Pastor: I punched a kid 'as hard as I could' for 'not taking the Lord serious'

A pastor at the Bible Baptist Church in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey is coming under fire after his church posted a video of him claiming to have converted a "smart aleck" youth by "punching him in the chest as hard as I could."

Pastor Eric Dammann begins by saying that he met a young man in Calgary named "Ben," who was "a nice kid, but one of those -- he was a real smart aleck. He was a bright kid, which didn't help things -- made him more dangerous."

"We were outside one day at youth group," Dammann continues, "and he was just trying to push my buttons. He was just kind of not taking the Lord serious [sic]."

"So I walked over to him and went BAM! Punched him in the chest as hard as I could. I crumpled the kid. I just crumpled him."

"Then I leaned over and said, 'Ben, when are you going to stop playing games with God?' I led that man to the Lord right there," he concludes.

According to the church's official history, Bible Baptist is a "family-focused body of multi-cultural believers...founded by a group of five ladies during the early part of the 1920's."

Watch Dammann recount his meeting with "Ben" below via YouTube.