Posted on 04/04/2011 7:29:39 AM PDT by JoeProBono
TAVARES, Fla. - The pastor of a Florida house of worship called Saturday Night Live Church says its billboard reading "Scumbags Welcome!" is in keeping with Jesus' preaching.
Pastor Moses Robbins said his church's message isn't intended as a put down for a societal fringe that includes addicts, thieves and others who don't feel at home in a traditional church setting, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported.
"Our hope was that we would fill up the building, bring new people to the cross and Jesus," Robbins, 42, said.
The non-denominational church holds services in the activity center of the First United Methodist Church of Tavares. Tavares city officials determined free speech rights protected the billboard's wording.
Robbins listed his telephone number on the billboard and he said he has been deluged with calls.
"We had everything from, 'Hey, this is really great. I finally found a church I would go to' to 'I was raised in a Christian home and you don't talk like that about people. You're going to rot in hell,' " Robbins said.
Robbins said his church isn't named after the famous television program Saturday Night Live, but for the live band it features in its services.
"I thought if we could get people to open their Bible, even if they didn't come to our church, then we've done something good," said church member Bobby Fiore, who plays guitar at SNL services with his 14-year-old son, Kurdt, on drums.
Well there is that...
And as a fellow scum bag, I am honored to be welcome.
Terry Jones is probably a lot smarter than the MSM is portraying. By burning 1 Koran, he has probably proven his point, in spades about behavior of Muslims abroad and about Political Correctness here in the USA.
Isn’t “scumbag” slang for condom?
I’m just saying....
Yes, and so many are not aware of this when they throw the term around
Those crazy Florida pastors.
I like it.
The best analogy for a church (imho) is a hospital; not a hospital for the body, but a hospital for the spirit.
If church members would view themselves as patients in a hospital for the spirt, a lot of problems with the church would disappear.
if you’re in the hospital with a broken leg, do you look down on the person being treated for lukemia? No, if anything you count yourself lucky, and your heart goes out to the person with lukemia.
Yet how often do we see people in the church looking down and condeming others. When what we should be doing is looking on them as though they were spiritually sick and in need of compassion and help.
Mark 2:13-17 (New International Version)
Jesus Calls Levi and Eats With Sinners
13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
No! Not at all! Just 'cuz the board says "SNL", it doesn't play on the NBC late-night show's popularity among "scumbags". No. Really!
Really! Really?
I consider that step two.
Step one is looking at ourselves and seeing that we are spiritually sick and in need of compassion and help and asking God for that help.
Well, if it helps get the Not Quite Ready for PrimeTime Players back to church...
lolol. You two are quite right.
I wonder how ecstatic this pastor would be if somone were to drop off a box of used condoms in church next Sunday morning.
(”Welcome, welcome. Have a seat right here.”)
You DO know what a scumbag is don’t you? ewwwww
:O) could it be.......................satan?
It's like the word "Schmuck", most people don't really know what the word means, all they know is it sounds like a good insulting word.
Didn’t read the article, eh?
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