Bro Gary Hawkins 24: Smoking Meat

[Alisamer]

On 6/26/2024 at 12:08 AM, thoughtful said:

@marmalade, on July 11, 1999, Bro Gary was born again and saved from burnin' in hell with his back broke, at Open Door Baptist Church, Marion South Carolina, Sandhill Road, after the service, while waitin' to go out for a fish dinner.

 

On 6/26/2024 at 1:25 PM, thoughtful said:

- he was looking at the church doors and, instead of seeing the doors or what was outside (he's never specified whether they were wood, metal or glass, IIRC), he saw a vision of himself burning in hell.

 

It was mid-July in Marion South Carolina, and he was out in the parking lot, likely in early afternoon. It really doesn't take much to imagine yourself burning in hell in that situation! Mid to high 90s temperature most likely and 85+% humidity.

 

On 6/30/2024 at 2:17 PM, thoughtful said:

I love it when they make that error. It brings to mind a picture of a veterinarian waiting at the front of church to neuter people.

Sounds like a good idea to me. A TNR program for stupid self-righteous fundies!

On 6/30/2024 at 10:08 PM, thoughtful said:

A comment under the post assuming the young man didn't get proper preaching:

The "like" is from Gary, which is rare when someone disagrees with him. Maybe Chris is someone he knows, or he's OK with the young man being blamed, instead of his pastor.

It might be a rare flash of self awareness. Gary had certainly heard what he'd consider proper Gospel preaching for most if not all his life, and still didn't "respond to the call" until he was out in the parking lot that day, hungry and roasting hot, and probably halfway to heat stroke. So maybe he had a brief bit of understanding that if it took him that long to figure it out, maybe the same might be true for this young man. Gary must have had a couple brain cells accidentally bump together there. 

I can't remember - has Gary's dad always been a preacher or did he come to that later?

[Xan]

18 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

I can't remember - has Gary's dad always been a preacher or did he come to that later?

I don't think Danny was ever good enough at preaching to have his own church.  All I know about him is that he drove a bus during the week.  I think they might have also done some farming.  We've seen Danny preaching in his own living room and, occasionally, in a tent on the front yard.  I think that's where Gary got the idea for tent preaching.

[Alisamer]

46 minutes ago, Xan said:

I don't think Danny was ever good enough at preaching to have his own church.  All I know about him is that he drove a bus during the week.  I think they might have also done some farming.  We've seen Danny preaching in his own living room and, occasionally, in a tent on the front yard.  I think that's where Gary got the idea for tent preaching.

I just wondered, because the area I'm from isn't super far from where Gary is from, and if he grew up as a preacher's kid, it would explain a lot.

It seems to have changed (for some people, but not others) in recent years and it isn't an absolute. But of the preacher's kids I grew up with, went to college with, and some I have come across otherwise... they're the wild ones. Some openly and some less so, but back when Gary and I were kids (we're similar in age I think) the preacher's kids were usually the ones sneaking out and drinking and enjoying whatever debauchery they could come up with, LOL!

[thoughtful]

4 hours ago, Alisamer said:

It was mid-July in Marion South Carolina, and he was out in the parking lot, likely in early afternoon.

I'm pretty sure he was inside the church when he was looking at the doors. But I can't remember what he said that led to my picturing it that way.

3 hours ago, Xan said:

I don't think Danny was ever good enough at preaching to have his own church.  All I know about him is that he drove a bus during the week.  I think they might have also done some farming.  We've seen Danny preaching in his own living room and, occasionally, in a tent on the front yard.  I think that's where Gary got the idea for tent preaching.

Danny talked about becoming a preacher when delivering his wife's eulogy, but it's not clear how soon he started trying to be a preacher.

He and Sheila were married for 53 years. Gary is 52. Gary says he was baptized as a baby, and talks about his grandmother getting them "back in church" when Gary was about three years old, IIRC - Methodist, I think, with a female minister. So Danny was not a Baptist yet at that point.

Then Danny met a man whose name escapes me at the moment, who convinced him to become a Baptist. Whether Danny started preaching before his conversion or not, I don't know.

Let's face it - neither of them are reliable narrators!

Here's what I posted from the eulogy:

Quote

He says he had a good job with Duke Energy , but after four days of marriage, he just couldn't stand leaving his wife in the morning, so he quit and they went into farming for several years. He says they cut firewood, sold vegetables and hauled fertilizer together.

"Then the lor' called me in the ministry, an' we did that together."

He says she was as near to being a perfect pastor's wife as anyone could be, and stuck up for him when he went through trials - he says he "prob'ly had to go through a little more than the average."

As he talks about how churches dropped him, and, when he asked her if they should "go on," she was always OK with it,  Gary brings him a box of tissues.

The fertilizer hauling was for pay, not their own business. 

I know from his preaching, and Gary's, that Danny tried planting churches, and I think he was "under" other pastors in some situations, in South and North Carolina and South Dakota. I have no idea about the details or how long he was at any one place, but have a vague sense that South Carolina came first, and South Dakota was later. There may have been several tries in North Carolina over the years.

Here's a picture from a time when he pastored a church:

Spoiler

Over the years, I think his income has mostly come from driving school buses. He also has (had?) a radio station, Old Paths Radio. IIRC, there was some whole drama about the local government not approving his radio tower, but I can't find the posts about it now.

I don't know if he ever preached under a tent until Gary got his (a gift from a preacher who was retiring, IIRC).

https://www.facebook.com/p/Old-Paths-Radio-100064595293621/?_rdr

 

2 hours ago, Alisamer said:

of the preacher's kids I grew up with, went to college with, and some I have come across otherwise... they're the wild ones. Some openly and some less so, but back when Gary and I were kids (we're similar in age I think) the preacher's kids were usually the ones sneaking out and drinking and enjoying whatever debauchery they could come up with,

According to Gary, he did have a wild phase - he talks about his two attempts at getting high on marijuana, and his many traffic citations, sometimes. I can't remember him saying anything about liquor, cigarettes, or sex.
 

Edited Wednesday at 08:59 PM by thoughtful
posts merged, so I edited them to make more sense

[Ozlsn]

On 7/4/2024 at 6:25 AM, thoughtful said:

According to Gary, he did have a wild phase - he talks about his two attempts at getting high on marijuana,

This made me laugh out loud. Two! I am shocked, shocked I tell you!!