Rick Joyner Reveals What A Carolina Panthers Victory In The Super Bowl Will REALLY Mean

Rick Joyner behind the pulpit (image from Joyner's Facebook)
Rick Joyner behind the pulpit (image from Joyner’s Facebook)

Like nearly everyone here in Charlotte, I’m psyched that my Carolina Panthers are on their way to the Super Bowl. After one of the greatest regular seasons in NFL history, the Panthers have a chance to bring the Carolinas their second major-league sports title and make Cam Newton the third black quarterback to win a Super Bowl. Head coach Ron Rivera is already the fifth man of color to lead a team to the Super Bowl, and has a shot at becoming the third to win it. But according to religious right leader and self-proclaimed prophet Rick Joyner, we should be excited for another reason. He thinks a Panthers win will herald a third Great Awakening.

On Monday’s edition of his daily Internet Webcast, “Prophetic Perspectives on Current Events,” Joyner–whose MorningStar Ministries is based at Jim Bakker’s old Heritage USA compound in Fort Mill, South Carolina; 20 minutes south of Charlotte–recalled a prophecy delivered in the 1980s by one of his old friends, Bob Jones. Apparently Jones foresaw that Charlotte would get an NFL team named the Panthers. The Panthers’ run to the Super Bowl apparently prompted a number of Joyner’s followers to ask about it. People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch got a clip.

Joyner said that around 1988, Jones told him out of nowhere that “black panthers” were coming to Charlotte, and they would be “coming to the lumber yard.” Joyner didn’t think much of it until 1993, when the Panthers were unanimously voted in as the NFL’s 29th franchise–with black as one of their primary colors. Additionally, what is now Bank of America Stadium was reportedly built on a tract of land downtown that was partly occupied by an old lumber yard.

From that moment on, Joyner and Jones felt there was “a prophetic destiny” to this team. Well, that’s news to me. I always heard that lions were prominent in so-called prophetic talk, not panthers. In the back of my mind, I wondered if Joyner and Jones were trying to come up with a prophecy involving a big cat to make up for the Detroit Lions being an also-ran for most of the last six decades. Joyner then mentioned that the Panthers’ “ups and downs” were “an incredibly accurate parallel” of what Christians have to endure on a regular basis. He then declared that if the Panthers beat the Denver Broncos, it would be “a very definite marker” that “something remarkable” is about to break out.

Later, he recalled that in one of Jones’ last prophecies, he claimed that if the Kansas City Royals ever won the World Series, it would be a sign that an “outbreak” is about to happen. As it turned out, last season they won the World Series for the first time in 30 years. Joyner thinks that if the Panthers win the Super Bowl, it would definitely mean “all hands on deck” for a third Great Awakening. He cautioned, though, that everyone at MorningStar thought that revival was at hand when the Panthers went all the way to the Super Bowl in 2003–only to lose to the New England Patriots.

If your head is still spinning from this, don’t worry–so is mine. The last time I heard something this unhinged was last summer, when Johnny Enlow mused that American Pharoah’s Triple Crown win was a sign that Christians were about to take over the world. I ask the same questions I asked then–did Ayatollah Khomeini go into this spiel before 1979? Or the Taliban before 1996? These are actually important questions to ask. After all, at least one major Republican candidate, Ted Cruz, has spoken at Joyner’s church. Keep this on file in case Cruz or anyone else gets too close to Joyner during the campaign.

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.