No human being has ever experienced the global popularity and recognition as did Elvis Presley during his heyday as the number one entertainer on earth. Even after his untimely death his music has continued to be one of the top money makers in the history of the entertainment industry. Women literally swooned in his presence; men cried at the news of his death. His funeral brought people from all over the world to Graceland to pay their respects. Some reported that their bosses would not give them time off so they quit their jobs in order to make the trip. To this day there continues to be a steady stream of visitors to his former residence, drawn there by the prospect of actually touching things he had touched and walking where he had walked. Fans from all over the globe plan their vacations around a trip to Memphis. His movies continue to be shown to adoring crowds. His picture can still be found gracing the walls of females all over the world. Sideburned, vividly-clad would-be Elvises still make a good living impersonating him. Decades after his death, these men continue to draw large crowds who pay large sums of money to watch them pretend to be him. Though dead, “the king” lives on in the hearts of millions. An historical icon, Elvis Presley was a modern day object of human adoration.

A fact that everyone knew but no one admitted was that Elvis Presley was in actuality two people. One of his personas was an insatiable sex addict whose appetite for loose women has had few rivals. Though John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Martin Luther King were better known for their extramarital one-nighters, they were not in the same league as “E” when it came to variety of sex partners and frequency of engagement. Elvis made over 30 movies and, by his own public admission, bedded every one of his leading ladies. Only one, he admitted, had failed to succumb to his charms. During those long stretches on the road women vied for the privilege of spending a night with him, even though they knew that come daylight he would walk out of their lives forever. To him, the encounter was merely another notch on his belt. Elvis’ belt, we are told by those who knew, had many notches.

Then there was the other Elvis–the hymn-singing, cross-wearing, Christ-professing, Scripture-quoting , self-professed Christian Elvis who could be convincingly reverent and pious when the situation called for it. With his God-given voice he produced some of the most beautiful gospel music this world has ever heard. Stories abound concerning his public profession of Jesus Christ. He sometimes shocked those who heard him due the the circumstances and the people involved in his pronouncements. He was known to pray before performing. Generous to a fault, he was known to buy expensive gifts for strangers.

But the setting of the sun turned this “real fine boy,” as famous t.v. host Ed Sullivan described him, into Hollywood’s master seducer. His sex romps were not “done in a corner,” but openly and without shame. His reputation as a carouser became so widely known that his wife divorced him. But his adoring public ignored his sins. One heard only about what a wonderful person he was. What happened after dark was irrelevant. This was brought to fore recently in a t.v. advertisement for his gospel music. While his incredible voice was thrilling listeners with “How Great Thou Art,” a voice-over told us, “Now you can discover the REAL ELVIS” by listening to him sing of God’s glory. To the masses the uber-religious, God-exalting Elvis was the REAL ELVIS, while the evil, irreverent, God-defying Elvis was merely a facsimile of the man–a virtual Elvis whose nocturnal activities were mere figments of the public’s imagination–irrelevant “slips” that became non-entities as quickly as they happened. In the minds of the millions who envisioned angels accompanying him to heaven following his death, his nightly sexcapades did not count–his daytime God-glorifying, cross-wearing, gospel singing activities made them irrelevant. Question: From whence came this heresy? Answer: the grace-saturated, “I’m Okay; You’re Okay,” “faith is all you need” church. To be continued.