Lent 2021, Day 30: This is a really bad sermon, too.

I’m glad quite a few of you liked yesterday’s post about the worst sermon I’ve heard, and I really liked reading on Instagram Theresa’s story about the Nigerian guest speaker who… let’s just say, had no problem sharing sugar honey iced tea with all who came to listen to her speak.

Recently, another spectacularly bad sermon made headlines for being incredibly sexist and demeaning, and even body-shaming. From Adelle M. Banks at Religion News Service:

Leaders of the General Baptist Council of Associations have recommended an investigation of a minister who preached that “weight control” by wives is the solution for marital problems.

Stewart-Allen Clark, pastor of the First General Baptist Church in Malden, Missouri, is seen in video clips of a Feb. 21 sermon questioning the appearance of women after they marry their husbands.

“Why is it so many times that women after they get married let themselves go?” he asks, standing on a stage with what appears to be a large open Bible in his left hand. “Why do they do that?”

I didn’t walk out on Rev. Wrong’s bad sermon in 2005, but 2021 Li would’ve chucked the deuces at Pastor Clark once he said that. Look, after 2020, my patience is gone. Back to the story:

At one point during his sermon, Clark makes a comparison to the former first lady, showing a picture of her in a long, sleeveless blue dress.

“Now look, I’m not saying every woman can be the epic, the epic trophy wife of all time like Melania Drumpf,” he said. “All I can say is not everybody looks like that, amen? … But you don’t need to look like a butch either.”

Amen? AMEN? Who wants to give a verbal holy co-sign to that? And how does this man of the cloth think it’s at all beneficial to tell the women of that church to aim to be a “trophy” for the men? I guess since we all can’t be Melania, we can still be participation trophies. Or something. Just not butch.

Clark, who noted he no longer does marriage counseling, cited a friend who had “a divorce weight on his wife. That’s how important this is.” He also referenced a joke about a boy’s discussion on why females wear makeup and perfume before saying, “You don’t want to be ugly and stink.”

He added another joke that prompted his laughter and others’: “Scientists have discovered, by the way, a food that diminishes a woman’s sex drive. It’s called wedding cake.”

He’s like a reject from a local comedy club. You know, both Rev. Wrong and Pastor Clark have in common the fallacious belief that their own troubled opinions are on par with what they’re actually supposed to be preaching. Paul wrote:

Our work as God’s servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly…

2 Corinthians 6:4 (The Message)

Anyone who wants to preach, teach or lead people should be able to say a heartfelt “Amen” to this:

God tested us thoroughly to make sure we were qualified to be trusted with this Message. Be assured that when we speak to you we’re not after crowd approval—only God approval. Since we’ve been put through that battery of tests, you’re guaranteed that both we and the Message are free of error, mixed motives, or hidden agendas. We never used words to butter you up. No one knows that better than you. And God knows we never used words as a smoke screen to take advantage of you.

1 Thessalonians 2:3-5 (The Message)

Pastor Clark took leave from the church once the story went viral, and is seeking professional counseling. Read the whole RNS story here, and you can watch a clip of Clark’s sermon below:

• Watch this great reaction video from God is Gray.
• Now the very hard part: pray for Pastor Clark and Rev. Wrong. I already have. Really.