{"id":818,"date":"2007-02-11T02:34:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-11T02:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=818"},"modified":"2007-02-11T02:34:00","modified_gmt":"2007-02-11T02:34:00","slug":"ted-haggard-and-elmer-gantry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=818","title":{"rendered":"Ted Haggard and Elmer Gantry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over supper, I suggested to M. that perhaps Rocky Mountain PBS’ scheduling of Elmer Gantry<\/em> as their Saturday night classic movie tonight had something to do with the downfall of the well-known megachurch founder Ted Haggard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Of course!” she said. “I assumed that the minute that I heard about it.”<\/p>\n

This 1960 film version<\/a>, starring Burt Lancaster<\/a>, covers only a short part of Sinclair Lewis’ novel<\/a>. To quote Wikipedia: <\/p>\n

Although he continues to womanize, is often exposed as a fraud, and frequently faces a complete downfall, Gantry is never fully discredited and always manages to emerge triumphant and to reach ever greater heights of social status. The novel ends as the Rev. Gantry prays for the USA to be a “moral nation” and simultaneously admires the legs of a new choir singer.<\/em><\/p>\n

The novel traces the opportunistic Gantry through quite a variety of religious organizations, including a New Thought group.<\/p>\n

Before there was New Age, there was New Thought<\/a>, which is essentially the same thing except without the benevolent Space Beings from the Pleiades. <\/p>\n

Instead of today’s War on (Some) Drugs, Elmer Gantry<\/em> is set against a background of Prohibition<\/a> and the corruption of government and public morality that it produced.<\/p>\n

Yes, the 1920s may seem like a long time ago, but the novel holds up well as a mirror to the seamy side of American religion. You can recognize all of its characters as you move down the American religious smorgasbord. <\/p>\n

As for Ted Haggard, I am sure that he will be back in the public eye some day. He has not given up his Web domain<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over supper, I suggested to M. that perhaps Rocky Mountain PBS’ scheduling of Elmer Gantry as their Saturday night classic movie tonight had something to do with the downfall of the well-known megachurch founder Ted Haggard. “Of course!” she said. “I assumed that the minute that I heard about it.” This 1960 film version, starring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[10,12],"class_list":["post-818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-american-religion","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-dc","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1222,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1222","url_meta":{"origin":818,"position":0},"title":"Ted Haggard is Back","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"You can't keep a good drama queen down.Ted Haggard, the disgraced pastor of the New Life megachurch in Colorado Springs, whom you might of thought would never occupy a pulpit again, but rather skulk around Phoenix, Arizona, peddling life insurance, is ba-a-a-ack.Ted Haggard, who proves that the Elmer Gantry archetype\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":828,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=828","url_meta":{"origin":818,"position":1},"title":"The tricky side of charisma","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Over at GetReligion, a blog devoted to the collision of religion and journalism, Terry Mattingly links to a story of a Pentecostal preacher in trouble.The details do not concern me. What caught my eye was this part of the linked posting:Again, in my opinion, this false teaching arose because church\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":535,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=535","url_meta":{"origin":818,"position":2},"title":"God hates Sweden plus various\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 14, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"God hates Sweden plus various other countriesPastor Fred Phelps, that prophet of the Lord, is branching out with new Web sites devoted to countries that his god hates, e.g., America, Sweden, Canada, Madagascar, Nepal. (OK, some of those links won't work--yet.)Here in Colorado we are blessed with occasional apparitions of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":424,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=424","url_meta":{"origin":818,"position":3},"title":"Out, sugar demons, out!One of\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 1, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Out, sugar demons, out!One of M.'s students at the community college writes in a psychology paper that while she herself is a diabetic, she controls her diabetes \"through diet and exorcise.\"Once again we see that the spellchecker is no substitute for literacy. On the other hand, Ted Haggard could add\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":672,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=672","url_meta":{"origin":818,"position":4},"title":"Woman marries cobraIn the Indian\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Woman marries cobraIn the Indian state of Orissa, a woman has married a cobra. Apparently that is no big deal. Don't let Ted Haggard find out.Villagers were thrilled when Das confessed her love for the snake. Some even offered to arrange a grand feast.Hat tip to Steve Bodio. And, no,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":839,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=839","url_meta":{"origin":818,"position":5},"title":"If you blog it, they will come","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Some recent splashes in Hardscrabble Creek. Everybody's doing it.quirky findings agricultural plantshow to pronounce chasdream of recently deceased dogwolf in navajoSex in the culture of the Indians in the 1600sworship in Greek letterwriting a letter to ELMER for kidssheela na gig statue buyDR Australian 43 heaven devil holeWhat do all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"weirdness\"","block_context":{"text":"weirdness","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=weirdness"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}