About Promotions

This section of the site demonstrates the religion of revivalism as only for a limited time.

Using quotations like "Become an INSTANT MEMBER!" and "New!," this page symbolizes the intensity and short duration of revivalism. Revivals only last in towns for a short time, usually a few weeks or maybe as much as a month. These phrases convey the idea that people have to act now to get what they want, but they don't have to give any long term commitment. Signing commitment cards was a common practice at revival meetings, but after the revival left town the commitment left with it. Some skeptical, uncorrupted pastors in Zenith refuse to support the revival effort because they know how short lived the hype of revivalism is. Most of the new converts from revivalism are only caught up in the intensity and entertainment of revival meetings and not committed believers in God, ready to join a church full time.

The second promotion, while also showing how short lived revivalism is with phrases like "Join Now!," shows how the intensity of revivalism in Elmer Gantry drowns out any opposing views without giving them a fair chance to prove themselves. Gantry quickly crushes Jim's opinion before he has the chance to gain any support by putting on a bigger, more powerful show. Jim's article in the newspaper is nothing in comparison to Gantry's radio shows. "We can BEAT any of our Competitors!" and "Anti-Christianity is UNAMERICAN!" show that revivalism is louder and more dramatic than other beliefs and shames people into thinking louder and more dramatic is better. They can't question revivalism when Gantry shouts "Don't you want to be on God's Side?" at them so instead they sign cards proclaiming their conversion. "Conversion was compelled by a set of clear ideas about the innate sinfulness of humans...the omnipotence of God--his awful power and his mercy" awed and frightened many people into saying or feeling false belief[10]. Gantry implies that religious revivalism is the majority and obviously the correct belief: "[t]hose who raised such questions were soon castigated as being 'anti-revival' and as opposed to evangelism" and this "claim appeared to be supported by the numbers of new converts being produced" even though few were seriously dedicated [11]. Joining the majority is a common strategy used by marketing campaigns in any type of product, even religion. In Gantry, Lewis is making a statement about revivalism that applies to current evangelists as well. They "put a death grip on [one's] conscience" to scare people into accepting their message[12].