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THE WORDS WE USE: Thaddeus Matthews

A 61-YEAR-OLD former broadcaster, who now calls himself ‘The Cussing Pastor’, has amassed a million views for his videos where he shares a message of gospel values and self-help – interspersed with swearing.

Speaking to christianpost.com, Thaddeus Matthews shared the reason for using cussing to share a message based on the Bible.

“I’m a fisher of men. I go to people on their level. And you have to get past the cussing to get the message. The cussing has drawn the attention of millions around the country,” he said.

He has been both praised and criticised.

Matthews started his church, the Naked Truth Liberation and Empowerment Ministries, based in Memphis, Tennessee, three years ago. His services attract up to 50 people, but he gets an additional audience of 9,000 people online.

He has no problem with swearing, claiming there is a difference between cussing and cursing.

“The words that we use today like motherf****r, sh*t, damn, were not words that were used in Biblical times. So I don’t have an issue with the cussing. And the people that listen to me don’t have an issue with the cussing, and I’m not trying to justify it to the traditional churchgoer.”

Matthews’ most popular video so far is one where he tells women that they shouldn’t have sex with men who don’t work.

The video has been viewed over one million times online.

One of the key things Matthews claims he wants to do is reach people who don’t go church or stopped going to church. He explained: “One of my slogans is at this particular building [ministry] is that this ain’t your grandmomma’s church. I’m not traditional even though I’ve been in the ministry since I was a teenager and I’m 61 years old. I walked away from the church because of the bullsh*t that comes from the pulpit.”

He continued: “The current traditional mindset is losing out. You will find that the millennials are not going to the brickand-mortar anymore. We’re living in a progressive age and I had to come, at 61 years old, I had to come at the realisation that life and society is changing as we know it. People are not looking for the same things in ministry or in church that they were looking for 20 years ago.”

Matthews also believes that the church has contributed to the current state of he world. “Some of the ills in the world happen to be the fault of the Church because if 2 Chronicles is correct — ‘If my people who are called by my name would humble themselves and pray, seek my face and turn from their evil ways, then will I hear from heaven and heal the land.’

TITHES
“If [only] church folk would get away from the bullsh*t in the pulpit.”

Next month Matthews is due to embark on The Bullsh*t From the Pulpit Tour. He aims to use the tour to rail against popular culture and aspects of church tradition that are turning people away from God.

He said: “There’s so much bullsh*t that’s going on in the church in the traditional mindset. And the reason that people are leaving a view of believing in God is because they are believing in preachers, they are believing in churches, and preachers have set themselves up on pedestals and they are forgetting about the people. They’re not giving people a message of hope.

“We’re spending too much time talking about tithes and offerings but not talking about the needs of people. Why are people depressed? How do you get over depression? How do you have an abundant life?”

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