The Profits of Religion, Fifth EditionSinclair, Upton
Religion
The Profits of Religion, Fifth Edition
Sinclair, Upton
Christianity -- Controversial literature
The so-called religious awakening or "trail-hitting" is
produced by an appeal to the emotions and in stirring up the
senses by a combination of carrying the United States flag
in one hand and the Bible in the other, singing, trumpeting,
organ playing, garrulous and acrobatic feats of defendant,
by defendant in his talk leaping from the rostrum to the top
of the pulpit, lying prone on the floor of the rostrum on
his stomach in the presence of the vast audience and from
thence into a pit to shake hands with the so-called
"trail-hitters" and the vulgar use of plaintiff's thoughts
contained in said books. Said harangues and vulgarisms of
said defendant and horns, drums, organs and singing by said
choir and vast audience which are assembled by means of said
newspaper advertisements for the purpose of inducing a habit
of free and copious flow of money through religious and
patriotic excitement produced by and through the vulgarisms,
scurrility, buffoonery, obscenity and profanity of defendant
pretending to be in the interest of the cause of religion
through what he denominates "hitting the trail", the real
object being to induce a religious frenzy and enthusiasm
which he announces in advance is to result in large
audiences composed of thousands of people generously
contributing vast sums of money on the last day and night of
the so-called revival which is invariably appropriated by
the defendant and through which scheme and device defendant
has become enormously wealthy.
As I write, the evangelist is in Los Angeles, and twice each day he
holds forth to a crowd of ten or fifteen thousand; in addition the
newspapers print literally pages of his utterances. The entire
Protestant clergy for a score of miles around has been hitched to his
triumphal chariot, and driven captive through the streets. Here in
this dignified city of Pasadena, home of millionaire brewers and
chewing-gum kings, all the churches have been plastered for weeks with
cloth signs: "This Church is Cooperating in the Sunday Campaign." To
give a sample of the intellectual level of the performance, here is
what Billy has to say about modern thought:
All this blasphemy against God and Jesus Christ, all this
sneering, highbrow, rotten, loathesome, higher criticism,
wriggling its dirty, filthy, stinking carcass out of a
beer-mug in Leipzig or Heidelberg!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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