As I heard Pastor Joe Nelms’ invocation on Saturday night, I, like everyone, chuckled at the absolute absurdity of the thing. I wasn’t sure if I was watching a prayer, or a scene from Talladega Nights. As the night wore on and one day has turned into two, the more I’ve thought about it, the more embarrassed I’ve become.
From local television sportscasters to national news outlets, this story has become much larger than it needed to be. Unfortunately, while I’m sure most people have their opinions of NASCAR and racing, this may very well have been the first exposure for some. Not a flattering portrait.
In his defense, Pastor Nelms told Sirius Radio’s Tradin’ Paint Monday that the purpose of the prayer was to do something out of the ordinary.
I want to get somebody’s attention, so that’s been our desire every time we’ve been up there, to try to make an impact on the fans and give them something they’ll remember and maybe they’ll go home on a Friday night or a Saturday night and say, “Maybe I ought to get up and go to church in the morning.’’
While I can understand the point, by trying to reach people Pastor Nelms fed into every negative, ignorant stereotype that has ever surrounded motorsports – and I don’t think he did any favors to his cause.
Former Motor Racing Outreach chaplain Dale Beaver took to his church’s blog to address the issue.
As a race-car driver considers his approach to every turn, we must surely consider our approach to God before we pray. God’s desire is that we come to him, but we must conclude that as we do so, even as coming to our father, we address him with great confidence and unique respect. In every culture (even the racing sub-culture) there is a line between relevance and farce which, in prayer, just does not fit.
No matter your personal religious convictions, whether you believe in God or not, I think what Pastor Beaver said makes a lot of sense. While challenging convention and being controversial is not necessarily a bad thing, this was probably not the way to do it.
The fact is, people weren’t talking about this and replaying the clip of it out of some great admiration or respect for what was said. They weren’t inspired by it and I doubt there was much consideration of church attendance. People were watching this because they wanted to make fun of it and that’s not good for anything.
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