PASTOR MIKE TODD APOLOGISES FOR HIS VIRAL SERMON ILLUSTRATION IN WHICH HE RUBS SPIT ON CONGREGANTS FACE

A video of Pastor Michael Todd, lead pastor of Transformation Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma rubbing his spit on a congregants face, for an illustration during his Sunday sermon went viral last weekend with several people understandably both shocked and disgusted by it. Following a series of backlash for the said illustration, author and pastor Mike Todd took to social media to apologize for what he called a “distraction” from the message. Pastor Mike Todd was illustrating that “receiving God’s vision can sometimes be nasty.”

Todd in his apology, called the illustration “disgusting.”

“We wanna help people,” Todd said. “We want people to see Jesus. We want people to feel loved. We want people who are desperate to be able to find hope and I am passionate — so much so that I try to do extreme things to help people get it. And yesterday it crossed the line.”

Most of the people who commented on social media about Todd’s sermon illustration were pretty disgusted by it, but a few drew comparisons to Jesus’ actions in Mark 8. In that story, Jesus spit into some dirt to make a mud paste that he then smeared on a blind man’s eyes, healing him. As Todd notes in the video, the man who received Todd’s spit (who is Todd’s brother) had no such miracle.

Below is the video of Pastor Mike Todd’s apology.