Pastor claims he had no idea about connotations of his 'spit or swallow' church sign

A pastor says he had no idea of the innuendo surrounding the term “spit or swallow” when he put up a sign outside his church in Buckley, north Wales.



Reverend Bob Marshall, who is originally from Indiana in the United States, placed a board outside the Ebenezer Baptist Chapel on Brunswick Road saying: “Forgiveness is swallowing when you want to spit.”

But it wasn’t until a parishioner explained the sexual connotations of the message on this side of the Atlantic that he realised it was a double entendre. Rev Marshall said: “When I put that sign out I had no idea what it meant over here. Forgiveness is what it’s all about. One lady said she didn’t even see the word forgiveness.



“It’s obvious to me what I meant but it never really entered my mind it had another meaning.” Rev Marshall, who has lived in Buckley for 30 years, joked there was some divine intervention when the British interpretation of the sign’s meaning became apparent. “The Lord helped me take it down because the wind blew it over," he said.