Pastor Mike Todd Responds After Coming Under Fire For Saliva Sermon

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It was a nasty day for churchgoers this past weekend. Michael Todd, a pastor at Tulsa’s Transformation Church, came under fire for his Sunday sermon after rubbing his saliva on a parishioner’s face. The churchgoer was apparently his younger brother, regardless, the incident left much of his congregation disgusted. In the midst of a global pandemic, it’s probably a bad idea to rub saliva on another’s face.

The controversial display came while Todd delivered a message about how a “vision from God might get nasty.” After coughing and spitting into his hand, Todd rubbed his hands together and smeared saliva across his brother’s face. The crowd was audibly disgusted while Todd continued his message, “What I’m telling you: how you just reacted is how the people in your life will react when God is doing what it takes for the miracle.”

Image via HNHH

Since the incident, thousands of social media users have shared their disgust with Todd and his poorly delivered message. In response, the pastor hopped on Instagram to share his own disgust and the true intent of his sermon.

“That was gross. I want to validate everybody’s feelings,” he said. “That was a distraction to what I was really trying to do. I was really trying to make the world come alive and for people to see the story, but yesterday it got too live,” he continued. Todd went on to explain that his mission is to help people and his passion drives him to do extreme things.

Todd and his wife were appointed as the leaders of the Transformation Church in 2015. Since then, he has published a few books, dropped a handful of gospel songs, and worked alongside Oklahoma’s governor to deliver a state-wide day of prayer against COVID-19.

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Pastor Michael Todd admits wiping spit on brother’s face in church was ‘too extreme and disgusting’

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Pastor Michael Todd admits wiping spit on brother’s face in church was ‘too extreme and disgusting’

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Popular Oklahoma Pastor Michael Todd of Transformation Church has apologized to his more than 1.8 million fans across social media after receiving public backlash for wiping globs of spit on the face of a man he has identified as his little brother during his sermon on Sunday.

“It’s never my intention to distract others from God’s Word and the message of Jesus … even with illustrations! I apologize for my example being too extreme and disgusting!” Todd said in a statement on Twitter Monday afternoon.

The tweet was accompanied by a video that was also posted on Instagram and Facebook.

During his message on Sunday, Todd referenced the Bible verse Mark 8:23, which highlights the story of Jesus healing a blind man at Bethsaida by spitting into his eyes privately.

Todd highlighted how Jesus chose not to spit in the blind man’s face publicly. But Todd’s actions during the service seemed contrary to how Jesus handled the situation with the man in Bethsaida. He hawked loogies from his throat into his hand three times before wiping them over his brother’s eyes in front of the congregation.

“I watched it back, and it was disgusting. Like, that was gross. I want to validate everybody’s feelings. That was a distraction from what I was really trying to do — trying to make the word come alive and make people see the story,” Todd said in his apology video.

“It [the demonstration] got too live, and I own that, and I just want to make sure people know that we want to help people. We want people to see Jesus. We want people to feel loved. We want people who are desperate to be able to find hope.”

Todd added that he is sometimes so “passionate” that he tries “to do extreme things to help people get it.”

“And yesterday, I crossed the line,” he admitted while encouraging people who have only watched the clip of the spitting demonstration to watch the entire sermon. “There is some truth and some life in there that could potentially change your whole life.”

The pastor assured his followers that his brother did not suffer any harm in the demonstration.

“When Jesus spit on that man, he was blind and then he could see,” he said. “For my brother, who I love and honor so much, I called him. He was bald before I spit on him, and he’s still bald today, so no miracle here. So next time, I’ll rethink and do something differently.”

It’s never my intention to distract others from God’s Word and the message of Jesus… even with illustrations!

I apologize for my example being too extreme and disgusting!

I Love Everybody ????#REPRESENTpic.twitter.com/YfzFmySCPe — Michael Todd (@iammiketodd) January 17, 2022

Christian writer and theology student Dante Stewart, who recently authored Shoutin’ In The Fire: An American Epistle, condemned Todd’s actions as spiritually and theologically abusive.

“That Mike Todd video has so many layers of terribleness wrapped up in it, I don’t know even where to start. The audacity. The cult energy. The spiritual and theological abusiveness. The hocking and rubbing and spitting and deflecting. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Ain’t no way,” he wrote on Twitter.

“I legit want to have the energy to talk about this but y’all, I legit can’t. This is more than terrible theology or performance or arrogant views of one’s self and power. I don’t know a word for this but it ain’t nice or holy or pastoral or good.”

Stewart contends that people have been raising concerns about Todd’s theology for years.

“I’m legit grieved for the brother who literally was shamed like that in public and I’m grieved for so many who feel they can’t say anything or have to brush it off because it’s Mike Todd,” Stewart wrote. “Nah, fam. This ain’t it. Never will be. It’s abuse and trauma.”

Jemele Hill, a sports journalist, tweeted that she had “never heard of ‘Pastor’ Mike Todd before today.”

“But I truly understand now why the elders used to frequently tell us that we’re in the last days,” she wrote.

Bishop Carlton Pearson, who once led one of the largest churches in Tulsa, Oklahoma, during the 1990s and stirred controversy for declaring there is no Hell, came to Todd’s defense.

Pearson is the senior minister of Christ Universal Temple, a large New Thought congregation in Chicago, Illinois. He is also the head of a new Higher Dimensions fellowship in Chicago and an affiliate minister at Tulsa’s All Souls Unitarian Church. He said Todd and his brother are like family to him.

“Michael Todd is like a nephew to me. His brother on whom the spit was smeared is my godson,” Pearson said in a Facebook post.

“They grew up in Higher Dimensions the church I founded in 1981, the same year I hired his parents and moved them to Tulsa. He’s a highly gifted, passionate, generous and anointed young man.”

Pearson admits that Todd “crossed the line and was excessive to the point of disgusting millions.”

“[B]ut he is not a criminal, cheat, fake, hypocrite or self-centered preacher,” Pearson said. “He’s young with success none of us expected him to have. He’s by no means perfect, but he’s a called man of God and good.”

“If you wanna throw someone away, it shouldn’t be him or anyone like him,” Pearson concluded. “He’s the real thing.”

A Video of Mike Todd Wiping His Spit on a Man’s Face Went Viral and People Are Pretty Disturbed

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A Video of Mike Todd Wiping His Spit on a Man’s Face Went Viral and People Are Pretty Disturbed

17-01-2022 4:27 PM

Over the weekend, a video of pastor and author Mike Todd wiping his spit on a man’s face during his Sunday sermon went viral, and people are understandably both confused and disturbed. The pastor of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Transformation Church was illustrating that “receiving God’s…

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A megachurch pastor in Oklahoma apologized for a demonstration during his sermon ‘being too extreme and disgusting’ when he rubbed spit on a churchgoer’s face

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Oklahoma pastor Mike Todd apologized for rubbing his spit on a person’s face during a service.

The original video went viral and garnered negative attention on social media.

Todd said his actions were a “distraction” from his message.

A pastor at a megachurch based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, apologized on Twitter for rubbing his spit on a member of his church as captured in a viral video.

Pastor Michael Todd, who is one of the lead pastors at Transformation Church, said in a video that his demonstration during a sermon was “disgusting” and a “distraction” after watching back footage from the service.

“I was trying to make the word come alive,” he said of the video in which he spits on his hand twice before rubbing a man’s face on stage in front of congregants. Just before spitting on his hand, Todd said, “Receiving vision from God might get nasty.”

The man on stage next to Todd was identified as his brother Brentom Todd, according to Tulsa World. In the video, there is an audible gasp from the audience, to which Todd responds, “How you just reacted is how the people in your life will react when God is doing what it takes for the miracle.”

Todd’s apology came after negative reactions to the initial video, which spread across the internet.

“It’s never my intention to distract others from God’s Word and the message of Jesus… even with illustrations!” Todd wrote on Twitter. “I apologize for my example being too extreme and disgusting! I Love Everybody.”

“I truly understand now why the elders used to frequently tell us that we’re in the last days,” Atlantic columned Jemele Hill tweeted.

Some social media posters pointed out how Todd’s actions might be especially unwise during a pandemic. “What is the CDC going to do about Mike Todd?” one tweet read.

In the follow-up video, Todd says that he hopes people who saw the viral video will watch the rest of the message to hear the points he was making.

The Late Kirk Douglas’ Longtime L.A. Home Sells for $9M — and It’s Full of Hollywood History

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Noel Kleinman Real Estate Photography; Inset: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Kirk Douglas’ gorgeous Beverly Hills estate, which he shared with wife Anne Douglas, has quickly been scooped up by a buyer for more than $9 million.

Not only does the one-story private mansion boast four bedrooms, six bathrooms and an open, spacious layout, the property also has its very own piece of Hollywood history: an exclusive garden that showcases original signature stones that are signed by some of the most famous names in the business, including Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Jane Fonda and more.

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