Meet Jim Moats, BJU grad and pastor of the Christian Bible Fellowship Church of Newville, PA. It seems that Jim wanted to really wanted to impress his church and make them believe he was a real tough guy. So he told them all he was a former Navy SEAL who was decorated for his valor in Vietnam. Only problem is…he wasn’t. In fact, He had never even been to Vietnam.

Whoops.

As reporter Liz Goodwin writes:

Moats told his church for five years that he was a former SEAL, and even once wore the elite program’s gold Trident medal around town. He elaborated on that tale when his local paper contacted him last week as it was reporting a story about the rigors of SEAL training in the wake of the SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound.

Among other things, Moats said he was subjected to waterboarding when he trained at Little Creek Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach in 1971 and was assigned dishwashing duty for his bad attitude. “I had almost no discipline. I was as wild as they came. That was my nemesis,” he told the paper. “They weren’t looking for a guy who brags to everyone he is a SEAL. They wanted somebody who was ready but had an inner confidence and didn’t have a braggadocio attitude.”

Several former SEALs wrote into The Patriot-News casting doubt on the reverend’s account of his service.

One of the SEAL’s also added this:

“We deal with these guys all the time, especially the clergy. It’s amazing how many of the clergy are involved in those lies to build that flock up,” said retired SEAL Don Shipley. Shipley also speculated the waterboarding and kitchen details came from the action depicted in “Under Siege.”

So he not only lied and wore medals that he hadn’t earned but he also took his plot points from an R-rated movie that contained strong violence, language and brief nudity?

For Shame, Fundy Pastor! For Shame!