Pastor Apologizes For Hate-filled Halloween Hand-out
The tract, titled “Mean Momma,” is the work of Chick Publications, an evangelical ministry that the Southern Poverty Law Center has long listed as a hate group due to its militant, vitriolic propaganda war against anyone who doesn’t adhere to its particular brand of Christianity.
“Mean Momma” illustrates the story of the fictional Petunia Parker, a grouchy atheist who rejects the hospitality of her neighbors, curses God, and tells her children that “it’s okay to live any way you want.” One by one, the children die - one in a car crash, one from suicide, and one in a tornado that also wrecks the house - until Petunia repents of her evil ways, accepts Christ, and is saved.
Responding to a deluge of negative comments on the church’s Facebook page, Pastor Kenny Cousar of Northview Baptist Church in Hillsboro, Ohio, wrote on Oct. 29, “Annually, our church has a ministry of passing out Gospel tracts with our candy to children as an outreach to our communities. Unfortunately, we did not realize that one of our tracts was not appropriate. That is our fault for not paying attention to the tract in the first place. Our church does not endorse this type of extreme methodology that was represented in this particular tract, and we can assure you that we will not let this happen again. In our zeal to get the Gospel out, we were careless; but our church is a loving church that loves souls and wants to do all we can in our community to help as well as spread and share the Gospel message of Christ.”