Pastor Catches Flying Bird With Bare Hand Just Like Harry Potter? [VIDEO]
It's no magic trick.
Harry Potter has nothing on Texas megachurch pastor Matt Carter who was recently caught on video doing an incredible one-handed catch of a flying quail that crossed his path.
The 25-second video of pastor Carter's quail-grabbing feat seemed to mimick the fictional J. K. Rowling character's catch of the coveted Golden Snitch in the 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' movie.
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Carter's Austin Stone Community Church published the video on its YouTube channel on Monday. As of Thursday evening, it had attracted more than one million views.
The Christian Post asked Carter about the Harry Potter analogy in an e-mail conversation on Thursday. He called it "pretty cool" while downplaying the viral reaction to the video.
"I don't think I've heard that one yet, but Harry seems pretty cool, so I guess I'll take that as an honor, although as far as I know, there was no Resurrection Stone and I can't communicate with the dead," quipped Carter. "I did hear someone who saw it credit my baseball skills, which to me was an honor since I used to be a pretty avid baseball player," he noted.
Carter was working on a promotional video shoot with former Longhorn quarterback Colt McCoy for a book, The Real Win which they recently co-authored when the bird suddenly appeared. In the book released last Tuesday, both authors demonstrate through personal experience, how men can succeed in life through biblical teachings.
In his discussion of the video, Carter said he had never caught a bird with his hand before and he is still surprised by what happened.
"This is a very rare thing as far as I know," said Carter. "When I caught it, honestly, the first thing that went through my head since I knew we were filming was that my grandkids were going to talk about this one day, which is why you see me proudly raise my hand after I caught it. It never occurred to me that it was going to go viral."
He said that since the video went viral, he has been getting a lot of reaction to it, including criticisms that have doubted the video's authenticity.
The reactions have been, "mostly amazement and humor, but plenty of disbelief," he explained to CP.
"People are saying that it looks fake and give all kinds of reasons for it, but the truth is, I really did catch the thing. I just think this whole thing is hilarious," said Carter.
In a brief mention of his book however Carter noted: "All humor aside though, I just hope the book and the video curriculum can challenge men in their faithfulness to God and be a useful resource on their journey toward authentic manhood and looking like Jesus."
Carter is the founding pastor of the 8,000-member Austin Stone Community Church. He is also noted as a champion for the For the City Network, which helps churches partner with social service agencies to meet local needs. Matt has authored several other books and speaks at conferences nationwide. He is also featured on the cover of this month's issue of Outreach Magazine.
