Here's another shining beacon of evangelicals gone wild. Shirley Phelps Roper picketer of American soldier funerals and hater of all things pink - does a great job of illuminating her intellectual and religious prowess here on Hannity and Colmes. She makes FOX look sane and that's no easy task.
According to
an article published on one my favorite sites, The Revealer, there's a new band in town and his name is Pastor
Mac Hammond. In
the article The Minnesota Monitor is listed as having done "good work sifting
through Hammond's seemingly shady finances, which apparently include his
church's purchase of a stunt plane for their pastor, not to mention a lot of
questionable loans."
Some Christians look
at you sideways if you dare say that there are huckster evangelists out
there working religion for a buck. Or, they admit there's probably a
bad apple or two but no one dares think it could be their favorite
evangelist. The truth is there are very clever men out there whose only
intention is to make money. One such man was Marjoe Gortner. In the
1950's he was known as the youngest ordained minister in the world
(officially ordained at just 4 years old). As he grew to manhood, he
traveled doing tent revivals, preaching, prophecying and working
miracles... but the amazing truth was - Marjoe was a fraud! In fact, he
claimed to be an atheist! His general view of "the ministry" was that
it was no different than the entertainment business. In 1972 Marjoe
decided to get out of the "ministry" but took one last ride on the tent
revival trail... this time with a band of camera men and he exposed his
own charade! His self-created documentary (titled "Marjoe") was made
into a feature film and shown all over. Below is a 9 minute clip of him
in action, both as a child and as an adult (the file is in Windows
Media format). You'll notice how similar are his antics to any number
of preachers who are regularly seen on TV today and in churches
everywhere. It'll put chills down your spine how convincing he is as
well. Next time you think it's unlikely that a well-known preacher
could possibly be doing what he does for no other motive than money,
remember Marjoe! Christians, stay alert, for many false anointed ones
have gone out into the world!
P.S. Today Marjoe is an actor and also
a public speaker for social causes he cares about. Foremost among those
causes is informing the public about some of the rhetorical techniques
that are being used to manipulate their thoughts and emotions. He is
still not a Christian, but he visits about 20 colleges a year teaching
them how "faith-healers" do their "tricks". People actually still "fall
down under the power" in his lectures as he demonstrates how the
masters of religion work their "magic." While he says he cannot account
for every experience that may transpire in a religious meeting, he
believes most of the evangelists working up the crowds today are simply
using proven and practiced psychosomatic techniques of manipulation
(just like he did) that really involve no supernatural power at all and
they are simply using these "skills" to operate their business.
