There’s lots of ends-justify-the-means behavior in both Elmer Gantry and Christianity.
Still reading Elmer Gantry. I reached the section of the book that they made into the movie. The whole book wasn’t made into the movie; just one interesting little segment of it. Guess the producers thought the book was too long.
Of course, some things got changed for the movie. In the movie, Elmer is a salesman and con man who passes himself off as a pastor and gets involved with a revival. In the book, Elmer is a pastor—he cons himself into becoming one, mainly for the power that comes with it, and since he believes he’s actually doing people some good, he has no trouble adding con man techniques to his salvation messages. Hence the book is a little more disturbing than the movie.
There’s a lot of ends-justify-the-means attitude in the book. Elmer has no problem with making up testimonies and decorating the revival tent with bogus crutches if it will win souls. Unfortunately, I’ve known too many people who have “spiced up” their testimonies because they think a dramatic conversion will get people’s attention better than “I grew up Christian.” Sad but true; and more common than you think. (Unless you’re one of those people with an embellished testimony; then it may surprise you to learn you’re not the only hypocrite.)