Marjoe

First of all, sorry for the extra long break. I've been busy enjoying the last weeks of my summer vacation and preparing for a new semester at university, but I'm all moved in and settled down now, so I can get back to being religiously intolerant once more.

As promised, I watched the Marjoe movie. As expected, I was shocked and rendered speechless by what I saw, but I also marveled at the genius (evil genius) of the marketing strategies of religion, in this case, Pentecostal Christianity.

Marjoe Gortner began preaching at the age of 4, and traveled around (under the guidance of his parents) making his name as the "World's Youngest Evangelist." At age 4, Marjoe was the world's youngest ordained minister, and not only preached sermons but performed wedding ceremonies as well.

I his late teen years, Marjoe suffered a crisis of conscience, as he hated preaching happy messages and at the same time telling congregations that they deserved to burn for ever in Hell. The movie follows Marjoe as a young man as he makes one last tour of the Pentecostal revival circuit so he can show the world an insider's view of evangelical Christianity from a non-religious perspective.

Marjoe describes Evangelicals as zealous followers of a bloody, gory religion. They want to convert everybody and are obsessed with blood and sacrifice. He tells the camera crew that if they are questioned by any church members, they should reply that they are "washed in the blood of Christ."

Marjoe explains that the strategy for preaching at an evangelical event is to avoid direct readings of scripture but to instead tell vague stories of people who were drug addicts, criminals, or hookers before they found Christ and straightened their lives out. He gets the crowd riled up by emphasizing every comma and every period at the end of every sentence with a "hallelujah" or a "praise Jesus" or a "thank you Jesus." He then brings up the idea of sacrifice and likens Jesus's sacrifice to a "sacrifice of the biggest bill you are carrying" to the church's collection basket. As the masses swarm to the front with their monetary sacrifices, each person trying to out-sacrifice the last, Marjoe "lays hands" on them and speaks in tongues. Many collapse to the floor in convulsions from the anticipation of the "laying of hands" as being touched by the preacher means the spirit of Jesus has filled their bodies.

Marjoe explains that Christianity is all a business. The goal is to get people so caught up in the message that they willingly give money to the church without thinking about it. "This is a business. You don't get booked again unless you have a gimmick," says Marjoe. His gimmick is telling the story of his childhood and explaining that all his speaking abilities as a child were a direct gift to him from God, who visited him personally. Marjoe also explains that since church records are kept private, donations given to raise money for a mission trip might total tens of thousands of dollars, but the church will only use a few thousand for the trip and pocket the rest. However the big money, he says, is in magazines.

One of Marjoe's lines in his sermon is, "Can God deliver a dope addict? Can God deliver and alcoholic? Can God deliver a homosexual?" After each question, the congregation replies, "Yes he can" as if drug addiction and homosexuality were on the same level of seriousness.

"Religion is a drug. It's addicting. Can God deliver a religion addict?" asks Marjoe with a laugh.

Marjoe:
[Part 1], [Part 2], [Part 3], [Part 4], [Part 5], [Part 6], [Part 7], [Part 8], [Part 9]