Some time ago I wrote a review of the documentary Marjoe of a Pentecostal child evangelist/faith healer in which Marjoe Gortner (an unbeliever and now an adult) gives an insider’s account of how the racket works.
You can now see the entire film online. It is quite fascinating
Another interesting film about an American religious figure was the film Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher about the “Jesus Freak” Lonnie Frisbee. There are a few clips of Frisbee on the Kathryn Kuhlman show, herself a strange one and apparently an inspiration for Bennny Hinn, on Youtube (under the title, “Jesus Freaks”). You can get the documentary from Netflix.
I’ve seen this film before but thought I would watch it again. It’s almost a bit too redolent of my own experiences as a kid back in the Seventies and the types of churches my parents used to attend. I’ve always hated the emotionalism of this type of faith and I found these kinds of services boring and obnoxious with all the screaming and stuff. Before I gave up religion completely, I was always way more attracted to the coolness, pomp and formality of the Catholic Church. I remember that the glossolalia was usually followed by someone’s “interpretation” of the gibberish that had just been spoken. I can look at this now, and especially at someone with the charisma and showmanship of a Marjoe, with a wry smile and kind of enjoy it but I can’t but help think too of the stultifying hours wasted in such places.