What do you think?
Rate this book
Saints and Sinners: Walker Railey, Jimmy Swaggart, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Anton LaVey, Will Campbell, Matthew Fox
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower comes a fascinating book about religion in America, about the passions, triumphs, and failures of the life of faith, revealing stories of grace and despair, sexual scandal and attempted murder. • "Insightful...vivid...beautifully rendered stories." — Chicago Tribune
Lawrence Wright's Saints and Sinners are Jimmy Swaggart, who preached a hellfire gospel with rock 'n' roll abandon before he was caught with a, prostitute in a seedy motel; Anton LaVey, the kitsch-loving, gleefully fraudulent founder of the First Church of Satan; Madalyn Murray O'Hair, whose litigious atheism sometimes resembled a brand of faith; Matthew Fox, the Dominican priest who has aroused the fury of the Vatican for dismissing the doctrine of original sin and denouncing the church as a dysfunctional family; Walker Railey, the rising star of Dallas's Methodist church, who, at the pinnacle of his success, was suspected of attempting to murder his wife; and Will Campbell, the eccentric liberal Southern Baptist preacher whose challenges to established ways of thinking have made him a legend in his own time.
Lawrence Wright's Saints and Sinners are Jimmy Swaggart, who preached a hellfire gospel with rock 'n' roll abandon before he was caught with a, prostitute in a seedy motel; Anton LaVey, the kitsch-loving, gleefully fraudulent founder of the First Church of Satan; Madalyn Murray O'Hair, whose litigious atheism sometimes resembled a brand of faith; Matthew Fox, the Dominican priest who has aroused the fury of the Vatican for dismissing the doctrine of original sin and denouncing the church as a dysfunctional family; Walker Railey, the rising star of Dallas's Methodist church, who, at the pinnacle of his success, was suspected of attempting to murder his wife; and Will Campbell, the eccentric liberal Southern Baptist preacher whose challenges to established ways of thinking have made him a legend in his own time.
288 pages, Paperback
First published April 13, 1993
34 people are currently reading
526 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Wright
83 books2,437 followersLawrence Wright is an author, screenwriter, playwright, and staff writer for The New Yorker magazine. He has won a Pulitzer Prize and three National Magazine Awards.
His latest book, The Human Scale , is a sweeping, timely thriller, in which a Palestinian-American FBI agent teams up with a hardline Israeli cop to solve the murder of the Israeli police chief in Gaza. According to The New York Times, “Wright succeeds in this complex, deeply felt work.”
He is the author of 11 nonfiction books. His book about the rise of al-Qaeda, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Knopf, 2006), was published to immediate and widespread acclaim. It has been translated into 25 languages and won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. It was made into a series for Hulu in 2018, starring Jeff Daniels, Alec Baldwin, and Tahar Rahim.
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (Knopf, 2013) was a New York Times bestseller. Wright and director Alex Gibney turned it into an HBO documentary, which won three Emmys, including best documentary. Wright and Gibney also teamed up to produce another Emmy-winning documentary, for Showtime, about the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
In addition to The Human Scale, Wright has three other novels: Noriega: God’s Favorite (Simon and Schuster, 2000) which was made into a Showtime movie starring Bob Hoskins; The End of October (Knopf, 2020), a bestseller about a viral pandemic that came out right at the beginning of COVID; Mr. Texas (Knopf, 2023), which has been optioned as a limited streaming series.
In 2006, Wright premiered his first one-man play, “My Trip to Al-Qaeda,” at The New Yorker Festival, which led to a sold-out six-week run off-Broadway, before traveling to Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. It was made into a documentary film of the same name, directed by Alex Gibney, for HBO.
Before he wrote the novel, Wright wrote and performed a one-man show also called The Human Scale, about the standoff between Israel and Hamas over the abduction of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. The Public Theater in New York produced the play, which ran for a month off-Broadway in 2010, before moving to the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv. Many of the ideas developed in that play later evolved into the novel of the same name, published 15 years later.
In addition to his one-man productions, Wright has written five other plays that have enjoyed productions around the country, including Camp David, about the Carter, Begin, and Sadat summit in 1978; and Cleo, about the making of the movie Cleopatra.
Wright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Society of American Historians, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also serves as the keyboard player in the Austin-based blues band, WhoDo.
His latest book, The Human Scale , is a sweeping, timely thriller, in which a Palestinian-American FBI agent teams up with a hardline Israeli cop to solve the murder of the Israeli police chief in Gaza. According to The New York Times, “Wright succeeds in this complex, deeply felt work.”
He is the author of 11 nonfiction books. His book about the rise of al-Qaeda, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Knopf, 2006), was published to immediate and widespread acclaim. It has been translated into 25 languages and won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. It was made into a series for Hulu in 2018, starring Jeff Daniels, Alec Baldwin, and Tahar Rahim.
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (Knopf, 2013) was a New York Times bestseller. Wright and director Alex Gibney turned it into an HBO documentary, which won three Emmys, including best documentary. Wright and Gibney also teamed up to produce another Emmy-winning documentary, for Showtime, about the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
In addition to The Human Scale, Wright has three other novels: Noriega: God’s Favorite (Simon and Schuster, 2000) which was made into a Showtime movie starring Bob Hoskins; The End of October (Knopf, 2020), a bestseller about a viral pandemic that came out right at the beginning of COVID; Mr. Texas (Knopf, 2023), which has been optioned as a limited streaming series.
In 2006, Wright premiered his first one-man play, “My Trip to Al-Qaeda,” at The New Yorker Festival, which led to a sold-out six-week run off-Broadway, before traveling to Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. It was made into a documentary film of the same name, directed by Alex Gibney, for HBO.
Before he wrote the novel, Wright wrote and performed a one-man show also called The Human Scale, about the standoff between Israel and Hamas over the abduction of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. The Public Theater in New York produced the play, which ran for a month off-Broadway in 2010, before moving to the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv. Many of the ideas developed in that play later evolved into the novel of the same name, published 15 years later.
In addition to his one-man productions, Wright has written five other plays that have enjoyed productions around the country, including Camp David, about the Carter, Begin, and Sadat summit in 1978; and Cleo, about the making of the movie Cleopatra.
Wright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Society of American Historians, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also serves as the keyboard player in the Austin-based blues band, WhoDo.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 23, 2015
Wright has written a very personal examination of some religious trends in the United States. Fundamentalism, or Primitivism as some would call it, is certainly on the rise, a new "Great Awakening", if you will. Lack of an established religion, many have argued, creates the perfect medium for the development of cults and other fringe beliefs. It has also become " a patchwork of mysticism, hypocrisy, hucksterism, and violence, with an occasional dash of sexual perversity."
This book is not written from the perspective of a non-believer, rather as one who believes in the power of faith. “ I have seen it in prisons and ghettos as well as in boardrooms and chambers of power. I have often found myself admiring people who held views I strongly disagreed with—for instance, the Black Muslims, who believe that I am a devil because of my race but who have generated the moral power to bring order and dignity to prison life. Where addiction rules or where social values have collapsed, it is usually only those rare persons of faith who can survive and sometimes even transform their seemingly hopeless environments.”
Nevertheless, he takes a rather perverse look at the symbols of both religious and non-religious icons such as Jimmy Swaggart and Madolyn Murray O’Hair.
Wright first examines the tragic case of Walker Railey, his minister in the large Methodist Church in Dallas, a man who engaged in an affair with a member of his congregation and then probably killed his wife. Transformative faith?
None of these people is particularly nice even as they held considerable power over their faithful but each was engaged in his own kind of spiritual struggle and the author’s personal struggle. “The lesson I had drawn from Walker Railey’s life so far was that good and evil are not so far apart either. They were both inside Railey, warring for control—as they were in me as well. Whether or not Railey was guilty, he had caused me to look into myself and see the lurking dangers of my own personality.”
I must admit to being one of the gleeful watching the downfall of Jimmy Swaggart. I had watched his TV show on several occasions, mesmerized by his excessive sanctimony while attempting to strip his viewers of their bank accounts. I’ve always speculated that people specialize in their deficiencies so having him self-destruct in the arms of a cheap hooker virtually in plain sight suggesting his perverse desire to be caught was gratifying. “Sex is the great leveler, the shadowy companion of the transcendent spirit.” Swaggart had equally gleefully brought about the collapse of Martin Gorman, pastor of one of those mammoth churches. “Swaggart accused Gorman of having had numerous adulterous affairs. Although Jim Bakker [who was to have his own spectacular fall] took Gorman’s side and actually pleaded for his forgiveness, Swaggart muscled Gorman’s show off the PTL Network. The Gorman empire, such as it was, quickly collapsed. His church, his television stations, and especially his reputation were lost to him. He was reduced to preaching in a drafty warehouse in Metairie to a congregation of folding chairs. There he began to consider his revenge.” Sordid
Moving along to Madalyn Murray O’Hair, who sued the author, interestingly. She the most accomplished of the self-promoting, she made a fetish out of trying to protect everyone from every hint of religiosity. In the end she became nothing but an embarrassing spectacle, in my view, although one has to credit her with some important victories like that of O’Hair v Hill which prevented Texas (of course) from trying to institute a religious test for office contrary to the Constitution.
Ironically, the least interesting of the characterizations is that of Anton LaVey, the supposed father of Satanism. He just tried too hard to be something he clearly was not: “the evilest man in the world.” Having been a circus performer and carnival barker, his career in satanism seemed just a continuation of that former self. On the other hand, as he noted, Satan is probably religion’s best friend; without it religion would not have survived so many centuries. His connection to Jayne Mansfield was rather titillating.
Will Campbell is surely the most interesting of the bunch. A Baptist minister, reviled by the leadership of his church, he was a vigorous supporter of civil rights and good friend of Martin Luther King who ministered to James Earl Ray and other Ku Klux Klan members. He was one of only four whites who held hands with the little black girls in their attempts to integrate schools in Little Rock. His uncompromising positions earned him hate letters from both the Right and Left.
The book is easily read as separate essays and the only element that ties them together is the author’s personal journey and reactions to the individuals he interviewed. As such it’s of perhaps more interest for its historical value than a memoir. Wright’s more recent books: The Looming Tower and Going Clear are more important. If this review seems to ramble, blame it on the book.
This book is not written from the perspective of a non-believer, rather as one who believes in the power of faith. “ I have seen it in prisons and ghettos as well as in boardrooms and chambers of power. I have often found myself admiring people who held views I strongly disagreed with—for instance, the Black Muslims, who believe that I am a devil because of my race but who have generated the moral power to bring order and dignity to prison life. Where addiction rules or where social values have collapsed, it is usually only those rare persons of faith who can survive and sometimes even transform their seemingly hopeless environments.”
Nevertheless, he takes a rather perverse look at the symbols of both religious and non-religious icons such as Jimmy Swaggart and Madolyn Murray O’Hair.
Wright first examines the tragic case of Walker Railey, his minister in the large Methodist Church in Dallas, a man who engaged in an affair with a member of his congregation and then probably killed his wife. Transformative faith?
None of these people is particularly nice even as they held considerable power over their faithful but each was engaged in his own kind of spiritual struggle and the author’s personal struggle. “The lesson I had drawn from Walker Railey’s life so far was that good and evil are not so far apart either. They were both inside Railey, warring for control—as they were in me as well. Whether or not Railey was guilty, he had caused me to look into myself and see the lurking dangers of my own personality.”
I must admit to being one of the gleeful watching the downfall of Jimmy Swaggart. I had watched his TV show on several occasions, mesmerized by his excessive sanctimony while attempting to strip his viewers of their bank accounts. I’ve always speculated that people specialize in their deficiencies so having him self-destruct in the arms of a cheap hooker virtually in plain sight suggesting his perverse desire to be caught was gratifying. “Sex is the great leveler, the shadowy companion of the transcendent spirit.” Swaggart had equally gleefully brought about the collapse of Martin Gorman, pastor of one of those mammoth churches. “Swaggart accused Gorman of having had numerous adulterous affairs. Although Jim Bakker [who was to have his own spectacular fall] took Gorman’s side and actually pleaded for his forgiveness, Swaggart muscled Gorman’s show off the PTL Network. The Gorman empire, such as it was, quickly collapsed. His church, his television stations, and especially his reputation were lost to him. He was reduced to preaching in a drafty warehouse in Metairie to a congregation of folding chairs. There he began to consider his revenge.” Sordid
Moving along to Madalyn Murray O’Hair, who sued the author, interestingly. She the most accomplished of the self-promoting, she made a fetish out of trying to protect everyone from every hint of religiosity. In the end she became nothing but an embarrassing spectacle, in my view, although one has to credit her with some important victories like that of O’Hair v Hill which prevented Texas (of course) from trying to institute a religious test for office contrary to the Constitution.
Ironically, the least interesting of the characterizations is that of Anton LaVey, the supposed father of Satanism. He just tried too hard to be something he clearly was not: “the evilest man in the world.” Having been a circus performer and carnival barker, his career in satanism seemed just a continuation of that former self. On the other hand, as he noted, Satan is probably religion’s best friend; without it religion would not have survived so many centuries. His connection to Jayne Mansfield was rather titillating.
Will Campbell is surely the most interesting of the bunch. A Baptist minister, reviled by the leadership of his church, he was a vigorous supporter of civil rights and good friend of Martin Luther King who ministered to James Earl Ray and other Ku Klux Klan members. He was one of only four whites who held hands with the little black girls in their attempts to integrate schools in Little Rock. His uncompromising positions earned him hate letters from both the Right and Left.
The book is easily read as separate essays and the only element that ties them together is the author’s personal journey and reactions to the individuals he interviewed. As such it’s of perhaps more interest for its historical value than a memoir. Wright’s more recent books: The Looming Tower and Going Clear are more important. If this review seems to ramble, blame it on the book.
May 28, 2015
Looking for the recent book on Jerry Lee Lewis and his cousin Jimmy Lee Swaggart, I reserved this book (at the public library) by mistake. Seeing that it did have a chapter on these two curious “celebrities”, I took it anyway. The chapter on the "Lee cousins" as well as those that cover Walker Railey and Madalyn Murray O’Hair are fascinating. The quality of prose and content does not continue; the other three chapters on Anton LeVey, Will Campbell and Matthew Fox seemed to ramble.
One advantage of reading these 1990’s contemporary portraits is that through internet searches you can learn that Swaggart and Fox are still preaching as was Campbell until his death. While the strangled Mrs. Railey died in 2012 her probable assailant, Mr. Railey, has managed to stay under the online radar. LeVey’s and O’Hair’s lives ended, not long after this book’s publication. LeVey” died “normally”; O’Hair in a strange murder/abduction.
I think this book suffers in format. Each of these complex personalities has a short piece, while each really requires a full scale biography. I think it also suffers because Wright has only a loose idea of its purpose. It isn’t clear why these particular people are selected nor what Wright is trying to say about sainthood and sinning through them.
You can see the beginning of Wright as the great writer/journalist he has become.
One advantage of reading these 1990’s contemporary portraits is that through internet searches you can learn that Swaggart and Fox are still preaching as was Campbell until his death. While the strangled Mrs. Railey died in 2012 her probable assailant, Mr. Railey, has managed to stay under the online radar. LeVey’s and O’Hair’s lives ended, not long after this book’s publication. LeVey” died “normally”; O’Hair in a strange murder/abduction.
I think this book suffers in format. Each of these complex personalities has a short piece, while each really requires a full scale biography. I think it also suffers because Wright has only a loose idea of its purpose. It isn’t clear why these particular people are selected nor what Wright is trying to say about sainthood and sinning through them.
You can see the beginning of Wright as the great writer/journalist he has become.
November 5, 2009
i really couldn't put this book down. what's more fascinating than bad people pretending to be good?
May 27, 2014
I'd never heard of some of these people. I found most interesting the author's attitude toward religion. Even while rejecting he was yearning.
July 10, 2013
too much about him, not enough about his subjects.
April 16, 2019
I had read Remembering Satan: A Tragic Case of Recovered Memory a few years back (after hearing about it in the movie "Session 9") and when I researched the author, I found this book and decided to give it a go. Aside from Swaggart (minimal info) and LaVey (extensive info), I knew nothing of the other subjects of the story. Matthew Fox and Will Campbell were interesting people and it was very interesting to read that Joseph Ratzinger (aka Pope Benedict XVI, before he took the throne) was his most vehement foe in the church when he asked for changes to be made. I plan on spending more time looking up Fox and O'Hair (a staunch advocate for anti-religious policies in politics and schools) but his coverage of Campbell and Railey was good enough for me.
If you want a straight forward, non-biased view of all of the people involved with this book, I highly recommend it. My only detraction and what saved it from being 5 stars is how short the chapters were on each of the people. Other than that, it was spot on.
If you want a straight forward, non-biased view of all of the people involved with this book, I highly recommend it. My only detraction and what saved it from being 5 stars is how short the chapters were on each of the people. Other than that, it was spot on.
March 23, 2018
I have read many of Lawrence Wright's books, and I wanted to read this one mainly for the section on Madalyn Murray O'Hair. I lived in Austin for many years, and had the opportunity to meet both Madalyn and her granddaughter because of their pets. These ladies were big animal lovers, and I knew when I heard they were missing and had left their dogs behind that they had been murdered. The most interesting part of the interview with Ms. O'Hair was her prediction of the rise of neofacism, and this book was published 25 years ago. The one mistake people made with Madalyn was underestimating her intelligence. She had an abrasive, abusive personality, and liked nothing better than a good fight. Her failing was letting people close to her that were murders.
August 1, 2023
Lawrence Wright wrote this early in his career. He wrote like he was still perfecting his craft. His fact checking is uneven. Often times he quotes from biographies and articles about his subjects. He interviewed each subject and others who knew his subjects. About 1/4 of the book contains his own personal reflections. Wright admits he chose to examine his own agnosticism by looking at notorious religious figures. I suppose that made since to a young journalist but I can't relate to him. There is a theme throughout the book. Each of his subjects present themselves to be what they are not in some regard. Some are frauds and other are masking personal trauma. Campbell and Fox are more respected people in Wright's view and in mine.
January 5, 2020
I was only slightly familiar with Madalyn Murray O'Hair and vaguely knew Jimmy Swaggart. Loving biography as I do, I enjoyed a lot of this book and I always enjoy Wright's style of writing. I thought the book suffered a bit by Wright's inclusion of his personal spiritual odyssey along the way. I could have more easily accepted it perhaps at the beginning or in summation at the end. Some of the theology went in the weeds too much for me--I'm more interested in the humanity of subjects. And boy, are they all human!
My favorite: Will Campbell.
My favorite: Will Campbell.
January 17, 2018
Eh. Not a fan of Lawrence Wright, who vomits his notebook, transcribes too much from his tape recorder, and inserts too much of himself into his book. Fifty of the 250 pages were very cuttable. And the profiles would have been improved by being shorter.
January 19, 2025
all of the people Wright wrote about (except LaVey) were fascinating and I would read a biography about any of them
I just hated Lawrence Wrights writing, his observations about his own life were painfully simple. It was also incredibly obvious who he respected the most/least
I just hated Lawrence Wrights writing, his observations about his own life were painfully simple. It was also incredibly obvious who he respected the most/least
April 23, 2007
Lawrence Wright (the journalist and author of "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11) back in 1993 (the date in my copy) undertook the task of comprehending the major religious forces in America and his feelings about religion. He did this by profiling 6 prominent religious leaders of the time and studied them, much as a scientist studies wild animals: with awe, with trepidation, and with emotion.
This is not the objective report I expected it to be. Nor is it a scathing indictment of Christianity and its leaders. It is a relatively balanced, incredibly insightful, and simple book about the natures of these 5 men and 1 women as Wright sees them and what they reflect of himself, American society, and humanity in general.
Even though Wright purports that he wrote this book in order to have a vehicle for his own religious/spiritual journey, he is usually quiet on the subject of himself. He wrote about the subjects in the same order as he interviewed/hung out with them and therefore we get a clear picture of his path without him saying much. However, when an idea of his mental state is needed he provides it and this makes the book much more than journalism. It paralleled my own mental state; in consequence I was much more connected to Wright and the religious leaders he wrote about. Therefore, the book changed me and it has the power the change other people.
I thought some of the profiles were more insightful than others, but in general they were amazing. He became a little too enamored with one of the figures and I thought that might have compromised his reporting despite it being one of the best profiles (and me liking the guy too).
The reason I gave it four stars was simply for the end. Up until the last five or so pages, I would have rated it slightly higher than "The Mole People" as an interesting view into the heart of American religion. The ending completely changed that. I think I could read this book over again as if it were a novel. The characters are even more entrancing because they are real.
The religious figures profiled go in this order: Walker Railey, Jimmy Swaggert, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Anton LeVey, Will Campbell, Mathew Fox.
They are all Christians except for O'Hair, who was rebelling against Christianity mostly. I think he chose Christian leaders because they overwhelmingly represent the American population (especially in 1993) and because Wright was raised a Christian.
Interesting note: The new Pope (Benedict) is mentioned in the profile of Mathew Fox. Back when he was Cardinal Ratzinger he was Fox's ultimate foe. It sheds a little bit of light on the new Pope for those who don't know too much about him.
This is not the objective report I expected it to be. Nor is it a scathing indictment of Christianity and its leaders. It is a relatively balanced, incredibly insightful, and simple book about the natures of these 5 men and 1 women as Wright sees them and what they reflect of himself, American society, and humanity in general.
Even though Wright purports that he wrote this book in order to have a vehicle for his own religious/spiritual journey, he is usually quiet on the subject of himself. He wrote about the subjects in the same order as he interviewed/hung out with them and therefore we get a clear picture of his path without him saying much. However, when an idea of his mental state is needed he provides it and this makes the book much more than journalism. It paralleled my own mental state; in consequence I was much more connected to Wright and the religious leaders he wrote about. Therefore, the book changed me and it has the power the change other people.
I thought some of the profiles were more insightful than others, but in general they were amazing. He became a little too enamored with one of the figures and I thought that might have compromised his reporting despite it being one of the best profiles (and me liking the guy too).
The reason I gave it four stars was simply for the end. Up until the last five or so pages, I would have rated it slightly higher than "The Mole People" as an interesting view into the heart of American religion. The ending completely changed that. I think I could read this book over again as if it were a novel. The characters are even more entrancing because they are real.
The religious figures profiled go in this order: Walker Railey, Jimmy Swaggert, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Anton LeVey, Will Campbell, Mathew Fox.
They are all Christians except for O'Hair, who was rebelling against Christianity mostly. I think he chose Christian leaders because they overwhelmingly represent the American population (especially in 1993) and because Wright was raised a Christian.
Interesting note: The new Pope (Benedict) is mentioned in the profile of Mathew Fox. Back when he was Cardinal Ratzinger he was Fox's ultimate foe. It sheds a little bit of light on the new Pope for those who don't know too much about him.
December 9, 2014
Fantastic blend of reporting and personal examination. I admit I marked this as to-read for the section on Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, but his may have been the least interesting in all six profiles. Recommended for anyone who enjoys religion and long-form journalism.
April 14, 2008
This book was given to me but it made some interesting reading of interviews from a very diverse set of whack jobs.
May 13, 2013
A little dated but an excellent read. Some admirable people are portrayed but some don't come off very well.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews