A crazy thing happened at church camp when I was in high school. One of the younger boys—he must have been in eighth grade—was transformed for a few hours. Instead of being a goof, he was talking like a prophet and quoting obscure passages of Scripture that he couldn’t recall having ever read. By the end of the day, he was back to his former self and offering to crap out the window for $5.
Certainly, it seemed like he had been touched by God that day, and I thought of his story while reading this article in today’s New York Times about an 11-year-old boy preacher:
“They say, ‘How can you be a preacher when you’re so young?’ ” said Terry, now 11. “But when they listen to me, they’re shocked.”
“God just put his Spirit upon me,” said Terry, who wore a baby blue suit with matching snakeskin shoes, the kind of outfit he usually wears on Sundays. “He said, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.’ But he didn’t say how old you had to be or anything like that.”
During the week, Terry attends fifth grade at Liberty Elementary School, plays Uno with his friends and attends choir practice. Terry, who said he earns A’s and B’s in school, reads the Bible every day in addition to studying theology through classes offered by an online university.
But Terry said he was happiest when preaching.
“When I’m in the pulpit, it’s like something turns over me,” he said, “and I just turn into a man of God. And when I’m out of the pulpit, I just turn into a speechless kid.”
To be honest, I also thought of the episode of “South Park” viewable after the jump while reading this. But Terry seems a lot more sincere than Cartman:
