Pastor Cajoles Flock Into Kissing-fest |
Posted: November 21, 2011 |
It’s Our Lady of Spin the Bottle. Pastor Maurice Johnson of the Winners Church in Queens delivers the sexiest Sunday sermon in town, preaching on how to keep romance alive in marriage — and then asking congregants to make out in a passionate, public kissing contest during the service. The parishioners with the most passion — and tongue-wagging — win $50 to spend on date night. “Your bedroom and your love life are fires that must be nurtured and fought for,” Johnson preaches in a booming voice that reverberates through the makeshift church in the PS 38 gym in Rosedale, Queens. Helayne Seidman
Helayne Seidman
“Use the power of touch to ignite passion in your marriage,” Johnson tells his giggling, nondenominational congregation of 75. He adds, “You should be visually stimulated for your husband or your wife. It is your biblical responsibility to look good for your spouse.” Johnson then calls upon four married couples to rise and approach the pulpit. As a keyboardist and a drummer ooze R&B tunes such as “I Like It” by DeBarge, the couples demonstrate their passion — by locking lips, hips and tongues for a seemingly endless five minutes. When they come up for air, the rest of the churchgoers choose a winner by clapping for the most amorous couple. Johnson, 39, told The Post he chose to deliver a series of sermons, titled “The Power and Pleasure of Romance,” to underscore the importance of marriage in the African-American community. “Some people were like, ‘It seems strange to do at church,’ ” he said, “but they thought it was very creative.” Keeping a romantic partnership ticking, he said, depends on showering your spouse with physical affection. “God created a desire for love and romance,” Johnson said. The face-sucking had some churchgoers blushing. “You see kissing in all kinds of contexts, but you don’t necessarily see it in a marriage context,” said Frantz Cochy, 39, who won the contest when he seemed to forget that he was in front of a crowded room and hungrily embraced his wife of 13 years, Makeetah, 36. “I wasn’t embarrassed, but I guess I felt a little awkward,” he said. Olaiya Ayani, 33, had to cajole his wife, Ayanna, to stand up and play tonsil hockey in front of the packed room. But once on stage, the couple wrapped their arms around each other and didn’t hold back. “My father and my mother never showed affection in public,” said Ayani, who met his wife two years ago on Craigslist. “I told myself, ‘I’m going to be more affectionate to my wife.’ ” The pastor said he encourages married couples to drop their guard and experiment with each other in public. “Any society that celebrates marriage, romance and love is going to be a free society,” Johnson said. “Public displays of affection aren’t wrong. Adam and Eve were naked, and they were not ashamed.” The bachelor pastor says he’ll practice what he preaches next year, when he expects to marry.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|