When the Devil Goes to Messin', the Faith Doctors Go to Blessin': Down-Home Therapy for Strange Conditions and Unnatural Sicknesses

WHEN THE DEVIL GOES TO MESSIN', THE FAITH DOCTORS GO TO BLESSIN': DOWN-HOME THERAPY FOR STRANGE CONDITIONS AND UNNATURAL SICKNESSES JOHN L. LANDES* The PTL affair was a revolting spectacle, but let's admit it: we loved every moment. Jim's hijinks, Tammy's perverse extravagance, and the Reverend Falwell's vulturous maneuvering finally exposed the venality we all suspected at the heart of TV evangelism. But now, as the 1RS and the Justice Department move on PTL, I worry about the chilling effect on certain radio preachers to whom I have recently become devoted. These preachers are compelling, strange, and vastiy more entertaining than the crowd currently in the news. I am referring to the spiritual healers and "faith doctors" whose chanting and screaming, pleas and admonitions beam across the southeast every night and early morning on Nashville's 50,000-W radio station WLAC-AM (1510 kHz).1 Once renowned for its blues and soul music programming, WLAC now features a daytime fare of network news and local talk shows. But around midnight, the listener is drawn into a bizarre world of nineteenth-century black religious and magical folk belief . The Rev. Roosevelt Franklin, Prophet Sun, and Mother Truth, among others, conjure, heal, and prophesy, promising to bring their listeners money, love, health, and happiness. In return for donations, they offer such benefits as Reverend Franklin's "All-Points Emergency Blessing Plan" and Prophet Sun's "Money Eye." A "Money Eye" will "getcha money, peace, and help against your enemies." The last is especially important if "someone or something has 'The remarks of the radio faith doctors were tape recorded from broadcasts aired in 1985-1986 on WLAC-AM, Nashville, Tenn. ?Address: 2101 Belmont Boulevard, Apartment 306, Nashville, Tennessee 37212.© 1988 by The University of Chicago. AU rights reserved. 0031-5982/89/3201-0598$01.00 80 ] John L. Landes ¦ When the Devil Goes to Messin' got you fixed, crossed up, hoodoo'd, or voodoo'd." In which case you may suffer from "strange conditions" and "unnatural sicknesses." If you "can't sleep in your own house and are wondering why," these programs urge you to consult a healer who can "diagnose the case and remove this condition offa you." Ofcourse, each radio healer claims that he or she alone is truly qualified. Prophet Sun's credentials are particularly impressive. "I am the grandson of the Seven Sisters. My mother's name was Rebecca. Huh! My grandmother's name was Bela. We've been in spiritual work for 150 years! You see, I know what I'm doin'." The efficacy of these practitioners is borne out by the many testimonials , mailed and phoned in to the programs. Prophet Izear says, "I had a lady to call me last week. Said, 'Rev. Izear, I went on the car lot and told the man, said I wanted that car, and he was justgrumblin' at me—but Ijust accidently called your name, and I got the car!' " A devotee of Rev. Roosevelt Franklin, aka the Georgia Prophet, recounted: Well, Rev. Franklin, Caledonia—that's my wife—wrote you that letter 'cause you was talkin' about a money tree on the radio. So you sent her that green thing in that envelope. And you said it would bring happiness and prosperity. We raise chickens, you know. But it seemed like they had went on strike. So I took the money tree and hung it up in the henhouse. And, you know, we had an old bad rooster, wouldn't even crow. But next morning he got up crowin'just as loud— an', you know, he must have told all them hens to go back to layin' 'cause we got so many eggs now, we put out fifty cases last week! The radio prophets use various diagnostic and healing techniques. Roosevelt Franklin instructs his listeners to enclose a teaspoon of salt with their donations, so he can "run the seven holy keys on it to see who, if, what, or how you been crossed up." The Reverend Izear likewise attributes disease and misfortune to malign witchcraft, an etiological theory derived from black folk tradition going back to slavery and, perhaps , to Africa...