Category Archives: People

Famous Fundies: Lester Roloff

roloffAlthough Lester Roloff is perhaps best known for his homes for troubled youth, he was also very active in fundamentalist circles with everything from radio broadcasts to revival services. His sermons against television, alcohol, tobacco, pork, psychology, and Communism are largely regarded as classics by many fundamentalists.

After the State of Texas passed laws in 1975 that required licensing his youth homes, Roloff was arrested twice for refusing to comply. In 1982 Roloff’s plane crashed during a storm killing himself and three women on board. Incidentally, the crash occured on the same day that Governor Mark White — who had promised to shut down the Roloff homes — was elected. The wreckage of the crashed airplane in which he died is the centerpiece of Roloff Park at Hyles-Anderson College.

Presented here for your listening pleasure is one of his more famous “sermons” entitled “And the Mule Walked On” in which are addressed the topics of: long hair on men, short hair on women, makeup on women, hippies, buying gas on Sunday, too many people going swimming on Sunday, too many women cooking on Sunday, reading the newspaper on Sunday, newspaper delivery boys who go to the devil for delivering on Sunday, “homosectals”, professional football and baseball, people on dope from their family doctors, public schools, sex ed. and many, many others.

(Note: the audio quality is poor for the first few seconds of intro. It clears up once the actual message begins)

Many thanks to James for his help in summarizing this amazing collection of topics

Famous Fundies: Phil Kidd

kiddAmong the ranks of shock-jock evangelists perhaps none have aspired to the verbal exploits of “Dr.” Phil Kid. Popular with many fundamentalist churches of more militant type, Phil is the master of Hair-Raising Sermon Illustration. It’s a rare event when he manages to make it through a sermon without some apocryphal tale of tragedy and gore.

And then there are his screaming rants against all manner of other ungodly things like Nintendo video games and interracial marriage…

Here he is in fine form:

[audio:http://www.stufffundieslike.com/audio/PhilKidd.mp3]

Alexander Scourby

scourbyFor many fundamentalists, the voice of God sounds curiously like a Shakespearean actor from the 1930’s. For that matter, so does the voice of everyone else in the Bible from Adam to Zechariah.

Whether it’s the daily Bible reading on the radio, the cassette tapes enshrined in their plastic cases, or the original LP albums, Alexander Scourby is the voice of the King James Bible. Fundamentalists accept no substitutes. Not even James Earl Jones’ fine work recording the Bible can hope to compete with the long tradition of the original recordings. They are the Authorized Version.

Alexander Scourby’s skill is such that even the genealogies somehow take on a new and invigorating air when he gravely intones them. Perhaps Moses and Joshua and Boaz may not really have sounded like Scourby — but until we get to hear the originals, it would be hard to find a better substitute.