Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Televangelist Gene Scott dies at 75
AP ^ | 2/22/05

Posted on 02/21/2005 11:31:30 PM PST by Borges

LOS ANGELES -- Gene Scott, the shaggy-haired, cigar-smoking televangelist whose eccentric religious broadcasts were beamed around the world, has died. He was 75.

Scott died Monday after suffering a stroke, family spokesman Robert Emmers said.

For three decades, Scott was pastor of Los Angeles University Cathedral, a Protestant congregation of more than 15,000 members housed in a landmark downtown building.

In the mid-1970s, Scott began hosting a nightly live television broadcast of Bible teaching. His nightly talk show and Sunday morning church services were aired on radio and television stations to about 180 countries around the world by his University Network.

In some of his speeches, he would use chalkboards covered with Greek and Hebrew and deliver complex lectures on the Biblical languages to make points about the meaning of faith.

"It's a college-level classroom in the Bible," he once said.

Scott did take stands on other controversial subjects, including the war in Iraq, which he supported.

"Iraq is a threat to the world," he said in a 2003 Web address. "So kick the hell out of 'em, George."

Scott was most recognizable by his mane of white hair and scruffy beard. He also never stuck to a conventional format for his show - he once wore glasses with eyes pasted on them and sometimes smoked on the show. On his Web site, he simply said about himself, "What you see is what you get."

Scott also was a philanthropist. He was involved with Rebuild LA, the Richard Pryor Burn Foundation and the Southwest Museum. In 2002, Scott gave $20,000 that helped save Museum in Black, which has some 5,000 items from the slave and civil rights eras, from eviction.

Born in Idaho in 1929, Scott later moved to Northern California and earned a doctorate in philosophies of education from Stanford University in 1957, according to his Web site. He was the author of more than 20 books and also was a painter.

Scott is survived by his wife, Melissa.

Services were pending.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: christian; christianmedia; genescott; obituary; saved; televangelists
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-120 next last
To: Borges

Rest in peace, Dr. Scott. You served Him well. Your insight and openness in revealing the truth of the translations of His Word will be missed. Thank you for helping me to know my God better.


21 posted on 02/21/2005 11:57:06 PM PST by Robert Drobot (God, family, country. All else is meaningless.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Borges
I remember Scott when I was a kid. He was the first televangelist I noticed, although he was not the standard televangelist at all.

I remember him before he had the scruffy beard and smoked his cigars on camera while "teaching." I remember when all that started happening. He got in some tax trouble and he began railing against the Calirfornia Tax Board and he'd fill his set with dozens of wind up monkeys banging their drums and call them the Attorney General.

He started railing against the Attorney General all the time on camera and that's when he grew his beard and all.

I remember he'd not really preach the word, but he'd teach nonsense like British Israelism -- that the lost tribes of Israel went to Britain and the Scots and English were the real Jews of the Bible.

Overall he seems to have been a character who didn't really do overtly negative things, unlike the charlatans on TV. But really, it's hard to know what he about about -- other than being about Gene Scott.

22 posted on 02/21/2005 11:57:18 PM PST by tallhappy (Juntos Podemos!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Borges

Saw him on the tube a few times. Always figured he do something like offer rides on Hale-Bopp or for handing out free Kool-Aide.


23 posted on 02/22/2005 12:00:18 AM PST by leadpenny
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Borges
His wife Melissa made an announcement on their TV station, they plan on having a "send-off" for Dr. Scott on Sunday at his Cathedral (carried on the TV network), which can be seen on the web at this link. She also said the station will continue to air the years and years worth of teaching of Dr. Gene Scott. If I know Dr. Scott, his network has been on for as long as I've been born (34 years).
24 posted on 02/22/2005 12:00:35 AM PST by BigSkyFreeper (Smoke free since January 16, 2005)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CounterCounterCulture; AnnaZ; dighton; savedbygrace
He really went super-wacko in his last years. He used to be "merely" eccentric, and tackled some great study subjects, but then the personality cult thing just took on a life of his own. It was sad to see his freaked-out ego demons utterly devour him.

I'd been checking the alt.fan.gene-scott these past several months, reading the latest comments [re his illness] from ex-devotees. He had prostrate cancer and it was only a matter of time.

This guy probably would have pulled a Jim Jones if he was well enough to orchestrate it. I wonder how many of his brainwashed cultists will try to join him? Sad...

25 posted on 02/22/2005 12:05:36 AM PST by Thinkin' Gal
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: leadpenny
Saw him on the tube a few times. Always figured he do something like offer rides on Hale-Bopp or for handing out free Kool-Aide.

I happend to catch him around the time of the Heaven's Gate cult mass suicides, and he basically called them freaks, kooks, and weirdos. He was generally known for not mincing words. LOL

26 posted on 02/22/2005 12:07:49 AM PST by BigSkyFreeper (Smoke free since January 16, 2005)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: BigSkyFreeper

I have to admit, it's kinda freaky seeing Melissa wearing a big toboggan cap, dark shades, talking about the death of her husband, and ending the announcement with "Get on the phones!"


27 posted on 02/22/2005 12:11:36 AM PST by BigSkyFreeper (Smoke free since January 16, 2005)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: BigSkyFreeper
Doc's Bio Doc's WiSiWyG Talk to Doc Doc's Links


  Attention:   

        
in RealAudio      
  Dr. Scott does not receive e-Mail.   If you want to get a message to Dr. Scott, you'll have to get in line.

You can call and leave a message by calling the Voice of Faith lines or writing him a letter!



Dr. Gene Scott® is a registered trademark name
Copyright © 2005, w. euGene Scott, Ph.D. - All rights reserved.

28 posted on 02/22/2005 12:14:36 AM PST by ppaul
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: BigSkyFreeper
I generally mock the things I don't understand. He mesmerized me in the way Jim and Tammy Faye mesmarized me. But with the Bakers, I was kind of able to see what they were up to. This guy was like watching a train wreck , and I just figured he was crazy like a fox.
29 posted on 02/22/2005 12:18:37 AM PST by leadpenny
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Borges

I remember watching him on the old satellite dish years ago, preaching some of the more bizarre ideas I had ever heard. Seemed every cultish gimmick from Pyramidology to the Bermuda Triangle was somehow woven into the web of religion and fantasy that he talked about. I recall thinking, "This is what charisma is," and wondering what it was about the man that made you want to watch him and consider some of his ideas. I never figured it out, but it was there.


30 posted on 02/22/2005 12:23:01 AM PST by TN4Liberty (American... conservative... southern.... It doesn't get any better than this.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Salamander
I recall the "pyramid timetables" very well.

I saw him on my local cable TV community access channel back in the 1980s. His speaking style and presentation of his beliefs intrigued me initially, but when he started the "pyramid timetables" series I must admit that I was fascinated by the content of his interpretation. Numbers, as in inches and feet relating to days, months, and years in history, can be interpreted to mean almost anything you want.

31 posted on 02/22/2005 12:24:45 AM PST by Eagle9
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: leadpenny

Dr. Scott mesmerized me moreso than say for instance, the Bakker's of PTL fame, or the Crouch's of TBN or just about any televangelists on TV aside from Joel Osteen, or Charles Stanley. Osteen or Stanley are what I am accustomed to every Sunday. Dr. Scott was probably more comic relief for me, until he was "preaching" about something that piqued my interest.


32 posted on 02/22/2005 12:30:46 AM PST by BigSkyFreeper (Smoke free since January 16, 2005)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Robert Drobot

HUH?


33 posted on 02/22/2005 12:32:01 AM PST by Walkingfeather (q)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Eagle9

Too true.
My cable "lost" him soon after that.
The last year I've been watching him frenetically write Hebrew characters on a whiteboard and emphatically pound them as though that would make me understand whatever it was he was trying to teach me....:))


34 posted on 02/22/2005 12:35:53 AM PST by Salamander (Villainy Wears No Deadlier Guise Than That Of Virtue)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Borges

He was a hoot. Remember his "art auction"? He auctioned off a bunch of crap that looked like a dirty-minded 7-year old drew it. He announced that "My Momma told me I could sh*t in jars and sell it!" Remember his telathon with biker-looking guys answering the phones? I also remember the Pyramid theories (wasn't there some buried treasure under them?)and footage of him bouncing around on a horse. He was on a local channel for a few months until they threw him off for non-payment.


35 posted on 02/22/2005 12:38:13 AM PST by ozzymandus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Salamander

Im curious as he wrote hebrew did he do it left to right or right to left?


36 posted on 02/22/2005 12:38:51 AM PST by Walkingfeather (q)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: agitator

37 posted on 02/22/2005 12:50:06 AM PST by ambrose (....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: BigSkyFreeper

California's Attorney General....




38 posted on 02/22/2005 12:50:08 AM PST by BigSkyFreeper (Smoke free since January 16, 2005)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Walkingfeather

right to left


39 posted on 02/22/2005 1:07:17 AM PST by Robert Drobot (God, family, country. All else is meaningless.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: BigSkyFreeper

I'd put Robert Tilton right up there with Dr. Scott as far as the mesmerizing factor goes. Interesting contrast of styles, Scott was a real scholar, Tilton is a snake oil salesman.


40 posted on 02/22/2005 1:14:29 AM PST by Nexus6
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-120 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson