Bro Gary Hawkins 20: Setting Up a Tent at the Train Depot

[Ozlsn]

37 minutes ago, Xan said:

And is this really your priority right now?  Becky's having surgery tomorrow and you're posting about gasoline?

I suspect he's distracting himself.  Fill up the car, do odd jobs - anything to keep from dwelling on something that he's finding intimidating.

[Xan]

4 minutes ago, Ozlsn said:

I suspect he's distracting himself.  Fill up the car, do odd jobs - anything to keep from dwelling on something that he's finding intimidating.

I think you're being extremely kind.  I agree that he's probably overwhelmed but I think he's mostly worried about how he'd manage on his own without Becky.  Having that truck gassed up and running goes a long way towards making him feel better about things.

[Joyster]

Becky posted about Tupperware 6 hours ago.  Tupperware is her distraction.  It probably is her distraction from the fact she is married to Gary also.

Gary posted this prayer request for Becky's surgery 3 hours ago:

Spoiler

He posted that all went well in the comments.  Now she just needs "a couple of days" to recover.  Knowing what I know about Gary, he'll be pushing for them to get on the road next week.

Spoiler

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by Joyster

[postscript]

“Give me gas in my Ford, keep me truckin’ for the Lord. . .” 

Gary probably wouldn’t approve of the song because it’s catchy, but I think of it every time he talks about his truck. 

[Joyster]

Are you trying to get "God" to fill your gas tank again, Gary?

I think someone filled Gary's tank again and bought him nice clothes "ect".

Spoiler

 

[mango_fandango]

Hmm, is Bro Gary posting on FB again? I got bored of looking at his FB because it seemed to be endless videos of him/others preaching, nothing about where he was going or any “man food eating” posts. 

[Xan]

14 hours ago, Joyster said:

Are you trying to get "God" to fill your gas tank again, Gary?

I think someone filled Gary's tank again and bought him nice clothes "ect".

  Hide contents

 

 

What exactly did God do that He needs to do again?  Create the world?  Flood the whole thing?  What, Gary?  

And what's going on with Becky?  I wish Gary would focus less on the truck's gas tank and more on his wife's health.

[postscript]

31 minutes ago, Xan said:

What exactly did God do that He needs to do again?  Create the world?  Flood the whole thing?  What, Gary?  

And what's going on with Becky?  I wish Gary would focus less on the truck's gas tank and more on his wife's health.

I assumed Gary was talking about filling the truck’s tank with gas, or maybe getting someone to treat him to Chinese. Always things that benefit Gary individually. 

And agreed I’d rather hear more about Becky and less about the truck. One would think the truck had had the surgery. 

[3splenty]

I admit, I'll give Becky a pass on distraction.  I had to do that before my surgery, too.  Its scary knowing what can go wrong, how quickly and how easily.  Also, I wanted little to no attention because of it.  Very few people knew and that's how I wanted it.

Of course, I don't know if Becky is the same way.  But Gary, if you value your wife the way the Lord commands, wouldn't you be there for her?

[Joyster]

Gary is in Conway, South Carolina.  We'll  find out tomorrow if Becky is with him.  I hope she was able to stay in North Carolina and get some rest.

[Bluebirdbluebell]

I had forgotten about this twitter account, but theres's a twitter account called BadPreacherAccounts @ Bad Sermons. They have many clips from many, many preachers. 

One preacher they feature is Bro Gary. I posted a clip they shared before in a previous thread. They put up clips from Gary in the last two week.

One was tweeted on June 3. It's an old video of Gary explaining how he got a record deal in Nashville. Here's the link.

One was tweeted on June 11. It seems to be more a recent video. Gary is explaining that everyone was afraid of a dope dealer except Gary, because he is high on Jesus. Here's that link.

One good thing about @ Bad Sermons is the clips are short. It's right up Free Jinger's alley and I recommend it to anyone who would interested. There are some old (2005) clips from a preacher at Crown College (where the Bates go) and Jack Schaap clips along with many other clips.

[Joyster]

I quickly clicked on Gary's YouTube page and caught the end of his Sunday School message.  I didn't see Becky, but the camera and dividing screens (looked like health clinic screens) in the room were placed at such a weird angle that it was hard to tell.  

Right when I came in I heard Gary talk about how he wasn't against education.  He just didn't think most education was effective because they used other versions (with disgust in his voice he mentions NIV).  He right now is getting involved in opening a KJV college.

I'm going to have to listen to the recording later, but seriously, Gary...founding father of a college?  This from a man who typed today, "I am Thankful I get to Preach GOD word."

[postscript]

18 minutes ago, Joyster said:

Right when I came in I heard Gary talk about how he wasn't against education.  He just didn't think most education was effective because they used other versions (with disgust in his voice he mentions NIV).  He right now is getting involved in opening a KJV college.

I'm going to have to listen to the recording later, but seriously, Gary...founding father of a college?  This from a man who typed today, "I am Thankful I get to Preach GOD word."

Gary? Founding a college? The mind boggles. Outside of the fact that he would never be around to teach or preside at school functions, this is the man who can't string together a single comprehensible sentence, scoffs at education, and doesn't understand the book he preaches from. I wonder if this is a pet project for Daddy Danny or one of Gary's preacher friends, and Gary is just along for the ride. Look forward to hearing more. 

[Joyster]

The Gospel Light Independent Baptist Church, home of the Amazing Grace chiming clock, posted that the family members would be with Gary.  The church has a Facebook recording.  In the prayer portion of the Sunday School service, Pastor Pridgen asked the congregation to pray for the Hawkins as they would have a busy schedule after they left on Tuesday morning.  I guess this is Becky's rest from her surgery. 

By the way, Pastor Pridgen is not the mild mannered, kind grandpa he appears to be.  He told a story about some young kids he knew once who were full of talk about what they were going to do for the Lord.  One of those boys became a homosexual and another girl went to a respected IFB college in Hammond, Indiana and got pregnant.  He said it was because they weren't really doing what the Lord wanted.  My hope is that those two former kids are leading fulfilling lives away from judgmental jerks like Pridgen.

Back to Gary, I skimmed through his sermon to get to the college part.  I didn't get the wording quite right.  He said he was going to be a "part of a King James Bible college."  I'm sure this is just talk, but the word college should not be coming out of Gary's mouth unless he's letting us know he's attending a class to learn something.  It seemed like there were some interesting parts to his sermon, so if his recording on YouTube shows up with closed captioning, I'll try to summarize it unless someone else wants to do it.  

 

[Xan]

This was posted on the Gospel Light Facebook page:

ETA:  I just edited out my own conclusions.  At this point, we really don't know what's going on.

Edited June 13, 2022 by Xan

[Bluebirdbluebell]

16 minutes ago, Xan said:

This was posted on the Gospel Light Facebook page:

I would guess that the biopsy results may not have turned out as Becky hoped.  Still, we don't know anything for certain.

I have no idea how to read this. I would think if they had gotten particularly bad results, they would have posted more. Also it's unusual to get results on the weekend. Maybe she has an appointment coming up. It's hard to say, but this post is too vague to tell anything.

[Joyster]

Summary of Sunday School Sermon at Gospel Light Independent Baptist Church in Conway, SC

Becky Update: At 5:09, Jacob (or whoever is in charge of the camera) moves the camera around the room so the congregants can be seen and Becky is sitting towards the front.  Later during the sermon, he told the congregation that if her checkup is okay on Friday, she will come out (to where I don't know), and they will go to Kentucky and be there all day on Sunday.  

ETA: During the evening service, Pastor Pridgen told the congregation that the Hawkins would be leaving on Friday, and Gary chimed in that Becky will have a doctor's appointment at 1:30.

Sermon:

We’re living in a time where anything offends everybody.  You just look at what’s going on in our country.  His boy just got back from his honeymoon; praise God, hallelujah, he thinks that’s all over with now.  They went to the Dollywood area, and if you know anything about Dolly Parton, she was raised in church.  She had the Dixie Stampede, but because Dixie offended people, she now only has the Stampede.  CC heard Gary saying that Dixe had some extra feet:

Spoiler

They would really be offended if they got a look at the front of his truck.  It’s got a Confederate flag.  It’s not a rebel flag.  It’s a Confederate flag, amen? I don't know what any of this has to do with the Bible or Jesus, Gary.  

Here’s Gary’s Bible verse:

Quote

Psalms 119:165. “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” King James Version (KJV).

Here is Gary’s conclusion:  People “are offended because they don’t love their Bibles. They don’t love God.”  The Devil is real and he’s out to kill us.  When Gary was in Iowa, he preached a little about politicians because the Bible told him to.  Some guy told Gary that he liked his preaching, but he didn’t like preaching about politicians.  Gary snottily replied, "That’s your choice."  People get offended when you say Jesus loves you.  The one thing Gary doesn’t like about the South is everyone is saved.  There’s one problem with that, why aren’t they in church and obeying the laws of the land? Why aren't you obeying the laws, Gary...,but more on that later when we learn you fell asleep at the wheel on your 20 hour journey to North Carolina.

When he was at a revival in Iowa, there was a lady who wanted to speak with him on the Monday after the Sunday night revival.  Gary let her know that she ain’t speaking to him without his wife.  The lady ended up talking to Gary/Becky and complained up and down about the preacher. Gary got to leave when the preacher came in and needed help, and he was thankful Becky had to listen to that stuff because his ears aren’t a garbage can, amen?  He told the preacher that the lady was just putting him down.  Then he has to be the bad guy.  God put it on his shoulder to put her down and slam her on Monday night.  

Spoiler

She got offended, but that doesn’t bother him.  He was telling the truth.  Gary reads the next verse.  He went to revival at his home church on Thursday (night of Becky's surgery)  and Friday night.  The message on Thursday was about purity.  We should try to be like Christ.  That means:

Spoiler

Gary tries to get the words out correctly (in his eyes) but can't, and pleads, “God forgive me.”

People just don’t hate sin anymore.  Gary’s beginning to wonder if preachers even hate sin.  Gary doesn’t go to the big, fancy churches.  He’s not popular because he HATES sin. Sure, that has to be why.   He doesn’t hate the sinner, he doesn’t hate Catholics, but he does hate the religion. You’re either for God or for the devil.  There are no in-betweens.

We need to be praising God more.  Heaven has streets of gold and a mansion.  He likes it.  Is it not worthy to be praised?  Come to church praising God!  Gary has things to praise about, like his truck (for real: he talks about his precious truck)

Spoiler

Gary lets us know his stupidity and how his truck got injured.  He walked away from it on a hill, and it rolled down the hill.  When his wife went to talk to the guy about the truck, the guy told her the suspension was about to give out and wondered how they ever made it as far as they did.  You know what that is?  God is overlooking him.  His wife had some issues and had surgery, praise the lord, we got that behind us.  He was traveling and he fell asleep at the wheel; he had to come home and see his wife, amen?  God gave him an alert, and he pulled over and took a little nap.  He could have been in the hospital.  We need to thank God for a lot.  I'm thankful you didn't kill anyone else.  You only seemed to be worried about yourself, but there were other people on the road.

People don’t think they are going to be judged.  Gary lets us know the wicked will be judged, but CC thinks:

Spoiler

When his daddy first got in the church, he still drank a little bit, which was wrong.  His daddy interpreted a scripture the way he wanted it and said it was okay as long as it wasn’t in public.  Gary sides with Jesus.  He has friends on all the sides (names Hyles and a bunch of other preachers-- I wouldn't be mentioning Hyles if I were him, but okay).and doesn’t have a clique.   On judgment day, Gary wants to be right.  You just have to read it and believe it; you don’t have to understand it. This kind of explains Gary if he could be explained.

Now he’s back to not ever getting offended because he has peace.  If you don’t like his style of preaching, that’s okay because he’s

Spoiler

Well, what he means is God made him what he is.  He doesn’t care if others don’t preach like him ,and then he talks about Brother Joe:

Spoiler

I think he actually said he didn't eat enough bananas yet. He starts talking about gas, but CC has him not liking pancakes. 

Spoiler

He paid $6 a gallon; no, God paid $6 a gallon.  No, the people who support you paid $6 a gallon, Gary.  He talks about Becky getting her check up and going to Kentucky.  He’s not concerned about any of it because God’s got a plan.  You shouldn’t complain on Facebook or anywhere else because God has a plan. (Ironic, isn’t this whole sermon mostly a complaint?)  He talks about how when his wife went back to North Carolina, he was driving the minivan with the trailer and it only got 10 miles per gallon and sometimes 5 with the hills, but he made it.  He’s thankful he now has his wife because he has better control with her going up the hills.  (There was much laughter about this, but I don’t get it.  Was he referring to her weight?)  Gary doesn’t know much about the recession, but his grandmother had to work a job during it, but she always had food and sweets on the table because the Lord provided.  Well, Gary, the way I see it is she worked at a JOB.

We need to tell others about Jesus.  God can change people, not anyone else.  He tells a story of an Indian in South Dakota who was always drunk before going to an A.A. meeting every Thursday night.  He needed God, not A.A. I know we've heard this story before in one @thoughtful's recaps. Before Gary got saved, he used to hate people.  Now, he still doesn’t like a lot of people's ways, but he loves everybody.  He loves drunks, harlots, and the dope head. 

Spoiler

 He loves the Catholics and wants to see the pope get saved.  He loved to see a Morman get saved.  Unlike the Jehovah Witnesses, they’ll talk to you.  He reads some scripture and then said this winning statement:

Spoiler

Nope.  I'm an American, and I'm not depending on you. I would like you to not drive when you haven't had sleep though, but I guess I can'r depend on you for that.  You have to go to work.  You have to got to the grocery store.  But you don’t have to listen to the jokes.  You have to go to Walmarts, but you don’t have to look like Walmarts.  You need to be following God’s way.  Gary thanks God he was born in North Carolina.  At one time, you could say parts of North Carolina was the Bible.  Gary wonders what it would be like without Baptist churches. (Maybe we can get MercyMe to do a new version of "I Can Only Imagine,)  Would people get saved?  Here in Conway, this is the only good church that uses the King James Bible.  It don’t matter to some people, but it matters to God.  He gets in the biggest arguments with people about that, but it doesn’t bother him because he knows he has the word of God.  Gary’s not against education, but he’s not sure some of these colleges are doing that.  He is now fixin’ to be a part of a King James Bible College.  Why?  If you use NIV, you won’t make it.  Gary hears a lot that King James was a drunk or whatever he was, but he doesn’t care about King James.  He cares about the Bible.  He was in Montana and a preacher asked him to fill out a questionnaire.  Gary doesn’t usually do those things, but he did this time.  The preacher told him that he disagreed about one thing; he doesn’t believe the Bible was inspired.  CC had Gary responding: 

Spoiler

If the Lord God said it, we ought not get offended.  Next month if the Lord Jesus doesn’t come on July 11, it will be his 23 year anniversary.  CC heard:

Spoiler

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by Joyster

[postscript]

1 hour ago, Joyster said:

ou shouldn’t complain on Facebook or anywhere else because God has a plan. (Ironic, isn’t this whole sermon mostly a complaint?) 

I had exactly the same thought. Aren't most of his sermons thinly disguised complaints about high gas prices and Becky shopping at Walmarts and other people not being good enough Christians for Gary? The man does nothing but complain. 

He seems to have had a joyous reunion with his truck. He's spent more time talking about it than about his wife and her potentially serious health issues. And of course it's got a Confederate flag on it. I wouldn't expect anything less of good ol' boy Gary. 

Even by Gary's standards, this is a weird venue. It looks like a cross between a hospital (with the room dividers) and an office kitchen (the counter with miscellaneous stuff on it). I'm betting it didn't start out as a church. 

Thank you for recapping! Gary gets repetitive and his theology is hateful, but he can also be inadvertently hilarious. I'm also fascinated by the workings of what passes for his mind. 

[Dana723]

3 hours ago, Joyster said:

We’re living in a time where anything offends everybody.  You just look at what’s going on in our country.  His boy just got back from his honeymoon; praise God, hallelujah, he thinks that’s all over with now.  They went to the Dollywood area, and if you know anything about Dolly Parton, she was raised in church.  She had the Dixie Stampede, but because Dixie offended people, she now only has the Stampede.  CC heard Gary saying that Dixe had some extra feet:

Here's what Dolly said about that: 

Quote

 

"There’s such a thing as innocent ignorance, and so many of us are guilty of that," she observes. "When they said 'Dixie' was an offensive word, I thought, 'Well, I don’t want to offend anybody. This is a business. We’ll just call it the Stampede.'"

"As soon as you realize that [something] is a problem, you should fix it," Parton adds. "Don’t be a dumbass. That’s where my heart is. I would never dream of hurting anybody on purpose."

Read More: Dolly Parton Shares Why She Dropped 'Dixie' From Her Stampede | https://tasteofcountry.com/why-dolly-parton-dropped-dixie-from-stampede/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

 

 

She's just amazing.

[Joyster]

15 hours ago, Dana723 said:

Here's what Dolly said about that: 

 

She's just amazing.

Thank you for this.  In the back of my memory, I remembered hearing about the name change.  I thought about researching it and didn't because I didn't want to find out anything about Dolly that would make me disappointed in her.  Sometimes when I hear too much vile talk, I start to lose hope for humanity.  Dolly's amazing response restored some hope.

Somebody  (Gary credits the Lord, but Gary never names who the Lord worked through) pulpit to take to his meetings.  It is a beautifully made pulpit, but it doesn't seem practical to haul it across the country.  Ha!  I almost forgot that the word practical does not belong with Gary.  So now he has a tent and a pulpit.

Spoiler

Becky posted beach photos, and Gary was thankful that the Lord (generous donors) took care of all their needs.

Spoiler

 

[postscript]

1 hour ago, Joyster said:

Thank you for this.  In the back of my memory, I remembered hearing about the name change.  I thought about researching it and didn't because I didn't want to find out anything about Dolly that would make me disappointed in her.  Sometimes when I hear too much vile talk, I start to lose hope for humanity.  Dolly's amazing response restored some hope.

Somebody  (Gary credits the Lord, but Gary never names who the Lord worked through) pulpit to take to his meetings.  It is a beautifully made pulpit, but it doesn't seem practical to haul it across the country.  Ha!  I almost forgot that the word practical does not belong with Gary.  So now he has a tent and a pulpit.

  Hide contents

Becky posted beach photos, and Gary was thankful that the Lord (generous donors) took care of all their needs.

  Hide contents

 

That is a lovely pulpit, but it looks heavy. He’s really planning to drag it all over the country in his already-overloaded truck? No, not practical. 

By Gary’s telling, both he and the truck get fuel through miracles, rather like the feeding of the five thousand. Never any thanks to the donors who actually make it happen. 

[Xan]

Have we ever seen Gary missing a lectern?  They have them at every church he visits.  They even have them for tent meetings.  I don't understand unless the guy who made it couldn't sell it and decided to donate it to Gary.  Plus, they're in the truck now.  I'm not sure how the tent even fits in there, much less this heavy thing.

 

[Joyster]

Hey, FB comment guy!  Don't give Gary any ideas.  Next thing we know, he'll be pulling the lectern behind his manly, fueled truck.

 

I went back to YouTube and counted how many times he erected his tent in 2021.  It was 4-6 times.  This year, he only had it up once so far, although summer and fall are the busy tent seasons. By the way, there was always a lectern; even if there wasn't one, he could improvise.  Gary doesn't need any of these things, but Gary likes to show off and call it God's ministry, and he gets some sort of self gratification from it.

I can picture him at churches letting them know their lecterns weren't sturdy enough and dragging his cross lectern in. 

Maybe he'll get tired of hauling it and donate it to a church that needs one.

[Joyster]

Gary has two Facebook posts today that have caused some controversy with his readers.  Of course, Gary does not handle it well.    I'm calling it the Facebook War with the Three Davids.  Gary's sidekicks Mike C and Toby do a few punches also, but it's mainly the Davids.

David  M. responds to this post with a question asking where in the Bible it says to go door to door.  Gary responds, but David M. asked Gary to consider the context of the scripture.  How DARE David M. ask Gary to look at CONTEXT?  Anyways, midway down Gary tells David M. to go find a fool to argue with, and then Gary continues to go back and forth with David M.  I guess David M. found his fool.  David M. is a Methodist, so I'm sure he's now blocked.

Spoiler

OK, now we have the next two Davids.  David J. really doesn't like the following statement and can't believe Gary said it.  Gary, of course, tells him Hell is his home.  David L. (and Toby)  support Gary and the argument turns into who knows what the true meaning of religion is.  David M. tries to stir the pot with what a relationship with Jesus looks like, but Gary won't respond to that.  Gary gets so mad at David J. that he tells him to not write on his page and to have a nice life. Isn't that condemning David J. to Hell, Gary?  I mean, I looked at David J.'s profile page, and if I believed in Hell, he would deserve to go.  However, you are suppose to be better than that.

Spoiler

ETA: Becky responded to a comment in her Myrtle Beach post that she is now home in North Carolina.

Edited June 15, 2022 by Joyster
Removed extra image and spacing

[Xan]

Oh dear.  Gary's all hot and bothered by seeing people's bare legs again.  

The "tale lights" part was funny.  I guess he meant "tail lights" but I doubt he saw naked asses, even at the beach.  I do hope someone gets back on his Facebook page and argues with him about where this is stated in the KJB.