Welcome to Matt Smith's weekly Sunday School!

Very good friend Matt Smith (no not the Doctor Who actor!) and I go back a few years, all the way to our time together at that very strange television station in Reidsville, North Carolina.  I learned a lot about video and broadcasting from Matt, and I continue to learn much from him since his becoming active with the online realm, sharing his talents and his calling as a minister.

For the past two or three years Matt has been maintaining a weekly series of "Sunday school" lessons.  Every Saturday he posts a new one on YouTube.  I for one have been benefiting from Matt's devotionals and I think that others might will also.  Click on over to Matt's YouTube channel and prepare to be edified, enlightened, and maybe even a little entertained.

Thank you for all that you do my brother!

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TV preachers who cuss up a storm

Remember a few weeks ago when we discovered that VH1 was featuring my first school board campaign commercial on its show Web Junk 2.0? Well, during that same show there was a... strange... clip showing a preacher on some local community access TV station. And he was swearing like crazy! It was like every two or three seconds, VH1 had to bleep out what he was saying.

Here's the full video...

WARNING: This video is loaded with excessive profanity
I honestly don't know what to make of this guy. Is this for real? The way he moves around the screen is something that I've never seen done with a video camera before. How does something like this even get broadcast without the FCC stepping in? He calls himself "Spirit of Truth" and there's an article about him on Wikipedia that has much more about him, including more of these bizarre videos.

While looking for that video on YouTube I also found this clip, featuring (now deceased) televangelist Gene Scott. You can find more videos with him on YouTube - most of them more than a bit on the odd side - but this was the first one that I came across...

Now, I will admit to occasionally using - and on this blog even - a "swear word". And I don't have any particular problem with that as a Christian and you know why? Because using such words are more of a sin against so-called "polite society" than a sin against God... and I've come to realize that too much of "polite society" is fake as all get out. And as a longtime student of the Christian theology of Stanley Hauerwas, this is even more innocuous an issue.

That said, such words must be used carefully. And I'm definitely going to impress upon my children - if and when God blesses us with any - that it's not a good thing to just go around using these words (yes I am quite aware that this is going to call for some changes of behavior on my part, but I'm ready for that). Peppering an essay with "damned" is okay. But profanity for the sake of profanity's shock value is not only a major turn-off, it shows a lot of shallowness and lack of self-control. Guys like this aren't doing the Christian faith any favors by carrying on like this.

"Since an overseer is entrusted with God's work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. 8Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined."

-- Titus 1:8

All the same though, I must confess: I was laughing so hard watching these videos, that it literally hurt!

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