Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s spouse…or her upgrade to first class.
A pastor faces jail time after lacking self-control when his wife was upgraded to first class on Alaska Airlines and he was not. The primary issue for me is that this man is not fit to be a Christian minister…
Pastor Smacks His Wife Afer She Scores First Class Upgrade On Alaska Airlines, Faces Extended Prison Sentence
Let’s examine what happened and then I’ll discuss why this matters to me (which is less travel-related, but since it is my blog, I’m going to talk about it…):
- A so-called “evangelical pastor,” Roger Allan Holmberg Senior, and his wife, were traveling from Seattle (SEA) to Anchorage (ANC) on Alaska Airlines flight 275
- His wife is an Alaska Airlines MVP Gold member and received a complimentary upgrade to first class
- That upset him greatly…
- Onboard, he walked up to first class and demanded to know, “How the hell did you get the upgrade?”
- His wife replied, “I’m a gold point member. Don’t speak to me like that.”
- A bit later, Holmberg returned to first class, handed his wife his phone, and told her to read it
- He then flipped her off
- Returning a third time, Holmberg “pushed in front of his wife’s seatmate and attempted to swing his arm towards the victim” (per the police report)
- The seatmate leaned forward to block the strike and an off-duty police officer jumped up to help
- Alaska Airlines radioed ahead to Anchorage and FBI officers met the aircraft
- Holmberg was detained, with his wife recounting a history of physical and verbal abuse
- She clarified that he “struck her in the head with the back of his knuckles”
- He responded that he had only “tapped his wife on the head in passing to get her attention”
- Holmberg responded that they were attending marriage counseling sessions but that his wife was to blame (“He stated she was disrespectful to him often and had anger issues. She had grabbed his leg in the past while he was driving a vehicle and broke her finger. He also stated she had grabbed his genitals in the past with such force that he was in pain.”)
- Finally, Holmberg justified being “upset” about his wife’s first class upgrade “because he wanted his wife to travel with him and sit next to him”
- Homberg was arrested on simple assault and jailed pending a hearing
- Alaska Airlines has cancelled his return ticket and banned him from future flights
Unfit To Be A Minister
Since he “wears the cloak” and purports to be a minister of God, allow me to use this opportunity to point out how his actions on this flight have disqualified him from ministry (if he actually does take the “Good Book” seriously). The worst witness of a Christian is hypocrisy.
The apostle Paul outlines the “fruit of the Spirit” in his letter to the Galatians.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
And yet in this interaction, I see no love, no joy, no peace, no forbearance (patience), no kindness, no goodness, no faithfulness, no gentleness, and no self-control.
Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus also outline the requirements to be a pastor, which include being:
- above reproach
- husband of one wife
- sober-minded
- not a drunkard
- self-controlled
- respectable
- hospitable
- able to teach
- not violent
- gentle
- not quarrelsome
- not a lover of money
- well thought of by outsiders
- a lover of good
- upright
- holy
Once again, this very incident seems to expose that he fails to possess virtually every one of these traits.
I hope that he and his wife can work it out. I hope that this moment truly does change his trajectory and he will be convicted of his vile behavior and find the help…and perhaps the salvation…he needs.
But he has no business ever stepping into a pulpit again. He has disqualified himself. And his wife should not have to endure another moment of his terror…
image: Facebook / Roger Allan Holmberg Fan Club
Practice what you preach…
I hope his wife leaves him, this does not sound like a healthy marriage.
I hope he changes and their marriage can flourish, but she does not have to tolerate such abuse…and never should have in the first place.
Given
1) people usually are creatures of habit and get even more stubborn and cranky as they get older; and
2) domestic abuse usually is more extreme “in private” than “in public”; and
3) his blaming his (second) wife for his violence,
I think the guy is a hopeless case unless and until he gets some serious punishment and appreciates the errors of his ways. But even thereafter his wife is at high risk of being subject to more abuse from him of the sort previously encountered or even a worse escalation of the previous pattern of abuse.
My bet is this morally-lost “pastor” still thinks domestic violence toward a wife or child should be allowed to him as it may have been allowed his father before him and as he sees it allowed in his understanding of his religion.
Wow, this is his second wife? Yikes. I didn’t know that.
What are y’all talking about. This is the most Christian like behavior imaginable. There’s an article everyday in the news about a pastor abusing a child, embezzling tithes, cheating on his wife, etc. Every time I see an article like that I sing ~tale as old as time~ from beauty and the beast.
It happens so often that I’m beginning to think there is a real correlation and causation effect between religion and bad behavior. Heck 70% of the prison population claims to be religious.
And you know who’s not ridiculously overrepresented in prison? Atheists. If you believe Christians, the prisons should be absolutely overflowing with atheists given all the evil deeds we must commit. And yet when you actually look at prisons, they are full to the brim with religious folks. Not practicing what you preach might as well be a key tenet of religions and especially Christianity.
I disagree with you, this is EXACTLY how a MAGA Christian behaves.
Says the tool who has never met a “maga” Christian. I’m not maga or even religious, but my family would never do anything like this. The worst they do is gossip. It’s not good, but they don’t beat people. So thanks for showing you have never left your ignorant bubble.
I was completely shocked by how widely tolerated it was in Texas and other parts of the South to belt/whip kids. And to my eyes and ears there definitely seemed to be a somewhat “positive” correlation between the willingness to whip kids with a belt or to try to justify it on religious grounds and intimate partner violence. It certainly wasn’t the atheistic hippy left in California that seemed big into using religious justifications for violence against wives and kids.
spanking a child is discipline
Of course, mentally challenged libs think a parent’s job is to be their kid’s friend. Which is why we have so many delinquents today
Belting a child or wife is physical abuse. Do you call torture “discipline” too? If y0u get drawn and quartered by some strong horses, then it should be called permissible “discipline” for your delinquency? :rolleyes:
There is a negative correlation between the academic abilities of children and the amount of physical violence a child suffers at the hands of the adults supposedly responsible for a child. Even in the name of “discipline”. And it’s an increasingly evolutionary advantage in our species to be high-performing academic performers, but if “the Bible says ‘spare not the rod’” crowd supporting violence inside their own nuclear family circles want to give their own children a disadvantage in life, assaulting the children and spouses is a way to do just that. I would have assumed anti-“mentally challenged libs” love their children too and care about the future of their children in a world that is increasingly competitive, but then they defend physical abuse of children and sometimes even wives.
Thank you. Well put. Spousal abuse disqualifies you from the pulpit, forever.
The scary thing is for a woman to leave this type of man can be very dangerous. Sure feel for her.
Yes. The violence rooted in a control-freak nature means that the violent control-freak can go even more berserk when they feel like their subject is escaping their control.
Fundamentalism in every religion give its worst leaders the most powers. This man should be running a church as much as I should be flying a 787 when I’m not a pilot.
Kinda like politics and government.
If this has been his ongoing behavior, I agree that he should not nor never should have been a minister of the Gospel; however, I have seen many older adults’ behaviors change due to dementia, and gentle souls can become very violent. Not knowing the whole story, I will withhold judgment today until I know more.
You are absolutely right on both counts. There may be a more benign explanation–like dementia–for his actions, but either way it disqualifies him from ministry if he actually takes the Bible seriously.
Greg Locke, Joel Osteen, IV Hilliard, Kenneth Copeland. Yeah, OK.
Eh, this isn’t very “Christian” of you. Maybe he can change, maybe he can’t. But “don’t throw stones from glass houses” comes to mind. Yes, he was a POS here. Likely he is a POS (like the Kenneth Copelands of the world) but we don’t know more than what was put up for click bait.
No, we know he struck his wife and cursed her out. He’s disqualified. Period. The notion that Christianity is “judge not lest ye be judged” is a very superficial/incorrect understanding of the faith.
BTW, was that you who responded to Jenna Ellis’ tweet about Xtians abandoning the GOP over its more liberal platform in 2024? I know there has been a Brandon Straka that was very anti-mask that has commented on this blog many times (maybe you, maybe not).
He sinned, yes. But if one is truly a Christian (non religious), then they believe a) in forgiveness and b) no one is perfect.
No, that is not me. I know who he is, but he is not I and I am not him. I’m not a GOP anything.
I am anti-mask for medical and scientific reasons. I was anti-mask before the silly right jumped on the bandwagon for about 4 months in 2020.
I do believe in forgiveness and that no one is perfect. But forgiveness is predicated on repentance and this dude is just in denial about his bad conduct and still blaming his wife.
There is another Brandon who posted here during the pandemic under that name…good to know it’s a different Brandon.
I have been here since the pandemic. Well, before actually. But I am not the Brandon S guy who seems like a political shock jock. From the very little I know of him.
If you link to the comment, I can tell you if it was me or not.
“not a lover of money”
Welp, that wipes out all the mega-church grifter bros…
I am actually amazed about how many new and super-sized churches have popped up in the last ten years in areas where there has been little to no population growth or even population decline. And these new churches tend not to be affiliated with the traditional Catholic and Lutheran denominations that used to be the only ones around in the areas where I have seen this going on. It had me wondering where the money is coming from and where it actually is going and why. I thought government corruption was bad in the “third world”. Religious corruption is bad business too and costing taxpayers.
I hope that he and his wife can work it out.
Why, sometimes separation or a divorce is the best solution. Every time (not too often) someone tells me that they’re divorced, I say congratulations. They’ve made the decision that they’re better people apart. Sounds like these people could benefit similarly.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: atheism is the answer.
Atheists can also be awfully violent people. It’s people who feel like they ought to be unaccountable and don’t respect the autonomy and bodily integrity of others who are the problem regardless of religious disposition or disposition toward religion.
Religion and religious differences are often just an excuse for the very violence and other attempts of coercion/subjugation that people would engage in even in the absence of religion/religious differences.
The Flying Spaghetti Monsters of religions aren’t the problem. The beliefs in the various Flying Spaghetti Monsters aren’t the problem. The problem is people who lack respect for the autonomy and bodily integrity of others and thus are willing to engage in or otherwise support violence so as to dominate those who dare to not “stay in line”.
People like that at that age don’t change. If you cross that line to physically abuse your spouse, the line is irrelevant to you.
This person is nothing more than a false prophet.