Lying Evangelist Exposed!

Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner, generally known as Marjoe Gortner (born January 14, 1944 in Long Beach, California), is a former evangelical minister who first gained a certain fame in the late 1940s and early to mid 1950s when he became the youngest ordained preacher at the age of four, and then outright notoriety in the 1970s when he starred in an Oscar-winning, behind-the-scenes documentary about the lucrative business of Pentecostal preaching. The name "Marjoe" is a combination of the names "Mary" and "Joseph".

When Marjoe was three, his father, a second generation evangelical minister, noticed his son's talent for mimicry and overall fearlessness of strangers and public settings. His parents claimed Marjoe had received a vision from God during a bath and began training him to deliver sermons, complete with dramatic gestures and emphatic lunges. By the time Marjoe was four, his parents arranged for him to perform a marriage ceremony for a film crew from Paramount studios, referring to him as "the youngest ordained minister in history." Like much in Marjoe's early life it is hard to say for sure who exactly ordained him, if his father ordained him, or if he was even ordained at all.

Until the time he was a teenager, Marjoe and his parents traveled the rural United States, holding revival meetings. As well as teaching him scriptural passages, Marjoe's parents also taught him several money-making tactics, involving the sale of supposedly "holy" articles at revivals which promised to heal the sick and dying. By the time Marjoe was sixteen, he later estimated, his family had amassed maybe three million dollars; shortly after his sixteenth birthday, Marjoe's father absconded with the money, and a disillusioned Marjoe left his mother for San Francisco, where he was taken in by and became the lover of an older woman. Marjoe spent the remainder of his teenage years as an itinerant hippie until his early twenties, when, hard pressed for money, he decided to put his old skills to work and re-emerged on the evangelical circuit with a charismatic stage-show modeled after those of contemporary rockers, most notably Mick Jagger. Marjoe made enough to take six months off every year, during which he returned to California, surviving on the previous six months' earnings.

In the late 1960s, Marjoe suffered a crisis of conscience -- in particular about the threats of damnation he felt compelled to weave into his sermons -- and resolved to make one final tour, this time on film. Under the pretense of making a documentary on the evangelical and non-denominational faiths, Marjoe assembled a documentary film crew to follow him around the Southern United States during 1971; unbeknownst to everyone else involved -- including, at one point, his father -- Marjoe gave "backstage" interviews to the filmmakers in between sermons and revivals, explaining intimate details of how he and other ministers operated. After sermons, the filmmakers were invited back to Marjoe's hotel room to tape him counting the money he collected during the day. The resulting film, Marjoe, won the 1972 Academy Award for best documentary.

After leaving the revival circuit, Gortner then attempted to break into both Hollywood and the recording industry. He cut an LP with Columbia Records, entitled "Bad, but not Evil" (Gortner's description of himself in the documentary), which met with poor sales and reviews. Gortner began his acting career with a featured role in The Marcus-Nelson Murders, the 1973 pilot for the Kojak tv-series. The following year saw him featured in the disaster film Earthquake as a psychotic National Guardsman, and in the television movie Pray for the Wildcats.

During the late 1970s, Marjoe attempted to self-finance another film, this time a pseudo-fictional drama about an evangelist con-man and based in part on his real-life experiences. The film started shooting in New Orleans, Louisiana, but went bankrupt less than 6-weeks into production. The film was never completed.

Gortner was married briefly to Candy Clark, from 1978-1979.

Gortner's most memorable film performance was as the psychopathic, hostage-taking drug dealer in Milton Katselas's 1979 screen adaptation of Mark Medoff's play When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?, also starring Peter Firth, Lee Grant, and Hal Linden.

Gortner reappeared a few years later, starring in several B-movies such as Starcrash and hosting an early-1980s reality TV series called Speak Up America before ending his movie career in 1995. Today he sponsors charity golf tournaments and other events.

His most recent film appearance was in the 1995 feature Wild Bill, where he played, appropriately enough, a preacher.


Ezekiel 13:3 - "This is what the Sovereign Lord says: What sorrow awaits the false prophets who are following their own imaginations and have seen nothing at all."

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Apologetics
• Evangelical
• Charasmatic
• Preacher
• Bible
• Healing
• Tongues
• Signs
• Prophecy
• Scam
• Lies
• ToddBentley
• Bentley
• Revival
• Nightline
• Lakeland
• Florida

[99minerkc]

Sad isn't it that Matt., Mark, Luke, and John are NOT the authors of those gospels. So, who wrote the gospels then? NOBODY KNOWS and anyone who claims they know are out right liars. Did you also know that at least 8 books of the NT are forged? Don't believe me though DO THE RESEARCH YOURSELF. The majority of historians know all of this and more. Why don't they tell you this information? Think about the ramifications if they did. In short, you have been DUPED christians.

[terentzable]

Mixed feelings...

Pretty nasty, but A) if he could be considered anyone's posterboy, it would be that of scammers, not atheists, and B) perhaps he's hastening natural selection, which is definitely a good thing; 7 billion humans - bad thing, minus all the gullible imbeciles has got to be a vast improvement..

[XoWaterzXo]

@gatekeeperoflight Please explain in a message if you would be kind enough.

[sonykroket]

Haha, this Gortner guy is a hero

I love it when people are stupid enough to believe everything they get told

Why not make some money off of it

[Gruurk2]

@02Blackbeard John I told you yesterday you are unblocked.

[02Blackbeard]

@Gruurk2 Guruk...I'm an anarcho-socialist. If you unblock me I will send you some good shit to read.

The military suks. I would fight in a war if my own turf were under attack. But to fight Afgans for OIL...no.

[Gruurk2]

@02Blackbeard John, you really don't know allot do you? No John. I gave orders and as all in the military I received orders. Sometimes they were very stupid. Problem with having someone that was a draft dodge in-charge of the miltary.

In fact the Occupy movement is a bunch of clowns working for the socialist party! They don't know what the want. Doomed to failure.

Fact it John. Because of ye actions we are going to be mates. Wish I was there to take ye to a pub for a pint or two.

[02Blackbeard]

@Gruurk2 Your old self? Huh...Guruk, you never changed. You have no new self, so to talk about old self is just bullshit.

You only gave the orders you were told to give so don't try to convince me that you can think for yourself on that basis.

I don't smoke grass.

People in the Occupy movement think for themselves.

You are a cock sucker for the fucking STATE.

[Gruurk2]

@02Blackbeard Well, if you want to speak to me old self! Why not! First off douche bag I gave orders as well as received them. I put my backside on the line so you and people like you could sit around smoking grass and whacking off to someone on the bloody telly. I had my share of incompliant dirt bags like you. They didn't last long in my command. I helped them go back to their pot smoking civilian life. For as long as that last. They are likely part of the occupy movment.

[02Blackbeard]

@Gruurk2 Hey punk....pot calling the kettle black...oh wait...I forgot...you have an excuse....you are ex-military. In other words you let other people give the orders and you jump to attention. Sad cunt.