Rose, do I know you? I went to FAC for one year in the late 60's, then changed over to Antioch Apostolic Church where Paul Dennis was our pastor. Went there from about '69-'76. (then I moved to Pontiac under Roy Well, then to Owosso where Harold Roberts pastored).
No, we don't know each other. I was at FAC in late 70's and early 80's. I am now in KY.
This video doesn't surprise me one bit. This is exactly the kind of thing that would happen in our services. This also shows, the UPCI is in grave error by accepting this kind of behavior as "God". In fact, I was shocked how people would just continue to amen this guy.
Yeah, I would agree it's a very accurate portrayal, and exactly the type of thing that happens in the UPC. I've seen the video clip several times, and everytime I'm absolutely disgusted. What a mockery...and not just by Borat, either.
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"If you're riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there."
I never realized the church in Borat was a UPC one.
He seems to have tried several venues but the final edit was perhaps the "best" of them. In the scene before the service starts where he "wakes up" from his miserable night at a camp fire, he is not at the entrance of the Mississippi UPC camp ground. Watch the people going in.
The next cut of him "inside" is the Mississippi camp meeting.
Later, on the bus where he is singing and dancing with a bus load apparently of all women, they are not UPC looking ladies.
The edit makes it look like all three sequences involved the same church group, but they are clearly different settings. Who knows what situations were captured on film but never made the final release.
The "tongues talking" and all of that was right from the UPC camp meeting, however. The whole "Mr. Jesus" and "my Pamela did something terrible on a boat..." was part of the altar call and service.
Funny as it seems, I've actually been to stranger camp meetings and services.
C'mon, Tim-Tim. Can you imagine the scene of this unfortunate wretch had been rejected by and turned out of the camp?
What's sad is that from now on most UPCers won't be as readily accepting of such people and will always be suspicious of "outsiders" and such.
We really do make ourselves vulnerable when we preach the Gospel. This vulnerability might be tempered with a bit more wisdom on our part. For example, if we stopped making ridiculous and incredible claims we probably wouldn't be the target of so many scammers like "Borat" and company.
Sadly, Bro. Godwin's whole spiel ("I ain't no monkey... I is what I is..." and all of that) sets the stage for Borat's own deception and con game. If we approached the Gospel message with a better perspective and a more educated and balanced view of reality, we might even end up winning some of the knotheads who lampoon us every day.
C'mon, Tim-Tim. Can you imagine the scene of this unfortunate wretch had been rejected by and turned out of the camp?
What's sad is that from now on most UPCers won't be as readily accepting of such people and will always be suspicious of "outsiders" and such.
We really do make ourselves vulnerable when we preach the Gospel. This vulnerability might be tempered with a bit more wisdom on our part. For example, if we stopped making ridiculous and incredible claims we probably wouldn't be the target of so many scammers like "Borat" and company.
Sadly, Bro. Godwin's whole spiel ("I ain't no monkey... I is what I is..." and all of that) sets the stage for Borat's own deception and con game. If we approached the Gospel message with a better perspective and a more educated and balanced view of reality, we might even end up winning some of the knotheads who lampoon us every day.
Again, I think that people will always have compassion on people like Borat and, even though they may have been scammed, we still don't know what God was able to do in his life, regardless of what the clip looked like.
Remember the guy that wrote, "They Spoke in Tongues"? He set out to disprove tongues and found out he was wrong. He never did receive the Holy Ghost, but he did find out his view was not correct.
I would have to believe that God would not allow Borat to not feel the sincerity of His presence in that place. I believe it would be totally disingenuous, regardless of bitter feelings toward the UPC, to say that there was not a majority of sincere people in attendance.
Being that we do not know the condition of Borat's heart, we cannot and will not ever fully know what he may have truly felt or experienced during his escapade. I have larger expectations of God.
I grew up going to camp meeting there and to the youth camps. Crowd looks a lot smaller now than it did back in the day. Poor Jason Dillon was right in the middle of it all.
But yeah, the clip actually makes them look better than many services I have seen.