Source: Reverend Howard Finster
- Elvis Presley is God
Posted by Michael J. West
(blogcritics.org, September 30 2005)
How Great Thou Art
Elvis Presley
Music from RCA
Release date: 25 October, 1990
There are so many ways to examine the life and legacy of our Lord Elvis (blessed be He) that it's hard to find a way to examine it that will prove His divine status to the masses. This is no simple or irrelevant task, either, since such a vast majority of the world's people endorse this historio-mythical person or that as their Messiah, their Avatar, their Messenger, their God's-Manifestation-As-Human. As far as I'm concerned, one listen to any single gospel song as recorded by Him should be enough evidence. Apparently not.
But I've been reading a biography of Sun Ra, a man who was a scholar of history, religion, astrology, numerology, and etymology. And he combined the knowledge and ideas of, oh, just about every religion (mainstream and cult) in trying to find an answer. And he made it work. So in using those, I've come up with answers.
Etymology
The name "Elvis." Well, one might examine the roots of Elvis's own religious background. Elvis and His family were Pentecostals; it's a sect that has direct ancestry in the loosely termed Evangelicals, which in turn has direct ancestry in Lutheranism. Which is a German-based ethos. And of course, all of Christianity--indeed all Judeo-Christian-Islamic thought--is based in Israel.
El - The original Hebrew word for God. Root of "Eli" (another Hebrew word for God) and "Allah."
Vis - German word for "face."
Elvis - "Face of God."
Religious languages tell no lie. And even the most stubbornly heterosexual of men will have to admit that Elvis (blessed be He) had one beautiful face. Divinely beautiful, even.
Numerology
Elvis (blessed be He) had 16 letters in His name. Elvis Aron Presley. (Count 'em.) That's four fours. (4 X 4 = 16) Four is the number of the Gospels; four is the number of directions; four is the number of seasons; four is the number of classical elements; four is the number of letters in the Tetragrammaton (the Holiest of names for the Hebrew God).
Elvis was born on January 8, 1935. 1/8/35. January: the 1st month. 1 is the most powerful of all numbers in numerology, seen as the basic building block of all others and therefore the source of all things. (Like God is seen as the source of all things.)
According to Wikipedia, "One can be happy, loving, romantic, dynamic and charismatic, but on the downside it can be egotistical, selfish and melodramatic." This is plainly a description of our Lord Elvis.
8: the eighth day of the month; the eighth day of the year (having been the eighth day of the first month). This is double fours. It is also the number of wealth, high reputation, and the virtues of hard work (like touring 225 days a year.)
35: Five (vitality and full awareness of the senses) times Seven (the most purely spiritual of all numbers).
I don't think I need to say anymore on this point.
Astrology
Elvis was a Capricorn. Jesus was a Capricorn. I don't think I'm stretching here...
Elvis (blessed be He) brought the joy and meaning to millions and million of lives all over the world, crossing the boundaries of not only religion, but culture, ethnicity, nationalism, and social status. And He had amazing hair. Most of those other religious figures are still struggling to cross the boundaries of religion. And there's NO consistency AT ALL in the hair.
I rest my case. Praise be to Elvis!
- A nod to Elvis on yogi's spiritual journey: The King's music helped lead author/teacher to Eastern traditions
By PAUL GRONDAHL
(Times Union, September 7 2005)
Leonard Perlmutter is totally serious when he calls Elvis Presley "my guru." The 59-year-old yoga and meditation teacher, in fact, thanks the King in the acknowledgments to his new book, "The Heart and Science of Yoga." Perlmutter began listening to Presley's gospel recordings as a boy growing up in Albany. He was moved by Presley's voice in a way he would not fully appreciate until much later, after decades of studying Eastern philosophy, world religions and mysticism. When I gave my attention to the music of Elvis, the rest of the world fell away," said Perlmutter. "That was my earliest meditation." ...
- Getting to the root of religion
By DAVID CRUMM
(FREE PRESS, June 3, 2005)
The hottest preacher in Michigan this summer is a former punk rocker who's packing 10,000 people each Sunday into a remodeled mall southwest of Grand Rapids with a risky theology that offers as many questions as answers. At age 34, the Rev. Rob Bell already stars in a popular series of direct-to-DVD inspirational movies called "NOOMA."
In August, his book-length spiritual memoir, "Velvet Elvis," will hit stores nationwide from Zondervan. ... I drove up to see the church, because Bell has accomplished a feat that has religious leaders' jaws dropping: He's built a huge congregation dominated by 20-somethings, a group virtually missing in most churches. ... "Remember what Jesus always wanted to know?" he asked. "What's the fruit we're producing? Is justice being done? Are people sharing their possessions? Are the oppressed being set free? Are relationships being healed? To me, that's the point. Everything else is just chatter."
... He's so honest that the title of his memoir, "Velvet Elvis," is a jarring metaphor for how oddly out of date traditional churches appear to many young Christians -- like finding a painting of Elvis Presley on a black-velvet canvas in someone's basement, Bell writes. ... That's how alienated many young people feel toward organized religion, Marcus Borg, a Bible scholar who has written several books on reinventing Christianity, told me later by telephone. "In the religious studies class I teach at Oregon State University, I ask students to write down their impressions of Christianity and their adjectives include: anti-intellectual, judgmental and bigoted," Borg said. "So, I think Rob Bell's attempt to change this impression is exciting." ...
- Elvis Presley the preacher
(femalefirst.co.uk, May 25, 2005)
Priscilla Presley believes Elvis would have quit showbiz to become a preacher. The 60-year-old beauty: "I could see him going into preaching because that's something he really actually wanted to do from a very young age. He loved preachers. Elvis loved to dramatise everything. I think he could see himself doing that." Priscilla, whose daughter Lisa Marie was once married to Michael Jackson, says she would still fancy Elvis if he was alive today. ...
- Pope John Paul II The Great
By Mike Baham
(bayoubuzz.com, April 4, 2005)
Pope John Paul II is a man who wore many hats in addition to his white papal zucchetto.
The late leader of the world's Roman Catholics was the Church's greatest missionary since St. Paul, his nationīs most beloved son, a father figure who attracted the admiration of throngs of young people, and an unapologetic advocate for human life from conception to the aged and the infirm. ... In the eyes of the Polish people, Karol Wojtyla stands as their country's greatest figure. This point was impressed upon me during my visit to Rome where I attended a Papal Audience, which could be described as a cross between a mass blessing and a pep rally Thousands of people were in the large hall and I would wager that at least half were from Poland. The excitement and energy in the air rivaled that of a rock concert as the throngs expressed their love and devotion to the Holy Father. For the faithful in attendance, the frail pontiff could get a more powerful reaction by a simple sign of the cross than Elvis Presley could ever receive by a shift of his hips. A Papal Audience for many Poles is the modern American equivalent of being able to see George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln on one stage. ...
- Pope traveled globe to spread the Gospel
By Jeffrey Fleishman
(Sun News / Knight Ridder, April 3, 2005)
From the beginning of his papacy, John Paul II treated the world as a vast neighborhood, traveling to 130 countries in a tireless quest to bring the Gospel to everyone from Indian headhunters to rich capitalists, from African bushmen to ruthless dictators. Traveling more than any pope in church history, John Paul left his message and steely visage firmly stamped upon the world's consciousness. As throngs greeted him with rose petals, flags and crucifixes, he emerged from his Alitalia jetliner on runways from Burundi to Iceland, from Bangladesh to Cuba. ... The journeys, always spiritual, were often political, too, coinciding with or heralding great historical change. ... "Something happens in each country after the Pope visits," said the Rev. Lech Rynkiewicz, who for 19 years catalogued John Paul's pilgrimages for Vatican Radio. "His presence leaves a mark, changes a way of life."
... "It is surely worth noting that the largest gatherings of teenagers in the world over the last 10 years have not been with rock stars, movie stars or athletes. They've been with the pope," George Weigel, author of the papal biography "Witness to Hope," said in a published interview. ... But some in the Catholic Church were troubled that the pope's image was emblazoned on T-shirts, balloons and even frozen "pope-sicles." Outdoor papal masses often had the sprawling, kinetic atmosphere of rock concerts. The marketing hype asked, "Who's bigger, Elvis or the pope?" ...
- Blessed man, blessed work
(Rocky Mountain News, April 2, 2005)
... The 84-year-old Pope John Paul II is entering the record books credited, even by his critics, with a colossal array of accomplishments. His influence went beyond the spiritual affairs of his own 1 billion-member Catholic Church, making him a reckoning force in global politics and the clash of cultures and values. ... He personalized the papacy. John Paul brought star power to the office, ranking among the most influential persons of the last 100 years and sharing top-10 lists with icons such as Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and Elvis Presley. But this star was anchored in the mystical ...
- The Gospel According to America: Remembering the Through-a-Glass-Darkly clause
By David Dark
(Christianity Today, March/April, 2005)
... Properly understood, the gospel of Jesus is a rogue element within history, a demythologizing virus that will undermine the false gods of any culture that would presume to contain it. In fact, as American history shows, the gospel itself will often instruct nations in the ways of religious tolerance. But our understanding of the gospel is made peculiarly innocuous when its witness of socially disruptive newness (in whatever culture it finds itself) is underplayed or consigned to the realm of "religious issues" within the private sphere. When the Bible is viewed primarily as a collection of devotional thoughts, its status as the most devastating work of social criticism in history is forgotten. Once we've taken it off its pedestal long enough to actually read what it says, how does the principality called America interpret the gospel? In an age when many churchgoing Americans appear to view the purposes of the coming kingdom of God and the perceived self-interests of the United States as indistinguishable, what does faithful witness look like?
The appropriation of biblical imagery within America's cultural consciousness is both a testimony to the tenacious inventiveness with which the gospel takes hold and a stumbling block to the self-criticism the gospel demands when it repeatedly calls a nation to repent. Tony Campolo speaks to this tension when he describes America as possibly the best Babylon on the face of the earth, a country with much to feel good about, but still a Babylon. There is no level of moral grandeur to which a nation can rise beyond which the critique of Jesus and the prophets will have nothing more to say. If it did, it would no longer be Babylon; it would be the kingdom of God.
... There is a tale, possibly apocryphal, of a bemused Elvis Presley sitting in front of his televisions reading the Bible. On completing 1 Corinthians 13, it is reported that Elvis had a moment of clarity, reached for a gun and began shooting the bright, electrical images making their way into his home. There's something very compelling about this scene. It's as if the man whom many would call King stepped past all that had been and would be made of his personality and all the dark stratagems of Colonel Tom Parker to render a decision. Though it has a sadness and frailty to it, the seemingly powerless gesture nevertheless delivers a bold, authoritative judgement, not without a certain dignity. With Bible in hand, Elvis compares the love that has overcome death to the brain ray that is television and all the mass hypnosis of the entertainment industry it represents (inseparable as it is from the phenomenon called Elvis) and finds it wanting, deserving of, in fact, immediate execution. The King has spoken. ...
One would think that the enormous, mostly agreed-on, historical missteps in American history and church history would have us speaking with a bit more modesty or with some measure of apprehension concerning our karmic account, conceding that history can't be controlled and renouncing, once and for all, our pretensions toward omnipotence. As students of the witness against Babylon, Rome, and any and all antichrists, we should note how easily an emotional fantasy can become a kind of phantasm with a life all its own (test the spirits) and let the biblical witness warn us against impersonating a race chosen by God.
- Rock of ages still inspiring modern music
By WILLIAM HAGEMAN
(News-Sentinel / Chicago Tribune, March 1, 2005)
Before last month's Grammys, much was made of Kanye West's hit single "Jesus Walks," which snared a Grammy as best rap song. Part of the buzz concerned the fact that Jesus was mentioned prominently, a rarity for non-gospel songs. There have been a few J-tunes to crack the charts - "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode and ZZ Top's version of "Jesus Just Left Chicago" come to mind - but most have never risen beyond obscurity. And although they might not qualify as background music for Easter dinner, here are a few noteworthy ones.
... Then there was Warren Zevon's "Jesus Mentioned," about unearthing Elvis Presley: "Can't you just imagine/Digging up the King/Begging him to sing/About those heavenly mansions/Jesus mentioned."
Go to earlier articles
|
