THE COFFEE IS BREWED, AND parishioners gather in the meeting hall of the Epworth United Methodist Church in Baltimore, Maryland. On the wall a hand-scrawled poster exhorts: CASINO LOBBYISTS TAKE A HIKE! The tables are strewn with literature on gambling addiction. The T shirts on sale sport the logo NO CASINO and a fiercely clawed Maryland blue crab. As for the evening's featured speaker, "We call him Riverboat Rambo," says Barbara Knickelbein, a grandmotherly church activist, with a mixture of affection and reverence.
To his fan, the Rev. Thomas Grey, 55, an Illinois pastor, is the merry messiah who has built...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
