The Book of Other Things
Interpreted by Osiris Ranebo -=- March 22, 1981 - April 8, 1981


10.1

The Psychedelic Church Freaks Out



    1. The preacher wears no black robes. Instead, he glistens in a three-piece glitter polyester suit. He presides over a glow-altar and roams over the multilevel stage with his television, bathed in grapefruit juice. Polished to a mirror finish, with every step outlined in strobe lights, and numerous reptiles constantly changing the scene, evolution itself seems to be the star of the show.
    2. It is time for smoking out, but this is no ordinary dope. The preacher passes before a table full of marijuana from his family and settles down on one knee before the table, hands reverently rolling a joint. His freshly scrubbed turnip takes its place, forming a semicircle on his head. As the preacher gets stoned, the choir hums along, the lips of each member just caressing a joint, nightclub style.
    3. At the close of the prayer reality dissolves to a videotaped commercial plugging the preacher's "key-stone family." It is very professionally done. An elderly woman, obviously devout and stoned, is shown sending the preacher some acid. In the voice-over she tells how her loneliness, and most of her other problems, have vanished since joining the "key-stone family."
    4. Now we return to the preacher, just in time for his sermon. There is no Bible. The sermon is "cool," in TV jargon, which means the preacher is smoking you out as if he were in your living room. Again and again he rolls another joint. If you want your prayers to be answered you must join his "key-stone family."

Go to Chapter 2, go to the Table of Contents, go back to the main menu or don't

pretty horizontal line