Balls Deep (2016–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Tent Preachin' - full transcript
[ Speaking foreign language ]
Strengthen this Christian fellow
in the name of Jesus!
I've heard people say,
"Bless God,
I'd love to have
an old-time revival."
If you want an old-time revival,
it needs to start in you.
God told me to tell the church,
"Death... ain't... no...
big... thing."
* Amazing Grace
* How sweet the sound
America is God's country,
and that God, predominately,
is the Christian God.
But outside of politics
and social bickering,
who really understands
what American Christianity
is all about
in this day and age?
And I went to Sunday school
and consider myself
relatively bright.
I couldn't tell you
the first thing
about what the Trinity means,
why you drink wine at church
occasionally,
or who's taking
the collection money.
It's all a mystery.
Maybe that's the point?
Regardless, to try to better
understand Christianity
in America,
we have come to the most
quintessentially Christian
part of America --
the Ozarks -- to observe
one of the most
quintessentially American forms
of Christian worship --
Pentecostal tent revival.
Not the snake-handling kind --
those are kind of creepy.
The tent's in that trailer.
Okay.
I'm just gonna back in there,
behind the tree.
And the tent will go in here.
Okay.
My father,
when I was a little boy,
he had a 40x60 tent.
I can remember tents as big
as this entire piece
of property, almost,
and we could have 22,000 people.
Can you imagine that?
That's a lot of people.
That's a lot of people, man.
A lot of folks sweating,
wasn't they?
MAN:
Join us now in worship,
under one of the greatest gospel
tents in the world,
as we sing, preach,
pray for salvation,
and ask God's deliverance
for the sick, the crippled,
and the oppressed.
MORTON: During the Pentecostal
heyday in the '40s and '50s,
revival preachers like
A.A. Allen and Oral Roberts
were crowding tens
of thousands of believers
under massive
circus-style tents.
Harvey Purdue started
his preaching career
during this glut,
at the age of 12.
And while the popularity
of the tent revival
has abated a little in recent
years, his fervor has not.
I was in style, man, in white
shoes, the white belt.
I got a bow tie, man.
You notice that?
Looking sharp.
[ Laughs ]
His main church these days is an
old film theater in Hot Springs.
But summertime
is tent-pitching season
for campers
and Christians alike.
I think people are wanting
to come back to basics.
The church is not some $22
million, $23 million facility.
The church...
is where Jesus is.
* Some bright morning...
Here's the big boy.
* ...when this life is over,
I'll fly away *
Can you just yank that
straight up?
That ain't gonna work, is it?
There you go, Thomas.
* I'll fly away
Are you all hot yet?
Just right next to it?
Right there.
Oh!
Oh, dang.
Oh, man!
Sh-Sh--
Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
- Man, I'm so sorry.
- No, no, no. It's all right.
MORTON: Aside from his
daughter, Jenny Jo Purdue,
Harvey's congregation skews
a little to the older side.
Of the 20-some regulars
who came out
to his tent-pitching potluck,
the only ones who were
able-bodied enough
to actually pitch in
were sister Becky...
- Look at her!
- Geez.
HARVEY: Go, Becky!
...a John Henry-esque
grandmother
who probably drives stakes
in her free time,
and brother Ron...
Uh-oh!
...an irrationally sweet
Vietnam vet --
like the Pentecostal version
of John Goodman's character
in "The Big Lebowski."
Brother Ron also brought
a bunch of tools
to help with
the stake-driving --
including Sonny, a young man he
picked up at the hardware store,
looking for work.
You ever help put up a tent?
Yes, sir!
Heck!
Well, praise the Lord!
That's a good swing.
* I'll fly away
Heat index, I think,
today is supposed to be 105,
which is, basically a fatal
fever in a human body.
Harvey, before we came down,
had a heart attack --
had a fatal heart attack --
he was dead for 30 seconds,
but doctors brought him back
to life, which means --
Um, hang on -- he's got certain
bona fides as a preacher,
'cause he's been through
the veil.
He's seen the other side.
But also means he probably
shouldn't be doing work
like this in weather
like this at all.
Whoo.
Get down, can't get up.
- No joke.
- Whew.
Getting up's the hardest part.
We'll have to put those
flaps over.
Let me get a little shade
right now.
Yeah, yeah.
Sh-Shoot.
I'm also having to correct
for all my swears,
which adds a mental step
whenever anything bad happens.
Oh! Hot.
Gosh...
darn it.
What do you do
instead of swearing?
I'm just trying to stick to,
like, light swears
like "Dang..."
You cracker factory.
...and "darn."
Corn cob piper.
Even Christians -- I don't care
how righteous you may be --
we're all human.
Are we beyond sin?
No.
Do we sin? Yes.
You think about the word sin.
What is sin?
What is evil?
Thomas, are you going
to sin tomorrow?
Probably, yeah, to be honest.
Are you gonna sin next week?
Very good chance.
- Did you sin last week?
- A lot.
All of our sins was nailed
to that cross.
God the Father
cannot look upon sin, Tom.
If he did, he would destroy us,
like that.
But God looks through the eyes
of Jesus.
His blood flowed from his side.
And when we come to him,
it washes away those sins.
80% of his heart's not working.
Is not working?
That's the reason he's wearing
that packet on the front.
Pastor Hopper?
Really?
That's my buddy.
All right, come on.
- Ready?
- Yep.
There we go.
That's what we want.
HARVEY: Wait till you see
the unity of the people.
Hey, brother.
Can you help us?
And they're such good people.
This is the worst reenactment
of Iwo Jima I've ever been in.
We're just trying to get
to Heaven, you know,
and that's all I care about.
And you know what, bud?
I plan on you going to Heaven
with me,
even though the bus
ain't gonna leave today.
There's a bus?
MORTON: To drum up attendance
for the night's revival,
me and Harvey's live-at-home
daughter Jenny Jo Purdue
headed into town
to do some light flyering.
- Hey, guys.
- Hey!
What are y'all doing today?
Tell me about this revival.
- Oh, well...
- With your dad?
It is my dad's tent revival.
It starts tonight.
It's going to be at my house.
Hey, Aaron.
How are you?
I'm good.
You remember me, right?
Jenny?
When revivals started they had,
sort of, less competition
as far as amusements in town,
but nowadays, you know,
Hot Springs is basically
a tourist town,
so you can go hang out
on the lake,
you can go get drunk,
you can go play laser tag,
go-carts,
they got the baths here.
Even the theater Harvey holds
his regular Sunday services in
forces him to compete against
a year-long horror festival
and a Bill Clinton impersonator
who does magic.
We couldn't interest you
in coming to this,
uh, tent revival, could we?
Oh.
You should try to make it
one night.
I wish I could.
I work every night.
And... where are you?
Oh, no! Unfortunately,
the location's not on there.
No.
Might be hard to...
Might be hard to find us!
...get the word out.
Right.
Slight oversight.
Sure.
That went well.
Yeah.
I think so.
The thing you got
to remember, Thomas,
is younger generations don't
really know about tent revivals.
It's more my dad's generation.
It's kind of dying out,
isn't it?
It is. It's sad.
It's kind of a dying breed.
[ Distant singing ]
* Jesus, could you please
save New York? *
* And Dallas, St. Louis,
and Detroit *
* Let your hand of mercy...
MORTON: Before retreating
to the woods of Arkansas,
Harvey spent a decade
recording music
in the closest thing
the region has
to a belly of the beast --
Nashville.
All together, I've got about
23 awards in music.
And I was one of the first to
ever record country gospel.
I played like fire
on Southern gospel stations.
It was unreal.
You know?
They didn't know
what to do with me.
Uh, the Grand Ole Opry love me.
MORTON: Is that you
and Margaret Thatcher?
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
Yeah. Me and Bill Clinton
and Margaret Thatcher.
Slick Willie and the Iron Lady.
MORTON: So, country's
really good with gospel.
How are, like,
Pentecostal Christians
with, like, country music?
Do you run into flak
for playing both?
Used to -- "Hey, man,
if you play country music,
you going to hell.
You're a Pentecostal preacher.
Why are you singing
country music?"
Because when our people leave
our church on Sunday,
they don't listen to
the gospel music stations.
They're listening
to country music.
[ Laughs ]
The thing about it is getting
the gospel out.
That's what it's about.
MORTON:
After Jenny Jo was born,
Harvey left the fleshpots
of central Tennessee
and recommitted his family
to clean country living.
JENNY JO: You know, you talk
about Pentecostalism
and the Holy Ghost.
I've had some experiences
with the Holy Ghost, myself.
It was about a year ago.
I was grieving the loss
of my mom,
and my dad said,
"Well, let's pray."
Before I knew it,
I was speaking in tongues,
my arms were moving, my legs
were going up and down,
and then I do this
for 45 minutes.
Do you feel anything
when it's coming on?
Or is it just... suddenly
you're in the throes?
[ Sighs ]
You feel, like, a warmth,
like, this uplifting peace,
this immense peace
like there's not another thing
in this world
but you and God.
Just the way you describe it
sounds like the greatest
drug rush ever, you know?
[ Laughter ]
Let me let you finish
with your makeup.
Oh, no.
You're cool.
You've been holding that, uh...
Um, I don't know
what things are.
This is called lip liner.
It makes my lips look fuller.
Oh. Okay.
HARVEY: You washed
your hair earlier?
Yes.
We're gonna put a little
aloe vera on it.
Aloe.
Like this --
put it on both your hands.
I always rub my face down
with this.
This is great for your skin.
Now, you see what I'm doing
right here?
Okay. Bring it down a little
and then go up.
Just a little.
I got a little bald spot
in the back,
so we have to conceal it.
You do a good job of that.
I didn't notice until now.
[ Laughs ]
It seems to me, if you're
preaching in a tent,
that you'd kind of be
dressed down or something,
but that's not the case at all.
Most times, I like to dress up.
When you look at businessmen,
most of them look the part,
don't they?
Of course.
Because it's a sign of success.
Just because you're a preacher
doesn't mean that you
shouldn't look nice,
because who I work for
is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when it comes to working
for the Lord,
shouldn't we look our best?
Mic check -- one, two.
One, one.
One, one, one.
One, one, one.
One. One.
So, band's tuning up right now.
Got a few more minutes.
Cross guy is Skip, who drags
his cross across the country
and also runs a karate school
and body shop.
I think he's playing drums
tonight, actually.
Hey, Skip. So, you're
playing drums tonight?
Okay.
Band sounds good.
Looking forward to this,
especially the Holy Spirit
component,
which, the way Jenny Jo
describes it,
seems like very strong MDMA.
One! Two! Three!
Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!
* Well, what do you know
about King Jesus *
* He's all right
* He's all right
* He's all right
* All right
'Cause there's gonna come a day,
it's gonna be you and Satan.
And you gonna face off with him.
And you gonna say,
"In the name of Jesus, bow!"
And I'm-a tell you, he gonna
drop just like a gun shot him!
Stop trying to figure it out
for yourself,
and go to God and say,
"God, I need your power!
God, give me more power!
More power! More power."
[ Drums playing ]
[ Thunder rumbles ]
God's got something for you,
but you got to get out
of the boat.
He wants you to walk
on the water!
Do we let ourselves
get so clouded
with fear and doubt sometimes
that we don't recognize the man
walking on the water?!
[ Thunder crashes ]
That's okay.
Hey, we're fine.
Thank you, Jesus.
That's what happens
when you get saved.
You go from the darkness
to light.
MORTON: Pentecostalism
comes form Methodism,
which is what I grew up as --
pretty much the most staid,
middle-of-the-road,
Sunday Christian Protestantism
on the market.
Where the standard Christian
church service
hinges on providing congregants
enough coffee
to keep them awake
the full hour,
Pentecostal church
is a high-octane,
super-personal shout-a-thon
tailored to not only keep
the audience's attention
for hours on end, but to batter
them so hard with God's word,
they end up seizing on the
ground in fits of praise.
It's like mainlining Jesus.
While some Pentecostal preachers
were able to turn
their revival ministries
into lucrative
televangelical empires,
the vast majority are still out
working the tent circuit.
HARVEY: There was a man
that was brought
to the gate of the temple
every day.
He couldn't walk.
And two preachers full
of the Holy Ghost
come walking up
to the temple gate,
and they looked at him,
And Simon Peter said,
"Silver and gold have I none."
He had to be a Pentecost
preacher.
He was broke!
God wants his church
to be filled with the spirit.
He wants us walking
in the spirit.
He wants us talking
in the spirit.
He wants us to have wisdom
and knowledge in the Holy Ghost,
because he wants to do
some signs and wonders.
All you got to do is let him
have you.
And hey, let him have your
tongue, and watch out --
you gonna think you Japanese.
Amen.
So far, we haven't seen any
of the nine spiritual gifts
of Pentecostals
manifest themselves.
Those are, like,
the speaking in tongues,
falling on the floor,
rolling around,
healing --
nobody's been healed yet.
It's kind of just, like,
open mic Christianity.
How many of you
have ever seen a miracle?
TOGETHER: Amen.
MAN: Well, now y'all looking
at another one.
I been shot.
I been cut.
I've drowned twice.
You see that brown
Cadillac Escalade there?
God gave it to me.
- All right.
- Listen.
[ Applause ]
Heaven...
How long has it been since
you been in church, brother?
Been quite a while.
I believe God sent you here
to help me put this tent up.
We had bags in this tent.
Thomas, you know we we couldn't
hardly get them out.
Couldn't do it.
And Sonny, I'm gonna ask you
to pray with me.
Would you do that?
You trust me?
Do you trust me?
Yes.
I want you to pray
for each other's needs.
[ Speaking foreign language ]
I pray in Jesus' name.
In Jesus' name!
In Jesus' name.
Oh, yes.
Strengthen him.
Strengthen this Christian fellow
in the name of Jesus!
Oh, yes.
Oh, yes, Jesus.
[ Speaks foreign language ]
Oh, yes.
Yes, Jesus.
Oh, Lord, yes.
HARVEY: Hallelujah!
When you get discouraged,
all you got to do
is say "Jesus!"
- Jesus.
- Jesus!
- Jesus!
- Jesus!
Yeah. It's like the bad way
I was doing it,
but this is better.
Jesus!
- Jesus!
That's all you got to say.
Incidentally, Pentecostalism
is named after the day
Jesus' disciples first felt
the Holy Spirit
and ended up
tongue-speaking so hard
the rest of the temple thought
they were drunk,
which I can see.
Now, we're seeing something
very Pentecostal right now.
Glory to God.
Nobody pushed her.
Hallelujah!
All right!
God, let your power go through
this man!
Heal this big man
with your Holy Ghost power!
Praise it, Victor!
Dance!
Somebody else want to dance
for Jesus?
* The Holy Ghost wraps us...
Hallelujah!
* And you holy...
* Like you came in Jesus' name *
Hang on, everybody.
Hang on, everybody.
Just let her praise the Lord.
- Thomas?
- Yes, sir.
What do you think about this?
Um...
I'm glad somebody put a coat
on her to keep her warm,
but it's -- it's also
very exciting to see.
[ Indistinct talking ]
Now, let me ask you something.
Yeah.
Are you in training?
For what?
Being a preacher.
Like, I'm not taking classes,
or nothing.
Would you like
to speak tomorrow?
Yeah. If it's the kind of thing
you think I could do.
- I believe you could.
- Okay.
Everybody,
before you leave tonight --
I'm gonna tell them.
You can't back out.
Okay.
Everybody, listen to me.
Brother Thomas asked if
he could preach tomorrow.
MAN: Yeah!
Let's hear Thomas!
Can y'all say "Praise the Lord"
with Thomas?
ALL: Praise the Lord!
Can you say it again?
Praise the Lord!
Have you lost
any of your relatives?
My dad died around, er, it
would've been February 2013.
Oh, wow.
Oh, you just lost your dad.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
How old was your father?
He was 62.
62.
My goodness.
Yeah.
Thomas?
Come and stand with us.
Delores,
this is my friend Thomas.
From New York.
[ Sniffles ]
Give Thomas' dad
a big ol' hug up there.
His name's Thomas, too.
Thomas?
You're Thomas, Jr.?
Uh... different
middle names.
Different middle name.
Yeah, okay.
[ Sniffles ]
Delores -- my woman, my wife,
[ Voice breaking ]
my pretty sweet lady,
and my soul mate.
I never come here that I don't
give her kisses.
Oh.
We'll see you, babe.
[ Sniffles ]
We'll see you.
Jenny Jo lent me her --
I think this is the very first
Bible she had.
It's a real nice,
little pink one.
She was worried
I wouldn't like it
on account of
the feminine qualities,
but it's more of a salmon.
My method for my sermon
I kind of just adopted
from something Harvey
had been preaching about,
which was just flipping through
the Bible at random.
And I opened to, like, three
different places that mentioned,
like, Moses and the Israelites
in the wilderness,
so I took that.
I don't know if that's just
a coincidence
or a sign from God
or if there really
is a distinction
if you're a Pentecostal.
Hey.
HARVEY: Could you put
your hands together
for my brother Thomas
from New York?
[ Applause ]
Thank you all.
Thank you.
It's very pleasant today,
out here in the country.
We have this lovely banner
behind us
about John the Baptist --
"The voice of one crying
in the wilderness" --
but, far and away, the most
wildernessy of wildernesses,
I was very, very fortunate
to travel
with a French scientist
to the Malaysian rainforest.
All the plants have big, nasty
spikes on them.
All the monkeys aren't fun,
either.
They throw things at you --
nuts if you're lucky.
And so we started trekking.
The guide just smiled at us and
said, "Don't worry about it.
This is a fun route."
And some six hours
after we left the plant,
we started looking around
and wondering,
like, which route
were we taking?
What is this shortcut to?
We were getting nasty
to each other.
That's when we were really
kind of losing hope,
and I swear before God,
there was a beam of light and
a little flutter of butterflies
dancing in the sunlight
right there.
Cameraman who'd been bit
by a leech,
he took the time to wash out
his shirt.
Held it up before us
and he said,
"Can't hardly see the blood
no more!"
In the book of Exodus,
the children of Israel
spent 40 years
walking in the wilderness.
- Amen.
- Amen.
On day 3, the children of Israel
began murmuring
against the Lord.
They murmured
and they said, "Why?
Why did we leave Egypt for this?
Just to die in the wilderness?"
We're all passing through
the wilderness.
We're all getting away
from Egypt.
I spoke to Brother Skip
about his drug problem
for methamphetamine.
And I'm ashamed to say I've had
experience with methamphetamine,
and it's a particularly vicious,
nasty sort of drug.
You may not feel terrible
the next morning.
You may make it a day or two,
and you think you're through
the wilderness already,
but it gets its little hooks
in you and it draws you back.
It doesn't make you think,
"Well, I'm glad I got that
out of me
and now I can fix myself."
I makes you think,
"I need more of that now."
You know, "'Wherefore did you
take me out of Egypt for this?'
I feel awful."
And there's a lot of children
out there
who are stuck in the wilderness,
and they're looking back
and they're saying,
"You know,
things were a lot better.
Things were a lot better
when I was high.
Things were a lot better
when I was going to bars,
when I was going out."
Moses wasn't the only one
who didn't make it into Canaan
on his own.
Let this be a warning.
Make it through the wilderness,
so we can all stand in Heaven
together and say
"I made it through
the wilderness."
[ Applause ]
Thank you very much,
Brother Harvey.
Thank you, everybody.
You've been a blessing to me.
When you're preaching under
your own tent, don't forget me.
No.
You'll be there.
I love you, man.
I love you, too, bud.
Well, I think
that went all right.
It's definitely fun up there.
It was kind of a cross
between stand-up comedy
and, sort of, like,
group therapy,
mixed with a little bit
of, like, Bible trivia.
At the same time, I wonder
if there's kind of a sense
of, sort of, religious entropy
at play here.
As boring as things like
the Catholic Church
and Orthodox rituals are,
there's still a reason
for those rituals
and they're kind of geared
towards holding
a mass audience together.
In these churches,
everybody's kind of chasing
their own belief system,
and you see its effects
right away,
where there's a number of
very slightly older people
and very few young people,
give or take a Sonny
or a Jenny Jo.
It makes you wonder
how a church like this
can maintain steam
in this modern era,
with our MTV
and our T-Rex laser tag golf.
And also, not to crib
from the book of Groucho,
but I'm a little bit worried
for any faith
that would have me
as a preacher.
Strengthen this Christian fellow
in the name of Jesus!
I've heard people say,
"Bless God,
I'd love to have
an old-time revival."
If you want an old-time revival,
it needs to start in you.
God told me to tell the church,
"Death... ain't... no...
big... thing."
* Amazing Grace
* How sweet the sound
America is God's country,
and that God, predominately,
is the Christian God.
But outside of politics
and social bickering,
who really understands
what American Christianity
is all about
in this day and age?
And I went to Sunday school
and consider myself
relatively bright.
I couldn't tell you
the first thing
about what the Trinity means,
why you drink wine at church
occasionally,
or who's taking
the collection money.
It's all a mystery.
Maybe that's the point?
Regardless, to try to better
understand Christianity
in America,
we have come to the most
quintessentially Christian
part of America --
the Ozarks -- to observe
one of the most
quintessentially American forms
of Christian worship --
Pentecostal tent revival.
Not the snake-handling kind --
those are kind of creepy.
The tent's in that trailer.
Okay.
I'm just gonna back in there,
behind the tree.
And the tent will go in here.
Okay.
My father,
when I was a little boy,
he had a 40x60 tent.
I can remember tents as big
as this entire piece
of property, almost,
and we could have 22,000 people.
Can you imagine that?
That's a lot of people.
That's a lot of people, man.
A lot of folks sweating,
wasn't they?
MAN:
Join us now in worship,
under one of the greatest gospel
tents in the world,
as we sing, preach,
pray for salvation,
and ask God's deliverance
for the sick, the crippled,
and the oppressed.
MORTON: During the Pentecostal
heyday in the '40s and '50s,
revival preachers like
A.A. Allen and Oral Roberts
were crowding tens
of thousands of believers
under massive
circus-style tents.
Harvey Purdue started
his preaching career
during this glut,
at the age of 12.
And while the popularity
of the tent revival
has abated a little in recent
years, his fervor has not.
I was in style, man, in white
shoes, the white belt.
I got a bow tie, man.
You notice that?
Looking sharp.
[ Laughs ]
His main church these days is an
old film theater in Hot Springs.
But summertime
is tent-pitching season
for campers
and Christians alike.
I think people are wanting
to come back to basics.
The church is not some $22
million, $23 million facility.
The church...
is where Jesus is.
* Some bright morning...
Here's the big boy.
* ...when this life is over,
I'll fly away *
Can you just yank that
straight up?
That ain't gonna work, is it?
There you go, Thomas.
* I'll fly away
Are you all hot yet?
Just right next to it?
Right there.
Oh!
Oh, dang.
Oh, man!
Sh-Sh--
Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
- Man, I'm so sorry.
- No, no, no. It's all right.
MORTON: Aside from his
daughter, Jenny Jo Purdue,
Harvey's congregation skews
a little to the older side.
Of the 20-some regulars
who came out
to his tent-pitching potluck,
the only ones who were
able-bodied enough
to actually pitch in
were sister Becky...
- Look at her!
- Geez.
HARVEY: Go, Becky!
...a John Henry-esque
grandmother
who probably drives stakes
in her free time,
and brother Ron...
Uh-oh!
...an irrationally sweet
Vietnam vet --
like the Pentecostal version
of John Goodman's character
in "The Big Lebowski."
Brother Ron also brought
a bunch of tools
to help with
the stake-driving --
including Sonny, a young man he
picked up at the hardware store,
looking for work.
You ever help put up a tent?
Yes, sir!
Heck!
Well, praise the Lord!
That's a good swing.
* I'll fly away
Heat index, I think,
today is supposed to be 105,
which is, basically a fatal
fever in a human body.
Harvey, before we came down,
had a heart attack --
had a fatal heart attack --
he was dead for 30 seconds,
but doctors brought him back
to life, which means --
Um, hang on -- he's got certain
bona fides as a preacher,
'cause he's been through
the veil.
He's seen the other side.
But also means he probably
shouldn't be doing work
like this in weather
like this at all.
Whoo.
Get down, can't get up.
- No joke.
- Whew.
Getting up's the hardest part.
We'll have to put those
flaps over.
Let me get a little shade
right now.
Yeah, yeah.
Sh-Shoot.
I'm also having to correct
for all my swears,
which adds a mental step
whenever anything bad happens.
Oh! Hot.
Gosh...
darn it.
What do you do
instead of swearing?
I'm just trying to stick to,
like, light swears
like "Dang..."
You cracker factory.
...and "darn."
Corn cob piper.
Even Christians -- I don't care
how righteous you may be --
we're all human.
Are we beyond sin?
No.
Do we sin? Yes.
You think about the word sin.
What is sin?
What is evil?
Thomas, are you going
to sin tomorrow?
Probably, yeah, to be honest.
Are you gonna sin next week?
Very good chance.
- Did you sin last week?
- A lot.
All of our sins was nailed
to that cross.
God the Father
cannot look upon sin, Tom.
If he did, he would destroy us,
like that.
But God looks through the eyes
of Jesus.
His blood flowed from his side.
And when we come to him,
it washes away those sins.
80% of his heart's not working.
Is not working?
That's the reason he's wearing
that packet on the front.
Pastor Hopper?
Really?
That's my buddy.
All right, come on.
- Ready?
- Yep.
There we go.
That's what we want.
HARVEY: Wait till you see
the unity of the people.
Hey, brother.
Can you help us?
And they're such good people.
This is the worst reenactment
of Iwo Jima I've ever been in.
We're just trying to get
to Heaven, you know,
and that's all I care about.
And you know what, bud?
I plan on you going to Heaven
with me,
even though the bus
ain't gonna leave today.
There's a bus?
MORTON: To drum up attendance
for the night's revival,
me and Harvey's live-at-home
daughter Jenny Jo Purdue
headed into town
to do some light flyering.
- Hey, guys.
- Hey!
What are y'all doing today?
Tell me about this revival.
- Oh, well...
- With your dad?
It is my dad's tent revival.
It starts tonight.
It's going to be at my house.
Hey, Aaron.
How are you?
I'm good.
You remember me, right?
Jenny?
When revivals started they had,
sort of, less competition
as far as amusements in town,
but nowadays, you know,
Hot Springs is basically
a tourist town,
so you can go hang out
on the lake,
you can go get drunk,
you can go play laser tag,
go-carts,
they got the baths here.
Even the theater Harvey holds
his regular Sunday services in
forces him to compete against
a year-long horror festival
and a Bill Clinton impersonator
who does magic.
We couldn't interest you
in coming to this,
uh, tent revival, could we?
Oh.
You should try to make it
one night.
I wish I could.
I work every night.
And... where are you?
Oh, no! Unfortunately,
the location's not on there.
No.
Might be hard to...
Might be hard to find us!
...get the word out.
Right.
Slight oversight.
Sure.
That went well.
Yeah.
I think so.
The thing you got
to remember, Thomas,
is younger generations don't
really know about tent revivals.
It's more my dad's generation.
It's kind of dying out,
isn't it?
It is. It's sad.
It's kind of a dying breed.
[ Distant singing ]
* Jesus, could you please
save New York? *
* And Dallas, St. Louis,
and Detroit *
* Let your hand of mercy...
MORTON: Before retreating
to the woods of Arkansas,
Harvey spent a decade
recording music
in the closest thing
the region has
to a belly of the beast --
Nashville.
All together, I've got about
23 awards in music.
And I was one of the first to
ever record country gospel.
I played like fire
on Southern gospel stations.
It was unreal.
You know?
They didn't know
what to do with me.
Uh, the Grand Ole Opry love me.
MORTON: Is that you
and Margaret Thatcher?
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
Yeah. Me and Bill Clinton
and Margaret Thatcher.
Slick Willie and the Iron Lady.
MORTON: So, country's
really good with gospel.
How are, like,
Pentecostal Christians
with, like, country music?
Do you run into flak
for playing both?
Used to -- "Hey, man,
if you play country music,
you going to hell.
You're a Pentecostal preacher.
Why are you singing
country music?"
Because when our people leave
our church on Sunday,
they don't listen to
the gospel music stations.
They're listening
to country music.
[ Laughs ]
The thing about it is getting
the gospel out.
That's what it's about.
MORTON:
After Jenny Jo was born,
Harvey left the fleshpots
of central Tennessee
and recommitted his family
to clean country living.
JENNY JO: You know, you talk
about Pentecostalism
and the Holy Ghost.
I've had some experiences
with the Holy Ghost, myself.
It was about a year ago.
I was grieving the loss
of my mom,
and my dad said,
"Well, let's pray."
Before I knew it,
I was speaking in tongues,
my arms were moving, my legs
were going up and down,
and then I do this
for 45 minutes.
Do you feel anything
when it's coming on?
Or is it just... suddenly
you're in the throes?
[ Sighs ]
You feel, like, a warmth,
like, this uplifting peace,
this immense peace
like there's not another thing
in this world
but you and God.
Just the way you describe it
sounds like the greatest
drug rush ever, you know?
[ Laughter ]
Let me let you finish
with your makeup.
Oh, no.
You're cool.
You've been holding that, uh...
Um, I don't know
what things are.
This is called lip liner.
It makes my lips look fuller.
Oh. Okay.
HARVEY: You washed
your hair earlier?
Yes.
We're gonna put a little
aloe vera on it.
Aloe.
Like this --
put it on both your hands.
I always rub my face down
with this.
This is great for your skin.
Now, you see what I'm doing
right here?
Okay. Bring it down a little
and then go up.
Just a little.
I got a little bald spot
in the back,
so we have to conceal it.
You do a good job of that.
I didn't notice until now.
[ Laughs ]
It seems to me, if you're
preaching in a tent,
that you'd kind of be
dressed down or something,
but that's not the case at all.
Most times, I like to dress up.
When you look at businessmen,
most of them look the part,
don't they?
Of course.
Because it's a sign of success.
Just because you're a preacher
doesn't mean that you
shouldn't look nice,
because who I work for
is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when it comes to working
for the Lord,
shouldn't we look our best?
Mic check -- one, two.
One, one.
One, one, one.
One, one, one.
One. One.
So, band's tuning up right now.
Got a few more minutes.
Cross guy is Skip, who drags
his cross across the country
and also runs a karate school
and body shop.
I think he's playing drums
tonight, actually.
Hey, Skip. So, you're
playing drums tonight?
Okay.
Band sounds good.
Looking forward to this,
especially the Holy Spirit
component,
which, the way Jenny Jo
describes it,
seems like very strong MDMA.
One! Two! Three!
Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!
* Well, what do you know
about King Jesus *
* He's all right
* He's all right
* He's all right
* All right
'Cause there's gonna come a day,
it's gonna be you and Satan.
And you gonna face off with him.
And you gonna say,
"In the name of Jesus, bow!"
And I'm-a tell you, he gonna
drop just like a gun shot him!
Stop trying to figure it out
for yourself,
and go to God and say,
"God, I need your power!
God, give me more power!
More power! More power."
[ Drums playing ]
[ Thunder rumbles ]
God's got something for you,
but you got to get out
of the boat.
He wants you to walk
on the water!
Do we let ourselves
get so clouded
with fear and doubt sometimes
that we don't recognize the man
walking on the water?!
[ Thunder crashes ]
That's okay.
Hey, we're fine.
Thank you, Jesus.
That's what happens
when you get saved.
You go from the darkness
to light.
MORTON: Pentecostalism
comes form Methodism,
which is what I grew up as --
pretty much the most staid,
middle-of-the-road,
Sunday Christian Protestantism
on the market.
Where the standard Christian
church service
hinges on providing congregants
enough coffee
to keep them awake
the full hour,
Pentecostal church
is a high-octane,
super-personal shout-a-thon
tailored to not only keep
the audience's attention
for hours on end, but to batter
them so hard with God's word,
they end up seizing on the
ground in fits of praise.
It's like mainlining Jesus.
While some Pentecostal preachers
were able to turn
their revival ministries
into lucrative
televangelical empires,
the vast majority are still out
working the tent circuit.
HARVEY: There was a man
that was brought
to the gate of the temple
every day.
He couldn't walk.
And two preachers full
of the Holy Ghost
come walking up
to the temple gate,
and they looked at him,
And Simon Peter said,
"Silver and gold have I none."
He had to be a Pentecost
preacher.
He was broke!
God wants his church
to be filled with the spirit.
He wants us walking
in the spirit.
He wants us talking
in the spirit.
He wants us to have wisdom
and knowledge in the Holy Ghost,
because he wants to do
some signs and wonders.
All you got to do is let him
have you.
And hey, let him have your
tongue, and watch out --
you gonna think you Japanese.
Amen.
So far, we haven't seen any
of the nine spiritual gifts
of Pentecostals
manifest themselves.
Those are, like,
the speaking in tongues,
falling on the floor,
rolling around,
healing --
nobody's been healed yet.
It's kind of just, like,
open mic Christianity.
How many of you
have ever seen a miracle?
TOGETHER: Amen.
MAN: Well, now y'all looking
at another one.
I been shot.
I been cut.
I've drowned twice.
You see that brown
Cadillac Escalade there?
God gave it to me.
- All right.
- Listen.
[ Applause ]
Heaven...
How long has it been since
you been in church, brother?
Been quite a while.
I believe God sent you here
to help me put this tent up.
We had bags in this tent.
Thomas, you know we we couldn't
hardly get them out.
Couldn't do it.
And Sonny, I'm gonna ask you
to pray with me.
Would you do that?
You trust me?
Do you trust me?
Yes.
I want you to pray
for each other's needs.
[ Speaking foreign language ]
I pray in Jesus' name.
In Jesus' name!
In Jesus' name.
Oh, yes.
Strengthen him.
Strengthen this Christian fellow
in the name of Jesus!
Oh, yes.
Oh, yes, Jesus.
[ Speaks foreign language ]
Oh, yes.
Yes, Jesus.
Oh, Lord, yes.
HARVEY: Hallelujah!
When you get discouraged,
all you got to do
is say "Jesus!"
- Jesus.
- Jesus!
- Jesus!
- Jesus!
Yeah. It's like the bad way
I was doing it,
but this is better.
Jesus!
- Jesus!
That's all you got to say.
Incidentally, Pentecostalism
is named after the day
Jesus' disciples first felt
the Holy Spirit
and ended up
tongue-speaking so hard
the rest of the temple thought
they were drunk,
which I can see.
Now, we're seeing something
very Pentecostal right now.
Glory to God.
Nobody pushed her.
Hallelujah!
All right!
God, let your power go through
this man!
Heal this big man
with your Holy Ghost power!
Praise it, Victor!
Dance!
Somebody else want to dance
for Jesus?
* The Holy Ghost wraps us...
Hallelujah!
* And you holy...
* Like you came in Jesus' name *
Hang on, everybody.
Hang on, everybody.
Just let her praise the Lord.
- Thomas?
- Yes, sir.
What do you think about this?
Um...
I'm glad somebody put a coat
on her to keep her warm,
but it's -- it's also
very exciting to see.
[ Indistinct talking ]
Now, let me ask you something.
Yeah.
Are you in training?
For what?
Being a preacher.
Like, I'm not taking classes,
or nothing.
Would you like
to speak tomorrow?
Yeah. If it's the kind of thing
you think I could do.
- I believe you could.
- Okay.
Everybody,
before you leave tonight --
I'm gonna tell them.
You can't back out.
Okay.
Everybody, listen to me.
Brother Thomas asked if
he could preach tomorrow.
MAN: Yeah!
Let's hear Thomas!
Can y'all say "Praise the Lord"
with Thomas?
ALL: Praise the Lord!
Can you say it again?
Praise the Lord!
Have you lost
any of your relatives?
My dad died around, er, it
would've been February 2013.
Oh, wow.
Oh, you just lost your dad.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
How old was your father?
He was 62.
62.
My goodness.
Yeah.
Thomas?
Come and stand with us.
Delores,
this is my friend Thomas.
From New York.
[ Sniffles ]
Give Thomas' dad
a big ol' hug up there.
His name's Thomas, too.
Thomas?
You're Thomas, Jr.?
Uh... different
middle names.
Different middle name.
Yeah, okay.
[ Sniffles ]
Delores -- my woman, my wife,
[ Voice breaking ]
my pretty sweet lady,
and my soul mate.
I never come here that I don't
give her kisses.
Oh.
We'll see you, babe.
[ Sniffles ]
We'll see you.
Jenny Jo lent me her --
I think this is the very first
Bible she had.
It's a real nice,
little pink one.
She was worried
I wouldn't like it
on account of
the feminine qualities,
but it's more of a salmon.
My method for my sermon
I kind of just adopted
from something Harvey
had been preaching about,
which was just flipping through
the Bible at random.
And I opened to, like, three
different places that mentioned,
like, Moses and the Israelites
in the wilderness,
so I took that.
I don't know if that's just
a coincidence
or a sign from God
or if there really
is a distinction
if you're a Pentecostal.
Hey.
HARVEY: Could you put
your hands together
for my brother Thomas
from New York?
[ Applause ]
Thank you all.
Thank you.
It's very pleasant today,
out here in the country.
We have this lovely banner
behind us
about John the Baptist --
"The voice of one crying
in the wilderness" --
but, far and away, the most
wildernessy of wildernesses,
I was very, very fortunate
to travel
with a French scientist
to the Malaysian rainforest.
All the plants have big, nasty
spikes on them.
All the monkeys aren't fun,
either.
They throw things at you --
nuts if you're lucky.
And so we started trekking.
The guide just smiled at us and
said, "Don't worry about it.
This is a fun route."
And some six hours
after we left the plant,
we started looking around
and wondering,
like, which route
were we taking?
What is this shortcut to?
We were getting nasty
to each other.
That's when we were really
kind of losing hope,
and I swear before God,
there was a beam of light and
a little flutter of butterflies
dancing in the sunlight
right there.
Cameraman who'd been bit
by a leech,
he took the time to wash out
his shirt.
Held it up before us
and he said,
"Can't hardly see the blood
no more!"
In the book of Exodus,
the children of Israel
spent 40 years
walking in the wilderness.
- Amen.
- Amen.
On day 3, the children of Israel
began murmuring
against the Lord.
They murmured
and they said, "Why?
Why did we leave Egypt for this?
Just to die in the wilderness?"
We're all passing through
the wilderness.
We're all getting away
from Egypt.
I spoke to Brother Skip
about his drug problem
for methamphetamine.
And I'm ashamed to say I've had
experience with methamphetamine,
and it's a particularly vicious,
nasty sort of drug.
You may not feel terrible
the next morning.
You may make it a day or two,
and you think you're through
the wilderness already,
but it gets its little hooks
in you and it draws you back.
It doesn't make you think,
"Well, I'm glad I got that
out of me
and now I can fix myself."
I makes you think,
"I need more of that now."
You know, "'Wherefore did you
take me out of Egypt for this?'
I feel awful."
And there's a lot of children
out there
who are stuck in the wilderness,
and they're looking back
and they're saying,
"You know,
things were a lot better.
Things were a lot better
when I was high.
Things were a lot better
when I was going to bars,
when I was going out."
Moses wasn't the only one
who didn't make it into Canaan
on his own.
Let this be a warning.
Make it through the wilderness,
so we can all stand in Heaven
together and say
"I made it through
the wilderness."
[ Applause ]
Thank you very much,
Brother Harvey.
Thank you, everybody.
You've been a blessing to me.
When you're preaching under
your own tent, don't forget me.
No.
You'll be there.
I love you, man.
I love you, too, bud.
Well, I think
that went all right.
It's definitely fun up there.
It was kind of a cross
between stand-up comedy
and, sort of, like,
group therapy,
mixed with a little bit
of, like, Bible trivia.
At the same time, I wonder
if there's kind of a sense
of, sort of, religious entropy
at play here.
As boring as things like
the Catholic Church
and Orthodox rituals are,
there's still a reason
for those rituals
and they're kind of geared
towards holding
a mass audience together.
In these churches,
everybody's kind of chasing
their own belief system,
and you see its effects
right away,
where there's a number of
very slightly older people
and very few young people,
give or take a Sonny
or a Jenny Jo.
It makes you wonder
how a church like this
can maintain steam
in this modern era,
with our MTV
and our T-Rex laser tag golf.
And also, not to crib
from the book of Groucho,
but I'm a little bit worried
for any faith
that would have me
as a preacher.