157 thoughts on “Tent Meeting Preaching: Mendez Style”

  2. I had to listen to this guy one too many times growing up. No way in … you-know-where I’m clicking on that video.

    1. “No way in … you-know-where..”

      I’ll say it for you….No way in The Theological Realm of Eternal Punishment™

      1. I want to play! But I am in the children’s department right now, so HELL-o Kitty. HELL-o Mrs. Piggle Wiggle! HELL-o Mommy!

        Keeping it safe, yep, that’s moi. 😀

        2. I think it’s actually 7734. Then you turn it over and read it.

          Wow, that really takes me back to middle school …

        3. I never was good at math. Tomorrow I will have been to hell 3x this week; DMV, dentist, principal’s office.

  3. It’s amazing how I can’t pay attention to what they say anymore. I turn it on and the screaming just melts into the background with all the other stuff going on in the house. I got none of that.

    1. I’ll recap what you missed:

      1) Hey!
      2) Don’t hang out with the lost
      3) Hey!
      4) Separate yourself always
      5) Hey!
      6) You’re not right
      7) Hey!
      8) Say Amen right there

      5. Scorpio, thanks! I am not in a place where I can listen. Your summary pretty much matches the picture up there. 🙄

    2. Here’s what I got:

      “Say man right here blah blah blah blah Say man right here blah blah Say man right here blah blah blah blah blah Egypt Say man right here blah blah blah blah blah Red Sea blah blah blah Say man right here blah blah blah.”

      1. And lots of truck/traffic noise and squeaky lawn chair noise and one woman looked like maybe the mosquitos were biting and the men were egging him on with shouts of the usual. 🙄

    3. He also kept waving a big Bible around. Since he wasn’t reading from it, I guess that was a threat to hit people with it if they didn’t praise the preacher enough.

  4. They don’t need an alliterated list of ‘do’s’ Mendez. Those people need to hear what Christ has ‘done.’ Preach Christ man. Preach the gospel. Preach grace. Those self righteous baptists need to hear how they are nothing apart from the mercy of God.

    Your legalism is powerless, Christless, and does more damage than good. Throw out your Hyles tapes and read a modern translation of the Bible. Get over yourself and get on your face humbled before a holy God.

    Preach Christ.

    8. That’s true to an extent, but Christians are called to live “soberly, righteously, and godly” so a reminder isn’t bad (although, from what little I heard, he wasn’t doing that, either).

      1. Very true! Paul often writes of behaviors that Christians are not to practice, and certainly preachers who preach the whole counsel of God will have to preach those: things like flee youthful lusts, let him that stole steal no more, let no filthy communication come out of your mouth, put away wrath, etc.

        Unfortunately too many preachers add extraBiblical standards to the list or focus so much on the rules that they completely lose sight of the Gospel.

      2. When you’re living in the awareness of what Christ has done for you and are blown away by Christ’s love and acceptance, your actions are much more likely to be holy than if someone is screaming at you and rubbing your nose in your sins. So preaching Christ, is much more effective IMO.

      3. The essence of a Mendez/fundy message: “You must!”

        The essence of a Christian message: “You must. You can’t. Jesus did.”

        The former leads to self righteousness, bigotry, isolationism, pride, gossip, and self idolatry. The latter leads to worship.

        Yes God has a standard for us, but we will never meet it. Fortunately there was one who came before us, the second Adam, who did meet that standard perfectly. It is on Him we rely.

  5. I’m just now at a point that I’m able to start going back into a church (UMC). Seeing that video truly reminds me how lucky I am to have escaped fundydum with my sanity intact.

  6. He’s obviously a compromiser; there is a guitar and the white pulpit has a cross (clearly a Catholic reference). And there’ s no white piano.

    1. Awwwww… Boymom, that is what I was going to say. I see we have both been here long enough to start synchronizing our thoughts. Resistance is futile.

      The other thing is was going to say is that I could only stand about a minute and had to turn it off. Too many fundy memories and guilt trips and my head was about to explode and we wouldn’t want that so close to Christmas and all.

      But I will say this, (HEY) the man has a certain rhythm to his speaking that (HEY) kindof is hypnotizing in a very stressful and non-relaxing way.

  7. Love how the Bible is never opened, but carried around and “quoted”. AKA–“The Bible Says.”

    Also, I completely hate how the story of Ruth and the beauty of the story of Ruth is ruined when this man says that Mahon, Chileon and Elimelech were dead in Moab because they would not separate.

    As I told my wife, Elimilech and his family going to Moab because of famine is like you and I moving from Florida to California because of too many hurricanes. Hardly anything sinful in the behavior.

    1. Fundies-reading more into the Bible then what it says and not reading it for what it does say since prayer was removed from the public schools.

    2. He got major parts of the Exodus story wrong, too.
      For example, the Egyptians didn’t get stuck because they didn’t have faith (at least, Exodus doesn’t say that), they got stuck because their heavy chariots bogged down in the mud.

      1. The only questions I ever have left, after all these years away, is Why does it still surprise me that they do not know the Bible/twist the Bible to say what they want it to say, and WHY did it take me so long to study and find the truth MYSELF??? 🙁

        1. Forgetting what is behind let us press on toward the high calling in Christ Jesus and keep our nose in the Word so noone brainwashes us again, and only koolaid made at home is to be drunk from now on! ;-p

  9. Uggghhh!, Did he ever stop pacing around? Turning in one direction, then the other, then back again. Why couldn’t he stand behind the pulpit? What is this about the preachers who scream the most not being able to stand behind the pulpit and preach from there? Why must they always walk around, down the aisle and back and forth? I remember Bob Gray coming to our church in Michigan and walking all over the front pews. What gives with that?

    As for what he said, if anyone has to say, “Say amen right there” he’s got a problem. Big time. 👿

  10. He said “Come out and cross over” about 5 times in 1minute. Hmmmmmmm….He needs to brush up on current terminology. As we quote so often here, ” I do not think those words mean what you think they mean.” 🙂

    1. “It’s Friday night and it’s gonna get tight” also doesn’t mean what he thinks it means, I do believe.

      1. He might be more up on that vernacular than you think since he proceeded that comment with a phrase about stripper poles.

        1. Yeah, I wasn’t really sure about that. Either way (and for a multitude of other reasons) I was a little uncomfortable with him right out of the gate.

        3. You’re right that was really creepy that he brings up poles and strippers and things getting tight, very creepy and Freudian if you ask me and when he almost coughed up a lugy on someone in the audience he said “that wasn’t my “House” imitation” trying to be funny but he just gave away that he watches the show. So if Mr. separated high and mighty doesn’t hang out with the lost crowd then where is he learning about strippers and Friday nights getting tight and “worldly” tv shows? 😯 🙄 😯

      2. I wasn’t sure that the “it’s gonna get tight” was some kind of obscure reference to the preaching or a kind of slam against Friday casual dress “standards”.

        1. My guess is that it is the picup line he uses whenever he’s in a strip club on a Friday night? 😈

  11. The question that needs to be asked about this kind of preaching is why it appeals to certain people. What is there in the psyche of a person that would make him or her WANT to hear a rant like this? Sitting and listening to this guy is just plain masochistic — and I’m not referring only to his style of delivery, but to the content of his message. That anyone actually says “amen” to it is, in my estimation, tragic. As someone said to me years ago, fundamentalism isn’t just a theological position; it’s a mindset.

    1. Say “Amen”? How about the guy in the background constantly saying, “Listen! Listen!” or “Here it is.” or “That’s good!” and the ever present “Haymen” That is the person that has the problem.

      1. I thought the duck call was a nice touch, though.
        What do you mean, “What duck call?” I guess you’ll just have to listen again.

    2. Good question. I have no idea why anyone would want to sit under this kind of preaching. I only did because I was a child and had no choice, but when I was old enough to decide for myself, I determined that I never wanted to be in a church with a screaming pastor.

      Possibilities:
      1. They hate themselves and feel the need to be beat up on; thus in a way, they feel “good” because they know they “deserved” it. Maybe it’s cathartic; they can leave feeling “cleansed” after being yelled at for an hour.
      2. They’re convinced that it’s “holy” so they put up with it because “it’s what preachers do.” They THINK it’s right, kind of the way people eat health food, not because they enjoy it but because they’re “supposed to.”
      3. They’re not particularly insightful or reflective or sensitive. They’re listening and letting it slide right off, not internalizing and personalizing it like some of us would. They may find it entertaining (although they’d never admit that! They’d say they were “blessed.”)
      4. They’re really, really smug – they think all the yelling is for someone ELSE. They’re on the right side with the pastor; all the anger is against those BAD people. “Thank God I’m not like other men.”
      5. They’ve spent so much time focusing on their own righteousness and their legalistic standards that they have stifled the voice of the Holy Spirit warning them that this is not reflective of love, joy, peace, and gentleness. They have quenched the Spirit and do not even realize it!

      2. They (we) stay for the same reasons an abused person stays with their abuser. It is the only thing they know. It starts to become normal even comfortable in some weird and warped way. When you are the one being stroked instead of belittled it makes you feel important and powerful. Granted those times were few and far between, but just often enough to keep you in the cycle of abuse.

        They also stay because it is easier to “do” the never-ending list of do’s and don’t’s than the alternative which would be thinking for yourself and really learning the scripture and “being” in Christ. It is easier to sit through a rant of a sermon than actually think, study, and dialogue about the scriptures.

        1. You’re right, tena!

          It’s the easy road, the path of least resistance, and when it’s all you’ve ever known, it’s hard to imagine any other way.

      3. That is a great list of points, PW. I know people in fundy churches who are there for each of those five reasons.

      4. Other possibility: They’ve been taught it is Biblical – “Lift up thy voice like a trumpet” — “cry aloud and spare not”

        I don’t mind a preacher getting loud, if he is excited about what God has done; I resent the screaming at people, such as “Sit up and listen to me!” “You’re not right with God if you’re not XXXX” (whatever the speaker decides).

        1. Me, too! I don’t mind passion inspired by love; I dislike anger sparked by hostility and egoism.

      2. It sounds to me as though this guy learned his preaching style in auctioneer school. I know that rhythm and repetition are part of good-ol’-boy Southern preachin’, but I’ve never heard a Southerner talk that fast.

  12. hahaha, he’s cute. too much coffee, I think. these people are sooo in love with what they have to say, or scream, or whatever.

    1. I *LOVE* “Ha ha ha, he’s cute.” It is not only funny in itself, but I love thinking how TOTALLY PEE-OHED he would be if he saw that! Moron that he is.

  13. True, some people can have a bad influence on our lives. However, believing that hanging around with certain people can take us back to “Egypt” shows the lack of understanding he has of Romans 8. “Who shall separate us from the love of God? . . . For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
    (Romans 8:38-39 ESV)”

      1. Didn’t really notice that. All I could notice was that stupid Godfather chain and that vest that the dude seems to think is his trademark or something.

  15. I didn’t have a chance to listen to all of the message because we are in the middle of reorganizing all the books in the church library. One thing I really appreciated is how they obviously give the Men Of God a Seat Of Honor in the front row. The bright colors of the seats really allow people to focus on praying for their pastors and on how they should be a priority.

    1. I just vomited a little, in my mouth. Is there no balm in Gilead for this poor waif? Another sigh…

  16. whoop ’em into a frenzy and increase your “Hey-men’s” and “P-I-B’s” per minute.
    “Look at me! Listen to me! Give me validation!”

    Hear me when I speak! The god that I am preaching is too weak to allow you to be an effective witness execpt when I go out with you or you are setting in church. The god I am preaching here tody is not able to stand against the world, the flesh and the devil… so you don’t have a chance.

    The only way you stand a chance is if you keep all the rules and standards that I put upon you. If you do it my way, then you will be a successful Christian. But wait there’s more, if you order now I’ll double your blessing. Come to the Old Fashioned Altar in the next ten minutes and I’ll pray with you. Hurry and don’t delay, my patience is running out. Don’t miss out on this blessing!

    1. Your comment reminds me of those commercials that say “if you call in the next 10 minutes, you will also get…”

      1. Yep, it’s the same marketing ploy for both. God Marketing 101. Create demand for the product and then create a sense of urgency that only your brand can fill. Make it seem that there is a limited time offer or limited amount that can be supplied. This will create an atmosphere of missing out, which in turn allows one to close the deal more quickly. ie. You must act now if you want one of these beautiful, limited edition, “Altar Call Magic Prayer Cards, signed by Dr. Evangelist Mog.” Turn your Tent meeting experience into a lifetime of guilt and wondering if you right before God. Act now and we’ll give you, free, this tract full of proof texts that will instantly give you peace of mind that you are right with God and soothe your conscience. Even if you don’t rush to the altar and get saved, keep the free tract as our gift to you.

      2. If you call in the next 10 minutes, we’ll DOUBLE your dose of guilt, just pay separate processing fees.

      3. Or an ad for a Monster Truck Rally

        SUNDAY…SUNDAY…SUNDAY

        Come see screaming Willie Mendez burn up the auditorium with his JET ROCKET FUNNY CAR

        available at Ticketmaster or charge by phone

  17. Didn’t Jesus come out of Egypt when He returned back after fleeing from Herod? Which was predicted in Hosea 11:1. Whenever guys like this launch into the Old testament, get ready for messages that mean anything they want it to mean, of course they consistently take NT passages out of context, but they seem to nearly always take OT passages out of context.

    Attempting to make promises that God made to His people Israel in the OT fit into promises to “all” christians today is a common mistake that I see many fundy preachers make.

    1. I believe Moses, Abraham, and Jacob also fled to another country when faced with hardship and famine.
      I don’t see how he surmised that Elimelech was in sin for doing the same thing. Seems to pretty much be the pattern. The Bible has pretty strong things to say about a man who doesn’t take care of his family. It seems to me that Elimelech was just trying to do that very thing.

      1. I’ve heard this in fundy sermons every time this story is talked about. Supposedly when they left Israel they got out from under God’s umbrella of protection, and now were in the world. Their sons married women from Moab which was a heathen nation. The fact that the two sons and Elimelech died was supposed to be a punishment to Naomi for going to Moab. But it wasn’t her decision but her husband’s at least according to the fundy mindset that the wife follows the husband. So here was a paradox, why did God punish the woman? She herself felt punished when she said to change her name from Naomi (pleasant) to Mara (bitter) and said God has brought me back with nothing.

        But it wasn’t all bad since Ruth did become a believer and would not have if Naomi’s family hadn’t been there.

        They say the same thing about Abraham going down to Egypt which got him in a lot of trouble, that he was wrong to go down there. Egypt is always compared to the world.

        It’s been fun for me to read the Bible and draw conclusions other than what the IFB teaches. 🙂

  18. Didn’t old Adolph used to pace back and forth and yell about some kind of separation for his kind also? And then tell of an ideal look everyone should have?

    The similarities are eerie between dictators and the IFB “mini kingdoms”.

    2. Vic Nischik says that Jack Hyles studied Hitler’s techniques and philosophy. I have no trouble believing it.

        1. the hallowed halls hear harping, heckling, hectoring invective inviting insipid insincerity.

    3. God used alliteration ..and acrostics…in the scripture.
      Hard to tell in English or course, but it’s there.

      A tool is a tool…it’s just annoying whne it is used by…a tool.
      :mrgreen:

      1. That is true, but there is a huge difference between used poetically and used poorly. (alliteration accidental)

  20. When he starts talking about “cutting something off” (at 3 minutes or so) – doesn’t that have to be a reference to the men being circumcised before they entered the land? – did you notice his hand went down to his belt buckle? – maybe lower – he turned away from the camera at that point. 🙂

    2. Yes, and I find it a little distressing that not even 25 seconds later he puts his hand up to his mouth after that 😯 Even my hubby commented that has him a little freaked out 😆

    1. Thank you, thank you for posting that!! I laughed my … off. The endorphines are flowing. 😆 😆

  24. I cannot believe I used to sit through an hour+ of this at camp meetings. The video is just 6 minutes and I couldn’t make it through ten seconds.

  25. In my work and some volunteer jobs, I’ve spent some time in the company of people with schizophrenia and other types of brain derangements, and this guy’s cadence and speech patterns are uncomfortably close to theirs. No wonder some people think religion is a mental illness, if this is what they have seen of religion.

  27. The Bible says that we are not supposed to be friends with lost people exactly 0 places that I can think of. Wasn’t Jesus called a friend of sinners by his enemies? I know fundies spiritualize that verse to mean that he saves sinners but that is not what the context suggests.

    1. My question is what do lost people look like? I once made the error of picking out people who did not dress the part and act the part. I once also dressed the part, and though professing saved, I was very lost in many ways. How do we know that this evangelist is not part of the lost crowd? I mean, he is a stranger, as well as anyone else to me.

        1. Pretty much, they would deny that but the way they live out their lives…yes. 🙁

    1. Gotta love the four pointed handkerchief. That’s like a “Brother Schapp looks so cool so I must wear one of those.” sorts of things.

      1. Either that photo has been flipped, or he has his hanky-pocket on the opposite side from where it is on every other suit coat I’ve ever seen.

    2. But there is something interesting on the website…a Guestbook that invites us to leave a message. Perhaps the SFL members ought to stop by and let the church know how their MoG’s message touched them. 😈

    3. I would love to see the coming events page of the church site blown up (in size, not literally) with comment balloons from SFL posters pointing out the silliness, from the “Sons of Thunder” picture, to spend your vaction [sic] with us.

  29. This doctrine of separation is a gid for so many of these people. They might as well make an idol of a wall for themselves and bow down to it.

    Thankfully I have not heard a sermon for several years that included any of these phrases:
    “Come out from among them and be ye separate”
    “Touch not the unclean thing”
    “If my people which are called by my name”
    “Touch not the Lord’s anointed”
    “Make the crooked paths straight”
    ad nauseum

  30. I only made it a minute in, but I did realize something. Actually a couple things. First, why are the screaming preachers so hung up on the strip clubs? Why? I was a little thankful when he said that wasn’t a strip club (I’d hate to think it was…). Secondly, he and I do not have the same Jesus. The Jesus I know was the “friend of publicans and sinners.” It’s hard to be friends with someone you don’t hang out with. This guy is the complaining Pharisee in the corner, pointing his finger, attempting to tell God what to do. One thing he did have right is “We’ve come too far in separation.” They’re so far separated they’ve become irrelevant, and incapable of ministering to the “publicans and sinners.”

    1. Luke 7:34
      The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’

      The implications of Jesus being referred to by those names is astounding.

  31. My favorite giggle line when he said something like “It’s getting quiet out there; I like the quiet” (just a large truck – semi? – went by).

    I thought it was funny.

  32. There was actually a time in my life where I can remember going to a church that was different than the ones I had been raised in and hearing a preacher not yell spit and shake his fist. I was baffled, that’s preaching?? The next week, I was over it and liked it, I didn’t have to strain my neck and my ears to keep up with his antics.

  33. I hear the staples of a fundy preacher in this one:

    -Take an Old Testament story and preach that it CLEARLY symbolizes something (instead of just preaching what the story actually teaches)

    -Don’t ever admit (or even CONSIDER) that maybe you’re taking it out of context or reading into it something that isn’t meant to be in there

    -Build your sermon completely on this out-of-context story

    -Make sure to squeeze in as many of your personal pet issues as you can (whether it makes sense in the context or not; no scriptural support necessary)

    -And always remember: “Holiness” = everyone doing what I think they should do (don’t worry about God and what the Bible say)

  35. So much noise, so little content. This man is not well. 😯 But, BUH-less gawd his sideburns are short haymen? (Say haymen right there)

  37. And, taadaa, THAT clip easily fills a BINGO card!! Anyone care to list the squares he covers? 😀

  40. I got to the 1:37 mark. I didn’t listen yesterday because I didn’t have earphones and didn’t want to inflict that on a breakroom of evil sinners I am not supposed to be in contact with. Had I listened, ol’ Adolph might not have come to mind. More like ol’ Josef. (same difference, I guess.)

    So–there I was, sitting with nominal Baptists, Catholics, General Heathen, and Protestants [if the IFB says they are different, then they must be…..] with no tracts or invitations to church. And strangely, pretty much everyone there knows how I believe, and none of them are trying to drag me to ‘Egypt’. And some even have real questions of spiritual things. I would like to ask the Good DR. how screaming at them would help them know Christ.

    Sorry about the rant–I never heard this guy personally, but I have heard that same pointless ramble before. What a load of pork innards.

  41. Why does he call them friends, and then proceed to insinuate that they are all lost or backslidden, walking back to Egypt?

  42. Why does he bother in talking about this topic when everyone in the audience already have the same fanatical-im-going-to-separate-cuz-it-makes-me-to-holy-for-your-church crowds? Does the crowd just enjoy him ranting on people they all disagree with? Cute…

  44. Can I just reference one really important thought here….. this man calls himself a Dr. As in, went to an accredited college, put in the time and work, and got a Ph.D. in something. But he went to an UNACCREDITED fake school. You can’t have the letters “edu” at the end of a website unless it’s a real school. It’s illegal. Well Midwesten Baptist College, the school this man supposedly went to and graduated from with a Doctoral degree…a) is unaccredited, b) doesn’t have a .edu website, it’s a .biz, as in business….and c) doesn’t EVEN OFFER A DOCTORAL degree! So why, oh why, would you trust ANYTHING this guy says, when he lies about being a DOCTOR! His real name is Lauriano Mendez, he’s Mexican American, he’s the son of an immigrant and this guy lies about everything about himself. Which means he HATES himself. Which means he has NO KNOWLEDGE of GOD.

  45. The Hypocrisy of a child of Immigrants ranting and raving about Donald Trump building a Wall to keep Mexicans out! His actions prove he’s not even a Christian. He just spews hate!

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