The street corner creation myth

The creation myth is probably one of the weakest points in my argument that the Metro Ministries is becoming a cult under the domination of "pastor" Bill Wilson. However, there are some characterisitics in his telling of the story that ring those cultish alarm bells.

First lets look at a selection of how I would choose to define a myth [I ripped them off the internet]:

a traditional story accepted as history; serves to explain the world view of a people wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

sacred stories that often explain the origins and worldview of a culture.www.louisianavoices.org/edu_glossary.html

Often used incorrectly to refer to a claim considered to be untrue. More correctly myth refers to a narrative account or story which contains the collective wisdom of a society and articulates beliefs concerning key aspects of individual identity or collective life. ...bitbucket.icaap.org/dict.pl

Now my point is, it doesn't matter whether "Pastor" Bill's creation myth is true or false, that only matters to him and the people who care about him.

But what is important is the way he tells it. His creation myth is told endlessly, over and over, to many different audiences, and what gets to me is his ability to retell it perfectly, almost verbatim, every single time. He is a master at emotional manipulation, and his normally hoarse and scratchy voice suddenly becomes his greatest asset in telling the story, as he has perfected it to just give out at the right moment, half teary and half inspirational, to pull at those old heartstrings and hook you in.
But he got caught out in a British made film about him. He made the mistake of letting them film him twice, as he went through the whole routine for two different audiences. They were almost identical, right down to the slight faltering in his voice, to really tug at your emotions.
What I find amazing is that he can turn this bottled Hallmark moment on and off at will, on cue, almost on tap he's so good.
In fact, if you compare any two tapes of his speech, he seems to have it so well rehearsed and well memorized that you wouled swear he was the tape recorder! That man deserves a Tony, he's so good [not an Oscar, because for a movie you you run through your routine just once, but like a true stage actor, he goes out over and over again, with exactly the same quality performance every time].
Break a leg, "Pastor" Bill! [That just means, "Good luck"]


Now here from my scratchy memory, I want to show you this not to make fun of the "Pastor", or his speech, or anything he may have gone through. I will explain why at the end. Here is roughly the way he repeats every rendition of his speech:
My mother, took me out one day to a street corner, and she said "I can't do this anymore, wait here." And she left me out on a street corner. I waited the whole first day, didn't know what to do, then the second, and finally waited three days...and she never came back. And I remember [starts to pause] I wanted to pray to God, I didn't know how to pray, but I said
GOD [makes voice really scratchy, then pauses] I want to give my life to you. And on that third day, someone I knew, he knew my mother, he came and offered me a place to stay, and taught me how to pray. And from that moment [really choking up] I knew...[long pause]...
that if God could reach out to me like that, then it was my job to teach this to others [long sincere stare, looking straight down the barrel of the camera]

Now, I wasn't laughing. All on up to this point, I was just listening to the TV, and well just listening. But when he told this story, I thought "Wow, now there is an inspirational guy", and I thought it was a really sad but also uplifting story.

BUT THEN Ten minutes later I see him, this time he's not talking to camera, but to a big auditorium, and I can see he's really working the room. He was out there in som god forsaken midwest town, and he tells the exact same speech!!! At first I was astonished, then I was mad. I felt manipulated. Like I suddenly saw him doing to those poor people what he had just done to me as a viewer -total emotional manipulation. All the pauses, all the teary choking up, his voice "faltering" -he was really laying it on thick. Now there were obviously some different words, but his style, the way he hooked them in, the way he whipped them up was all like a crooked two bit snake oil salesman. A real showman.

THE DANGEROUS BIT
Sure, he was out there in the midwest for "a good cause". But you can't deny, when he wants money, he can weasel it out of people, using his tricks and techniques as a showman. It doesn't matter if it's for himself or others, for good or evil, I say you must be worried, you must be wary, of a man who can turn on his emotions, on and off like a tap like that. That's no good. A man who can dupe you and fool you and reel you in like a sucker for a "good cause" today, will be just as slick and cunning and wily the next day, but will it be for a good cause next time? Who knows?