I’ve seen this movie a thousand times, but still can’t figure out this line: When Dalton is renting the barn/loft/apartment, the old guy says “It ain’t the money ya understand, but if I don’t charge ya somethin’ the Presbyterians around here are likely to pray for my ruination.”
What is the meaning of this line? The Presbyterians would be mad if he let someone stay for free? Is he just kidding as a way to say how much he wants for rent?
Maybe if he doesn’t pay rent, the bible thumpers will think they’re gay lovers?
Fun fact: In the original script, Dalton’s reply to the old man was “Well sir, those Presbyterians make the Episcopalians look like Franciscans!”, but this line was cut under strong criticism by the Anabaptists for being too fancy.
Waitaminute… they weren’t gay lovers?
Completely unburdened by the facts, here’s a guess: Presbyterians have a Scottish history. Scots have been stereotyped as stingy with money. So the P’s will judge you for not being frugal and charging what you can/should.
?
I always took it as being his comment on local busy-bodies who would delight in having something to gossip about, and it just happened that those busy-bodies were a bunch of Presbyterian biddies.
This and also that Dalton isn’t exactly the “proper” type to be letting stay for free.
So they would gossip that he wasn’t charging rent?
I don’t understand what you mean by this.
This.
This is the interpretation I would take. However, although the film is set somewhere in southern Missouri (IIRC), this isn’t really a stronghold of Presbyterianism; in fact, except for the St. Louis area, it is difficult to find Scots-Irish heritage groups that brought Presbyterian Protestant churches to the US. You’d expect to find more Pentacostal, Southern Baptist, and various Restoration Movement (Church of Christ, Desciples of Christ, et cetera) churches in the region. Of course, you also won’t find tall mountains or palm trees in southern and central Missouri, either.
Stranger
Dalton is a professional bouncer. He spends all his time in bars. The Presbyterian biddies don’t approve of people like that. In fact they don’t approve of people who go to bars at all.
And he’s not a local person-who know’s he might be gasp Catholic. (or Jewish, or Baptist…)
I wouldn’t think Road House would be overly concerned about having the correct demographics for their fake local population of busybodies. 
Next you are going to tell me that there isn’t a real extreme sports-oriented bank robbing gang as portrayed in that cinematic milestone, Point Break.
Stranger
Well, not surfers or parachutists, but definitely drift car drivers. There have been that whole series of Fast and Furious documentaries (yes, apparently they’re angry too).
This is probably in my top fifty movies, and I too have watched it a bunch. I’ve never put any thought into that particular line, though. My question would be, how would anyone know whether Dalton is paying rent anyway?
I don’t think anyone has put this much thought into a Patrick Swayze movie since an analysis of whether Swayze’s character possessing Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost and then making out with Demi Moore represented a legitimate lesbian encounter or not.
Stranger
Dead Men tell no tales.
Yeah I get that. But it seems like they wouldn’t approve whether he paid rent or not. The quote makes it seem that they would only disapprove if he didn’t pay rent.
They will disapprove anyway, but the fact that he pays rent is justification enough to let him stay.
“And that, that… that… man! Is staying in your house?”
“Well, the barn really, and he’s payin’ rent, you know how it is, what with the taxman and these days the farm don’t give too much nohow…”
“Uh. Oh. OK then.”