The major church ministry this Christmas is to single moms in the city. The pastor decided to share some of the emails the church had received from people who knew about the effort, but were cynical. One man said, "How about single dads?" Another said, "You just want to get their money," presumably meaning, 'you just want to get them attending the church so they'll give regularly to the offering.'
The pastor then offered up to the congregation what he would have LIKED to have told the 2nd person....."THEY DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY...(pause).....YOU MORON!" and the place busted out in laughter.
I would describe it as a smaller church, with a pastor that has an above average sense of humor, always trying to be funny at some point in most sermons. At such times, I usually am first and loudest to laugh, but didn't laugh this time. I was tired, not having had enough sleep, plus it wasn't funny to me.
Most churches I've been in are much larger, and I can't imagine their pastors even mentioning apparent outsider hate email from the pulpit, much less resorting to name calling. Such outsiders must have been people at home who watch live over the Internet, or follow on social media. No one in attendance would have been the people being critical via email.
Do you think the pastor was out of line, or would you just chalk it up to human nature? He may have been using the congregation to vent frustrations. But still.....
P.S. - I wouldn't have put it past the pastor to have completely made up both stories. There is another instance in which I think he was lying to me about the issue of who exactly gets and reads the email that goes to the church's main 'info' email address. Unlike some much larger churches in town that I know of, they won't put the pastor email addresses and photos on their staff web page.