NARRATED BY CAPTAIN3
In the Ǽther (ether) I found both Benton, and Bowman and this is who they were and what they had to say.
In the 1930's the artist Thomas Hart Benton traveled around the south east rural areas. In his book "An Artist In America, copyright 1937, published by Robert M McBride and Company, New York" He wrote about what is most commonly called the Pentecostal Holiness. These quotes are from this book,
"The peculiar brand of ecstatic religion popularly known as the Holy Roller Faith which has been sweeping the South for the last fifteen years, and which is such a wild mixture of sex, exhibitionism, and hysteria, had its origin in that home of extravagant idiocy, Los Angeles, California"
This was an era of much needed social change, not only in America but throughout the World. Benton wrote,
"It seems to me that the Faith, by its assiduous cultivation of frenzy, is developing hysteria in much the same way that a war spirit is developed. Psychological attitudes making the war spirit possible are always with us."
Benton wrote this before WWII and way before the Iraq War. So the knowledge of how people are manipulated isn't anything new and it even manifest itself in the simple American religions. Contemporary (2007) people still ask how on earth could the German people go along with the Nazi Government. These same people were equally duped by their religions and government to get them into the Iraq War. It is like the propaganda tools that are controlled by the government are so powerful that the people do not have a chance.
Benton did spend quite a bit of time with the "Hillbillies" and their religion but he was an outsider and really could not see it in the eyes of the people involved. Here is a first hand account of Jack Bowman's experiences with the "Church".
"My first encounter was in 1956, when I was thirteen years old. It was at a church in Roundstone Kentucky located of U.S. 25 near Mt Vernon. These churches were always one room churches. Thursday was church night. When the people gathered all the women, girls, and children went inside. Also married men and all the old people. But in the church yard all the young males gathered. There were always acts of bravado to establish male dominance. A favorite game among the recently post pubescent boys was mumblin peg. Outside the Kentucky Hills it is called mumble-the-peg. The way we played it was an older male, twenty two to twenty nine, would encourage two young boys to play it. We would stand about a pace apart (three feet) and throw our open pocket knife into the ground at the others foot. The one that got closest without hitting the others foot was the winner. Obviously this was a dangerous but not deadly game. And when one did hit the others foot an argument would always ensue. Starting with, 'you did that on purpose'. We were only a pace away when the argument started so it didn't take very many words until one of the older boys would put his arm between the two and say, 'The bravest one spits over my arm'. The spit flew and a fist fight started.
"I had several encounters and learned my hillbilly lesson over the next ten years. The lesson is to watch and not participate. Holly Rollers had unique beliefs. They spoke in tongues, healed by laying on of hands, and exorcised those possessed by demons. Some, but not mine, handled snakes and drank strychnine. By the time I was twenty three I had a steady girlfriend. She was mean. One day the congregation started speaking in tongues. The way this worked was that one person spoke in tongues and another interpreted what they said. This was the lords way. I was working when she was at the church that night. It again was a one room church but this time at the bottom of Brush Creek hill. Those that spoke in tongues also danced if we can call it that. It was more like an epileptic seizure but usually standing. One of the tongue speakers was interpreted and my girlfriend was possessed by a devil. Remember, I personally was not there but I did see pictures and heard the story many times. My girlfriend fell to the floor and went into seizures and spoke in a demonic voice. The members of the congregation gathered around her and touched and prayed and spoke in tongues until the demon left her. I will add that she was still really mean even after the devil was prayed out of her.
"My last encounter was with her again a few years later. Yes, I was in love and didn't leave her even though I should have. By then I was going inside the church with her. When a hillbilly male does this it means he is settled down and done with his sinful ways. Of course to me it only meant I was in love. Perhaps that is what it means with all men. In any case, I went to a revival with her. It was at the Renfro Valley Barn. There was an evangelist from Richmond Indiana there to save the poor hillbillies in mass. He had a new pink Cadillac. He made sure that he told the packed crowd inside the barn that he didn't want that Cadillac but the deacons or whatever they were called bought it for him anyway. I don't think you have to be a rocket scientist to figure out where the money came from. So I was standing there with my demonic girlfriend and the evangelist had his people pass around the plate for a collection. In the row directly in front of us was a farmer in bib overhauls with a young wife and daughter in flour sack dresses. He did not put any money in the plate. The evangelist helpers went back to the front and counted the money. They whispered to the evangelist something and he got on his microphone and said it wasn't enough so they would have to pass the plate again. This time the poor farmer with the family reached in his wallet and gave a ten dollar bill. I left without saying a word to my girlfriend and never went to church again."
"Church was the major social event for the Kentucky Hillbilly. It was weekly. Another major event was annually. It was election day. In retrospect I see how they are intertwined. There was another infrequent social event and it was a wake and funeral. I met my demonic girlfriend at a wake for Aunt Jalie. I remember the churches were not air conditioned so the old women had fans with flat sticks for handles. On one side was printed, in color, things like pictures of Moses and the ten commandments, or Jesus walking on water, or patting children on the head. On the other side were advertisements for the local funeral home. I see now how these also go together. The religion is preparing you for the afterlife and the funeral home is finishing off your earth life. There was a subliminal message there also in that you are going to die so follow your religion so you can get to heaven. As I think about all this nearly fifty years later I can see how simple it all was. There was religion, death, politics, social life and demons. They weave together so well."
I went back to where the Retro Punk X Preacher was waiting with the Enticer Girls. He said, " These are cool chicks. They will entice men into the church. In the Ǽther world they will do their thing and sing and dance for you so you will join the church of Evolution and worship in the Ǽther world with them.
The Enticer Girls come out in their Retro Punk X attire and start singing Five Little Ants to the tune of Ten Little Indians.
One of the Enticer Girls tells us it is subtitled The Termination of Colonizing Species.
They sing and dance;
"One little, two little, three little, four little, five little Ants
All in a row
Speaking voice (spoken text) "I squished that one"
One little, two little, three little, four little, Ants
All in a row
Speaking voice (spoken text) "I squished another one"
One little, two little, three little Ants
All in a row
Speaking voice (spoken text) "I squished another. Wow it squirted"
One little, two little Ants
Still in a row
Speaking voice (spoken text) "Another one bites the dust"
One little, one little,just one little Ant
With nowhere to go.
The Enticer Girls were convincing and I was ready to join up right away but since I had access to the Ǽther (ether) through "Chuck" I thought I would check Religions out a little more.
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The Enticer Girls
The Enticer Girls sing "Ten Little Ants"
