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ok Twitter ate the entire 15-post thread I wrote about me and Kenneth Copeland and Christian bookstores in the early 90s so I will try to tell it again https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/1352366057042882561
when I was a gothy metallic type in the late eighties and nineties I was of course obsessed with evangelists, it's part of the job description
I even went to see one at the Memorial Coliseum on Broadway in Portland in fall of '85. Just to see the action. It was such a huge deal at the time, you couldn't walk down the street without being ministered to
which suited me fine because I am the kind of guy who, if he sees a pamphlet printed in 1973 still on the racks at one of these bookstores in 2011, buys it right away in all its yellowing-spine glory
(That I still have that, and that I knew exactly where it was even though I'm a very disorganized guy, tells you a lot about me.)
so anyway circa 1990 I'm living in Norwalk and when I'm not working (I live on the grounds of the hospital where I work), I'm cruising around just looking for stuff. Record stores. Botanicas. Bookstores.
Christian bookstores in Santa Fe Springs? Hell yes I'm going there on my day off, what if they have really out-there stuff?
Tape ministries were BIG in the 90s. The cassette was the dominant format for a hot minute, wasn't it? I think so -- and the smaller the church, the higher the likelihood that they had a tape ministry
desktop publishing Made-on-a-Mac! sticker on the case telling you what's inside -- sermon on prosperity, how to avoid worldly pitfalls, etc
the one I couldn't resist, and which I wish I still had, was called Does Kenneth Copeland Preach Original Sin? and the answer was "yes,
and so do Paul and Jan Crouch!!! they are enabling this heretic!!!" maaaaaan...I'm Catholic, in our church we grew (after shameful centuries) to not throw terms like "heretic" around, but the evangelists were very hot for it in the case of Kenneth Copeland
the tape made a convincing argument! mainly supported by an appearance Copeland had made on TBN where he said that humans are "little Gods" and Paul & Jan gave him plenty of Amens about it
memories of haunting stores to buy deeply obscure tapes which were otherwise, without question, NEVER going to be sold to anybody else -- these tapes were functionally FOR obsessives like me, whether their makers knew it or not --
very heady memories of the time I was just starting to make tapes myself. So to see Kenny C., twenty-five years later, still on the grift 24/7, just completely shameless,
makes me say -- anonymous tape ministry of the late 80s or early 90s, your point stands, you have preached! PS if anybody ever finds this tape please scan the cover for me, I thank you. /thread
