The Gas Can Preacher…

in Faith by mmcgrath — July 20, 2010 at 5:44 pm | 5 comments

Straight from the too stupid to believe its’ true file… haha

The Gas Can Preacher, an elder but eccentric fella; been preaching to folks for quite a long time in the local area of southwestern Virginia, was recently arrested and held in the Lynchburg, VA mental hospital for refusing to reject his belief that he hears the voice of God…

So, how did all this happen, especially in “Jerry Falwell” country..?

This man has been carrying a gas can for as long as folks in these parts can remember. He believes in simple living and therefore doesn’t own a car; rather, he relies upon the goodness of others to get him around from place to place. Enter the gas can, he uses it to help those who help him – seems its a lot cheaper to travel this way and it gives him the opportunity to meet and minister to others by cheering them up, or encouraging them in their daily path, and praying for them as he travels around and carries out his daily activities…

Apparently a couple of weeks ago, he contacted the good folks at the medicare office and was trying to set up an appointment; the person that answered the phone (imagine this) was from a different country and had a very strong accent. As they were talking, he mentioned that he would be along shortly and would be carrying his gas can with him so they would know that is how he traveled around.

Now, it gets interesting. She apparently didn’t understand what he was saying, instead perceiving that he was threatening to blow the place up with a gas can, she called the authorities; who dutifully met him at the front door with the bomb squad in tow. They arrested him and took away his gas can, charging him with attempting to blow up a federal facility… Oh, its gets even more ridiculous, just wait…

Somehow, the details are a little sketchy here, he was contacted by the Veterans Affairs Hospital folks, being a veteran, who asked for him to come over and be evaluated by their psychological folks and the police cooperated. He shows up, they ask him a bunch of silly questions about why he wanted to blow up the federal building, he denies that he ever said anything stupid like that and tried to explain his gas can. He got so frustrated that they weren’t listening, so he excused himself and left – returning to his home in total disgust… (good for you Gas Can Preacher)

Well, there were apparently three officers waiting for him there who, having heard about his hasty departure from the VA mental center, quickly transported him to the Mental Hospital in Lynchburg to have him admitted, claiming he was a dangerous criminal and they made sure to inform the staff of the charges against him.

Let me take a moment to remind our readers, that in the 18th century, ‘The Horseback Preacher’ played a vital role in the History of America.  John Wesley was a man of thought, producing volumes of sermons, hymns, and other writings. But he was also a man of action, traveling more than 200,000 miles over sea and land, much of that by horseback, to spread the Word of God. Through his eighty-seven years of life, John Wesley was uniquely used by God to share the message of personal holiness, discipline, and charity.

Now, it was over a week before he was allowed to tell anybody that all this was happening. Finally, he gets word out to a pastor friend, who goes to visit him and discovers this astounding and terrifying story first hand. He tells the pastor they won’t let him go until he rejects the notion that he hears from God, and this false notion of an unseen God whom he claims to have a relationship with – and they are claiming he is the crazy one… geez…

So he is now stuck in this facility while the standoff continues…

So let me get this straight (and this is what America is coming to); a woman who works for the government, who can’t speak or understand our language or culture, feels threatened by something she can’t understand reports this innocent and harmless traveling preacher to authorities who automatically don’t buy his story about this gas can that he has traveled with for decades around the local, more rural areas of Virginia – the city folks just can’t get their brains around this so they put this poor guy through psychological hell while they take a stand against his religious beliefs and refuse to let him back into society until he is ‘made better’ by the nut cases that are running this whole circus…  Brilliant, just brilliant..!

If you’re an American, you should be offended by this..! How many ‘traveling preachers’ have laced our history folks..? How many communities or individuals would claim that guys like this had a life changing and positive influence on their lives throughout the course of American history..?  Not to mention the local culture in that part of Virginia and the countless witnesses that could’ve been brought into the situation had they allowed him to call for assistance…

This whole ‘terrorist’ thing is spinning out of control ya’ll – when a simple, yet eccentric older man, who makes his way around and is very well known in his area of the country, trespasses into what has become ‘occupied territory’  (e.g. the big city) by foreigners who turn him in to ‘authorities’ because he ‘hears voices’ – yeah, you got it… Welcome to modern day American Christianity – me thinks we are in trouble…

Share on Facebook