Since I’m now stationed at SBTS-Nashville and am something of a NASCAR fan (my enthusiasm dating back to my grad school days, when I would watch Richard Petty, David Pearson, and Bobby Allison at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway and yet others such as Bobby Isaacs, Elmo Langley, and Darrell Waltrip at the Talladega tri-oval), I thought I’d pitch in on Independent Baptist pastor Joe Nelms’ prayer at the local track on Saturday night. The video is playing everywhere:
Okay, I’ll grant you the prayer is problematic for a number of reasons, including these four slips:
- Quoting breezily from the sometimes funny, but mainly blasphemous and obscene, satirical prayer in the movie, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
- Celebrating and perhaps pandering to selected teams and products, a bit too eager to show his NASCAR-culture savvy and humor, so as to become something of a celebrity and fixture at such events—See an earlier prayer:
- Using Darrell Waltrip’s signature “Boogity, Boogity” after “in Jesus’ name” in the closing. Where’s the honor due the Lord’s name? (By the way, my wife was once in a Bible Study Fellowship group with Darrell’s wife, Stevie.)
- Falling into the old cliché of virtually assuring the audience that the dearly departed is heaven, as he did with Dale Earnhardt in the earlier prayer. (“The Man in Black” may have conceivably been saved by grace through faith, but the issue gets lost in Nelms’ cadences of pop soteriology.)
Still, let me say a few good words for his “performance”:
- He helps the world understand that a faithful man of God can give thanks, in the tradition of Song of Solomon, for his “smokin’ hot wife.” (God, and not Hugh Hefner, is the author of and authority on optimum sexual delight and passion, which honors procreation, which Nelms also celebrates.)
- He connects, in detail, with the “down home” resources and experiences of life – good machines, good entertainment, good tires, good gasoline. It doesn’t have to be lofty to be thanksworthy.
- He shows real joy and love in talking to and about God; his glad spirit is infectious and disarming. And he’s not sanctimonious. (Having just reread the Psalms for a BibleMesh piece, I’m persuaded that some of them would have never made it into the canon had the decorum police been on duty.)
Visit Pastor Nelms’ church web site, you’ll see that they’re good folks, serious about the gospel. Maybe, in the future, his race prayers can feature more scripture and less culture, but maybe they wouldn’t ask him back.