ABC Story: Child Preachers

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Pint-Size Preachers

Young Preachers Say They Save Souls, but Should Someone Save Their Childhoods?

By MICHAEL PRESSMAN and JUJU CHANG

Oct. 12, 2007 —

Seven-year-old Samuel Boutwell is an outgoing and well-spoken second grader. He loves to play with his dogs and play soccer, but he loves something else even more.


Samuel is a Baptist preacher at a church in his home town of Brookhaven, a small town in southwestern Mississippi. He also preaches outside in front of the local Wal-Mart, and has preached on the road in Virginia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Washington D.C., and the streets of New York City.


Like many, Samuel said he became a preacher after he was "saved" by Jesus -- he just happened to be 3 years old at the time. "After I got saved, I knew I could try to reach more people to try to get saved," Samuel said. His sin against God? Disobeying his mom. And so the boy turned to Jesus.


When asked to describe God, Samuel said, "Can you show me a building that didn't have a builder, could you show me a painting that didn't have a painter? Because nobody made God. He just exists." Samuel is home-schooled and fed a steady diet of Scripture, but his father, Kendall Boutwell, a born-again lay preacher himself, said the idea of preaching was all Samuel's.

'The Power of God'

Soon after he was saved, Samuel said God spoke to him by helping him come up with things to preach about.

"When I asked to preach, right when I think I can preach, God gives me something right there," he said.


Randall Balmer, an Episcopal priest and preacher and a professor of religion at Barnard College, wondered if Samuel's words truly come from divine inspiration. "Is he merely parroting some line&that he gets from a parent, or from a minister, or is it something that comes from the wellspring of the soul?" Balmer asked.
Balmer is the author of a dozen books on religion (his next book, "God in the White House: A History -- 1960-2004," will be published in spring 2008). He said that kids simply don't have the life experience to preach. "I believe that one's calling as a minister arises out of the crucible of one's experience∧ there's a certain maturity that comes with that, a certain understanding of the faith that comes with that."


But Samuel's father believes his son gets his understanding from God. "I know he's divinely inspired&if you listen to the messages, the different ones on the different subjects, yes, he's definitely divinely inspired," said TK. He also believes that his son is not too young to preach.


Another child minister, 9-year-old Terry Durham bills himself as the "little man of God." He's a travel-worn veteran compared to Samuel Boutwell. Terry has preached in cities around the country since he was only 4 years old. But he doesn't stop at just preaching. His grandmother, Pastor Sharone Monroe, said that "ever since he was a baby he was layin' hands and praying for people."


Monroe raised Terry and taught him much of what he knows about preaching and touching people to take away their pain. "When I touch the people, I feel God's hands come into my hands," said Terry, "and it's so exciting to see God move in the midst of their problems."


Terry calls himself a prophet, not a healer, and adults seem to flock to him. He disagrees with the idea that he might be too young for preaching, saying "people say Jesus started at the age of 12. And they say that my grandmother is pushing me, but it's not my grandmother, it's the power of God that's pushing me."

Too Young for Some Topics?

Samuel Boutwell has been taught to take the Bible at its word. When it comes to the after-life, he takes a hard line. He believes that anyone who is not saved by Jesus Christ will go to hell -- no exceptions. "I wish he had taken his Bible and read Matthew 7:1, where Jesus calls on his followers not to judge, lest they be judged," Balmer said.


Balmer objects to such a young boy preaching and finds it "offensive to the faith."


"This Christian faith is for me, and for millions of other people, a source of meaning, a source of truth, and to have it reduced to a kind of circus sideshow, I find deeply offensive."


Samuel often preaches outside abortion clinics. He said he knows what an abortion is and that he's seen pictures of abortions. "Women going in and they kill their child. I'll tell you the same thing I told my daddy one time: If they don't want to have their child they can give it to someone else," he said.


When asked if he knows how babies are made, Samuel said that he doesn't.



Balmer believes that no matter what ones view of abortion, it's wrong to have a child preaching about a topic he couldn't possibly understand fully. "It seems to me that the child is being used as a kind of political prop, for a particular political ideology." But Samuel's father argues that the boy is simply preaching the law of the Bible. Samuel is clearly articulate and mature beyond his years. Which is why it's surprising when, in a candid moment, the fact that he is just a child becomes obvious.


When asked what makes him want to preach, Samuel replied, "You're gonna have to ask my daddy that, I don't know."

Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures
 
How sad.

And, how annoying that they get a stock screaming liberal to give a 'contra' slant. Why didn't HE read the rest of HIS Bible and not JUST Matthew 7.1?

*sigh*
 
JonathanHunt;

How sad. And, how annoying that they get a stock screaming liberal to give a 'contra' slant. Why didn't HE read the rest of HIS Bible and not JUST Matthew 7.1?

*sigh*

Because that is the gospel He preaches..

Don't judge anyone, in other words, don't tell them their sin is wrong...don't tell them they believe in a false Jesus..
because they don't want to hear it..it's offensive, oh yeah, and it's Arrogant to think that there is only ONE WAY to Heaven...:mad: :banghead:
 
". . . they get a stock screaming liberal to give a 'contra' slant."

How sad, indeed.

Balmer, who has served as an editor-at-large with Christianity Today, began as the son of an Evangelical Free Church minister and district superintendent. Balmer has made a career out of offering high level academic critique of conservative Christianity in America. Graduating from Trinity College, Trinitiy Evangelical Divinity School, and Princeton University (masters and PhD), he has been a historian of religion in America with guest gigs at just about everywhere. More recently he took a M.Div. (2001) and took orders as a priest in the Episcopal church last year. In one of his books he tells the story of his EVFree father officiating at Randall's second marriage, only the first time in a 40 yr ministry he officiated at a remarriage following divorce.

For a flavor of his attitude, and a clear view of the considerable chip still perched on his shoulder, consider . . .

One of the benefits of being reared within evangelicalism, I suppose, is that you understand the workings of the evangelical subculture. I know, for example, that when my new book on evangelicals appears, the minions of the religious right will seek to discredit me rather than engage the substance of my arguments. The initial wave of criticism, as an old friend who has endured similar attacks reminded me, will be to deny that I am, in fact, really an evangelical Christian. When that fails — and I'll put up my credentials as an evangelical against anyone's! — the next approach will be some gratuitous personal attack: that I am a member of the academic elite, spokesman for the Northeastern establishment, misguided liberal, prodigal son, traitor to the faith, or some such. Another evangelical friend with political convictions similar to mine actually endured a heresy trial.

The evangelical subculture, which prizes conformity above all else, doesn't suffer rebels gladly, and it is especially intolerant of anyone with the temerity to challenge the shibboleths of the religious right. I understand that. Despite their putative claims to the faith, the leaders of the religious right are vicious toward anyone who refuses to kowtow to their version of orthodoxy, and their machinery of vilification strikes with ruthless, dispassionate efficiency. Longtime friends (and not a few family members) will shuffle uneasily around me and studiously avoid any sort of substantive conversation about the issues I raise — and then quietly strike my name from their Christmas-card lists. Circle the wagons. Brook no dissent.

The Chronicle: 6/23/2006: Jesus Is Not a Republican

Balmer is also a member of the controversial "Red Letter Christians" organization with folks like Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo.
 
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children preachers=gross. it really shows the level of reverence and seriousness that we have for the word whereby we relegate the exposition of God's word to untrained prepubescent folks, who can merely imitate.
 
There is a lot to be troubled about not only with the children preachers who don't know the Bible well enough, but also with the liberal detractors who are adults and know even less about the Bible. The quote from the first kid that made me want to puke:

Like many, Samuel said he became a preacher after he was "saved" by Jesus -- he just happened to be 3 years old at the time. "After I got saved, I knew I could try to reach more people to try to get saved," Samuel said. His sin against God? Disobeying his mom. And so the boy turned to Jesus.

Yep. Try to get saved indeed. Works salvation anyone?
 
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