Marjoe Gortner Religion For Profit Documentray

[steve_bank]

There was Marjoe Gortner, I read his book on how people profit off religion. His documentary may be online.

When he was a kid they made up visions for him to recite on stage. They sewed deep pockets into his pants. After a service he walked around the crowd and people stuffed money in his pockets.

Marjoe Gortner - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner (born January 14, 1944) is a former evangelist preacher and actor. He first gained public attention during the late 1940s when his parents arranged for him to be ordained as a preacher at age four, due to his extraordinary speaking ability. He was the youngest known in that position. As a young man, he preached on the revival circuit and brought celebrity to the revival movement.[1]

He became a celebrity again during the 1970s when he starred in Marjoe (1972), a behind-the-scenes documentary about the lucrative business of Pentecostal preaching, which won the 1972 Academy Award for Best Documentary Film. That documentary now is noted as one of the most vehement criticisms of Pentecostal preaching.[2]

His documentary. If you want to understand Evangelicals and Pentecostals and what you are up against here it is from the inside.

As I said on another thread theater and drama.

Marjoe (1972)

This Oscar-winning documentary chronicles the story of a firebrand evangelical preacher who wholeheartedly and humorously exposes himself as a fraud.

tubitv.com

 

[ideologyhunter]

He was pretty shallow as a holy roller and as a deconverted sin-eater. It made him a short-term celeb on early 70s talk shows. My reaction at the time (and now, I guess) was that leaving the preachin' circus made him marginally better than Swaggart, Bakker and Humbard and Oral, Jerry, Billy, and Pat...but there's not much glory in walking away from being a total asshat.

 

[steve_bank]

He was pretty shallow as a holy roller and as a deconverted sin-eater. It made him a short-term celeb on early 70s talk shows. My reaction at the time (and now, I guess) was that leaving the preachin' circus made him marginally better than Swaggart, Bakker and Humbard and Oral, Jerry, Billy, and Pat...but there's not much glory in walking away from being a total asshat.

Maybe you missed a point, his parents groomed him to fake it.

A so called 'faith healer' who pays a ringer to be in the crowd on crutches and throws them away when healed. Oral Roberts.

One point from the video is the behavior and beliefs of Evangelical and Pentecostals.

For current religious exploitation just watch the mega church TV shows and other Christian shows Selling products. Some sell supplements. These people get rich on religion. Gortner was honest about it.

There is a guy on TV who preaches a seed money gospel. He guarantees if you really believe nand send him money you will get more back then what you gave. God will make it happen. Of course he presentss people who claim it worked for them.

And like people in the video, there are Christins who will eat up the con job.

It is not just Christians. The Maharaji and Trascendental Meditation. I was in Portland Orgon when the Indian 'the Bagwan' took over a ranch with his Rajneeshes followers. I saw then around Portland dressed in red with pictures of the guru around their necks. He drove aroud the ranch in his limosine watchng his follrs work on the ranch for nothing. He fled to Americ to avoid tax evasion prbelms in India.

Or Scientology.

There are people who psychologicaly may benefit from beliefs, but religions are based in exploitation.

 

[ideologyhunter]

He was pretty shallow as a holy roller and as a deconverted sin-eater. It made him a short-term celeb on early 70s talk shows. My reaction at the time (and now, I guess) was that leaving the preachin' circus made him marginally better than Swaggart, Bakker and Humbard and Oral, Jerry, Billy, and Pat...but there's not much glory in walking away from being a total asshat.

Maybe you missed a point, his parents groomed him to fake it.

Didn't miss that. It was a big part of his book and film. But who's to say a whole bunch of that crowd aren't faking it? If "deconverted" is the wrong word, consider "decommissioned." But again, most of what Marjoe had to say "on the other side" of the revival tent was (or should have been) obvious to anyone who can watch these pompous overblown preaching acts and think for himself. If there was a Big Reveal, it was only for the rubes who would send in their crumpled dollars to an evangelist rather than spend 'em on consumable goods like lottery tickets, cigs, and brew. You know...the sources of real satisfaction.

 

[steve_bank]

I can't speak for all Christians or all atheists.

I do know that for many Evangelicals it is not just a set of beliefs, it is a supernatural reality they live in.

Gospel I think got it right with his analogy to the D&D game.

Catholics have a range of degrees of beliefs, for some it is all real.

I was working at a company started by Iranian immigrants. Some were believing Muslims. I was having a conversation about religion in the office of a Muslim, he insisted that Muhammad appeared to him as real as I was standing there. An educated rational engineer.