The Year General Conference Heard the "s" word

[Pastor DTSalaz]

So many witnesses and so many versions of what happened.

[Ferd]

It's kind of like all the folk that were "there" the night Nolon Ryan pitched a no-hitter.


47,000 people can fit in the ball park, but a million claim to have been there that night!

[Timmy]

Is it a sin to use the "s" word? Does it make God angry?

[timlan2057]

Well, I sincerely believe the Creel story was the one in question.

Now I'm not blowing smoke - but if a preacher specifically and purposely used the "s" word in a general conference sermon in the mid-eighties it would have been talked about from the Central New England District to the Western District and ... I would have heard about it.

Believe me, something like that would NOT have been a situation where no one could remember specifically who and where and when.

[Steve Epley]

Originally Posted by timlan2057

Well, I sincerely believe the Creel story was the one in question.

Now I'm not blowing smoke - but if a preacher specifically and purposely used the "s" word in a general conference sermon in the mid-eighties it would have been talked about from the Central New England District to the Western District and ... I would have heard about it.

Believe me, something like that would NOT have been a situation where no one could remember specifically who and where and when.

Thank you Tim I have never been in the UPC and honestly have been percieved to be anti-UPC but stories of this nature have always been questionable to me.

[Michael Phelps]

Originally Posted by timlan2057

This is the only incident I know so I believe it is "the" one.

It was the 1984 General Conference in (I believe) Anaheim, Ca. I was not there.

The preacher in question was Timothy Creel of Westlake, La.

Right after GC, I was preaching for Robert McGaha in Bernice, La. Robert's father was Homer McGaha, for many years a pastor in Louisiana. His brother, whose first name I do not recall, pastored around Arlington, Texas and maybe still does.

McGaha told me he had heard that Creel used the "s" word in his GC sermon.

I got the tape soon afterward and listened VERY carefully.

He was preaching against television and said something about a "television set" and instead of "set" it sounded like the "s" word. He then quickly corrected himself.

To me, it sounded like nothing more than an unfortunate slip of the tongue - unfortunate because of course it sounded like a profanity but I nowhere near thought it was intentional and even though I'm much more jaded now and never thought Timothy Creel was a preacher of a lot of substance, I still do not think it was anything more than an unintentional slip of the tongue.

I honestly never understood what all the fuss was about.

Tim,

I can confirm this story, I was preaching for Robert Molsbee in Gulfport, MS, and heard the tape of this message. I don't think anything would have been made of it had it not been for his subject matter, which centered around the verses in Leviticus, I believe, which dealt with the manner in which the Israelites were to deal with their "waste", i.e., they were to go outside the camp, eliminate their waste, and bury it. If they did it inside the camp, it could cause disease, etc.

Bro. Creel's message centered around many of the worldly things that we were allowing "inside" the church that should be kept outside, and were causing spiritual disease, and television was one of those things. He had just mentioned "stepping over piles", and then in reference to a television "set" it sounded like he may have had the unfortunate slip of the tongue.

Just circumstantial.

[Michael Phelps]

Originally Posted by mfblume

A slip of the tongue is not as bad as what I was told. A preacher who was there told me that the minister was describing times in his past when at a farm and walking through cow manure up to his knees. He allegedly used the "s" word instead.

This is a total fabrication, this was never the case with Bro. Creel.

[Ferd]

Originally Posted by timlan2057

Well, I sincerely believe the Creel story was the one in question.

Now I'm not blowing smoke - but if a preacher specifically and purposely used the "s" word in a general conference sermon in the mid-eighties it would have been talked about from the Central New England District to the Western District and ... I would have heard about it.

Believe me, something like that would NOT have been a situation where no one could remember specifically who and where and when.

for some reason my brain tells me this has been a topic of conversation before, and it just seems to me that your version here is materially accurate...

[timlan2057]

Originally Posted by Michael Phelps

Tim,

I can confirm this story, I was preaching for Robert Molsbee in Gulfport, MS, and heard the tape of this message. I don't think anything would have been made of it had it not been for his subject matter, which centered around the verses in Leviticus, I believe, which dealt with the manner in which the Israelites were to deal with their "waste", i.e., they were to go outside the camp, eliminate their waste, and bury it. If they did it inside the camp, it could cause disease, etc.

Bro. Creel's message centered around many of the worldly things that we were allowing "inside" the church that should be kept outside, and were causing spiritual disease, and television was one of those things. He had just mentioned "stepping over piles", and then in reference to a television "set" it sounded like he may have had the unfortunate slip of the tongue.

Just circumstantial.

Thanks for the additional information Michael. (I preached a revival for Molsbee in February of 1981, by the way.)

I had forgotten the subject matter and context of Creel's sermon until you refreshed my memory.

I do remember while I listened, that even with the subject matter, it never seemed to me to be anything more than a slip of the tongue by Creel.

Ferd, you are right.

This is not the first time this subject has come up though it may have been on FCF or NFCF and not this specific message board.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Ferd

for some reason my brain tells me this has been a topic of conversation before, and it just seems to me that your version here is materially accurate...

I remember hearing about this before on some forum but don't remember any details.