Review of Marjoe (1972) by Jack L — 29 May 2009

An interesting documentary about a Pentecostal evangelist named Marjoe, a name that combines Mary and Joseph. The film won a "best documentary" Oscar in the early 1970s, so because of the time frame one will see perhaps the absolutely worst assortment of shirt-tie combinations every assembled, with the possible exception of every outfit Herb Tarlek wore at WKRP in Cincinnati. According to the story told in the movie, Marjoe had been an evangelist for many years, traveling the country and making money, until he had a crisis of conscience and decided to make the documentary as an expose of the REAL world of evangelizing.

The people who NEED to see this movie will never watch it, and the people who do watch it will have confirmed for them what they already believe about evangelism, and maybe even religion writ large. Obviously I'm in that latter group. Although I have some fairly long held doubts about organized religion and I can't say my beliefs changed much about anything this movie focused on, I still found two aspects of the film intriguing. First, the leaders, or evangelists, were nothing more than calculating business people. Prior to seeing this film I thought that the preachers were at least sincere and intense believers. I don't believe that any longer. For the record, I don't have a problem with business people. If one is a computer salesman who presents himself as such, and everyone knows that one of the goals of selling computers is personal profit, then no harm is done. In fact, I think something good occurs: one person makes money, and someone else gets a computer. However, if the computer salesman, or preacher, is claiming to sell something like a computer or salvation, respectively, and the buyer isn't truly getting the good or service he or she is paying for, then that is wrong. Clearly the preachers and business folk that Marjoe meets up with and works with are in it for the money: they are not men and women of faith. At best, they are entertainers. Entertainment is a fantastic thing and worthy of buying, but not if it is sold as God juice. (Marjoe, according to Wikipedia and as he himself said in the movie, wanted to continue entertaining as a rock star and movie star. He tried and wasn't too successful.) Second, I find it amazing how many people believed in the evangelists in this movie. They lined up to give Marjoe and his ilk money they probably could ill-afford to part with.

Part of me wonders who the victim is in all of this. The people giving away the money are doing so willingly. They're even getting something in return: a fun couple of hours with like-minded folks who make them feel good about themselves and the chances they have to live on in the afterlife. The sermons also seemed to be based on things that many of us can appreciate: drugs are bad, and if you make mistakes in life there is a chance to get back on track. (Some of the sermons pushed positions I also fundamentally disagree with.) At the same time, many of the people giving away their money are probably not the people with a lot of disposable income. They're giving away money that can be used on medical expenses, education, or placed in savings accounts that can accrue interest for future, more necessary, needs. Again, people in the congregation are giving away money believing they are buying salvation, and they're buying it from people who don't have it to sell. The regular folks, as is often the case, are getting ripped off. A shame.

I certainly don't have a problem with religion. There are many decent people who are part of fantastic congregations, and many of those people and congregations do great things for others. That's groovy man. Unfortunately there are people like the evangelists in this movie who are doing bad things. Anyway, Marjoe is an interesting movie.