against the Israelites for going to plays and theatricals. (Okay, well, it actually says worshipping idols and burning their children and whoring after false gods, but we know what them profits really meant, haymen!?!)

  17. Once again we see the externality of sin in Fundystan. You are not responsible for your behavior, it is the fault of an inanimate object. Blame the appliance to you don’t have to do any soul-searching for the real problem.
    If you are watching bad things on TV that is because you desire to. Just because you have a TV and stupidity is available does not mean you have to watch it.
    There are perfectly good reasons not to own a TV. I don’t have one myself. I don’t like to watch TV so I didn’t see the point in even having one.
    If you do get rid of it, sell it in a yard sale or take it to the thrift store. Don’t assault it like a raving loon.

    1. I meant to add that if it is someone’s fault then it is definitely not yours. Blame the wife and kids. Anyone but yourself. At least they are in good company.
      “And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”

    2. And of course there was no filth in our homes before Television, the Interwebs, and Wives…

      “You’re a lookin’ at it” – Yep we were. The cause of much evil in homes, preaching like this instead of the Word of God.

    3. “..sell it in a yard sale or take it to the thrift store.”

      My thought exactly. Once again Aow, you steal my ideas. 😉

    4. Well, the TV could have been broken, I’ve had a few sets die on me, and everyone says it’s more expensive to fix than replace. 🙄

      1. It probably quit working after the DTV transition, and he was PO because he couldn’t watch his favorite shows. 😈

      2. The remote quit working and his wife refused to get up and change the channels for him and his children just laughed at the idea so… this was his passive aggressive way of telling them what “might” happen it things didn’t change around the house.

  18. Is it just me? I find most fundamentalist pastors to be the most insecure people I have ever witnessed.
    1. They have to blame someone or something for their sin and weakness–technology and women seem to be high on the list.
    2. yelling, throwing things or destroying things are their favorite things to do…so many are bullies.

    And was the use of the old box television set because he couldn’t part with the flat screen? Or was it so he would have an excuse to go out and get a flat screen?

    1. You’re right, Leanne. I have seen a lot of blame-shifting and violence from the pulpit. It’s sad.

  20. Reminds me of a church I briefly attended (pre-internet) where the preacher railed against TV, radio, magazines and even the newspaper as evil and a sin to have in your home. Then I discovered he had all of those things in his home. When confronted his response was that he was then only one ‘spiritual’ enough to handle them and that he needed them to be able to intelligently inform us poor peons of the dangers. Needless to say that was the last day at that church.

    1. All of those things are sources of information that don’t meet with fundy bubble approval. It’s no wonder they’re so afraid of them!

    1. Wouldn’t it be nice to see, “Pastor urges people to take responsibility for their actions”?

      1. Not gonna happen in these circles. That would mean the preacher would have to start taking responsibility for his, too–or at least look like he did, and we know how much that would cramp his style.

    2. One problem with this sort of thing is that there’s a little sliver of truth in there. If someone has a genuine problem, then totally cutting themselves off from access to it just might be what’s necessary for them to get back on track. But it should be a last resort for a serious problem, the person with the problem needs to be the one who makes the decision to cut themselves off from whatever they’re having an issue with, and utter destruction of the thing is rather extreme.

      1. There is a huge difference between acknowledging that you yourself has a seriously problem, and choosing to cut something out of your life for your own good, and somebody who assumes that everybody in the world has the same dire problem as himself, and needs to take drastic steps.

        1. @Tiarali: wisely written. It’s called “projection”, and it’s common among psychopaths.(I am frustrated or angry about my life, so I project my failure onto a substitute, and attack him/her/them instead. As the church lady would say; “Well”!! Isn’t that conVEnient??”

  22. So, to him, what’s good about the family is Monopoly, Checkers, and Scrabble. I’m trying to find that in my Bible and I’m failing. Somebody help me out?

      1. We all know Uno is evil because it’s a game designed by the liberals to make us more comfortable with the illegal Messicans living in our midst and stealing the jobs from godly men who just want to support their families.

      2. Because it’s a game using cards that is named in a furrin’ language. “UNO” is why we have a border control problem with Mexico doncha know!??

  23. Whatever happened to Monopoly? Why, when I was very young, we weren’t permitted to play monopoly, because of the use of dice. Maybe this preacher isn’t as fundy as my dad was. I remember, my sister had to sneak Monopoly in to the house to teach it to me in her bedroom. I think she also had a few Beatles records hidden in her room,too. In later years, there were less things that bothered my dad, though he always remained very opinionated.

    1. My grandmother once told me that she had a big argument with her dad, my great-grandfather, when she was a girl because he didn’t allow playing cards or dice but he did allow dominoes. She pointed out to him that people gambled with dominoes just as much as cards and dice. She told me he lightened up after a while. (He wasn’t really a fundy, just an old fashioned Southern gentleman who didn’t want his family tainted by what he perceived to be socially outré pursuits.)

  24. Somehow, when I act crazy around the house, things usually get worse for me, not better. Maybe I’m not as much of man as these preachers are.

  25. Our former pastor would rail against TV constantly. He was so proud that he didn’t have one in his home – and we shouldn’t either. Too much ungodly stuff.

    And then he’d come over and watch football. On our TV.

    1. Yes! This is a pure illustration of how fundies think and how I was raised. No TV. No card games. No restaurants with bars, alcohol or beer. No contact with kids who had tv’s, even. But as soon as the Super Bowl was on and someone in the church had a tv with a cuss-box installed on it, well……guess what!? Afterglow!!!! I always wanted to ask my parents how they lived with the fact that the grocery store sold wine and beer. ?

      1. The cuss-box! lol I had forgotten about those! I always thought they were stupid because you know what the people are saying anyway even if you can’t ‘hear’ it.

        1. or it would mute the wrong words…like for example, it would mute “god” in goddamn. lol Or any word that started with “f” I just sat and laughed…quietly to myself of course. I couldn’t let on that I knew exactly what those words were…I was, after all, 17. 🙄

        2. At Patrick Henry College, where I attended for two years, the cuss-boxes installed in the student lounges would substitute “bad” words with randomly selected closed-captioned words on the screen. Anytime a movie had the word “ass” it would mute the sound and put the word “toe” on the screen instead. Our girls soccer team got shirts that said “PHC Soccer Girls Kick Toe.” The dean of students was not amused.

      2. Ha! Yes! We couldn’t have card games — Uno was the exception — or eat at restaurants that sold alcohol. We could go to the grocery, but we weren’t allowed to walk or even look down the alcohol aisle. We also had a TV, but we were limited to old shows like Andy Griffith.

        I rather suspect my parents’ “convictions” were heavily centered on their own likes and preferences.

        1. my parent’s reasoning was handed down from whatever preacher we were under at the time (we literally went to no less than 13 different fundy churches in 11 years), so they said we weren’t in control of our money at restaurants that sold alcohol. If we bought a bloomin’ onion, well who’s to say our $6 didn’t go towards restocking the bar? Or, if a new convert from our church saw us going in to “restaurant x” how did they know we weren’t buying a beer with our supper? We could cause them to stumble…..weird. How did they know our cream of mushroom soup money at Walmart didn’t go towards restocking the beer aisle? Circle reasoning….gotta love it. And cussboxes. Love those too! lol

        2. Re: parents’ convictions being based solely on likes and preferences. That is how it was in my home growing up as well. 😕

        3. I must say…my family was seriously dysfunctional, but not like this. If I’d been raised like this, I’d be in the loony bin right now.

          Yikes! You poor kiddos!

  27. I wonder where that TV came from? Anybody want to take bets on whether or not there’s a new flat screen in his living room?

    1. Gambling is of the devil! Heathen! 😉

      I’d say the probability is high. 😈

      1. Reminds me of the Adventures in Odyssey episode in which Connie buys Mr. Whittaker a television and he politely turns it down because he tells her he is a “TV junkie” and can’t stop watching once he starts, so he decides it’s better not to have one.

      2. Since goodwill won’t take a TV that old (seriously), they could get the full write-off by giving it to Larry to destroy.

  28. “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! …
    Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them. . . Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body… What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
    – Jesus (Mark 7)

    1. That’s a harsh passage, I know, but I must say I have a fondness for it. I know the direct meaning is “don’t blame others for what YOU have chosen to do”, and it does bring up a lot of guilt in my own heart, but there’s some comfort in the reminder that we don’t need to fear things of the world. They are, after all, just things. And as with all things, evil only comes of them when we make the choices to use them in evil ways.

  30. “Let me go over here and find the sermon I left behind…” Exactly! Not ONE word of Scripture in that whole ordeal. Pure theatrics!

    1. And then they have the gall to accuse evangelicals and non-denominational churches of “catering to the flesh” and entertaining their members instead of preaching the Word. 🙄

      2. That accusation always makes me blink. Every Sunday, we have one Old Testament passage (not verse–passage), one passage from a New Testament letter or Acts, and a Gospel reading, plus selections from two Psalms. Our liturgy quotes heavily from the Bible as well. So I used to think that the long sermons in “Bible-believing” churches were long because they included entire books of the Bible and that was why “Bible-believing” churches told their members that we Lutherans (later, Episcopalians) didn’t preach the Bible. Come to find out what actually goes on in IFB churches– 😯

  31. of course your wife isn’t going to say a thing….cause you’re bat$@%* crazy.

  33. This reminds me of Gallagher shows from the 80’s. Larry is probably a closeted fan of stand up comedy. The screaming is reminiscent of Sam Kinison.

    The front row would wear raincoats to avoid the melon juice and pulp flying around. I wonder what gear you would need to wear to avoid glass in your eyes. I bet this was not safe for the front section of this audience.

  34. At the beginning he said, “You are about to see the number one thing above all things I can talk about that has destroyed our testimony; that has robbed our home. You’re looking at it right there. That’s it…” Was he talking abut Jack Schaap? Shouldn’t he just have gone after Schaap with an axe since he has destroyed testimonies and robbed families.

  35. Wow! I thought that the reason we have so much evil in the world was Satan using our own selfish desires. I don’t think you can blame that on a box that sits in your living room. Also, it seems to me that he is seriously lacking in several of the fruits of the spirit here. Where is the gentleness or self-control? I had to stop watching when we was laugh manically, wielding the axe, and referring to men as hen-pecked. Scary stuff!

  36. My dad’s dog was listening to the audio of this video clip and started growling. I think this is the first thing the dog and I have agreed upon.

  37. This has probably been covered before, but has Darrell lost some Youtube accounts? I was looking for the “I’m no kin to the monkey song” from a while ago, and it said the account had been terminated due to multiple copyright accusations or something like that.

  38. Anyone wanna bet the one he chopped up was recently replaced by a brand new 52 inch flat screen? {smo} :mrgreen:

  41. The showmanship preacher is ridiculous. You can be a funny person, because you’re funny. You’re can be entertaining because that’s who you are. But to put on some ranting and raving act (aka Billy Sunday, J. Frank Norris etc) and call it preaching is deplorable. God bless the true men of God who preach the whole counsel of God’s Word week in and week out and the ones that despise acting (not preaching) like this.

    They should have charged admission to this.

  42. In the end this boils down to control.

    Namely pulpit control over the lives of the sheeple.
    When the pulpit calls something evil the pew dwellers are supposed to jump and act on what the M-O-g suggests.

    That is why there were so many Rock Music Records burned in the camp fires during teen week. The moralists in the pulpits are constantly testing and reaffirming their control by these manipulative tactics.

  43. We play various card games, dominoes, and Yahtzee. As well as board games. Sometimes with a sporting event on TV at the same time.

    Cards, dice, and sports. We must be closet heathen gamblers who ignore each other and don’t even know it.

    2. No gin. Britches in the winter. Short pants in the summer.

      In front of our new flat screen. We finally entered the latest centery.

      (Boy–you don’t want to misspell britches unless you want to be in BIG trouble with the britches waerin’ missus)

  44. Is there anyone at SFL that thinks the television could be a bad influence on families and our spiritual lives?

    1. It’s like a tool. I can build with a hammer, I can destroy with a hammer. The TV is not moral or immoral. It is what it is used for. Even God’s Word can be used for evil. Just look at all the proof-texting Fundies do with it.

      Sure, it can be a bad influence. So could an uncontrolled trip to the library or numerous other things done improperly.

    2. Do you think having male genitalia is a bad influence on your family and your spiritual life?? It’s what you DO with something, NOT the thing itself, that is evil.

      And for the record, my wife and I don’t have a television because (1) we think most of what’s on TV is complete crap; (2) we get our news and weather from the radio and Internet and our shows from Netflix and Hulu; (3) we HATE commercials and will do just about anything not to be exposed to those; and (4) we tend to be the type of people that once we start watching we can’t really stop, so we felt like it was better to just not have TV in the first place.

      1. Forgive me for being picky, but you don’t have a TV because you can’t stop watching once you start, but you have Internet? The Internet never stops…

    3. If we did think an inanimate object was a bad influence, smashing it with an ax is not the way to go about correcting the problem.

      If that was the case would you take an ax to things you found to be a bad influence? Say Calvinists? Or Liberals? 😉

      2. As a Calvinist long-time reader/lurker, I’d rather not be assaulted by IFB pastors wielding axes. Just my personal preference, I suppose.

    4. I’m sure fundies occasionally visit SFL. How long they stick around is another question, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one or two people who’ve visited SFL retain the erroneous belief that inanimate objects can be inherently sinful.

    5. Greg, Of COURSE television can be a bad influence. Absolutely. But that’s not what he said.

      He said, “You’re about to see the number one thing above all things I could talk about that has destroy our testimony … the television.”

      The Bible, on the other hand, talks about our own evil desires than entice us.

      1. Actually animate objects are pretty neutral too. I can’t think of anything that would be moral or immoral that isn’t an action/activity.

    7. Inanimate objects are neither good nor bad. It’s not what goes in that defiles a man, but what comes out. There are people like my father who don’t have the self-discipline to stop watching if the TV is on. Then there are people like my husband who is just not interested in watching TV. The TV is not responsible for my father’s behavior or for my husband’s. It’s a tool. As such, I regard it as one of the many good gifts God has afforded us.

      In point of fact, we don’t get a single channel on our dinosaur, but we like being able to watch movies together.

    8. This completely misses the point: if television is a bad influence on you, there is nothing wrong with you taking steps to reduce its influence on you.

      However, saying that because some people might have a problem, nobody can enjoy tv is just wrong.

      Also, threatening to take an axe to your wife is criminal. It wouldn’t matter if he was (otherwise) making a legitimate point, once he got to that point he was wrong, wrong, wrong.

    9. Put that straw man down.
      It’s true that visual media represent profound influences on our lives. It’s probably hard for us to comprehend that degree to which this affects our lives. Being wise about exposing ourselves to the influences of television (for example) is akin to being wise about exposing ourselves to the Corinthian Agora in the first century. I’m sure that the level of worry displayed here is a form of culture shock. Being in the world yet not of the world cannot be accomplished by eschewing the world.

    1. Yes. And during their wedding ceremony, Brown went on a lengthy spiel about how he hates divorce and would never perform a marriage for anyone who had been divorced. He illustrated this point with a long story about a woman who came to him hoping he would make an exception for her, because her ex-husband had been a paraplegic and their marriage had never been consummated. Of course, he stuck to his convictions–he wouldn’t marry her. He hates divorce that much!

      The whole thing was SO inappropriate for a wedding ceremony…and his daughter didn’t appear too happy that Daddy was indulging in this little self-glorifying dissertation on what was supposed to be her special day.

      Just weird.

      1. “Daddy” and his ilk can’t help themselves, it IS all about them. The have to be in control and the center of attention at all times. They are always “in character.”

    2. Daddy Brown would’ve brought the ax for emphasis about how much he hates divorce, but Daddy Trieber would never risk anything that dangerous around those four white pianos!

  46. I thought this was somewhat entertaining. Disturbing, but entertaining. But most of the tv shows I watch are disturbing and entertaining.

  47. Methinks Mr Brown has misidentified the problem…the problem is not the television, but rather ranting. lunatic-fringe fundy MOGs warping the data-processing functions of their sheeple’s minds by vilifying inanimate objects rather than addressing real doctrinal issues.

  48. I remember when my parents “cleansed their home” (a Bill Gothard term). I remember lots of soul-searching and handwringing about whether it was better to throw the TV set, record player, records, and my little orange plastic Halloween bucket in the trash or whether it was better to give those items away. They ultimately decided to: give the TV set away, sell the record player, and throw the records and my Halloween bucket away. My mother made me stand there and watch the trash men put all the records and the Halloween bucket in the trash truck and smash them. Then, we prayed a prayer thanking God for cleansing our home.

    1. Gothard! It’s like Jesus’ teaching on purity went in one ear, out the other, and hit something.

      Isn’t Gothard the one who seriously proclaimed that those ugly little collectible dolls were possessed by demons? Sometimes I wonder whether he was trying to see just how much nonsense his flock would swallow. Did he have a bet on with somebody?

    2. Oh, yes…the ritual cleansing of the home. I remember instrumental cassette tapes being destroyed (because they weren’t Christian), Christian acappella tapes being crushed (because one of the male singers had long hair), anything licensed (Disney, etc), novels that weren’t Christian, and so on. My heart always broke to see my things destroyed, but I couldn’t show it, or that would indicate a ‘heart problem’, and require weeks of sermons during family devotions about worldliness and rebellion (aka, witchcraft). And then, we had to keep the plastic baggie of broken parts hanging in our bedroom as a reminder of our former wickedness and current cleanliness. The real result: 2/3 of us children ended up getting VERY good at sneaking around. 🙄

      1. That’s quite a story. Please tell me “LIT” doesn’t mean “leader in training” like it does in ATI.

        1. @Deacon’s Son, no, it doesn’t mean Leader In Training. I’m not familiar with Gothard terms, because my parents distrusted a movement led by an unmarried man (smacked of Catholicism to them). Plus, the Gothard and Hyles movements were a bit too liberal for us. 😯 It means lost in transition – as in, my heart and mind have left fundamentalism, but I don’t know where to go. Just trying to rest in Jesus – and trying to figure out who Jesus really is outside of a fundamentalist perspective.

        2. @LIT – I have to admit that mistrusting Gothard based on his marital state appears to have been justified. None of the other stuff you describe was, of course. My heart goes out to you, LIT, and my prayer is that you will be found by the Great Shepherd.

      2. And 3/4 or the children left the church, as soon as they could afford to leave home. I was so broken down that I didn’t leave that morass until I was 29.

    3. I remember when my parents cleaned out our house after an evangelist would visit the church. One time they got rid of all my Disney movies. I was 8 or 9. I didn’t understand why they were throwing Beauty and the Beast, Fox and the Hound, etc. away. I was very sad. I still remember crying. On another occasion, I remember them throwing away my Sandi Patti cassette tape. My mother had had it for a while and I took it because I loved the music and loved singing along to it. I am very musical. Anyhow, some evangelist came through and must have preached on CCM or something, because my parents asked for my tape and I gave it to them, then watched them throw it in the trash. I was devastated and remember begging them to let me keep it. I was around 10 years old. They refused and I was so sad. Is it stupid that even now, many years later, this is making me feel terrible?

    4. I too had to watch the trash men throw away my things. I was scarred. I feel like that’s stupid but I really was. I thought no other parents would do something that traumatizing and stupid but it appears that other fundamentalist parents have done things like that. I’m not pleased those things happened to you DS but it is a bit of a comfort to know that others understand.

      1. My spouse often asks why I can’t just ‘get over’ being raised fundamentalist. I don’t really know why bringing that stuff up makes me feel so bad/bitter, to this day. I didn’t suffer physical abuse like other children; just the too-fundy-for-all-other-fundies lifestyle. I know I’ve had to relearn God, from scratch, and am still learning. I, too, feel like it’s stupid to be sad about these things so many years later. Makes me want to bang my head on a wall, and say, “just forget about it!”

        1. I don’t think you “get over” being raised fundamentalist any more than you “get over” being abused or losing a loved one. I think you keep walking, doing exactly what you’re doing: learning Who God really is, reading the Bible without all the Fundy presets, and so on.

          Be patient with yourself. We’re all on this journey. If watching some of the videos upsets you, then don’t watch. There’ve been a couple that took me to a place I thought I’d forgotten, so I know.

        2. LIT, I’m there too. I still occasionally flinch when someone uses particular words or we sing songs that are triggers for me. And each person’s experience is their own- my siblings had different experiences and ghosts to deal with…

          It takes time. And there’s a lot the I look back o and wish hadn’t happened. (I was a horrible person, especially in my teens and early 20s- self-righteous, inflexible, judgmental, and generally unloving.) Even the bad stuff helps shape me now, and all I can do really is ask God to make me a better person, and to let him work in me. Can’t really ask for more.

          Well, a winning lottery ticket wouldn’t hurt…

        3. I too had to start over from scratch, and I wish that I could forget many of the things I was indoctrinated with throughout my childhood.

        4. Any system that teaches you that you are worthless, that you have no right to think for yourself, and you have to just accept what you are told is abusive.

          Fundamentalism destroys the way people think about themselves and others. The chains of worthlessness weigh heavy, and you are not allowed to take them off. Question authority and you are suddenly “out of God’s protective umbrella.” Learn science and you are denying the gospel. Ask questions and you are a heretic.

          I remember my sister calling me a heretic for having a New American Standard Version of the Bible. I remember the rejection of my family because I was different after going to school and getting married. I was no longer the blindly obedient son. And I was still in fundamentalism!

          I remember the abuse at the church, having to stand in front of the congregation while they came up and “loved on me” as I was removed from being a deacon. I’d had problems with a son, and I made the mistake of asking for help.

          I cannot “forgive and forget.” I try to “forgive” as best I can from my end. But those who did what they did were never sorry.

          Now, mostly away from fundamentalism (my wife and daughter still go to that church), I am beginning to build some confidence. I realize God isn’t going to just hit me. My days of looking over my shoulder fearing an angry God are less and less. I am seeing more blessings.

          But this is a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. I could hope to get over it, but the internalized wounds are deep. One cannot just pretend it did not happen.

          We do the best we can. There are days I fervently wished I could just unbelieve. I can’t. I don’t think I ever will lose “faith” completely.

          But talking about it helps. Having friends who understand and have gone through similar struggles helps. My wife can only tolerate so much herself. Then I have to find other outlets.

          I really am grateful for this website. Thank you, Darrell.

        5. I would guess because children naturally love their parents and look to them to define the universe, and it’s not good for kids when the response they get is always blame-laying, standards checklists, and sniffing after sin. And the constant threat of a giant flaming freakout because you did some little innocuous thing on an ever-changing list of little innocuous things that are secretly SATANNNNN can’t have been good for you either. Hugs if you want any.

  49. Dear Larry Brown:

    Since this is Preaching School, why not offer insight on preaching?

    You scapegoat television. After projecting all our sins on television, you vicariously punish TV for our redemption.

    Didn’t Jesus put an end to all ritual sacrifices?

    I suppose that your idea of a sacrament is to suck on an electrode and nibble a shard of glass.

    Of all that you could say about that which destroys our testimony, the number one thing is the preacher who wallows in the quicksand of stupidity.

    Larry Brown, you are a fraud. You are a charlatan.

    I hope your wife tied you the bedposts in your sleep, locked you in a chastity device, flipped you over and whipped you until your haunches smoked and you cried yourself hoarse.

    Christian Socialist

    1. 2011. About a year before Jack Schaap was arrested for statutory rape (you can see Schaap watching Brown’s Gallagher act from behind).

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