'Ministers Do More Than Lay People'

[Garson O'Toole]

TV Evangelists (Ministers, Clergy, Preachers) Do More Than Lay People.

This joke template exists in the late 1980s (and possibly before). It
is applied to the scandals involving television evangelists by 1988.
The quip is credited to Stanley Ralph Ross by the early 1990s. Here
are selected cites in chronological order.

Cite: 1988 March 4, Charlotte Observer, FRIDAY by Doug Robarchek, Page
1B, Charlotte, North Carolina. (NewsBank)

Literary Corner: FLASH! Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker collaborating on
new book. Working title: "Preachers Do More Than Lay People."


Cite: 1988 June 7, USA Today, "BATON ROUGE, La. - The July issue of
Penthouse is a hot seller in the backyards of warring preachers Jimmy
Swaggart of Baton Rouge and Marvin Gorman of New Orleans", Gannett
News Service. (NewsBank)

Since then, Swaggart has said he will not comment on the Penthouse article.

At the Baton Rouge magazine shop, clerk Bruce Abbot was standing next
to the cash register emblazoned with the bumper sticker - also a best
seller - which reads "TV Evangelists Do More Than Lay People."


Cite 1990, "637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said" by Robert Byrne, (GB
Page Number 21), Atheneum, New York. (Google Books snippet view; Data
may be inaccurate; Not verified on paper)

Do television evangelists do more than lay people?
                     Stanley Ralph Ross


Cite: 1991 October 27, San Antonio Express-News, "DONEGAN Parson Jimmy
Swaggart's Lizards", Page 3M, San Antonio, Texas.

After the private and public escapades of Jim Bakker and Jimmy
Swaggart in 1987 and 1988, a fellow by the name of Stanley Ralph Ross
asked, with understandable perplexity, "Do televangelists do more than
lay people?"

Garson

On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 1:15 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      'Ministers Do More Than Lay People'
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> How far back does 'Ministers Do More Than Lay People' go?  What
> ministers is it associated with?  Did it appear earliest on "bumber strips"?
>
> Amazon.com finds it within a few books back to 2004.  Google Books
> finds it in a few books back to 2005.  But GB also gives a snippet
> from "The Western governmental researcher: Volume 5, Issue 1 1989":
>
> "Before I open it up for questions, I just want to mention that on
> the way in I saw a big limousine outside with Louisiana plates on it;
> it had a bumber [sic] strip on the back that says: 'Ministers do more
> than lay people.'  On that serious note, Randy, go ahead."
> "QUESTION: As the oldest living public administrator in California, ..."
>
> (Makes me intensely curious about what the occasion was, and who
> Randy and the raconteur are.)
>
> This journal is not held by Harvard, and no closer to me than
> Syracuse.  WorldCat lists many items that are consistent with the
> above volume number and year.
>
> Joel
>
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