Posted by Hemant Mehta in I’m sure some atheists will find joy in this…
Pastor Ben Dailey at Calvary Church in Texas wants to boost his attendance, so he’s making an offer:
If Calvary Church breaks the 4,000 attendance barrier Sunday, April 12th and Sunday, April 19th Ben will sacrifice all the comforts of common daily life, make his way to the roof of Calvary Church, overlooking Highway 161, and reside in a ‘roomy’ 6×6x6 foot plexi-gass box for three days and nights. He will enter the box on April 26th at 7:00pm and exit the box April 29th at 7:00pm.
Well, I suppose that’d be better than the guy preaching for three days…
I’m all for it. This is *totally* what Jesus would have done.
(via Church Marketing Sucks)
Hey, my birthday falls into that range. What a nice birthday present for me.
//Then you put your
dickpastor in a box…Will it have air holes?
Texas? Plexi-glass? Church roof? My guess is he comes down the first day after contracting sun poisoning. Will he also be in a suit? That could be fun.
I prefer my pastors to be pickled instead of baked, but I suppose baked works too.
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He’s the David Blaine of Holy Men.
I think Reed’s got the ending of this story right. To spend three days in an enclosed greenhouse on the roof a church under the Texas sun seems like a recipe for heat stroke to me.
How will he take care of his toilet needs?
Yeah, I was going to ask the same thing gmcfly does. Don’t pastors need to go potty, too? Three days is a long time to hold it. But otherwise, if he gets jacked up for indecent exposure….
Eww. Just–eww.
I wonder if it has occurred to this guy that his congregants are in the same demographic as the audience for “Survivor” and “Fear Factor.”
There’s a mime joke here somewhere…
Fundies have mistaken score keeping with piety.
Uh-hm … plexi-glass box in Texas on a roof top… Are we going to distill the essence of nonsense out of him then?
Pastor David Blaine!
Cue Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg… “It’s a dick in a box…. a dick in a box, yeaaahh…”
Because nothing says honest, genuine belief like a shameless publicity stunt.
The dimensions of the box are 666! LMFAO over here.
I just don’t get the connection between church attendance and putting himself through an ordeal. Why would church-goers want him to go through an ordeal? Don’t they like him?
I’ve seen school principals willing to do something humiliating to themselves if the students reach some goal on some school drive or whatever, but that’s taking advantage of the slightly adversarial role the principal plays. This pastor’s challenge to go without comfort in a plastic box as a reward for expanded attendence just doesn’t make any sense.
Oh wait. This is Texas. Never mind.
3 days and nights from April 26 to April 29.
But 3 days and nights is only from Friday evening to Sunday morning, about 36 hours.
Everybody knows that.
Hmmm. Three days entombed in a small space as a sacrifice for the sake of the faithful. Where have I heard of this idea before?
The place is already called Calvary Church. It may be that in centuries to come, The Church of the Acrylic Sepulchre will be fought over by conquering armies, guarded jealously by monks and disputed by scholars, bringing in a continuous flow of pilgrim/tourists to the Holy Land of Texas.
I am so glad God is busy making sure this dude doesn’t die, and ignores the Third World.
Interesting how everyone is reading so much into this idea.
i love that most of you atheist are kinder than some of the pastors!! You prove that GOD can show his love even through those who do not believe in him!! Thank you!!
oh…. JEN, what are you doing for the third world again??
This is for Roger George, what an amazing comment. I 100% agree with you and what you have said. What a glorious God we have that can shine in so many places.
[...] you expect them to write about the goofy things that “Christians” do: Put Pastor in a Box? (Are you kidding me? In order to attract visitors to church, a pastor has promised to live in a [...]
[...] http://friendlyatheist.com/2009/03/28/put-a-pastor-in-a-box/ [...]
I’m a Christian and agree with a lot of these comments. A few that made me chuckle:
FrodoSaves: “Because nothing says honest, genuine belief like a shameless publicity stunt.”
Richard Wade: “This pastor’s challenge to go without comfort in a plastic box as a reward for expanded attendance just doesn’t make any sense.”
Zen Bonobo: “Fundies have mistaken score keeping with piety.”
Some Pastors will do anything (sitting in a box for three days) to get you Atheists in the church door yet don’t realize that you guys just get a hilarious kick out of stunts like Pastor Ben’s. When will my fellow Christians learn this?!?
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I am terribly sorry for my public disagreements of Pastor Ben Dailey’s idea of reaching non-Christians. As a Christian, I feel as if I’ve gone way overboard with comments on this blog. Below is my public apology:
http://kowalker.com/2009/04/08/my-public-apology-to-ben-dailey/
Erik,
I think you were being honest.
There are some who, in the pursuit of truth, sometimes lose track of their honesty. For them, whatever truth they think they have becomes a prideful trophy, a badge of self-importance. Without simple, humble honesty, whatever truth they find becomes corrupt and self-serving, an effete, abstract game. They begin to do foolish and silly things. I think you were reacting to the foolish and silly thing you were seeing someone else do, and you were being honest about it; you were demonstrating honesty. Always focus on honesty, and whatever truth there is to stumble across will be of constructive use to you.
There are some who, in the pursuit of honesty, sometimes lose track of their compassion, and state their honest views harshly. For them, honesty becomes a brutal weapon and, like truth, can also become self-serving and self-aggrandizing. To temper honesty with just a little compassion can avoid that trap. However, sometimes we are faced with a difficult choice between the two. If you must choose, honesty is still the better way, for while compassion may be soothing, honesty promotes growth. In your effort to retrieve your compassion, it looks like you have been able to retain your honesty. Always focus on honesty, and whatever compassion you give will be of constructive use to others.
I knew Ben when he was Benji. His dad was my pastor in Seattle when I was a teenager. Ben was a typical 9 year old bratty preacher’s kid. Glad to see he has turned out OK. I do think that a lot of his facebook stuff is really contrived and he really ought to learn that present tense action verbs end in “ing” not in’. If that is the only problem one has with him then he is OK in my book, and anything anyone does to help bring more people to Jesus can’t be bad.