A Kansas City preacher was recorded berating his “broke” flock for failing to buy him an expensive Movado watch.
Carlton Funderburke, the pastor of Kansas City’s Church at the Well, castigated his congregation in a now-viral TikTok video for not being able to afford to give him the pricey watch he had asked while passionately preaching about “honouring God’s shepherds.”
In a speech on August 7, Funderburke was quoted as saying:
Because of the way you have been treating me, I can see that you are still despised, penniless, broke, and busted.
He continued,
“I’m not worth your money for McDonald’s,” Your Red Lobster money is not worth me, right? I’m not worth your knit St. John’s. You guys simply cannot afford it. I’m not worth your Louis Vuitton, are you? My Prada isn’t worth yours. Who am I to deserve your Gucci?
The audience continues to react passionately to his comments on the video, with some of them even applauding him.
The founder of the Kansas City Church at the Wells is Carlton Funderburke
Funderburke reprimanded his congregation for failing to comprehend what “God is saying” about how to deal with people who propagate his message. He and his wife created the Kansas City church.
The video clip was also posted on the R/PublicFreakout section of the well-known social media platform Reddit, where it garnered over 300 comments.
Users were outraged by the tape, with one user going by the handle u/FeelingsAreNotFact calling for taxes on churches and saying:
If tax regulations didn’t protect these “for profit churches,” they would be much less common. I am entirely in favour of allowing churches to do good deeds for their members and/or communities without engaging in political preaching. to maintain their tax-exempt status while offering services to their communities. “Churches” that exist solely to afford the pastor/preacher luxurious homes, clothes, cars, and trips ought to pay taxes like everyone else—especially if they are engaging in political advocacy from the pulpit.
Another user, DontToewsMeBro, described how many churches operate in his comment:
“I stopped when I saw the ATMs in the hallways and realised that their “missionary work” consisted of sending one well-known church member to a third-world nation to work for one or two days like a dog and not really accomplish anything, and the church paying a media company to film this well-known person working alongside people from many other churches who were doing the same thing (1 person per church, to work for a day or two & GET THE FILM). It’s insane, it’s false, and people are being duped into emptying their wallets because of it, and it’s occurring just down the street from you.
Funderburke later apologised to his Kansas City congregation in a YouTube video after realising his error, saying:
“The video clip does not accurately portray my feelings or my compassion for God’s people. Despite the context that the clip’s content comes from, it is insufficient to express the pain and suffering my words have caused.
The YouTube page for the church hosted the video. As of Wednesday, August 17, 2022, more than 550 000 people have watched the video.