Finished We 1/9/13
Link to Wikipedia-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_Gantry
Elmer Gantry--Fanaticism & Hypocrisy in Religion
While "Arrowsmith" leaves us with a realization of some of the quandaries in the medical profession, "Elmer Gantry" (1927) draws us into the controversial arena of fanatically religiosity and hypocrisy. The novel is an unabashed, unashamed, and unforgiving look at a man whose actions contradict everything he says. The book was banned in Boston, and other cities, for its depiction of the morally corrupt evangelist, Elmer Gantry. Several years later, it was even banned in Ireland. The opening and closing lines of the novel say it all: "Elmer Gantry was drunk... And we shall yet make these United States a moral nation."
Of course, Lewis enjoyed controversy and publicity: He added to the controversy when he defied God from the pulpit, giving God 15 minutes to strike him dead. And, he probably would have immensely enjoyed some of the controversy that has surrounded Elmer Gantry-type ministers ever since. Evangelists like Billy Graham have had to contend with being likened to Elmer Gantry--using evangelism for the wrong reasons. The name has gone beyond "Trivial Pursuit" to become part of our language.
The character of Sharon Falconer was based on elements in the career of Aimee Semple McPherson, a Canadian-born American evangelist who founded the Pentecostal Christian denomination known as the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in 1927.
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