Announcement List for the Virginia Atheists & Agnostics

[John Kubinski <>]

Hey VAAers,

We'll be watching the documentary Marjoe together, tonight in CAB 332 at 7:00 P.M.

Wikipedia:

Marjoe was a precocious child preacher with extraordinary talents, who was immensely popular in the American South. His parents earned large sums of money off him up until the point he outgrew his novelty. Marjoe rejoined the ministry as a young adult solely as a means of earning a living, and not as a believer; he spent the next several years using his fame and status as an evangelist to defraud a small fortune out of individuals both through tent revivals and televangelism. Eventually, Marjoe suffered a crisis of conscience and decided to renounce his ways, offering the documentary film crew unrestricted access to him during his final revival tour. The film contains scenes from genuine revival meetings showing Marjoe preaching and praying for people, interspersed with footage of Marjoe admitting on camera that he was a non-believer and revealing the tactics used by himself and other evangelists to manipulate people.

The film won the 1972 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, and while I haven't seen the entire thing myself I've heard it's disturbingly yet entertainingly insightful into performance evangelism.

Until tonight,

John Kubinski

VAA President