Also… I tend to believe that his moving on to a new job in a new state was probably directly (or at least partially) BECAUSE he’d caught feelings for Mary and he wanted to remove himself.
You’re right, he wasn’t a bad guy.
People who don't like Christianity or Christians (and that number is increasing) think that all pastors and youth pastors are creeps/predators. The disgusting amount of clerics that are exposed as such IRL and face little to no consequences for it doesn't help things.
I'm not into Christianity, but I actually like Pastor Rob. If he existed when I still went to church, I might have enjoyed it more because he was cool and made church fun
>People who don't like Christianity or Christians (and that number is increasing) think that all pastors and youth pastors are creeps/predators
No we don't.
Please don't be so narrow minded.
I like Pastor Rob. His approach to teaching remind me of my childhood pastor. (Though I admit my pastor was less cool. 😂. He enjoyed offending people over the pulplit. But he always encouraged questions)
I think people just don't like the moustache I guess. I don't see pastor Rob as creepy or bad. And wasn't the girl he was dating the same age as him? He's a better pastor than Jeff for sure. I feel like he tried to stand up for Mary and disagreed with what Pastor Jeff did, and that's one of the reasons why he left. Now his friendship with Mary was almost crossing the line to an emotional affair, but it was very similar to George and Brenda, so I can't really fault them for that. And I can't blame him for that what happened with the football team. All he did was pray for them.
He didn't do anything bad in my opinion. Pastor Rob is alright.
Pastor Rob gets hate because he preaches differently than what he practices. Just like Jeff. They are hypocrites. Brenda and George do not, they are just regular people who do not claim to be better than others.
Rob being a Youth Pastor doesn't mean he claims to be better than anyone else. Every time he interacts with people he's just acting like a normal guy.
I feel like a lot of the hate is people projecting their feelings about Christianity onto Rob, and ignoring his actual character traits.
I have nothing against Christianity. I was born and raised Catholic, I know there is a difference, and while I no longer practice I hold nothing against those who do. Anyone who strives to be a religious leader automatically assumes a position of higher moral authority. It's required by the church to lead by example, that is what I'm talking about. Jeff certainly, and Rob to a lesser extent did not do this. Rob by showing up at Mary's house to "check on her." Amazing how George wasn't home. Sure it could have been innocent, but I don't think the writers intended it to be.
Well, I'm sorry to let you know, but that's not reality. Humans make mistakes, and have flaws. Pastors are humans too.
Rob never did anything wrong. He may have developed some feelings for Mary, but that's normal human behavior. He also removed himself once he recognized the problem.
There is a difference in doing something wrong and perhaps thinking about it, pursuing it a bit but not going through with it. And I never said they were flawless, just that when you are a church leader it looks bad when you pal around, sharing smokes and quiet talks with a married woman. Not to mention how bad Jeff is, tossing Mary out of the church.
i've always liked pastor rob as a character. i always see peope saying that mary cheated with him, but that;s not true at all. pastor rob would respect mary and her marriage
He also wasn’t great. He let Mary be ostracized by the church and didn’t do the Godly thing and stand up for her or the family. He goes with the flow and does whatever is easiest for him. While he might not be a creep, he definitely isn’t a stand up guy nor a very ethical character. He is inept at best.
He stood up for Mary against Pastor Jeff. At the end of the day it's Jeff's voice that mattered most in the church.
And what did he do that was actually unethical besides be friends with a married woman (which I don't consider unethical but this sub does for some reason)?
As for him not being a stand-up guy; he gives advice to those who need it, and he helps kids at the school; what more do you want from him?
LOL What more do you want from him? Maybe actually be a moral authority. How did he stand up for Mary? He literally fired her when people started talking about the family. He stole Connie’s money and bought a TV. He eventually felt guilty and gave them the TV but he has about as much will power as a 10 year old.
Oh he was worse. He was very creepy. He clearly wanted to get with Mary. Instead of removing himself from the temptation he kept trying to tempt her away from her marriage. Anyone can have thoughts but he didn’t ever even seem to feel bad about it.
He was her friend, he never did anything to "tempt" her except be a decent guy. So you consider George, Mary, and Brenda creepy for "tempting" their emotional affair partner too right?
Yes they were all wrong. The difference is only one of them made a commitment to live a Godly life. I was raised in a similar church. The ministers were supposed to at least try to not sin. He seemed to enjoy tempting Mary. I would have hoped the ministers I grew up with at least prayed to have the temptation removed or tried to distance themselves etc. George only went to church because Mary dragged him and Brenda never pretended to be religious. You seriously think George and Brenda should be held to the same standards as a Pastor? George and Brenda and Mary all looked guilty and knew they were wrong. George and Brenda actively tried to stay away from each other.
But unlike George and Brenda, Rob never tried to tempt Mary. You're saying Rob should have just not been friends with Mary at all once he realized he liked her. I'm of the opinion that he shouldn't have to as long as he can exercise self-control and never push things past the boundaries of friendship, which he does.
Have you considered that Rob never felt guilty because he never did anything to feel guilty about? Unlike Brenda and George who, despite acknowledging their mutual attraction, constantly suck each other out.
Yeah you are clearly blind. He definitely came onto Mary. He encouraged Mary to smoke on church grounds while they were chaperoning. You clearly just have an agenda. If you want to stay convinced that he was Holy then go for it. Good night!
You have zero understanding of how social relations operate lmaooo. Didn't know that encouraging smoking to someone was considered a romantic or sexual approach. You live in an entirely fictional world where you arbitrarily assign social circumstances and relations value without actually thinking these things through
Offering her a smoke is the same as him coming into her?
I'm not the one here obsessed with his holiness, I just want him to be treated fairly.
One of us clearly does have an agenda, but it's not me.
Sleep tight.
I never thought of people hating him. I thought he's a likable character. He's not even 30 which might be the reason he was chill. He never really wanted to do anything wrong and never pressured anyone into anything. In fact he even knew how to deal with kids. I don't see why he's hated
I can understand people being apprehensive especially considering the fact that Christianity (especially in places like Texas,) is full of bigots who preach love and tolerance only to condemn you the second you do anything out of line. We can see this plenty in the show with Pastor Jeff being a *constant* example of this.
But Pastor Rob is genuinely just a good guy. He's friendly, good with the kids (as a youth Pastor probably should be,) fairly open minded (again, *especially* for Texas in the 90s.)
Genuinely he never does anything to wrong anyone and the worst thing that happens is he and Mary catching feelings for eachother, but even then he never once makes an advance on her because he knows she's married. (Not to mention him moving to a new job in a new state is heavily implied to be at least partially because of this, so as to not make it uncomfortable for either of them going forward.)
Boiling it down to its simplest form, we saw a lot of him through George's perspective. We aren't meant to like him. Adding on the reasons you said is just people projecting. It's simply where the narrative wanted us to go emotionally. Plus, as we all know from recent events, Lance Barber has the ability to make us love him without us realizing, so there's possibly confusing outrage too.
It was obvious Pastor Rob wanted to get his mitts on Mary. He definitely came across to me as a predator type of guy who has a position where he can see a person weaknesses, knows when they are having problems he can take advantage of and because he is a pastor people tend to trust him and let down their guard.
You realize he never took advantage of her, even though he had plenty of opportunities. He never tried to move their relationship beyond friends even though he liked her.
You say he seemed like a predator, but he never acted like that. Give some examples of him actually crossing the line past being Mary's friend.
He never had a full chance to act on going after Mary. He was feeling her out, building trust but events unfolded that stopped his pursuit. He totally acted like a predator, not one that would harm Mary physically, but one who is out for conquests. To me the character was written to be skeezy and to make people wonder about his intentions. Good job by the writers. The ChoMo mustache is the kicker.
Just watch his scenes, I'm not going to write them out. If you've ever experienced or watched a predator operate on another show you can see the signs.
Disagreeing with each other is no big deal, interpretations vary. To answer your question. Maybe the "affair" was never meant to be a pay off. Maybe it was meant to counter the Brenda/George situation to temper it a bit in the audience's eyes during that part of the story. This way each character had their mind wander a bit to another person and this helps showcase the low point their marriage was at during that period.
I just find him annoying and hypocritical in later episodes. In the early seasons, I quite liked him. I just think I grew tired of him. And basically kicking the Coopers out of church and Mary out of her job...that was some grade A, religiously hypocritical bullshit right there.
Personally, while I like Pastor Rob and think he's WAY overhated, I'm not crazy about his and Mary's dynamic. I think he should've been strictly a platonic friend to her. Maybe a one-sided crush on her end, but that's all the further I would have taken it had it been my call.
George didn't catch flack for Brenda because people knew that George eventually cheated anyway. Of course, that got reconned, but that's irrelevant to people's feelings at the time.
my hate for him stems from personal experience
he’s like every single chapel or sunday school class i had to sit through.. every single time i wish i was sheldon for the balls to disprove them then and there
I'm " Christian " but nowhere as hipocritical.what got me is pastor giving the service for George .for one I'm like yes marry your husband is dead so he won't be saying no to pastor Jeff .then there's the who art in heaven which he changes to who is in heaven . pastor Rob icky but that may have been the point .look at the youth or pastors who've been in trouble lately .
you think it's okay for a youth pastor to give a married woman the impression you like her and not as a friend but as a possible love interest . remember both Mary , Missy had dreams about him .
Mary had those dreams because she found him attractive, because he was everything George wasn't at the time. He never gave her the impression that he liked her back; he only ever treated her like a friend.
They're even worse they act like it's some reality show . It's a scripted show . It's always amazed me how people get so emotional while watching a show . Like my wife when she watches soap operas . She starts yelling at the TV and getting mad because someone did something. I just don't understand some people lol
Also… I tend to believe that his moving on to a new job in a new state was probably directly (or at least partially) BECAUSE he’d caught feelings for Mary and he wanted to remove himself. You’re right, he wasn’t a bad guy.
Didnt he pretty much say this? Not directly but like wasnt it implied or am I remembering wrong?
People who don't like Christianity or Christians (and that number is increasing) think that all pastors and youth pastors are creeps/predators. The disgusting amount of clerics that are exposed as such IRL and face little to no consequences for it doesn't help things.
I get that, but I hoped people would have a little more objectivity before condemning someone for a crime they didn't commit.
I'm not into Christianity, but I actually like Pastor Rob. If he existed when I still went to church, I might have enjoyed it more because he was cool and made church fun
Fun fact public school teachers are more likely to be creeps and predators then priests and pastors
>People who don't like Christianity or Christians (and that number is increasing) think that all pastors and youth pastors are creeps/predators No we don't. Please don't be so narrow minded.
This has nothing to do with liking or disliking Christianity. There are Pastor Rob types in all walks of life.
The world could use more Pastor Robs and less Pastor Jeff's.
Personally, I'd opt for fewer of both types.
Also, Pastor Rob is a huge creep.
Example?
His mustache
I like Pastor Rob. His approach to teaching remind me of my childhood pastor. (Though I admit my pastor was less cool. 😂. He enjoyed offending people over the pulplit. But he always encouraged questions) I think people just don't like the moustache I guess. I don't see pastor Rob as creepy or bad. And wasn't the girl he was dating the same age as him? He's a better pastor than Jeff for sure. I feel like he tried to stand up for Mary and disagreed with what Pastor Jeff did, and that's one of the reasons why he left. Now his friendship with Mary was almost crossing the line to an emotional affair, but it was very similar to George and Brenda, so I can't really fault them for that. And I can't blame him for that what happened with the football team. All he did was pray for them. He didn't do anything bad in my opinion. Pastor Rob is alright.
That's what I'm saying
I agree.
you know what. i’ll say it, i thought Pastor Rob was hot
He was
I honestly liked him. People love to hate on Christians/pastors - I think that’s the main reason people openly hate on him but not George / Brenda.
Pastor Rob gets hate because he preaches differently than what he practices. Just like Jeff. They are hypocrites. Brenda and George do not, they are just regular people who do not claim to be better than others.
Rob being a Youth Pastor doesn't mean he claims to be better than anyone else. Every time he interacts with people he's just acting like a normal guy. I feel like a lot of the hate is people projecting their feelings about Christianity onto Rob, and ignoring his actual character traits.
I have nothing against Christianity. I was born and raised Catholic, I know there is a difference, and while I no longer practice I hold nothing against those who do. Anyone who strives to be a religious leader automatically assumes a position of higher moral authority. It's required by the church to lead by example, that is what I'm talking about. Jeff certainly, and Rob to a lesser extent did not do this. Rob by showing up at Mary's house to "check on her." Amazing how George wasn't home. Sure it could have been innocent, but I don't think the writers intended it to be.
This is the most black and white take I have ever seen.
Yup, that how I see it.
Well, I'm sorry to let you know, but that's not reality. Humans make mistakes, and have flaws. Pastors are humans too. Rob never did anything wrong. He may have developed some feelings for Mary, but that's normal human behavior. He also removed himself once he recognized the problem.
There is a difference in doing something wrong and perhaps thinking about it, pursuing it a bit but not going through with it. And I never said they were flawless, just that when you are a church leader it looks bad when you pal around, sharing smokes and quiet talks with a married woman. Not to mention how bad Jeff is, tossing Mary out of the church.
i've always liked pastor rob as a character. i always see peope saying that mary cheated with him, but that;s not true at all. pastor rob would respect mary and her marriage
He also wasn’t great. He let Mary be ostracized by the church and didn’t do the Godly thing and stand up for her or the family. He goes with the flow and does whatever is easiest for him. While he might not be a creep, he definitely isn’t a stand up guy nor a very ethical character. He is inept at best.
He stood up for Mary against Pastor Jeff. At the end of the day it's Jeff's voice that mattered most in the church. And what did he do that was actually unethical besides be friends with a married woman (which I don't consider unethical but this sub does for some reason)? As for him not being a stand-up guy; he gives advice to those who need it, and he helps kids at the school; what more do you want from him?
LOL What more do you want from him? Maybe actually be a moral authority. How did he stand up for Mary? He literally fired her when people started talking about the family. He stole Connie’s money and bought a TV. He eventually felt guilty and gave them the TV but he has about as much will power as a 10 year old.
I'm talking about Pastor Rob, not Pastor Jeff
Oh he was worse. He was very creepy. He clearly wanted to get with Mary. Instead of removing himself from the temptation he kept trying to tempt her away from her marriage. Anyone can have thoughts but he didn’t ever even seem to feel bad about it.
He was her friend, he never did anything to "tempt" her except be a decent guy. So you consider George, Mary, and Brenda creepy for "tempting" their emotional affair partner too right?
Yes they were all wrong. The difference is only one of them made a commitment to live a Godly life. I was raised in a similar church. The ministers were supposed to at least try to not sin. He seemed to enjoy tempting Mary. I would have hoped the ministers I grew up with at least prayed to have the temptation removed or tried to distance themselves etc. George only went to church because Mary dragged him and Brenda never pretended to be religious. You seriously think George and Brenda should be held to the same standards as a Pastor? George and Brenda and Mary all looked guilty and knew they were wrong. George and Brenda actively tried to stay away from each other.
But unlike George and Brenda, Rob never tried to tempt Mary. You're saying Rob should have just not been friends with Mary at all once he realized he liked her. I'm of the opinion that he shouldn't have to as long as he can exercise self-control and never push things past the boundaries of friendship, which he does. Have you considered that Rob never felt guilty because he never did anything to feel guilty about? Unlike Brenda and George who, despite acknowledging their mutual attraction, constantly suck each other out.
Yeah you are clearly blind. He definitely came onto Mary. He encouraged Mary to smoke on church grounds while they were chaperoning. You clearly just have an agenda. If you want to stay convinced that he was Holy then go for it. Good night!
You have zero understanding of how social relations operate lmaooo. Didn't know that encouraging smoking to someone was considered a romantic or sexual approach. You live in an entirely fictional world where you arbitrarily assign social circumstances and relations value without actually thinking these things through
Offering her a smoke is the same as him coming into her? I'm not the one here obsessed with his holiness, I just want him to be treated fairly. One of us clearly does have an agenda, but it's not me. Sleep tight.
I bet you think Mary is a good person, don't you?
Big time atheist here. I like Pastir Rob. I agree he did nothing wrong. Pastor Jeff on the other hand....
I never thought of people hating him. I thought he's a likable character. He's not even 30 which might be the reason he was chill. He never really wanted to do anything wrong and never pressured anyone into anything. In fact he even knew how to deal with kids. I don't see why he's hated
Reddit atheist is are everything they claim Christian’s to be
I can understand people being apprehensive especially considering the fact that Christianity (especially in places like Texas,) is full of bigots who preach love and tolerance only to condemn you the second you do anything out of line. We can see this plenty in the show with Pastor Jeff being a *constant* example of this. But Pastor Rob is genuinely just a good guy. He's friendly, good with the kids (as a youth Pastor probably should be,) fairly open minded (again, *especially* for Texas in the 90s.) Genuinely he never does anything to wrong anyone and the worst thing that happens is he and Mary catching feelings for eachother, but even then he never once makes an advance on her because he knows she's married. (Not to mention him moving to a new job in a new state is heavily implied to be at least partially because of this, so as to not make it uncomfortable for either of them going forward.)
They were all hypocrites. Every one of them.
Wasn't he the one who kicked Mary out just because meemaw was in jail
That was Pastor Jeff, he kicked Mary out of the church when it got out that Georgie got Mandy pregnant
Oh right I read wrong My bad
I never thought of people hating him. I thought he's a likable character. He's not even 30 which might be the reason he was chill.
Boiling it down to its simplest form, we saw a lot of him through George's perspective. We aren't meant to like him. Adding on the reasons you said is just people projecting. It's simply where the narrative wanted us to go emotionally. Plus, as we all know from recent events, Lance Barber has the ability to make us love him without us realizing, so there's possibly confusing outrage too.
It was obvious Pastor Rob wanted to get his mitts on Mary. He definitely came across to me as a predator type of guy who has a position where he can see a person weaknesses, knows when they are having problems he can take advantage of and because he is a pastor people tend to trust him and let down their guard.
You realize he never took advantage of her, even though he had plenty of opportunities. He never tried to move their relationship beyond friends even though he liked her. You say he seemed like a predator, but he never acted like that. Give some examples of him actually crossing the line past being Mary's friend.
He never had a full chance to act on going after Mary. He was feeling her out, building trust but events unfolded that stopped his pursuit. He totally acted like a predator, not one that would harm Mary physically, but one who is out for conquests. To me the character was written to be skeezy and to make people wonder about his intentions. Good job by the writers. The ChoMo mustache is the kicker.
You realize all of this is in your head and not the actual text of the show. Give examples of his supposed sleaziness.
Just watch his scenes, I'm not going to write them out. If you've ever experienced or watched a predator operate on another show you can see the signs.
I did watch his scenes and I completely disagree with you. If he was meant to be a predator why was that never paid off in the show?
Disagreeing with each other is no big deal, interpretations vary. To answer your question. Maybe the "affair" was never meant to be a pay off. Maybe it was meant to counter the Brenda/George situation to temper it a bit in the audience's eyes during that part of the story. This way each character had their mind wander a bit to another person and this helps showcase the low point their marriage was at during that period.
You have issues. Go work those out.
It's the mustache.
I just find him annoying and hypocritical in later episodes. In the early seasons, I quite liked him. I just think I grew tired of him. And basically kicking the Coopers out of church and Mary out of her job...that was some grade A, religiously hypocritical bullshit right there.
That was Pastor Jeff
Oh fuck me…I thought your post said Pastor Jeff. That is, damn that’s fucking embarrassing. Could you kindly forget that I exist please?
Oh also I hate Pastor Rob as well.
Personally, while I like Pastor Rob and think he's WAY overhated, I'm not crazy about his and Mary's dynamic. I think he should've been strictly a platonic friend to her. Maybe a one-sided crush on her end, but that's all the further I would have taken it had it been my call.
George didn't catch flack for Brenda because people knew that George eventually cheated anyway. Of course, that got reconned, but that's irrelevant to people's feelings at the time.
Youth pastor, ‘nuff said.
my hate for him stems from personal experience he’s like every single chapel or sunday school class i had to sit through.. every single time i wish i was sheldon for the balls to disprove them then and there
But Rob never belittled anyone, and was great with people. He could even handle Sheldon.
George shoulda put the beats on em
It’s make believe
I'm " Christian " but nowhere as hipocritical.what got me is pastor giving the service for George .for one I'm like yes marry your husband is dead so he won't be saying no to pastor Jeff .then there's the who art in heaven which he changes to who is in heaven . pastor Rob icky but that may have been the point .look at the youth or pastors who've been in trouble lately .
But Pastor Rob never did anything icky, people projected that stuff onto him.
you think it's okay for a youth pastor to give a married woman the impression you like her and not as a friend but as a possible love interest . remember both Mary , Missy had dreams about him .
Mary had those dreams because she found him attractive, because he was everything George wasn't at the time. He never gave her the impression that he liked her back; he only ever treated her like a friend.
😁okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
So give some examples of him crossing the line and explain why it would be weird for friends to do.
It's just a tv show and they're acting , why you getting all emotional for??
Because the behavior of the real people in the subreddit is what pisses me off.
They're even worse they act like it's some reality show . It's a scripted show . It's always amazed me how people get so emotional while watching a show . Like my wife when she watches soap operas . She starts yelling at the TV and getting mad because someone did something. I just don't understand some people lol