Odds and Ends

Amen?

48 Comments

Tonight I’d like to preach to you on the topic “Sinful Sinners are Bound to Be Barbecued”, don’t you just love that?

There are so many sinners in this country, don’t you think that’s great? They’re growing and multiplying and waxing worse and worse, can you affirm that with me? Why it seems like every day they think of some new and creative way to sin, c’mon and say that you give your blessing to that right there.

We’ve got whores and whoremongers everywhere, let it be so!

We’ve got people smoking dope and sniffing dope and shooting dope and who knows what all else ways they’re taking it, let it be so!

We’ve got filth being peddled from every screen in your house twenty-four hours every day, let it be so!

Now I know what some of you are thinking, that preacher is fat, don’t you affirm it? And you think that gluttony is just as bad a sin as being a murderer, don’t you agree? But I’m here to tell you that I’ll answer to God for my sins someday but as your pastor I’ll answer to him for your sins too and I’m just unselfish enough to worry about you more than I do myself, now say that you’re glad that’s the way it is.

Amen: the word that doesn’t mean what you think it means.

48 thoughts on “Amen?”

      1. Brilliant film. I’ve seen it a few times. Also read the book, which is even better than the film. But don’t tell the Fundies, amen?

  5. I remember listening to a sermon (here on the SFL site) where the preacher said that he had bent down that morning to tie his shoe laces and even for that remarkable achievement got an “Amen!” I got the impression from the response, that the preacher had the mental capacity of a 6 year old…

  9. Wow. Even though I already knew what “Amen” meant, and that it was a word that was horribly misused/abused, this really drove it home for me.

    I never realized that saying “Amen” after the preacher elaborates upon sin actually seems to suggest that you believe that’s the way things should be.

    It would seem that descriptions about sin really don’t warrant an amen.

    What does is “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Let it be so!

  10. Aw man.

    My first thought after I read the title was “Amen or not!”

    I’ve been corrupted.

  11. Speaking of HAY-MAYEN, I had to get new tires yesterday, and the service manager asked me if I had a “spar” underneath my truck. I looked at him in confusion for several seconds before I realized that he meant “spare” – as in, “spare tire”. I have a truck, so my “spar” is, indeed, underneath.

    1. When we moved to Louisiana in the mid-’80s, a furniture-store owner / salesman told me he’d put me in touch with an “erl executive” who could help me find a car-pool from Natchitoches to Shreveport.

      It took me a moment or two to figure out he meant “oil executive.”

      But that’s Louisiana, and Louisiana is….different. :mrgreen:

      Not that there aren’t plenty of colorful expressions floating around here in North Carolina.

  12. There’s nothing like BAMA football and pork BBQ on a Fall Saturday afternoon…can I get a witness from someone…ROLL TIDE!! 😀

  14. Greatly appreciate this. I do think that this word is misused and abused, and most people use it without considering what they are saying.

    FYI, “Amen” is one of the names used for Jesus Christ in Scripture. Rev. 3:14 “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;”. That in itself should make us ponder the careless use of the word.

  15. The word “amen” is also translated “Verily” (as in “Verily, I say unto you, Ye must be born again”).

    So I would hear it from preachers in (to use the example): “We’ve got whores and whoremongers everywhere, amen?” — meaning “Is that not the truth?”

  16. I love the ‘amen’ phrased like a question; like anyone had a choice to say, “no.”

    1. I watched that in its entirety and by the end of it, every ‘Amen’ was causing me physical pain. 🙁

      It was like being trapped in a fundy episode of the Smurfs.

  20. But let the raising up of the hands, or the swaying back and forth, and all manner of physical demonstration of worship to God be not so among you, brethren. Instead, shout Amen from the balcony. Shout it from the main floor. Shout it from the choir loft. Say it loud. Say it often. Say it when others say it so as to be as spiritual as they.
    For he who saith the most Amens in a lifetime of attending church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and any other service he can manage, will be awarded with a special crown of spiritual fakery some day at the Great Judgment.
    For, lo, it mattereth little whereof the preacher speaketh, but the volume and expression and the frequency of the Amns mattereth much.
    To this, brethren, take heed. (sisters, hush up)

  21. Darrell, Darrell, Darrell,

    You have to stop using the corrupted New Webster Dictionary…you are purposfully confusing people with that abomination.

    I just consulted my official BJU/HAC Fundy-to-English Dictionary and it says that “amen” means “an affirmation of the MOG; used by Fundies particularly to curry favor with said MOG; the louder, the better”. Therefore, they are using it perfectly in context.

    Bro Bluto

      1. Did you hear about the Hispanic fireman whose wife had twin sons? He named them Hose-A and Hose-B. 😆

        1. In one area I used to work with, this one lady called a man named Jose, Hose-B. I asked her why, and she said that she worked in a different area with Jose, and in that area, there were 2 Joses, so one became Hose-A and the other Hose-B. So when they got transferred, she kept calling him Hose-B. 😆

  25. I creep around this website from time to time although my church has been lampooned here because I think any group or movement that puts itself as being above criticism defintely deserves to be taken down a notch or two. I also think that you can receive some real instruction from your critics, as long as that criticism isnt rooted in bitterness.
    Having said all that, I realy liked this post. ‘Amen’ has become a catch-all phrase, a punctuation in a harangue, and a mark of laziness in a preacher as well as a mark of critical unthinking by a congregation. That is unfortunate.

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