ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 27, 1996 TAG: 9604290032
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BETHLEHEM, PA.
SOURCE: MICHAEL A. GIARRUSSO ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE PROPHETS OF PRESLEY eat like Kings, make pilgrimages to Graceland, like Lisa Marie and distrust the evil Gloved One.
After decades of unorganized Elvis worship, the Prophets of Presley want fans of the King to join their church.
The tenets of Presleyterianism are simple: eat six meals a day (with frequent snacking in between); face Las Vegas once a day; make a pilgrimage to Graceland; and fight against the evil anti-Elvis, Michael Jackson.
About 200 people have joined the organization, which holds weekly services in cyberspace. All of them celebrated when Lisa Marie Presley filed for divorce from Jackson.
``We believe Lisa Marie Presley is the princess of Presleyterianism, and she was bewitched, bothered and bewildered by the evil Gloved One,'' said Mort Farndu, co-founder of the First Presleyterian Church of Elvis the Divine.
Farndu and Karl Edwards, who owns a marketing company in Hoboken, N.J., founded the church as a joke and marketing ploy in 1988. On Friday, they posted the King's 31 Commandments on the doors of the Packer Chapel on the Lehigh University campus in Bethlehem, about 50 miles north of Philadelphia.
Lehigh has sponsored Elvis events all week, thanks to religion professor Norman Girardot, who teaches a class titled ``Jesus, Buddha, Confucius and Elvis.'' Students can learn about pop culture icons and early religions by studying the Presley phenomenon, Girardot said.
``Despite all the wackiness, there is a serious side to this,'' he said. ``All religions start out as small, wacky and cultlike. Some survive. Others do not.''
In the chapel, a velvet painting of Presley was placed under a sculpture of Jesus, as Farndu and Edwards preached to about 60 Lehigh students and faculty members.
Farndu said a short prayer to Elvis, answered questions and invited new members to come to the altar and drink a glass of ceremonial Pepsi - the King's favorite beverage.
The 31 Commandments - items that Presley always kept around the house - were laid out on a table in the front of the church: hot dogs, bacon, over-the-counter cold medicine, ground round, cheap cigars, Little Debbie fudge brownies, laxative gum and, of course, peanut butter and bananas.
``Other religions try to tell you what not to eat,'' said Edwards, stroking his potbelly. ``We tell you to eat anything except pets and roadkill. Let your body swell and bloat with the spirit of Elvis.''
Farndu and Edwards sell T-shirts and membership cards on their Internet site.
Farndu, a temporary-services worker in Denver, compiled the 300-page reference book, which chronicles Presley's life and predicts the ``Second Comeback,'' when he will descend from heaven in a pink Cadillac tossing fatty snacks to true believers.
Although Farndu and Edwards approached the line separating bad taste from blasphemy, none of the spectators seemed offended.
``Some people are going to be offended; others are not,'' said Mike Raposa, a religion professor at Lehigh. ``After charity, the most important Christian virtue is a sense of humor.''
The web page address for the First Presleyterian Church of Elvis the Divine is:
http://pages.prodigy.com/NJ/zv qj45a/zvqj45a.html
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