I have been seeing this quote all over the 'net lately:
“Every day, people are straying away from the church and going back to God”. — Lenny Bruce
What is this all about? Lenny Bruce was a very Jewish comedian. What ‘church’ is he talking about? Is this a legitimate Bruce quote? How can I find out? There is never any context given.
I wasn’t able to edit my post! Anyway the published source for this quote is an O.P. book called “The Essential Lenny Bruce”.
I’m only taking a personal guess at what Lenny meant.
Lenny was quite the cynic about organized religion. So I think he meant that many of the people who call themselves Christians are actually just going to “Church” for reasons that don’t truly reflect Christian(or other organized) religious values. Many churchgoers are piously attending church on Sunday(or other days of worship) but then go out the rest of the week and exhibit behaviour that belies their religion.
My favorite Lenny quote which might fit here.
To be fair, there was a tag line to Lenny’s above quote which shows that, while he truly hated hypocrites, he was first and foremost a comedian. The tag line was
I don’t know the quote but it sounds like something he’d say.
I don’t think he was singling out any one religion or sect in particular, but was rather taking on the idea of organized religion in general. If you listen to his routine “Religions, Inc.”, he includes Judaism along with Chrisitianity as all being together in the big scam (my personal favorite is his telephone conversation between Oral Roberts and Pope John XXIII “What’s that Johnny?” pause “No, nobody knows you’re Jewish.”). Had Islam, Wicca or Hinduism been a larger force in American society at the time, he probably would have included them as well.