History's Wonderful Hypocrites - Rev. Billy James "Honeymoon" Hargis - 1969
By Gordonskene Friday Oct 23, 2009 6:00pm
(Billy James Hargis - you would think butter didn't melt - the butter had different ideas)
It's endless - the parade of hypocrites masquerading as "People of God". The Pious, the righteous, the smug - all doling out edicts under the premise of "being chosen" while ingratiating themselves in the acts they so claim to despise.
So another one shows up in the history books - maybe forgotten now, but in the 1960s railed against all the godless fornicators, the infidels, the non-believers. Billy James Hargis, bible thumping anti-communist conservative, built up a sizable congregation of followers, a daily radio show and an empire until it came crashing down, as so many others have done before and since, with widespread allegations of sexual misconduct - in his case, a very public outing via Time Magazine.
But in the late 1960s he was still going full steam, as is evidenced by this interview (supposedly debate but the debater seems hopelessly challenged) where Hargis offers a few bon mots:
Hargis: “Now look at the Jewish people, this is a prime example. I’ve never seen a hungry Jew. I’ve never seen a Jew begging. I’ve never seen a Jew without work. That religion takes care of their people. They don’t ask the state for help, they take care of their own. And we believe that Christianity is nothing more than a continuation of this Jewish concept of . . .with the gospel of Christ relating to salvation being added to that concept.”
Hargis: “I doubt very sincerely that those things (the riots in Detroit and Newark in 1968) were the results of people being mistreated. I think it was results of people maybe being treated too well by the state. They were told they didn’t have to work. They were told they didn’t have to provide for their own. They were told they could get security from the cradle to the grave and these people wanted more and more and more. We’re covetous by nature. We want more and more and more. We see someone with something we don’t have we covet it, we want it. The bible warns against covetesness. Christ told us never to covet somebody else’s. They worked for it, they were entitled to it They had a right to it.”
Hargis: “I’m telling the Negro people to quit whining. I’m telling the poor white people to quit whining. Quit whining about injustices, real or imagined. But get out and better your situation. Stand up on your own two feet. Don’t wait until someone comes along and gives you life on a silver platter.”
The arrogance, as always, is mystifying. That it comes under the guise of compassion is bizarre. That it continues in exactly the same way is astonishing.
Welcome to the Religious Right.
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looks more like Ralph Cramden from The Honeymooners to me.
Another loud mouthed pompous soft pudgy doughy pasty white conservative. Some things never change over time.
So help me.....POW!!!!!!
Right to the moon!!
was that Dr. Billy had an eerie resemblance to El Rushbo. No??
In more ways than one.....
You have to wonder why right-wing bullies are porkers. Does this mean that they weren't very attractive to anybody during their adolescence, so if they couldn't get respect or self-esteem through "normal channels", they'd do it through bullying? It sure seems like an obvious character trait running through all of their psyches...
The once-great often-fired "Imus in the Morning" did a satirical character back in the 60s based on Billy James Hargis, naming him The Right Rev. Dr. Billy Sol Hargus that I thought was hilarious.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Imus
Rush's weight, and his misogyny...
The theory goes that because of his physical unattractiveness and his very unattractive attitude, he's had a lot of rejection from women, but as he has male privilege, he still feels he's entitled to any woman just because he has a y chromosone. Since that hasn't worked out too well for him, he spews a lot of misogyny...
He's a fat, angry loser, just like Billy James, above. Unfortunately for Billy, it turned out to be not just the girls he was going after, if memory serves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK7gI5lMB7M
by Al Franken
The sin that can't be forgiven just might be hubris.
"C" Street: Watch yourselves.
It's not the white conservative folk, It's those lazy black welfare queens and Demmycrats causing those deficits!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/...
Don Imus used to parody this guy back in the late 60's early 70s with a character named Billy "Soul" Hargis. My favorite is a mock radio ad promoting the "Holy Land Amusement Park", the accompanied "Holy Land Plastic model kit" and the ability to "make a blessing pledge of $5 for just $3.98," and receive "credit of Him for the full $5! Say Hallelujah!" :)
Didnt Jim Bakker once have some religious based theme park in the south that was second only to Disney in amusement park visits?
Step right here and get your dashboard Jaysus, only $9.99!
Imus was a really creative and funny guy back then...
Recall back in the 1980's another excellent, closer to home radio bit on the old Imus show which asked (paraphrasing):
At times recently Don seems to recurrently evidence some ADD (schtick?) as the Imus program moved onto Fox's Biz Channel and was a tad out of neo-sync this week as he lauded Rachel Maddow on Meet the Press.
to some of the sex scandals he was involved in, he sounds like a fore runner to that preacher in Colorado who got caught with his pants down..........guess it runs in the "family".........heh...:)
Good old BJ "I go both ways, it's in the Book" Hargis.
This rube is also one of the reasons we have a FAIRNESS DOCTRINE.
As a matter of fact, THEY TOOK AWAY HIS TAX-EXEMPT STATUS FOR TRYING TO BE POLITICAL IN HIS PULPIT.
501(c)3, anyone....anyone?
Oh well...another day...another pile o' crap from a conservative.
!
in the country had to pay their fair share of taxes on all the properties they own, we wouldn't have a money problem!
Shew that was rough. His decendents live in Central Pensylvania.
Some one sent me a video today, please everyone that could stand to listen to that listen to this....shhhhh....it's Muslim.
http://www.youtube.com/user/highcrimes105#p/a...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhGF2jZlf-A
I lived in Tulsa during the Billy James Hargis years, and recall the "OMGS" when his dalliances with teen aged boys were revealed. I recall when he was transformed from an able, although conservative, "preacher of the word" into a "America is Christianity" goon, somewhat earlier than, and lower in profile than, D. James Kennedy of Ft. Lauderdale. As a member of one of his non-demoninatational congregations at the time, I recall the disappointment at his apostasy. There was so much he could have done, the saying went, should he have stayed true to the faith, and not gone over into this "political realm" that dragged him down.
Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well camouflaged.
slept with a couple that he had married, both the bride and the groom...
These scandals of his pre-date me by over a decade, so I heard it about it second hand, but somehow I'm not surprised when I think of what's going on with evangelical preachers now...
that the bride was just there for audience purposes?
repressed preacher. It's only natural! ;)
Search: the Franklin Coverup or Boystown, Nebraska
Rich and powerful men have been exploiting children for political and personal gain while hiding behind the church for a long time.
*
about black folk and poor whites "getting from the government" this mythical "security from cradle to grave" is a standard bearer of our culture. Reagan won his election twice on it and re-energized the Republican party on it after the Nixon years.
That the perception persists that poor people get some kind of great help and they are just lazy and selfish and their misery is their own fault still runs strong in our culture is not encouraging.
That there isn't more effort on the part of those in power of information systems to debunk these myths has always been beyond me. I can only imagine that it points up the failing of human nature: that most people have absolutely no ability to empathize with another's suffering or experience and can only see experience from the narrow lens of their own.
Which of course, is a good argument as to why the government has a responsibility to ensure the security of all citizens, because people cannot rise above their tribal, trivial and selfish natures.
don't get sufficient medical treatment, have access only to cheap toxic crap from China, are not allowed many chances to prosper, and then have to be made to feel ashamed of themselves for committing the sin of being born into poor families, living in poor neighborhoods, with other repressed and made to feel helpless people. What a bunch of pussies. Haven't they ever heard of bootstraps? Wait a minute... probably not. This is where racial discrimination does not count. If you are poor, it doesn't really matter what color you are. God just does not like you.
But I know that Capitalism, so-called Christians, and Republicans do not.
"Christ told us never to covet somebody else’s. They worked for it, they were entitled to it. They had a right to it.”
Give credit to this guy for boiling down into three sentences the whole rationale for wingers to accept life in poverty while supporting the order in which politicians and businessmen are freely looting all of us. His phrasing goes to the crux of our current class crisis, suggesting that for us to complain about the pillaging of wealth by business and their government enablers is the same as "coveting" that wealth, which is a definite NO according to the Ten Commandments.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I don't want anything to do with their ill-gotten loot. I just want them to pay for stealing it.
So I guess being a godly fornicator is OK.
all that comes outta my mouth is "Oh Jesus!, Oh Lord!, and Oh God!"
I was in Ohio for awhile in the early seventies and Billy James was on TV every week. He was a riot -- unintentionally -- and his All American kids were really creepy. I remember reading about Hargis' outing and being amazed that anyone could be such a huge hypocrite.
Isn't he lucky that in Christianity all he has to do is say he's sorry and ask the Baby J for forgiveness and he gets a free pass to eternal bliss. Great system, but not much like life on Earth.
BE sorry for having sinned. I thought just saying you're sorry was not enough. But then, I have never been "reborn." I think that is some kind of Wal-Mart discount religion. Seems many criminals are "reborn" just before they get released on parole. As a recovering Catholic, I have tried to put this stuff out of my mind.
didja' ever hear of Ernest Angley?? He was a TV preacher back then, too, and his show was broadcast from Ohio, if I'm not mistaken. My friends and I stumbled upon his show when we were in college. What a hoot! He was 5'x5', had no neck, and the worst toupee ever - with a strange high-pitched voice and mid-Ohio accent.
Ernest had an "Armageddon Club" - which you could join for only $25, and for that (which was a lot in those days) you got a poster thingy with Ernest's 'artistic depiction' of what Armageddon would look like (lots of swords and well-muscled men in kilts on big horses and blood flowing and such); plus, a lovely sword-shaped Armageddon Club lapel pin.
He use to do healings, too, right there on stage. Folks would come up in wheelchairs and on crutches and he would lay his hand on their foreheads and yell "HEAL!!" - as he pushed them backward into the arms of his trusty Soldiers for Jesus. Then they'd come to and miraculously get up and dance around or walk off stage throwing their crutches on the floor. He also did TV healings - he'd walk right up to the camera - put his ugly puss in front of the lens and 'speak in tongues' ( a la Jimmy Swaggert) then he'd put his hand over the camera lens - like he was reaching though the TV to touch us out in TV-land - and yell "HEAL!"
Worked for me - I've been completely dandruff free since 1971.. #:)
Outstanding, another Ernest Angley fan! Hugely entertaining, especially the "healings." "THOU FOUL DUMB DEMON COME OUUUT!"
If ever there was a preacher who I thought was sure to be found amongst a pile of naked men, it was ol' Ernest.
Good times...
Thats Rush Limpschlong's daddy!
Sounds just like him.
Quit whining about injustices, he said. Maybe he should have read the Prophets.
So called Christian leaders still fight agaist health insurance for the uninsured, social programs for the needy, and equal rights for all God's children (the gays).
Do they even read the teachings of Christ?
As Gandhi once said, "I like your Christ, it's the Christians I have a problem with. They are so unlike your Christ."
Well said, sir.
be thinking of another Jesus. They all own those special bibles that don't contain Matthew 25, where Jesus said to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, etc. They's brank him a Commie, if he came back today.
I've wondered, off and on, for the last 30 years, whatever happened to that dirtbag.
In the late 60s, he was all over the place like stink off a skunk. But 10 years later, it was like the earth had just opened up and swallowed him.
a young Andy Rooney.
these hicks get their come uppance.
The spirit of the Antichrist has possessed the Christian Right. They have been deluded by Satan and they think that the hypocrisy, hatred, pride and selfishness burning inside them is the Holy Spirit.
They take the name of Jesus in vain, using it to signify Mammon, Greed, and everything unholy.
Will Jesus have mercy on those who are so sorely deluded or will they burn in agony for eternity?
They'd better hope that Jesus is a merciful, bleeding heart soft-on-sin liberal and lets them out of Hell after a few trillion years of payment for their sins.
I would have thought you could have picked worse quotes than the ones you presented.
In the first, Hargis praises the Jewish people and suggests that Christians follow their example.
I don't particularly care for Christian ministers talking about Jews, but you can hardly call this quote anti-Semitic. Why is it selected?
The second one is absurd - but is completely in concert with "respectable" political views traditionally offered by conservative democrats and republicans.
The third one is almost a direct quote from Louis Farrakhan. And old Louis, the one who instigated the murder of Malcolm X, doesn't get criticized for this "bootstraps" mantra. He gets praised as a good man of God. The minister.
Feh.
No, that would be wrong. Old Louis preaches vertical building... spending money with Black businesses so that they can employ you and you're not dependent upon non-blacks for a livelihood. Instead of begging or demanding that others to accept you and give you equal access. It's an old concept and a far cry from the pull yourself up by your 'bootstraps' (even when you don't have any) mantra because it is also comprised of the mandate that you help those of lesser means.
If any man presumes to speak for God, run like hell. If he thumps for God you can be quite certain he's a sordid and depraved creep.
Section 107(2) allows ministers to avoid paying taxes on income declared to be a "housing allowance." The privilege also permits churches to save money on clergy salaries. Most notorious, clergy may "double-dip": deduct their mortgage payments and real estate taxes from income tax, even though they paid for these with tax-exempt dollars, amounting to a government subsidy solely for clergy. In 2002, Congress acted to protect the exemption, after the IRS sued over an abusive housing allowance taken by Rev. Rick Warren, by limiting deductions in future to "reasonable rental value."
"All other taxpayers pay more because clergy receive this privileged benefit, not available to any other class of American," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, Foundation co-president.
"The income taxation of ministers of the gospel under the general rules that apply to other individuals would not interfere with the religious mission of churches or other organizations or the ministers themselves," the legal Complaint maintains. The statutes are not an accommodation of religion, therefore, but a subsidy.
The Supreme Court has previously ruled that a tax benefit given only to religion violates the Establishment Clause (Texas Monthly, Inc. v. Bullock, 1989).
FFRF Sues IRS, Geithner & California State over "Minister of Gospel" Tax Benefits October 19, 2009
Read Complaint, Case No. 2:09-at-1672
I just ran across and read this piece on the history/melding of religious and financial right wing propaganda...
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/Republic...
No wonder they never cop to the fact that they are bullshitting us when they are paid that much to the grave.
When ever I talk to one of these idiots. They always have the same old tired bullshit they throw around like a monkey in a cage flinging crap at someone. In my 60 years having been a part and watching the happenings in our country have brought me to the following inescapable conclusion that:republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness!
It's obvious that these right-wing/"Christian" psychopaths don't actually believe in the Bible. All their "religion" is to them is a get out of jail free card. Do whatever you want, then say "I'm right with God." Ta-daaa!! You still have moral superiority!!
You are absolutely right. People like Hargis have a severe mental illness. The sad thing is - the people like Hargis denounce the people like Hargis....and then those people act like Hargis.....continue and repeat ad nauseum.....
They worked for it? They were entitled to it?
Steven Hemsley makes his fortune by denying insurance payouts to those who have been paying premiums for years. One can hardly state that Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, et. al. earn their money.
And as far as Jesus, whom you proclaim you recognize as your Messiah...when was the only time he lost his temper? When he threw the capitalists out of the temple.
in the morning, for comic relief. He started every broadcast with, "Jesus Christ is still the hope of the world." Then my dad would comment, "And that's the last you'll be hearing out of this guy about Jesus." Then is was on to right-wing politics. The guy was truly a bastard that you wanted to disagree with on every issue just because of the sound of his voice. Made my day when he crashed and burned.
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