Things are really starting to get seriously bad in this country. God not only has caused our economy to crash because of non-tithing Christians, now apparently God is causing our NFL receivers to drop passes. Causing high umemployment and stock market crashes are one thing, but brother when you non-tithers start causing our football teams to lose, you've really crossed the line!
Apparently God caused Buffalo Bills receiver Stevie Johnson to drop the potential winning pass in overtime Sunday, the ball slipping right through his fingers as seen in the video above. Who would better know than Stevie himself, who posted the following Tweet at the end of the game:
"I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS IS HOW YOU DO ME!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS???? HOW???!!! I’LL NEVER FORGET THIS!!! EVER!! THX THO…STEVIE JOHNSON13"
Why would God do this to Stevie and the faithful Buffalo Bills fans? From what I've been hearing around Baptist churches these days, there is one and only one reason that God will actively hurt a believer like Stevie, and that is if he is not tithing! Stevie Johnson obviously must not be tithing 10% of his salary, and probably making things worse there are just too many non-tithers in Buffalo! Our most popular preachers today, like Ed Young, Jr., are telling us that the reason we can't keep our kids out of the doctor's office, why we can't keep a job, why we have terrible marriages and terrible kids...and apparently why footballs are slipping through receivers' fingers....it is ALL ABOUT THE MONEY! And now God is causing our NFL teams to lose!
Stevie - please, if you want to get back on track and start catching the big passes again, it's all about the money - he'll get the ball to ya, if he can get the dough through ya! You need to bring 10% of your salary to da house! And Stevie, do you want to catch passes at a rate based on the net or the gross? Amen! So tithe on the gross, baby.
What should we NFL fans do? If we care about our NFL team, and we don't want God to make our star receiver drop the winning pass, or running back to fumble on the game winning drive, we should write the owner and make sure that his players are tithing! And we should tithe too, and tithe on the gross. Do we want our NFL teams to win based on our gross or our net? Hmmm?
Oh, and now the huge success Cam Newton of Auburn has enjoyed this year makes sense - obviously his dad tithed on the $200,000 that was reportedly paid to get Cam to Auburn!
"Bring ye all the tithe into the storehouse, saith the Lord, that there may be touchdowns in my stadiums!" (Malachi 3:10, New American Tithing Version)
H/T: Wartburg Watch
Tom
ReplyDeleteYou can get a new video on our blog. We just updated ours. They just cancelled that one for copyright stuff.
Love the article.
I'm in the middle of reading "Spending God's Money." She points out how the more distance between the giver and the receiver, the more chance for abuses.
ReplyDeleteChristianity is BIG BUSINESS in America. It's about wealth and power and selling books and selling products and seminars.
Maybe there should be a study done on tithers vs. non-tithers. A scientific study. Then we can all see clearly if tithers are wealthier, healthier, catch more footballs, etc. than non-tithers. Then the issue won't be so vague. We will know if what the pastor is saying is true or not.
Doesn't surprise me at all. This is the kind of reaction you can expect when anyone employs the "it's all about me" health/wealth, blessing/cursing, superstitious/yuppie model of Christianity.
ReplyDeleteHow dare God not give me everything I want at the moment I want it.
Who does He think He is?
This kind of action is evident of babylon mystery school invading america where the church sees as a good thing. espically the SBC.
ReplyDeleteI kind of read it as tongue in cheek...like "I love you God, I screwed up, thanks, not sure what you are doing" in the sense of what do I need to learn from this. Sure enough, this is what he meant:
ReplyDelete"In actuality, Johnson explained, he was just asking God why he tested him like that, but still, it became big news and everyone from local reporters and talk show hosts to late night funny man Jimmy Kimmel took shots at Johnson.
“I didn’t expect it to be how it was,” Johnson said of all the negative attention he received for the tweet. “It’s still on my page, I’m not going to delete it. I didn’t mean it how they put it, I was simply asking why and it blew up. I’ll move forward from it and take it in stride. We’re an Internet generation and maybe I shouldn’t have done it. But I don’t regret that I did it.”
Would not be the first time that the Wartburg Watch folks went way overboard in their critcism of someone.
“I didn’t expect it to be how it was,” Johnson said of all the negative attention he received for the tweet. “It’s still on my page, I’m not going to delete it. I didn’t mean it how they put it, I was simply asking why and it blew up. I’ll move forward from it and take it in stride. We’re an Internet generation and maybe I shouldn’t have done it. But I don’t regret that I did it.”"
ReplyDeleteCompare his words above to someone thrown in prison in China for daring to confess Jesus Christ. Compare his words to Richard Wurmbrand thrown in a prison in Romania for many years for preaching Christ crucified who was tortured for years.
TWW was not overboard at all. They get it. It is a shallow Christianity that is not Christianity at all.
what's wrong with Prayer? You have not because you ask not! You liberals drive me crazy!
ReplyDeleteI thinking reading this and learning about this has just made my life much easier. Since I have had so much professional training in the field of psychology I now feel cheated. Now I have been enlightened. Apparently, according to these ministers, if i can get my clients to simply be consistent tithers they can fix their marriage problems? This is good news. I always thought it was deeper issues like communication problems, unresolved hurts, addictions, etc. Wow! My job just got easier.
ReplyDeleteDr. Marks
anon at 5:40:
ReplyDeleteI don't know anything about this football player. Heck, I know nothing about football in general.
But who is to say he's a shallow Christian based on a quick tweet made when he was disappointed and trying to be funny and it didn't come out right?
It's plain wrong to tear someone apart based on a "tweet". Chances are I could take a blip of something you say during a day and accuse you of being a shallow Christian too. And the Wartburg Watch. And ME.
Anon - I don't know anything of this receiver, never heard of him before this dropped pass. Just using his situation to poke fun of the latest nonsense in tithing doctrine, that misfortune will befall us if we don't give 10%.
ReplyDelete"But who is to say he's a shallow Christian based on a quick tweet made when he was disappointed and trying to be funny and it didn't come out right?"
ReplyDeleteYeah, you are right. Just because he makes millions of dollars a year for playing a game, and then decides to send a message to the world questioning God's faithfulness because of a dropped pass is no sign of bad judgement or immaturity.
And nothing is funnier than poking fun at God when everything doesn't turn out perfectly.
Perhaps it was a Thanksgiving day joke. Kind of ironic.
"what's wrong with Prayer? You have not because you ask not! You liberals drive me crazy!"
ReplyDeletehuh?
Watchdog,
ReplyDeleteI totally understood what you were doing. That didn't bother me at all. I was more bothered by the Wartburg Watch's comments. They took the quote very literally and denounced the guy. I just checked their website that you linked to and didn't see an update with Stevie Johnson's reply to the press about the tweet. I guess what I am trying to say is that several posters here assumed the guy is a lousy Christian based on a tweet. And that is wrong. None of us our famous, but I am sure we could also say a shallow thing or two in a tough moment...we are just fortunate enough not to have overy critical people like the Wartburg Watch write a blog about it.
"we are just fortunate enough not to have overy critical people like the Wartburg Watch write a blog about it."
ReplyDeleteAnd you don't think you are being overly critical of the Wartburg Watch?
"But who is to say he's a shallow Christian based on a quick tweet made when he was disappointed and trying to be funny and it didn't come out right?"
ReplyDeleteI am. I would never dream of blaming God for dropping a pass (even in my thoughts) much less write it on the Internet for the world to see. I wouldn't even do it as a joke. But then again, I'm not a shallow Christian.
"But who is to say he's a shallow Christian based on a quick tweet made when he was disappointed and trying to be funny and it didn't come out right?"
ReplyDeleteHere we go again. Words and Actions in PUBLIC do not mean what they communicated. How convenient.
Is it or is it not right to judge someone's Christianity based on a Tweet? I say it's NOT right. Can someone have a shallow moment? Can someone not have worded something carefully in a rushed moment? YES. Does it make them a bad Christian? NO. The guy even tried to explain himself. But no one even bothered to Google it. Several posters jumped all over him.
ReplyDeleteDr. Marks December 2, 2010 12:05 AM
ReplyDeleteHad to chuckle when I read his comment.....
His verbal actions demonstrated his fruit. His action in a stressful invironment really brings out who he or she really is. We have nicely payed pasters to help grow spiritually and avoid acting bad fruit. We should be like Jesus and not the world. I should expect the church to find reason to justify his bad action.
ReplyDelete"Is it or is it not right to judge someone's Christianity based on a Tweet? I say it's NOT right. Can someone have a shallow moment? Can someone not have worded something carefully in a rushed moment? YES. Does it make them a bad Christian? NO. The guy even tried to explain himself. But no one even bothered to Google it. Several posters jumped all over him."
ReplyDeleteI understand that this is a popular notion in the culture. The only thing that is wrong is to criticize anyone for doing something wrong.
Unfortunately, that is not a Biblical principal. Christ condemned the Pharisees for their shallow relationship with God. He judged them by their actions. Actions display what is in the heart. Dr. Rogers used to say that you find out what is really inside someone when you jostle them.
In this case, the football player has shown that he has a very shallow relationship with God.
Slightly off topic: What do you think of Les Puryear's list of requirements to become a member of his new church?
ReplyDeletehttp://lesliepuryear.blogspot.com/2010/12/our-new-church-membership.html
#6 in particular seems troubling to me (depending on what he means)
Of course, when he was questioned (in the comments section), he says that he doesn't feel the need to explain himself.
"I can see everyone who reads my blog and how often they read it."
ReplyDelete~Les Puryear
http://lesliepuryear.blogspot.com/
Big Brother is watching you!