Friday, April 24, 2026

Lesson from ‘Elmer Gantry’ (Sinclair Lewis, 1927)

There in an important lesion to be learned from this novel written almost one century ago by Nobel Prize winner Sinclair Lewis. I draw your attention to this heated discussion between Elmer Gantry and other Bible students taking place in a seminary one evening circa 1904 (page 92, Dell 1960 paperback edition):

  • "Harry Zenz patted his arm. "Oh, you, Don-- you'll always be a monk. But if you don't believe it, Fislinger, look at the statistics of the five thousand odd crimes committed by clergymen-- that is those who got caught-- since the 1880s-- and note the percentage of sex offenses-- rape, incest, bigamy, enticing young girls-- oh, a lovely record! Elmer [Gantry] was yawning, "Oh, God, I do get so sick of you fellows yammering and arguing and discussing. All perfectly simple"maybe we preachers aren't perfect; don't pretend to be; but we do a lot of good."

    Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 05:19 PM | 2 COMMENTS | permalink

    • Comments

    #1 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-04-24 05:20 PM

    Elmer Gantry is one of my favorite novels. Sinclair Lewis was a brilliant critic of early 20th century American life.

    #2 | Posted by rcade at 2026-04-24 05:45 PM

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