Speaking of Elmer Gantry.....

Going through pages so old that they'd turned brown and brittle, Fio finally found the information she'd collected several years ago to write a newspaper tell-all regarding a new-to-town prosperity preacher who'd set up shop in North Austin. His twist was an anti-pornography push, and everyone in the area received countless letters in the mail inviting them to join the church's noisy crusade.
     Fiorella was not impressed. In fact, she was so skeptical that she contacted a local newspaper, presented her credentials, and got its backing for a story about the the church.
     Since research is always the name of the game, Fio visited said church one Sunday, and it was quite a shocker to her genteel Lutheran upbringing. The doors were LOCKED SHUT when the the service started, the preacher man invited his richly-dressed bleached-blonde wife to join him on the stage, people made call-outs of thanks from from the audience, and the primary topics were pornography, wealth, and success.
     Later in the week, Fiorella interviewed one of the preacher's five sons in his private office. He shut the door, opened a locked file drawer, sifted through the collection of paperbacks, and pulled one out to show me the kind of "filth" his family was protesting. Sitting down close beside me, he read aloud the most salacious lines, which had been underlined with a red pen." Needless to say, Fio was uncomfortable and wrote up every word of the experience as soon as she got home.
     Here's where the story has an unhappy ending--for Fio, at least. She was trying to do too many things at once (as usual) and lost the notes.
     But it didn't end well for the preacher either. A congregant spotted his car at a local motel where he was shacking up with a woman he was "counseling"--and that was just the start of his troubles. There were also some questions about his high-flying lifestyle, and one of his sons (not the one Fio had interviewed) ended up on the police blotter charged with sending women obscene letters.   
     Needless to say, Preacher Man folded his tents and disappeared into the night.

Hmm...wonder if the whole scene could be written into a book....