Rev. Ike is Dead

I want you to open your wallet, and pull out the largest single bill and place it in the collection plate....

 

Never heard of him before, but quite an interesting read. And an interesting twist on the TV evangelism theme. At least he was honest about his intent - a religion that has money and materialism as a central theme. I can't see any reason for people who donated to the cause to complain that they were mislead.

 

The inspiration for Richard Pryor's "Daddy Rich"...

 

Brought in some pretty good bucks selling "Prayer Cloths".

 

"Secretary of the Treasure" in George Clinton's "Chocolate City".

 

I'm going to abide by my don't speak ill of the dead rule out of respect for his family. NO COMMENT.

 

If you think about it, you really did just speak ill of the dead!

 

Gainin' on ya!

Love that song.

 

my dad remembers listening to him driving down to Emory & Henry College in the late 60's and early 70's on the radio. you couldn't get anything else down in Southwest VA.

I wonder what he did with all his Cadillacs?

 

WOW!

Reverend Ike is gone!

I used to get a kick out of watching his Sunday night UHF TV show in the 70's.Never sent any money his way of course.He was not a hypocrite at least.His speal was pretty enertaining.He looked more like a classy pimp then a preacher.He would tell people to stop drinking & doping & get two jobs if they had to.He would also tell people how to get help for job training,education,health services,etc.Not out of his pocket of course.

He did not accept change in his collection plates.The ushers would hand the change back to you.Only bills the bigger the better! Hallelujah!

Damn,so many musicians & pop culture icons from my era are passing. I feel old!

 

Anyone that gave that character a dime deserved to have it taken from them, which is it's own strange sort of perfection....

I believe he was the inspiration for Richard Prior's character in CarWash....

"It's better to have money and not to need it, than to need money and not to have it "......." and there's a good place for money, and it's right here in my pocket ! "



OOPS- EDIT

Good call, Bongomania.....scrolled down too fast so I missed your post

 

I do remember him Dr. Cheese. He was definitely an original compared to all of the other hustling, prosperity doctrine, preachers. He was entertaining to listen to back in the 70's during the wee hours of the morning, when driving back from gigs, and the tape player in the band van was busted, and all we could get was those stray, long range a.m. radio stations, of which many ran a variety of religous programs. He was more fun than listening to the stations that carried only farm reports and music for the Lawrence Welk generation, which seemed to dominate the late night radio of the boonies of the wonderful American mid west back then.

I guess I had a twisted sense of humor in regards to hearing him ask his flock for paper currency and then implore them to implore the Deity to " Loose my money Lord!!!" as if somehow their money was in a state of financial/spiritual bondage. At least he was out in the open, and without shame about his constant supplications for donations, let alone his materialistic gospel. As a person of faith I can't stand the dealers of religion who are in it to just hustle the money by fleecing their flock, yet in a weird way I'm kind of sad to hear of Reverend Ike's passing. At least Rev. Ike was a true American original in the rather unique history of religion and religous culture, for good and bad in this nation.

 

I used to live a few blocks from The Audubon Ballroom in NYC, so sure, I remember the Rev. Ike.
Very entertaining, a much better brand of televangelism than Pat Robertson's or the Bakkers. RIP.

 

I've heard him referenced at least twice on reruns of "Sanford and Son".