I'm always suspicious of pastors and priests etc. It's a bad association but I always think of paedophilia when they're mentioned. Do we know the full story of this pastor?
wow it's really too bad you feel that way about pastors and preachers. Bad experiences such as what you have mentioned, really can mess people up.
Well if you think about it in "Michael" terms, it's the same way. When a lot of people hear the name "Michael Jackson", they automatically think "paedophilia". But we know that is simply not true, right?
Anyway, Pastor Fred did so very, very much for people. I know the family, I know what they are like, etc. My information comes straight from the horse's mouth: from congregation and family members. And there is a lot that the media left out. For instance, Pastor Fred, rather than exiting and saving his own hide, took more bullets, point plank and straight to the heart, before he physically JAMMED UP a semi-automatic 45 gun...to save the people in his congregation. See, he knew where he was going. He knew heaven was waiting for him.
Nobody knew the gunman. Pastor Fred did not know the gunman. The only person alive right now that knows WHY this happened and WHAT was said between the two, is the gunman himself. We are waiting on info from him. What we DO know, is that Pasor Fred led thousands upon thousands of people to the saving love of Jesus Christ. He talked the talk, and walked the walk. And he died doing what he loved: preaching the Word of God.
What is sad to all of us, was the several protestors that lined the street outside the church as we drove up before the funeral. These are people who spend their lives actively hating God. it is sad, and we pray for them, because they don't know true joy and contentment.
The funeral itself was a celebration of a full life. I never saw one like it before. There were probably 2500-3000 people there, easy. My family and I were in the overflows watching from there. and about 10,000 had come to the wake the day before. This shows how much people everywhere cared for this man, and how much of an influence he was. This was a painful and sad tragedy, but he have joy knowing that what God had planned for him is done and that we know he is having a wonderful time with Jesus!
