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This is a page from my book, "Food for Thought". It was written back in the eighties as a song on one of my albums, and is even more topical today. The elders among you may recognize the charismatic figures they describe. *The quotations that follow are included in the book.

                                               “Retail Redemption”
     (There was a time, and still is, back in the seventies and eighties when
      charismatic “Gurus” and Evangelical prophets (often expatriated)
      abounded, preying on their followers, often with disturbing results.)

In a three piece powder blue polyester suit
And a matching shirt and tie
He stands at the head of a mesmerized crowd
With the fear of God in his eye

He’s got a Bible lying open in his big right hand
And he’s slapping it with his right
But he’s thinking lots less about what he’s saying
Than of the money he’ll be making tonight

How can all those people looking just like you and me
Sit and stare at the man with their eyes wide open
And just don’t see
I guess they can’t see the forest for the trees

He reads them slick vernacular propaganda
From a Bible that was printed last year
About the devil and drugs and promiscuity
It’s what they want to hear

He tells them all about sin and the evils of the flesh
Well I guess that he should know
And he’s got them on their feet yelling “Praise the Lord”
Throwing money ‘til it’s time to go

How can all those people looking just like you and me
Sit and stare at the man with their eyes wide open
And just don’t see
I guess they can’t see the forest for the trees

As he rides through the crowd on an Oregon farm
In a pearly white Rolls Royce
With a silver sequined silken sari
And an oh so gentile voice

He’s got oriental evangelism
Finely tuned to a razor’s edge
But he spends more time in his private quarters
Meditating on the money they’ll pledge

It’s an epidemic and it’s getting out of hand
How they line their pockets in the name of religion
And the people don’t understand
I guess they can’t see the beach for the sand

      *  “Something was badly amiss with the Spiritual life of the planet, 
          thought Gabriel Farishta, too many demons inside people claiming 
          to believe in God”……….Salman Rushdie

          “America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence
                 Without civilization in between”……….Oscar Wilde

           “Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking”……..Bill Maher
fishline79 7 Nov 20
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1

Bringing back memories of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I lived in Washington and went through that area of Oregon regularly. I still have my " Guru Busters" t shirt ( that was a parody of the Ghostbusters logo, but with the guru instead😄 I wonder if that thing is worth anything these days ?

0

Did not find it humorous that you thought the eighties should be thought of as for the elderly. Just kidding....

Certainly approaching elder.

1982 was 40 years ago.

I certainly thought of someone who graduated in 1942 as an ELDER.

@BufftonBeotch I apoligize, who graduated in 1942??

@HankSherman 1982 is getting pretty elderly.

2

Not just in the seventies and eighties.

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