Simon Schama TV - Angel Heart 1987 - Melvyn Bragg TV - I Corinthians 1:21 - John Selden - Billy Sunday - Samuel Butler - John Milton - Henry David Thoreau - Richard Dawkins - James Joyce - The Grape of Wrath 1940 - Marjoe 1972 - The Eyes of Tammy Faye 2000 - Hannah Livingstone TV - Ozark 2017-2019 -
He appointed himself as a missionary to the destitute ... What he wanted to be was a preacher. Simon Schama’s Power of Art: Van Gogh, BBC 2006
No preacher came bigger than Billy Sunday. A one-time professional baseball player he toured the country railing against the evils of drink. His theatrical style held millions spellbound. He preached the gospel to more people than any other person in history up to that point. The American Future: A History by Simon Schama, BBC 2008
I want you to open up your hearts. And open up your wallets ... I should be in a Rolls Royce. Angel Heart 1987 starring Mickey Rourke & Robert de Niro & Lisa Bonet & Charlotte Rampling & Stocker Fontelieu & Brownie McGhee & Michael Higgins & Elizabeth Whitcraft & Charles Gordone & Dann Florek & Kathleen Wilhoite et al, director Alan Parker, preacher
John Balls’ rhetoric so terrified the authorities of his own time that they attempted to erase him from memory. Melvyn Bragg’s Radical Lives: John Ball, BBC 2014
John Ball urged his followers to go to London to make their case. ibid.
The foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. I Corinthians 1:21
Preachers say, Do as I say, not as I do. John Selden, Table Talk, 1689
The backslider likes the preaching that wouldn’t hit the side of a house, while the real disciple is delighted when the truth brings him to his knees. Billy Sunday
And pulpit, drum ecclesiastic,
Was beat with fist instead of a stick. Samuel Butler, Hudibras
He of their wicked ways
Shall them admonish, and before them set
The paths of righteousness. John Milton, Paradise Lost XI:812
The preachers and lecturers deal with men of straw, as they are men of straw themselves. Why, a free-spoken man, of sound lungs, cannot draw a long breath without causing your rotten institutions to come toppling down by the vacuum he makes. Your church is a baby-house made of blocks, and so of the state ...
The church, the state, the school, the magazine, think they are liberal and free! It is the freedom of a prison-yard. Henry David Thoreau, ‘I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D Thoreau’
All too many preachers, while agreeing that evolution is true and Adam and Eve never existed, will then blithely go into the pulpit and make some moral or theological point about Adam and Eve in their sermons without once mentioning that, of course, Adam and Eve never actually existed! Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth pp7-8
The next day brought death and judgement, stirring his soul slowly from its listless despair. The faint glimmer of fear became a terror of spirit as the hoarse voice of the preacher blew death into his soul. He suffered its agony. He felt the death chill touch the extremities and creep onward towards the heart, the film of death veiling the eyes, the bright centres of the brain extinguished one by one like lamps, the last sweat oozing upon the skin, the powerlessness of the dying limbs, the speech thickening and wandering and failing, the heart throbbing faintly and more faintly, all but vanquished, the breath, the poor breath, the poor helpless human spirit sobbing and sighing, gurgling and rattling in the throat. James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist of a Young Man
I lost the spirit. I got nothing to preach about no more, that’s all. The Grapes of Wrath 1940 starring Henry Fonda & Jane Darwell & Charley Grapewin & Dorris Bowdon & John Carradine & Russell Simpson & O Z Whitehead & John Qualen & Eddie Quillan & Zefie Tilbury et al, director John Ford, tramp to Fonda
And all across the nation for the past four years the little creature has been going up and down winning lost humanity with the message of the master. At this time let me introduce to you little Marjoe. Marjoe, 1972, opening scene
The Lord called me to preach when I was four years old. ibid.
Evangelist, 4, adds marriage to his duties. ibid. article
I want you to get out the largest bill that you have right now … ibid. adult Marjoe preaching
It [money bag] sure ain’t as heavy as it used to be in the old days. ibid. adult Marjoe counting readies in hotel room
About three million dollars from the time I was four to fourteen. I’ve no idea what happened to that money. ibid.
When I awoke I was seeing a vision … ibid. adult Marjoe preaching
Would you get out your cheque book tonight … ibid.
This is a business … The guys that have the gimmicks get the big meetings. ibid. hotel room Marjoe
I think the eyes are so important. I believe the eyes are the soul, I truly do. The Eyes of Tammy Faye, 2000
Tammy Faye is the first lady of religious broadcasting. Together with her husband Jim Bakker she pioneered the electric church. From the ’60s through the mid-80s they built not one but three religious networks. ibid.
In the mid-’80s their world came crashing down. ibid.
Generating millions of dollars in revenue. ibid.
The instant success of The 700 Club and The Jim & Tammy Show helped turn the Christian Broadcast Network from a local station into a full fledged network. ibid.
Jim and Tammy’s gospel of fun was for one and all. ibid.
Recording over 40 albums. ibid.
Jim had a secret … Jessica Hahn. ibid.
‘I had to have Ativan with me at all times.’ ibid. Tammy
In 1989 Jim Bakker went on trial for fraud. ibid.
America is fighting for its soul. The Obama era has alienated and angered a growing number of evangelical Christians. I’ve spent nearly six months following two of the country’s most radical Christian hate groups. Hannah Livingstone, America’s Hate Preachers, BBC 2018
Pastor Steven Anderson’s sermon The Sinful Nation of France was widely condemned … one of America’s most notorious hate preachers. ibid.
American law allows anyone to express racial and religious hatred in any religious space. ibid.
The preachers were willing to shout at anyone who didn’t appear to find their model of Christian behaviour. ibid.
The church, Marty. The preacher. I mean the preacher on the water … Ozark s1e6: Book of Ruth, redneck heroin dealer, Netflix 2017
I saw Mason Young today. He was preaching on the street corner. His baby was with him. Ozark s2e2: The Precious Blood of Jesus, Wendy to Marty