Baptists seize upon Super Bowl to "save sinners!"

[Bluebear]

"(Jacksonville is) very conservative," said Timothy Strowbridge, 24, a waiter who has lived his whole life in the city. "Everywhere you turn, you see a church. Half of Jacksonville is run by a church." Sure enough, even Jesus has been tossed into the spun-mad hoopla surrounding the Super Bowl.

Southern Baptists and other religious groups are seizing upon the event and its expected 125,000 celebrants, as an unprecedented chance to save sinners. The week began with a Super March for Jesus and will end with a Convoy of Hope, which will offer food and clothes to the poor. In between the two events, the churches plan to distribute 200,000 religious leaflets.

Evangelist Tim Knopps, who is helping spearhead the Baptist efforts, said his nondrinking and nonsmoking charges shouldn't be repulsed by all the drunken revelry. They should embrace it. "Our Christians need to be Christians in all settings," he said. "Don't shy away from who you are."

He offered several gambits that members could use to lure visitors into conversation about faith. Among them: Talk to a friend about the football game within earshot of an out-of-towner. If he joins the conversation, steer the talk toward a church-sponsored Super Bowl party and invite the visitor. With tract-bearing evangelicals on one side and the shameless excess of Super Bowl XXXIX on the other, a bored journalist might be tempted to cast the clash as a fight between nothing less than good and evil, competing for the soul of America, or, at least, Jacksonville.

http://www.detnews.com/2005/business/0502/04/A01-79786.htm

[NC_Nurse]

1. Selling the baby Jeebus!

Sports and Religion: The two great Opiates of the Masses that go great together!

:puke: :puke: :puke:

[babylonsister]

2. Praise the LORD!

Those Baptists do good work! It is so lovely to know that we shall be saved somehow! Can I hear an "Amen"? (BTW, Go, Eagles!)

[Bluebear]

Go Patriots-AH!

May the divine-ah hand-ah watch over our beloved Patriots-ah, say amen!

[DebJ]

3. So which team will be scoring touchdowns for Jesus?

[Stop_the_War]

4. These freaks are trying to make Jacksonville look like....

some kind of religious freak show when it's actually not. I live in Jacksonville and I think these baptists or whatever they are, are nutcases who are trying to preach to the converted. Don't hate Jacksonville, if you're going to the Super Bowl and one of these psychos tries to convert you (I don't get that part because most of the Super Bowl visitors are already Christians) then tell them, in a really loud voice, to "SHOVE IT!".

[Bluebear]

5. Cheer STW, the article made it sound like they're coming from out of town

Sheesh, why not just let people enjoy the game instead of horning in on people's conversations and lisleading them into joining one of their "parties"?

[1monster]

6. Hey! If you are going to the Super Bowl, come to St. Augustine! That's

where most of the BIG NAME celebrities are staying. We reportedly have Paul McCartney, The Donald and his new wife, Paris Hilton, Brad Pitt, George Strait and Puff Daddy! (My mind is boggling over a visual of those two together. }( AND MANY MANY MORE!!! One local reported that she was stopped at a traffic light when the passenger, in the limo sitting next to her car, rolled down the window and started chatting to her. It was Tom Arnold (but at that moment, she could only remember him as the guy who married Roseanne...)

If you are not into celebrity watching, St. Augustine is a great little place with lots to do and see. Plus it is steeped in history and the architecture is beautifully unique. Where else in this country can you see so many examples of Spanish Renaissance buildings? We even have a scale model of the Alhambra!

[peekaloo]

7. Martin Mull should be the halftime entertainer.

He could do "Jesus Christ Football Star".

"So let's get Jesus Christ a football, let him even up the score, let him run it through the crossbars and be on the cross no more..."


I wish I could remember all the lyrics. x(

[musette_sf]

11. followed by that Bobby Bare favorite

"Drop Kick Me Jesus, Through The Goal Posts Of Life"

[booksenkatz]

8. Having lived in Jax for seven years...

My husband and I were wondering last night how the out-of-towners will feel about a town that pretty much shuts down at 9pm. Very few places to party. Anytime someone asked, "Hey, what's there to do/see around here?" we usually sent them out of town to Orlando, St. Augustine or Daytona, LOL! The only thing to do in Jax is churches. Or you could always drive down to Starke and see the cross on top of the water tower.
:eyes:

Glad to be out of that conservative backwater and living in the Ann Arbor area now... blue state living beats the holy hell out of red state living!!

[ooglymoogly]

9. well the afghani tali ban used there stadiums to execute sinners

maybe this is just the first step for the murkin tali ban

[TWiley]

10. Who will save us from them?

The American Christian Supremacists are not that much different than the dreaded Muslim Tali-ban.

[arwalden]

12. Will It EVER Stop? Does It EVER End?

[Bluebear]

13. No and no.

:crazy:

[Bluebear]

14. delete

.

[Solly Mack]

15. sounds like a carnie going for a mark...

trap-door Christian

bait and switch Jesus

[AG78]

16. We got a great big convoy

rockin' through the night.

We got a great big convoy, ain't she a beautiful sight.

Convoy!

[Bluebear]

17. Ah breaker breaker one nine....

Earworm.

[flaminbats]

18. no cross is required if you worship the sign of Lucifer..

no forgiveness is necessary if you condemn the hypocrite.

"For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness." (2 Corinthians 11:13-15 RSV)

"You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, carnelian, topaz, and jasper, chrysolite, beryl, and onyx, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald; and wrought in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. With an anointed guardian cherub I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and the guardian cherub drove you out from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground" (Ezekiel 28:13-17)

[Bluebear]

19. Really good passages!