Elvis and religion
- ELVIS RELIGION
By LARRY DONN
(Delta Boogie, September 4, 2002)
'Parade', the magazine that comes with the Sunday newspaper, usually has little of interest to me, but I always scan through it to see if anything jumps out. This time, it was the name Elvis. ... The most interesting site to me is "The First Presbyterian Church Of Elvis, The Divine"
(chelsea.ios.com/-hkarlin1/welcome.html). I'd like to know more about this one, as many of us have long maintained that one day Elvis will be a religion. I may have mentioned before that I had included in a book I've been working on chapter in which the hero gets captured by a band of Elvis-worshipping savages whose village is on the ruins of Graceland after the Great War in the distant future. They intend to sacrifice him to Elvis until they find out that he knows all the words to the Holy Songs and can actually play the Sacred Guitar. I eventually removed that chapter from the story, as it seemed to be too drastic a departure from the main story line. Perhaps one day I'll make a complete story out of the new chapter. ... The idea of Elvis-worship is not new ...
- When He Calls My Name I Will Answer
By Leroy Jenkins
(showandtellmusic.com, date unknown)
Truth is often stranger than ficton. Here's a small town preacher who doubles as an Elvis impersonator to entertain as well as uplift his congregation. Pretty hard to believe. The music is actually pretty entertaining with Elvis-esque lead vocals and back up by the "Church of What's Happening Now" choral group.
- Elvis' life a study in honky-tonk faith, real failure
By Terry Mattingly
(Knoxville News-Sentinel, August 31, 2002)
As the woman reached the stage, the musicians behind Elvis Presley could see that she was carrying a crown on a plush pillow. "It's for you," she said. "You're the king." Gospel superstar J.D. Sumner recalled that Presley took her hand that night in Las Vegas and replied: "No, honey, I'm not the king. Christ is the king. I'm just a singer." Anyone digging through the mud of Presley's sad decline can find many signs that he was crying out to God as he wrestled his demons. Like many Southern sinners, Elvis did more than his share of Sunday morning weeping while trying to shake off the shame of Saturday night. Was Elvis a backsliding believer or a hypocritical satyr? A quarter-century after his death, it's amazing that Presley can still get people all shook up in churches as well as casinos. "To judge from some media coverage, you'd think Presley was a saint - a role model to emulate," said evangelical activist Charles Colson in a recent radio commentary. In their stories about Graceland pilgrims flocking to Memphis, what the journalists "neglected to mention was that, even though Elvis took much of his style from gospel sources, his primary message was the antithesis of biblical standards." ... No one would deny that Presley started a cultural earthquake, said Christian radio veteran Dave Fisher, who wrote Colson's BreakPoint.org radio script. The crucial issue is whether "his impact on our culture was uplifting or degrading." ... No picture of Elvis is complete without faith, as well as failure. He was not the first or the last devout country boy to stray in the big city. ... The boy who made his profession of faith in a Baptist church in Tupelo, Miss., struggled to hold onto that faith for the rest of his life. The Elvis story is packed with pain, piety, sin, struggle, glory, guilt and repentance.
- Elvis, a prodigal son?
(tmatt.gospelcom.net, August 28, 2002)
As the woman reached the stage, the musicians behind Elvis Presley could see that she was carrying a crown on a plush pillow. "It's for you," she said. "You're the king." Gospel superstar J.D. Sumner recalled that Presley took her hand that night in Las Vegas and replied: "No, honey, I'm not the king. Christ is the king. I'm just a singer."
Anyone digging through the mud of Presley's sad decline can find many signs that he was crying out to God as well as wrestling with his demons. Like many Southern sinners, Elvis did more than his share of Sunday morning weeping while trying to shake off the shame of Saturday night. So was Elvis a backsliding believer or a hypocritical satyr? A quarter century after his death, it's amazing that Presley can still get people all shook up in churches as well as casinos. "To judge from some media coverage, you'd think Presley was a saint -- a role model to emulate," said evangelical activist Charles Colson, in a recent radio commentary. In their stories about Graceland pilgrims flocking to Memphis, what the journalists "neglected to mention was that, even though Elvis took much of his style from gospel sources, his primary message was the antithesis of biblical standards."
Colson noted that one ABC News clip showed "Elvis singing, 'To spend one night with you is what I pray for.' Wow! Did he really think God answered prayers to expedite one-night stands?" The final verdict: "Elvis is an object lesson in the wages of sin." No one would deny that Presley started a cultural earthquake, said Christian radio veteran Dave Fisher, who wrote Colson's BreakPoint.org radio script. The crucial issue is whether "his impact on our culture was uplifting or degrading."
Yes, Presley honored his mother by singing "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" on the Ed Sullivan Show. But he also helped inspire a cultural and sexual revolution, said Fisher. "Just analyze the lyrics of the songs. ... Many were quite sexual. He wasn't using the four-letter words that a lot of singers and bands today would use. But they were still suggestive. He opened the door for what was to come."
What about that gospel side of Presley? It's true that he wandered in the wilderness of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, said Steve Beard, creator of Thunderstruck.org, a website on faith and popular culture. It's also true that Elvis was an "eccentric religious seeker on turbodrive," soaking up Hinduism, numerology, transcendental meditation, Buddhism, Theosophy and whatever else caught fire in the 1960s. But as his health failed, Presley's long-time confidant Rick Stanley -- who later became a Baptist evangelist -- remembers the singer saying Christian prayers of repentance. Only hours before his death, Stanley said he heard Elvis pray: "Dear Lord, please show me a way. I'm tired and confused and I need your help." No picture of Elvis is complete without faith, as well as failure. He was not the first or the last devout country boy to stray in the big city. "If Elvis was a prodigal son, then it seems that he died on the way back to his Father's house," said Beard. "That's tragic. That's a tragic story and it's a story that ought to inspire compassion, not condemnation. ... We all need to be reminded that mercy and grace are still Christian virtues."
If there is a cautionary tale here, it is another reminder that believers should be careful when dealing with heroes, said scholar Gene Edward Veith, co-author of "Honky-Tonk Gospel: The Story of Sin and Salvation in Country Music." The lives of celebrities are often full of mixed blessings. The boy who made his profession of faith in a Baptist church in Tupelo, Miss., struggled to hold on to that faith for the rest of his life. The Elvis story is packed with pain, piety, sin, struggle, glory, guilt and repentance. "Very few artistic people make good role models," said Veith. "That isn't what artists are about. The conflicts that make them great in the first place are the very same conflicts that would make them bad role models. ... It's the paradoxes we see in Elvis that made him the great artist that he was."
- Author: Elvis 'a man of Tao' who fought king vs. non-king
By Shelvia Dancy
(Star Tribune / Religion News Service, August 24, 2002)
Thirteen years ago, dejected after failing an important exam at a Memphis scholarly conference, David Rosen sought refuge at the gravesite of his childhood idol, Elvis Presley, in Graceland. Amid the stillness of the Meditation Garden, just beyond Lisa Marie's swing set, Rosen found consolation -- ... and inspiration. "I had no idea why I was crying," recalled Rosen, now a Texas A&M University professor. "But I knew that something was going on here." That "something" was the birth of a years-long study of the spiritual life of Elvis Presley, a spiritual life Rosen believes is wedded to the ancient Chinese religious concept of Tao -- that there is a central organizing principle of the universe -- and one the Jungian psychoanalyst details in his book "The Tao of Elvis" (Harcourt).
"Elvis was a deeply spiritual man," said Rosen, whose book is divided into reflections on 42 Taoist concepts -- one for each year of Elvis' life. "I want people to suspend judgment and approach Elvis with a spiritual attitude. Elvis embodied the Tao -- he was struggling his whole life to figure out what was his unique purpose in life, struggling to balance opposites" -- opposites with parallels inTaoism. ... "A lot of people don't know that he was a member of the Self-Realization Fellowship of Yoga Nanda," Rosen said. "Elvis meditated 30 minutes a day to get the ego out of the way so God could speak through his songs. He thought God had a special use for his voice."
- Elvis: Hail to the King!
(This is Brighton & Hove, August 21, 2002)
The similarities between Jesus and Elvis are more than superficial. Given enough time, and if not interfered with by prior belief, an Elvis religion could easily build to the point of being an equivalent to Christianity, with just the title character changed.The King! That was what Jesus was called. That was what Elvis was called. This is not one of those paranormal "similarities between Lincoln and Kennedy" stories. This is a pair of examples of human nature at work in
apotheosizing some people's charismatic leaders. Stores sell pictures of Jesus, books about Jesus, crucifixes with Jesus, to hang on your walls. Other stores sell ceramics of Elvis, Elvis plates to hang on the wall, books about Elvis. And people display them in their homes.
Each is well enough known that the last name need not be used. No one thinks that Elvis might refer to Elvis Starr (the former Army chief) or innumerable lesser Elvises, or that Jesus might refer to Jesus ben Sirach (the author of Ecclesiasticus‹a book in the Apocrypha, that Catholics accept in the canon of the Bible) or innumerable lesser Jesuses (or the equivalent, Joshuas).
Notably, each has been seen walking around after his death; Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and Elvis in K-Mart. Jesus cured the leprous, the deaf and the blind. Elvis gave away Cadillacs to ease the burden of poverty. When something goes wrong, some people "take Jesus's name in vain." When something goes wrong in the life of character Perry White on TV's "Lois and Clark: the New Adventures of Superman," Perry says "Great Shades of Elvis." (His comic-book prototype had said "Great Caesar's Ghost," but this Perry is more with-it.)
There is an ongoing Jesus Seminar to discuss the historical Jesus and the sayings of Jesus. The University of Mississippi at Oxford held this year an Elvis Conference. And what was said at the Elvis conference? On the World News Tonight, some participants were quoted as saying "Elvis is nothing but a metaphor for America" [in its rise to power, and decline], that for Elvis "dying was a good career move," and that "Elvis is making more money now than when he was alive" (certainly also true of Jesus). An 11-year-old fan, who was not yet born when Elvis died, is shown saying that "All I know is that he's [Elvis is] the living king! Ya know why? ... because he's here today," showing all the enthusiasm that children can have, based upon parental beliefs.
There were "seminars [ranging from] 'Elvis's semiotic significance in the postmodern world' to his role in race relations." Elvis "never lost touch with his humble southern roots" [no one has yet suggested birth in a manger]. "A Gospel-singing southern boy who loved his Mama." Various Elvis impersonators appeared, including black and Mexican "Elvii" because, as the Mexican "El Vez" noted, Elvis is a Universal symbol to which all can aspire. The mayor of Oxford was shown as being less than enthusiastic, but supporters showed that even Oxford resident William Faulkner was despised by the locals in his own time. (Elvis came from Mississippi.) [John 4:44: for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in the prophet's own country]. The Elvis scholars (Neal Gregory is being quoted) say "I'm sure that people are reading things into his life and times that are not there, but the guy did have an impact that, as Leonard Bernstein said, He was the greatest cultural force of the 20th century." To quote the commentator, "Some will tell you that Elvis is still alive, and, for once, they're right; he lives in the heart of academia, in the minds of scholars." [Yes, Virginia, along with Santa Claus and, yes, Jesus Seminar, there is a Jesus.]
This is mythology in the making, happening today. The circumstances differ, so a full-fledged religion may not be in the offing, but in different times, it is obvious what this could develop into. Human nature 2000 years ago was the same as it is now, and the circumstances were right. How can anyone deny the parallels? I know I can't.
- I was visited by Elvis's ghost
By Steve Rogers
(This is Brighton & Hove, August 21, 2002)
Singer Rick Bonner says he was all shook up when he was visited by the ghost of his hero, rock 'n' roll legend Elvis Presley. It's enough to give most people suspicious minds but Rick is convinced Elvis arrived to show him the way ahead. Although The King of died 25 years ago, 44-year-old Rick says he's sure he visited him at home in Littlehampton. Rick said: "I was half awake and half asleep. I opened my eyes and there Elvis was in front of me. It's absolutely true. "He was at the end of my bed, dressed in normal clothes, not one of his jump suits. "Elvis introduced himself and was talking about where he was, that he was happy and living with his mother in heaven. "He was talking about the state of the world and how people ought to get together to make things better." ...
He said he was always an agnostic but after hearing of Elvis's experiences he said: "I never believed in spiritualism or Christianity but this has changed my views on the afterlife profoundly. "I have never experienced anything like it. My family are Romanies and there have been a few pyschic incidents through the years. My mum, grandmother and her mother have all had experiences. "I don't know why he came to me. Maybe he connected with me because of my music. Rick said Elvis appeared last August, on the 24th anniversary of the King's death. As the image disappeared, Rick said a song entered his head which he called Live Like A King. He has now completed an album of the same title and is currently touring Kent and Essex performing his songs.
- Amazing Graceland
By Christine McCarthy McMorris
(RELIGION IN THE NEWS, Fall 2002, Vol. 5, No. 3)
... The all-night vigil began in 1977 when a 100 or so fans gathered outside Graceland upon learning that The King had succumbed to a drug-induced heart attack at age 42. This year's vigil, which was webcast live on America Online, became the most public expression of the cult of Elvis. Journalists write about the cult as a kind of joke. Here was a pop icon who lived a life of over-the-top contradiction, and the spectacle of the rhinestone-laden decline of his later years invites mockery. Moreover, it is, by the standards of organized religion, a false religion, and when push comes to shove, the news media are still pretty conventional about what constitutes religion. But it's clear, even from less-than-insightful anniversary coverage, that something more serious is going on. As Death Week, as Memphians refer to August 11-17, kicked off, journalists wallowed in religious language and imagery to describe the influx of 80,000 Elvis fans to Tennessee. "Presley Pilgrimage: Massachusetts Fans Join 25th Tribute to the King," ran a Boston Globe headline August 14. The Toronto Sun concluded: "For many Canadians this is the second pilgrimage of the summer. We've already seen the Pope, and now it's time to go see the King." ...
- Elvis' 25-year staying power
By Kelly Boggs
(News of interest to Christians, August 20, 2002)
FIRST-PERSON Elvis' 25-year staying power. Aug. 16, 1977, Elvis Presley died. Twenty-five years later and the King of rock 'n' roll is as popular as ever. Fortune magazine estimates that Presley's estate earned $37 million from June 2001 to June 2002. As many observe the anniversary of Elvis' death, one question lingers: Why is Elvis Presley worth remembering? As a song stylist and showman, Elvis was royally endowed with talent. Emotion poured forth from a Presley performance. From his frantic on- stage gyrations that Time magazine once observed made him look "as if he had swallowed a jackhammer," to his strong and flexible voice, Elvis connected emotionally with his audiences like few ever have.
But talent-wise, was Elvis head and shoulders above all who came before and after him? Is he "the King" because of his musical genius? After all, he wrote none of the songs he recorded. Make no mistake about it you who worship at the altar of Elvis, once he sang a song it was "his." But though he is credited as a "co-writer" on afist-full of songs, no rock 'n' roll historian seriously believes Elvis had anything to do with the creation of any of his music.
Talent alone cannot explain Elvis' strong appeal a quarter century after his death. Nor can another element that gave rise to his career, which was innovation. What Elvis managed to do, that no other performer before was able to do, was synthesize rock, country and the blues. Elvis integrated music before integration was cool. Some historians have observed that Presley expressed himself musically like the Negro singers of his era. Because he was white, the "black" music of the times became palatable to white teens. Many legends of the recording industry believe Elvis' greatest gift to popular music, and to society, was this innovation.
Elvis' talent and innovative instincts, along with a carefully crafted naughty-but-nice image -- Presley was packaged as rebellion with manners -- helped him to be crowned the King of rock. However, it was not these attributes that enabled him to remain upon his royal throne. What is it that makes people continue to buy his music and wait in line for hours to tour his home, Graceland? In a word, it is nostalgia.
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