Search - Rev J.M. Gates :: Are You Bound for Heaven Or Hell: Best of

That ol' time religion

Andre M. | Mt. Pleasant, SC United States | 05/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Rev. James M. Gates' (1884-1945) sermons are an absolute HOOT! Basically, he was doing an African-American version of the sort of thing Billy Sunday was doing at the time. Apparently aimed at a rural, fundamentalist audience (Rev. Gates preached at a church in Atlanta), these are old fashioned rip-roaring countrified hellfire and brimstone tirades against "You pocket pickers, you midnight ramblers, you whiskey drinkers, you mother heart-breakers, on the hell bound express." Hoo boy! For the most part, unless you subscribe to this kind of religion, you will find this more entertaining than inspiring, especially ones like "Mannish Women" (Some women are walking like men, and some men are walking just like the women!).Rev. Gates seems to be earnest through most of the proceedings, but some of this was clearly intended to be comical, such as "Kinky Hair is No Disgrance", where our man gets into a dialogie with the sisters in the congregation about race pride, and "Scat to the Cat and Sooey to the Hog," some outrageously counttrified advice on marital bliss with even wilder responses from the congregation (this last one was banned in 1931, listen and see why).Lots of fun here. Rev. C.L. Franklin (Aretha's Dad) was greatly influenced by Rev. Gates' "Dead Cat on the Line" (not included here) and one would suspect that T.D. Jakes may have given Rev. Gates a listen or two. Only problem is that while these selections make for great listening, as Rev. Gates usues a lot of imaginative imagery as well as well as (sometimes unintentional) humor, a lot of other fascinting sermons of his such as "Is a Rope on Your Neck," "Dead Cat on the Line," "FDR Is Everbody's Friend," "You Negro Haters" "Joe Louis," etc. are not included here. Those sermons are on other CD's though, so this is a VERY good start."