I am probably unique to your forum, as I don’t think you get many unbelievers here. My association with JAV goes back longer than many of you have been alive.
It was the early 80s. I had just gotten out of the Marines and was in graduate school. A woman I was dating told me her parents were urging her to start attending church. She had grown up in an Independent Baptist church in Texas. She didn’t want to go alone the first time, and I was drafted. There was a church near her apartment, we could walk.
We walked to the Sunday morning service of WHBC. I quickly noticed many of the the people were giving us nervous glances. One woman asked, “are you a member here?†She said, “no, this is our first visit.†The woman said, “well, ah welcome.†I later learned the reason. She was wearing slacks. The service was the usual until the sermon. JAV began to speak. He seemed to be making it up as he went along. He had been the meanest kid, in the meanest family in West Texas. He told how he had recently subdued an robber armed with a pistol by throwing hot coffee in his face. He paused during the sermon, pointed angrily, and said, “you should not be looking around when the man of God is preaching!†He wasn’t pointing at me, but I spent the rest of the sermon sitting at attention looking straight ahead like I was in Marine training. A few minutes later, he pointed at another parishioner and shouted, “you should not be reading the Bible when the man of God is preaching!†I would have thought that if anything was always allowed in church, it would be reading the Bible. I also thought, Man of God was a title given by others. I never heard someone describe himself that way.
I must admit breathing a sigh of relief when we exited the building, and walked across the parking lot. I just stared at her. She began to plead, “they are not all like that, I’ve never seen anything like that.†She seemed to feel bad that this had been my introduction to her faith, and invited me to attend church, at a different church, several more times. The invitations continued after we stopped dating. I politely declined them all.
During the service I heard them mention that the service was televised. I don’t remember any cameras. Perhaps, because I was sitting at attention staring straight ahead. I found the service was on at 7am Sunday morning. I wasn’t about to get up that early, but I put my recently purchased VCR to use and recorded it. I didn’t enjoy my time in the church, but in my easy chair, with a cup of coffee, free to laugh, this became my Sunday morning, sometimes afternoon entertainment. I was rarely disappointed. His sermons were often superhero stories, starring himself. He liked to talk about his Vietnam experiences. He once encountered a tribe of baboons and proceeded to shoot them with his M-16. Baboon is not a derogatory term for the enemy. He was boasting about shooting apes with a military assault rifle. On military day JAV preached wearing the jacket of an Army non-commissioned officer (which could not have been buttoned), and a beret. The men in the congregation were dressed likewise. The women dressed as nurses in Florence Nightingale dresses. Military Officers wear their uniforms properly or not a all. I would not be caught dead wearing bits and pieces of my Marine uniform. I knew some military nurses. They wore their uniform or, scrubs, including pants. Most of his antics were amusing, but some were sad. There was a down syndrome child JAV used as an anti-abortion prop. He would shout for the child, and the child would come running. He would give him a brief hug, and then order him off the stage. When the school lost a football game, it was because the quarterback (his son) didn’t have any sense. This was WHBC thirty years ago. Has it changed much?
I moved away in the mid 80s, and when I returned for visits, I noticed the show was no longer on. I have returned to the area, and saw on the news Tom Vineyard of WHBC making outrageous claims before some government panel. If you are going to lie about statistics, don’t lie about statistics that can be easily debunked by a Google search. I did a Google search on him, found this forum, and have been lurking ever since.
I wish I had kept some of the tapes. Are there any good JAV rants on YouTube? I don’t think I want to watch Tom Vineyard. He’s more sad than funny. The childhood he must have had. The only ones who had it worse are the Vineyard women, and they had a choice before saying, “I do.â€
I would like to thank the members for catching me up on my Sunday hobby, and satisfying my curiosity with inside knowledge, I was never privy to.
It was the early 80s. I had just gotten out of the Marines and was in graduate school. A woman I was dating told me her parents were urging her to start attending church. She had grown up in an Independent Baptist church in Texas. She didn’t want to go alone the first time, and I was drafted. There was a church near her apartment, we could walk.
We walked to the Sunday morning service of WHBC. I quickly noticed many of the the people were giving us nervous glances. One woman asked, “are you a member here?†She said, “no, this is our first visit.†The woman said, “well, ah welcome.†I later learned the reason. She was wearing slacks. The service was the usual until the sermon. JAV began to speak. He seemed to be making it up as he went along. He had been the meanest kid, in the meanest family in West Texas. He told how he had recently subdued an robber armed with a pistol by throwing hot coffee in his face. He paused during the sermon, pointed angrily, and said, “you should not be looking around when the man of God is preaching!†He wasn’t pointing at me, but I spent the rest of the sermon sitting at attention looking straight ahead like I was in Marine training. A few minutes later, he pointed at another parishioner and shouted, “you should not be reading the Bible when the man of God is preaching!†I would have thought that if anything was always allowed in church, it would be reading the Bible. I also thought, Man of God was a title given by others. I never heard someone describe himself that way.
I must admit breathing a sigh of relief when we exited the building, and walked across the parking lot. I just stared at her. She began to plead, “they are not all like that, I’ve never seen anything like that.†She seemed to feel bad that this had been my introduction to her faith, and invited me to attend church, at a different church, several more times. The invitations continued after we stopped dating. I politely declined them all.
During the service I heard them mention that the service was televised. I don’t remember any cameras. Perhaps, because I was sitting at attention staring straight ahead. I found the service was on at 7am Sunday morning. I wasn’t about to get up that early, but I put my recently purchased VCR to use and recorded it. I didn’t enjoy my time in the church, but in my easy chair, with a cup of coffee, free to laugh, this became my Sunday morning, sometimes afternoon entertainment. I was rarely disappointed. His sermons were often superhero stories, starring himself. He liked to talk about his Vietnam experiences. He once encountered a tribe of baboons and proceeded to shoot them with his M-16. Baboon is not a derogatory term for the enemy. He was boasting about shooting apes with a military assault rifle. On military day JAV preached wearing the jacket of an Army non-commissioned officer (which could not have been buttoned), and a beret. The men in the congregation were dressed likewise. The women dressed as nurses in Florence Nightingale dresses. Military Officers wear their uniforms properly or not a all. I would not be caught dead wearing bits and pieces of my Marine uniform. I knew some military nurses. They wore their uniform or, scrubs, including pants. Most of his antics were amusing, but some were sad. There was a down syndrome child JAV used as an anti-abortion prop. He would shout for the child, and the child would come running. He would give him a brief hug, and then order him off the stage. When the school lost a football game, it was because the quarterback (his son) didn’t have any sense. This was WHBC thirty years ago. Has it changed much?
I moved away in the mid 80s, and when I returned for visits, I noticed the show was no longer on. I have returned to the area, and saw on the news Tom Vineyard of WHBC making outrageous claims before some government panel. If you are going to lie about statistics, don’t lie about statistics that can be easily debunked by a Google search. I did a Google search on him, found this forum, and have been lurking ever since.
I wish I had kept some of the tapes. Are there any good JAV rants on YouTube? I don’t think I want to watch Tom Vineyard. He’s more sad than funny. The childhood he must have had. The only ones who had it worse are the Vineyard women, and they had a choice before saying, “I do.â€
I would like to thank the members for catching me up on my Sunday hobby, and satisfying my curiosity with inside knowledge, I was never privy to.
