Safran's had a couple of shows in the past, I haven't seen much of this particular series, except for the part where he buys sacred, mormon underwear.
Yeah, I don't know what to think of this though. I find it extremely hard to take seriously considering everything else he's done.
Still, 5 stars for papogetti, or whatever he said while that preacher was whaling on him.

That's "Papa Gede," a Voodoo spirit apparently. Safran claims that he wasn't faking anything, but that his experience might have been attributed to psychological manipulation and not something spiritual.

I find it inconcievable that he would sneer at religion throughout his show only to throw some fundie nutjob such a huge bone at the end. Fakery or no, I just don't understand it.

The evangelist, btw, is Bob Larson, who was birthed fully grown from the head of an angry teenage atheist. Look him up.

Kthor--

Thanks for the context, as I was actually very, very curious as to the source, since all I had to go off of was the reappropriated version that had been pasted with links to fundamentalist websites.

As you might have guessed, the description I used was somewhat deadpan tongue-in-cheek (though relatively untouched from the YouTube source), since the whole thing seemed rather stagy to me.

When I first found the video, I assumed that the man I now know is John Safran was an volunteer at some grassroots conversion Bible Camp who was told to act as though he were a straw-man pagan worshiping blood sacrifice Jewish KKK member target of Satan (all of which the preacher reveals with winking satisfaction) in order to "teach others of the dangerous influences of the Great Enemy on our spiritual welfare."

Nonetheless, you've definitely got me interested in the series. It sounds fascinating.

Safran has been on poetv before:
http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=25369

My friend and I interviewed him once about his shows, including this one. He said that in all his experimentations with other religions (including Voodoo, witch doctoring, etc) he always tried to honestly give it a shot.

You can find another show of his, "Speaking in Tongues" on iTunes for free, and I highly recommend it.

(btw, our interview of him is here: http://amateurscientistblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/amateur-scientist -podcast-episode-2.html
if anyone's interested)

Bob Larson, there's a guy.. I used to read his books for hilarity as a teen. He's a showman, but completely serious about his belief in demons.

Trolling him is not very difficult. His book "Satanism: the Seduction of America's Youth" is chock full of between-the-lines Larson trolling. At one point, a heavy-metal-listening teenager gets Larson to smash and burn half the contents of his office in the fireplace.. even his hand carved desk.. by saying he was a demon and drew satanic power from the objects, in a scary death metal voice.

Larson actually brags about this "confrontation with Satan". Godspeed, unknown headbanger.

It's better if you don't watch the video, and he just likes talking really dirty during gay sex.