Profiles in Arrogance (and insensitivity)
Posted on July 12th, 2007 by catalyst into the The City Church categoryWendell Smith in a recent sermon had this to say about September 11:
I believe that tens of thousands of lives were saved that morning because television sets came on and people all across American began to pray. Did you pray? Because we prayed and interceded. I believe people escaped those buildings. And people escaped those streets. And I believe the other plane went down and did not go into the place where it was intended all because of intercession.
I'm sure the families of those on United Flight 93 are comforted to know that Wendell's prayers caused that plane to crash.
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July 12th, 2007 at 3:54 am
I’m not really a proponent of MFI in general and CERTAINLY no fan of Wendell Smith, but I do think you’re nit-picking here. I don’t think he intended that to come across the way it did. I do think it’s a miracle that the heroic people on Flight 93 prevented even greater destruction by their sacrifice. It would have been even nicer had they been able to wrest control of the plane in time to land safely, though! But, that didn’t happen, unfortunately.
July 12th, 2007 at 5:59 am
I’ve come to recognize that as one of those lame and desperate statements from the pulpit, to validate the church, to convince people that the church is relevant, effective, powerful in prayer, etc.
Such statement would not be necessary IF the church were doing more significant work in the world, if they were really walking the talk with signs and wonders following.
But since churches have become cesspools of greed, error, abuse, self indulgent, etc., you hear lame testimonies like that, or of people giving praise to God for a parking space close to the door of the mall.
In that statement, I hear a lot of self exaltation (where self is a part of the church), a lot of white-washing (would the US have been attacked like that IF God were pleased with us (Proverbs 16:7))
What if Wendell were to say honestly “great job everyone - after our rampant national sin and apathy loosed an evil against us you did a great job building a hedge, turning the tide, yada, yada, though, don’t you think it would be better to get right with God and know his protection first, so that we weren’t always building hedges, turning tides, yada yada”
Pretty lame comments if ya ask me.
Sam
July 12th, 2007 at 7:44 am
The Muslims were praying too, and it seams like there prayers were answered much effectively. Next time I’m praying to Allah.
July 12th, 2007 at 8:59 am
Wendell also says that if you give him money, God will prosper you…so he isn’t exactly a reliable source.
July 12th, 2007 at 9:28 am
I think this is what bothered me the most about his statement. Wendell is taking credit for things that didn’t happen.
July 12th, 2007 at 9:34 am
At the Prosperity With Integrity
fundraiserconference, Dr. Leroy Thompson claimed that he was preaching the prosperity gospel down in N’Orleans right before Katrina and people rejected it and didn’t believe him, so when he got into hispersonal jetvehicle he “brushed the dirt off his feet” and that’s why God judged New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina.July 12th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Wow, I don’t know who Dr.Leroy Thompson is but he sounds like a real smellson. What an idiot.
July 12th, 2007 at 10:58 am
Leroy Thompson was the last thing I could take from the City Church, and I had to leave after that message. It was pretty bad.
If you want to hear a message of greed, listen to his message:
http://www.thecity.org/message/prophetic_ministry_on_covenant_wealth/
July 12th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Any situation could be worse. Hard to imagine how 9/11 could have been any worse than it was, but it could have. Trying to scrape together a few good things that happened that day to take credit for it is lame. Sounds like he needs to come up w/ a better argument to encourage his flock to pray.
July 12th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Wendell and this Leroy Thompson figure have more in common than I thought. We all know that Wendell’s degree is honorary and thus he should not be called “Dr,” but when I looked up Leroy’s credentials I was even more insulted. I was instantly skeptical when I noticed that he supposedly received two doctorates (Theology and Divinity), and of course I knew that no Word of Faith teacher could have any real education (apart from ORU) so I googled his alma mater school (Christian Bible College of Louisiana). I couldn’t even find a website for it. It sounds like he made it all up, or maybe he prayed it into existence, but didn’t pray hard enough and it flew back up to the 4th dimension…. damn.
July 20th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Seems like you guys are all hating on prosperity……..give Jesse Duplantis a try, ull have something to talk about for years and years to come…….it will keep you busy. lol.
July 20th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
We don’t need Duplantis, we have the city church…plenty of stuff there to bring to light. They are cut from the same cloth of Duplantis.