Preacher Dies With Heaven On His Lips

[Divine Discontent]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/01/11/preacher.collapse.ap/i...

Preacher dies with heaven on his lips

Tuesday, January 11, 2005 Posted: 7:41 AM EST (1241 GMT)

The Rev. Jack Arnold, 69, was nearing the end of his sermon Sunday at Covenant Presbyterian Church when he grabbed the podium before falling to the floor, said the Rev. Michael S. Beats, the church's associate pastor. <snip>

Arnold had been the senior minister at the church in this Orlando suburb until the late 1990s when he began traveling to Africa and the Middle East to teach pastors. <snip>


WOW! WHAT a way to head to heaven! I pray he taught the new ministers well, and for his family.

[DIKB]

1. Matcom hit this up earlier

also mentioned was that he died shortly after saying something along the lines of "When I die and go to heaven . . ." <croak>

Really makes you question the weight of a preacher's words.

[Occulus]

12. ...or the weight of a Deity's will.

[daleo]

13. Or how bizarrely arbitrary it can seem. n/t

[dave123williams]

2. Kind of like Dick Shaun....

The guy who played Hitler in Mel Brook's film "The Producers"....he actually had a gag heart-attack as part of his comedy act, and (I'm not making this up) died while performing it. The audience was in tears laughing for several minutes before they figured out that he was actually dead of a heart-attack....so, he left 'em laughing

[Divine Discontent]

3. NOW that's comically bizarre! A comedian doing that....

and laying up there & everyone just thinking that he was being silly. I'm sure all the comediens know about this, thanks for sharing.

Yes, he said, "when I die and go to heaven", and passed. Amazing.

(I searched the title and didn't find the other one.)

[Whoa_Nelly]

14. Yup, yup! Pretty amazing

Sure hope Bush uses this in his next sheeple radio address.

[chicagojoe]

4. Yeah, I remember that. He got the last laugh.

[Syrinx]

6. similar to Redd Foxx

He died on the set of his last sitcom. Della Reese and his other co-stars thought he was fooling around.

[calimary]

9. Oh Lord, I forgot about that. A comedian's dream death, for sure.

And yes, it's absolutely true. Reminds me of the phrase I kept seeing in Al Franken's "rush limbaugh is a big fat idiot" book - he references quite a few successful standup gigs wherein he said "I killed." Dick Shawn took that one all the way out. Whotta way to go!

[yorkiemommie1]

5. a lady i knew..

came out from her bedroom, told her daughter in law, "I think I'll go back in my room and die laughing". And she did!

[Redstone]

7. If you gotta go...

may as well go right, doing something you like. My dad had a heart attack while bass fishing, which he had gotten into in a big way late in life.

Redstone

[daleo]

8. God can be quite a practical joker

Imagine how many tsunami victims had mused that they would like to end their days lying on the beach.

And yeah, maybe he has something funny in store for me too.

[MADem]

10. I must be a horrible person

...but that headline sounded a little....how shall I say....NASTY to me (nasty in a kinda good way, but nasty nonetheless!). Maybe not nasty, but more like naughty. It's all in the context, I guess.

Oh, well, RIP, preacher man.

[genieroze]

11. I hope he went to heaven. Talk about getting your point across,

Um no disrespect but couldn't Rev. Michael S. Beats get the ministers heart beating.