Another person wrote, “They were taking collections and the preacher took out a big old school calculator and started counting the money right there, and after a few moments looked up and said ‘it’s not enough’. She then took collections all over again.”
Quite a few people told stories of fights breaking out during the church service, many of them over affairs. Said one man, “My Uncle, after getting out of jail, and discovering that my aunt was having an affair with the pastor of their church, who himself was married for 40 years, disrupted service to put them on blast in front of EVERYONE!!!”
Probably when the Pastors mistress would stand up while he was preaching and just stand there looking at him waving *Awkward* but it gets good…eventually she started sitting in the second pew right behind First Lady. One Sunday First Lady daughter fought her. During service.
— 💎DI💎 (@MzYella_Diva) January 29, 2022
“Went to Creflo [Dollar]’s church in Atl with my friend,” said one user. “Saw 2 people in the balcony have a full blown fist fight( lady pulled the shirt off the other lady’s back) his wife Taffie [sic] kept preaching. Security got them and we just moved along like nothing happened.”
Some shared shocking moments they had experienced at funerals: “Y’all when I was a kid I went to a small church in SC the town only had about 1000 people but everything crazy happened at that church,” said one man. “There was a funeral but the man was 6’8” so when we walked up to see him the bottom part of his legs were laid to each side of his body shoes on.” He explained further, “The wife wanted the whole casket open and she wanted his whole body in there so they had to break and fold the legs to the outside.”
“When my Grandma passed last Spring,” said another user, “some man came in and started giving a speech for her. All of us were puzzled. Turns out he was at the wrong funeral. My sister had to stop him & show him the door.”
Crazy Church Stories Supposedly Involving the Holy Spirit
A disconcerting number of people shared stories of times when either they or people they knew had been supposedly overcome by the Holy Spirit, but were either being pressured to fake the experience—or were having serious physical problems.
“We went to the altar,” said one user, “and the pastor said some words, touched people and they would faint. He came to me, said some words and I stood up. He did this again, touched my forehead and I stood up. One of his bodyguards whispered in my ear ‘stop embarrassing bishop and faint’.”
I had started attending a new church with a friend. They were into healing services. Not my thing but harmless I thought. Until the pastor called me up by name, spoke in tongues, then whispered to me to “just lean back to the floor”. That was being “slain” apparently.
— Joni Burtt (@JoniBurtt) January 29, 2022
“When I was about 7-8,” said user “Leo P,” “we were in church and this lady started ‘speaking in tongues.’ Some people started joining in. VERY rare occurrence in my quiet Catholic church….y’all, she was having a stroke in the front pew.”
Another user said, “I saw a woman get ‘slain in the spirit’ and lay there the whole service only for us all to find out later she’d had a heart attack and had been dead the whole time.”
More Crazy—And Sobering—Church stories
One woman’s response to Frederick’s question was telling: “Won’t say, but I was a church secretary for 2 years. Now I don’t go to church. Saw too much. Had to choose myself and protect my faith.”
“Church folk play church,” said another, “but as soon as my auntie dressed up like a homeless person they didn’t recognize her and everybody on the church pew row moved all thee [sic] way over not knowing it was the beloved sis who wasn’t in her fancy dresses.”
