The Spirit of Truth

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The "Spirit of Truth" was a segment for a televangelist (under the pseudonym Reverend X - credited as Vincent Stewart) who appeared on a program entitled "One Man Show". The program was broadcast on Los Angeles-based Public-access television during the late 1990s. A video of the program was uploaded to YouTube in 2006, and the televangelist's erratic behavior (including frequent swearing and dancing) led to him becoming an Internet phenomenon. Several more videos became available on the Internet over the following months.

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[edit] Who is the preacher?

The identity of the preacher was initially unknown; in one of the videos, the preacher claims to be God and to come from "the Kingdom of Heaven." When the videos appeared on an episode of VH1's "Web Junk 20", he was identified as "Reverend X"; due to his unconfirmed identity, many people referred to both the show and the preacher as "The Spirit of Truth." The identity of the preacher was revealed as Don Vincent on the July 27, 2006 edition of The Howard Stern Show.[1] In a July 31, 2006 interview with the Kidd Chris Radio Show, the preacher said his public-access show was taken off the air due to an incident in which he invited viewers to "look for some sin" and proceeded to drop his pants and expose his bare buttocks.[citation needed]

[edit] Video observations

The camera operator zooms in and out of the preacher's face multiple times, as Chroma key effects are used for the production. In some shots, his head is at the bottom right hand side of the screen. In one video, the preacher is seen standing in front of a still image of Yosemite Falls in Yosemite National Park with a book. In another video, he is seen sitting without a shirt and standing in front of a still image of himself reading rhymed verse from a much smaller book, consisting of what he calls "my scripture". He holds a cane in some of the video clips, although he seems to have no trouble walking or dancing. At one point, a listener jokingly calls in and says that the large book of scriptures he is holding looks like the Yellow Pages.

[edit] Music featured in the videos

The videos feature several songs that play as the preacher speaks. These songs include:

[edit] Cultural impact

On April 4, 2006, the Florida-based radio program The Hideout played a portion of The Spirit of Truth, with commentary from hosts El Jefe and JDubs. [2] On the June 9, 2006 edition of "Web Junk 20", a video of the preacher was ranked #3. Radio station WRIF in Detroit mentioned the preacher on its "Drew & Mike" morning program and on its website, as well as KLLI's "Russ Martin Show" in Dallas.[3] On September 8, 2006, Frank Kramer from the Frosty, Heidi & Frank Show played the audio from the first Spirit of Truth video. He now occasionally plays Spirit of Truth saying "Stupid bitch". Rapper Sean Price (formerly known as Ruck, of the duo Heltah Skeltah) used several audio clips from the first Spirit of Truth video as interludes on his 2007 release, Jesus Price Supastar.

On May 18, 2007, Don Vincent appeared on Philadelphia's "Kidd Chris Show" on WYSP. On the program, he confirmed that he had all of the videos from his "One Man Show" days, which spanned five years. The hosts asked if he planned on releasing them on DVD. Vincent said that there were plans in place to do so through his new production staff "Thee Production", although an exact date was not provided. Vincent also mentioned that he was currently in talks with cable network Black Entertainment Television and VH-1's "Web Junk 20" for future projects. In addition, he will explain the reason for his brash treatment of callers in an upcoming book.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

[edit] Videos

[edit] Others

[edit] References

  1. ^ Howard Stern Show recap
  2. ^ The Cursing Preacher
  3. ^ WRIF's Drew & Mike