Welcome to Florida artwork

Episode 15: Religion - Billy Graham, Jim Bakker and the Cult of Cyrus Teed

Welcome to Florida

English - September 30, 2020 23:00 - 37 minutes - 25.8 MB
News Homepage Download Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed


One of the many histories explored in Craig Pittman's great book on the state of Florida, "Oh, Florida!," is Florida's checkered history of religion. Billy Graham found his calling here. Martin Luther King was arrested here. Jim Bakker visited Florida for illicit sexual affairs.

Craig and Chadd Scott discuss these events on their way to being joined by this episode's guest, Lyn Millner, author of "The Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp and a Renegade Prophet." Millner's book recalls the Koreshan cult, which, among other things, believed the earth was hollow and that their founder, Cyrus Teed, was immortal.

Spoiler alert: he wasn't.