Posted on 03/10/2009 7:08:39 AM PDT by Fractal Trader
On a recent Sunday morning, 30-year-old Nicole Lamarche, a former Miss California, stood before a crowd in a simple clapboard church next to a local watering hole. She wore high-heeled boots, her thin figure draped in a black robe.
"I feel so lucky to be your pastor," she proclaimed.
Lamarche became minister of Cotuit Federated Church two years ago, shaking up its stodgy routine and causing quite a stir in this quiet Cape Cod village of about 2,600 year-round residents.
She says four parishioners defected early on, after people Googled her name and discovered her beauty pageant past, but these days residents credit Lamarche with injecting new dynamism into the town and the church.
Lamarche says she understands that for some the "pastor in a swimsuit thing" is hard to swallow, but she simply needed the money. Loyal members of her congregation accept her explanation, buoying her spirits. Plus, says Lamarche, "If you can walk on a stage in your swimsuit, you can do anything."
After a service earlier this year, the congregation gathered for coffee, fruit salad, and cookies in an adjoining reception room, chattering with each other and the pastor who was once Miss Desert Vista.
"Just listen to it," said Pam Bode, a member of the church since 1985. "This is a church that has come alive."
"She's good for God," agreed Norman Knight, a 79-year-old retired welder, one of about a hundred regular members of the church who now attend weekly.
The path from beauty-pageant winner to pastor has not always been smooth.
[SNIP]
But Lamarche needed money, she recalled, and she was drawn to scholarship prizes she heard about in pageant competition.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
BTW, she one the swimsuit competition. There are some hot photos on the Internet that you may want to google. Definitely not guilty!
They probably wouldn't have cared if she became a stripper. Must be one of those "liberal-minded" churches.
without pics i vote this thread get pulled
“Lamarche says she understands that for some the “pastor in a swimsuit thing” is hard to swallow, but she simply needed the money. Loyal members of her congregation accept her explanation””
Many churches would be fine with it if she did all that before she accepted Christ, but if after, that would be a different story. Maybe not unforgivable, but it would give one pause to following a pastor that basically sold themselves just because they needed money.
“They probably wouldn’t have cared if she became a stripper. Must be one of those “liberal-minded” churches.”
Yeah, we need to ban those beauty pageants. Pure porn.
I have never understood why women’s groups and liberals are against beauty pagents.
I hear that they say that beauty pagents are demeaning to women and all that. But, the people who say that are liberal. If you are liberal, you are supposed to be tolerant and non-judgemental about things. If you are tolerant and non-judgemental, why is this story even in the newspaper? You would be non-judgemental about a woman who had been in pagents, and found her calling in being a pastor.
Sarah Palin was blasted by the liberal MSM for having been in beauty pagents. Why is there no liberal tolerance when it comes to these events? Especially when there is liberal tolerance of so much worse display of females in the whole “adult” industry. Yet something much milder is somehow supposed to offend our sensibilities?
Is this story news because she is a Christian pastor and they have to look for an angle to make a clergy person look bad???????
“Maybe not unforgivable, but it would give one pause to following a pastor that basically sold themselves just because they needed money.”
Participating in a beauty pageant is selling yourself? She was simply hoping to win scholarships. Lots of girls from places like Liberty University participate.
Hey now! I’m a believer! 10/10.
How can anyone think that a person who is that young could have the spiritual maturity and sheer life experience to be a good pastor? A pastor is supposed to provide wisdom and guidance to his or her flock. She can’t possibly have studied enough, prayed enough, or seen enough to be a wise leader.
I guess you don't work then. Because if you did, that's selling yourself for money. Equating participation in a beauty pageant with "selling yourself" is totally absurd. Thousands of very nice young women participate in the pageant system for the scholarship money they earn to pursue a college degree.
Depending where she lived, the two different states pageants might have been relatively close by.
Most mid to upper level pageants are quite demanding, and take EXTENSIVE training and grooming, to make one competitive. All that work would be kind of lost if they only did one pageant, and only one time.
Granted, a lot of the women who do these have HUGH egos and are very series. But NOT all of them are that egotistical, in fact some can be downright sweethearts.
BTW, she one the swimsuit competition.
BTW one should be won.
Sort of story related. I can't stand Paula White. That woman just drips narcissism and HIGH MANTAINANCE.
"hot photos" of a pastor?
way to keep an open mind.
Seems to be a lot of intolerant and judgmental people around here too.
I actually read the piece too quickly. I thought it was something she did while she was a pastor.
I can think of one person
“They probably wouldn’t have cared if she became a stripper.”
Ah, I love “Christians” who have never sinned. So welcoming. They don’t need G-d or Christ, because they are perfect, in and of themselves.
I guess you could have taught St. Paul a thing or two. After all, he told Timothy,
Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. (1 Tim. 4:12)
I later added I didn’t realize at first that it was something she did *before* becoming a pastor.
"O Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women, that they should cast their outer garments over their persons...that they should be known and not molested." [Chapter 33, verse 59]I think we have a bunch of closet Muslims here. Maybe they should gather stones and stone her to death for being in a beauty pageant.
Sheesh ...
“Seems to be a lot of intolerant and judgmental people around here too.”
Try self-rightous and you are on target.
Some here only want people around who never did any thing in their lives, zero.
Right at the top of the article it says she is 30 yrs old. IMO that’s a good age. Still young enough to relate to the youth but has enough years behind her that the older crowd won’t completely disregard anything she says because of her own youth.
But maybe I’m a tad biased since I am 30 myself. lol
I guess I was partly reacting to this...
Fractal Trader: There are some hot photos on the Internet that you may want to google.
I hope you aren't okay with that.
Best ministers I have ever known were screw ups at some point in their life.
I know some 25 year olds who have a better grip on Christ's mission than a dozen senior pastors...
Fair enough.
My tagline on FR used to be “Many at FreeRepublic would have responded to Christ ‘Darn right, I’ll cast the first stone.’”
That holier-than-thou attiture remains an issue we need to be aware of here.
After looking at that picture, all I can say is Lord - forgive me, for I have sinned.
...and Timothy? It is now believed that most of the disciples were in their teens or early twenties. Peter and Jesus were the oldest.
>> Fractal Trader: There are some hot photos on the Internet that you may want to google.
“hot photos” of a pastor?
<<
No, seriously, I’ve seen Episcopalian pastors. (They’re the types to do indecent internet photography.) But you do NOT want to Google them. (I’d make fun of the St. Louis Jesuits but they’ve been defrocked. Oh, wait, that’s the problem, isn’t it?)
By whom? "Experts"? Whatever ... Put 50 "experts" in a room and you'll end up with 100 opinions.
My point, which you seem to have missed, is that Jesus' age is irrelevant. The Apostles I did not comment on.
Yep...nothing like using how pretty you are an dhow bubbly you are to tell God how wrong He is for having His standard. This way when you violate it all over the place people will FEEL bad for you and say how wrong God is too and then start a church that proclaims how wrong God really is.
We used to call them cults.
Intolerance and judgemental, those are just a couple of the FR merit badges!!
Yep...nothing like using how pretty you are and how bubbly you are to tell God how wrong He is for having His standard. This way when you violate it all over the place people will FEEL bad for you and say how wrong God is too and then start a church that proclaims how wrong God really is.
We used to call them cults.
So did you do a Google to look up the "hot photos" of this current church pastor in a bikini years ago?
Thoughts are sins?
“You got it “dad.” Women should be made to wear clothing that covers their entire body...oh wait...there’s already a religion that says that:
“O Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women, that they should cast their outer garments over their persons...that they should be known and not molested.” [Chapter 33, verse 59]
I think we have a bunch of closet Muslims here. Maybe they should gather stones and stone her to death for being in a beauty pageant. “
Mock if you want, but one of the few things that Judaism / Christianity and Islam have in common is that of personal modesty.
Apparently age was relevant to Jesus. He waited until he was in his late 20’s to begin his ministry.
That was Spurgeon. This girl, clearly, is not.
I have never understood why women’s groups and liberals are against beauty pageants.
Beauty pageants are football for women. The judges aren't exactly drooling 18-yo boys now, are they? They are, commonly, female celebrities. Beauty contestant's role is to impress other women what they could make the boys drool if that was what they were trying to do.This story is news because it is a "Man Bites Dog" story.
“Thoughts are sins?”
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” - Mat 5:27-28
I reckon they can be.
No. That would be wrong. I’m sorta surprised no-one ELSE has, however. (That’s not a backwards plea: do not do that.)
///SARCASM ALERT!! SARCASM ALERT!!!!/////
Let’s see.
Anticipated objections (anticipated emphasis added):
1) It was written by the Boston Globe; A known liberal rag
2) She’s a WOMAN pastor!!!! No WOMEN can be pastors!!!
3) Her church is on Cape Cod.... the same cape that holds that den of iniquity called Provincetown
3a) Her church is on Cape Cod...the same cape where the KENNEDY’s, the personifications of EVIL, live.
4) Her church is the “Cotuit Federated Church”. What kind of name is THAT??? I only know of Federated Department Stores NOT churches!!
5) She planned to join the foreign service after graduation?? Only liberals want to work at the State Department! That’s where Hitlery works!!!
6) Inviting a speaker to lecture on the difference between Sunni and Shia Islam?? No REAL Christian church allows the word “Muslim” or “Islam” or “Allah” to be spoken!!
7) “She exudes goodness.” Obviously a Oprah-Dr.Phil-TheView watching feel good person.
See? Seven objections. Seven is the perfect number therefor they are all correct.
////SARCASM ALERT ENDED///////
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