One Sunday a month, Mount Hermon African Methodist Episcopal Church in Fort Lauderdale, FL, turns the pulpit over to a six-year-old boy, who invariably preaches a ‘sermon’ fitting for a child whose favorite TV show is Paw Patrol.
The ‘message,’ brought by Luke Tillman (who started preaching when he was five) resembles 15 minutes of ‘monkey-see-monkey-do,’ with the boy acting out disturbing homiletic behaviors while the crowd cheers and claps at the rehearsed and staged flourishes, particularly when the pentecostal whooping starts to come.
While on one hand he preaches better than Joel Osteen, it’s still a garbled mess being encouraged by those who should know better, and he shouldn’t be anywhere near the pulpit.
Note: The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) denomination which this boy and his parent(s) are part of, is the first to be founded on racial rather than theological grounds. Consequently, Black Liberation Theology is very common and is regularly preached.
According to Pew Research,
94% of identifying AME folks voted for the Democrats
64% think abortion should be LEGAL in all/ most
61% think homosexuality should be accepted*
49% believe humans evolved
The AME does not officially condemn abortion, having ‘no official position on it’ but Senior Bishop of the denomination, John H. Adams has explained “AME members believe that “people have the right to control their own bodies,” and that it is “a decision of the woman and her family and not of the government.”
