Yes, it’s an election year; and no, I won’t add to the punditry. It’s not that I have nothing to say on the subject, but this site is devoted to the other part, and that’s what I’ll stick to.
I would like to mention, however, that religion is playing an ever larger part in US politics. It was once taboo for politicos to spout theology; now millionaires squabble openly over who’s more Christlike. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a secular citizen to enter the White House.
It may have started in 1980, when the GOP really went after evangelicals. The winning candidate was seen by some as the Antichrist (for Ronald Wilson Reagan = 666), and by others as the Messiah (I forget why).
But elsewhere, a slight, white-clad figure crossed America that year, forging a more direct link between church and state. She was Vivenus; and she came here from Venus to spread the message that “It’s not odd to vote for God.”
Vivenus arrived on Earth at 10 pm, on September 24, 1960. A flying saucer (or “swoop,” as they call them on her home planet) let her out in Central Park; and she replaced an Earth woman, Viv, who had grown suicidal over her failed singing career.
Or so she said; perhaps you can guess at a likelier, and sadder, back story. At any rate, she became a regular guest on radio talk shows and UFO conventions. And, between 1974 and 1981, she walked 17,756 miles, through 290 cities, to “enlighten this planet with love.”
She received some press coverage in 1980 for her religious campaign: “It’s God for President! So go become a resident! Write him in and we can win! And come election day we’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s not odd to vote for God.'” I quote these lyrics from a press cutting (“Oakland Tribune,” 7/13/80). She distributed this song on tape; I’d love to hear it, if any of you have a copy.
Vivenus disappeared sometime in the ’90s. NYC composer, Alan White, who knew her, has written a musical about her. She is not forgotten.
I’ve scoured the web, and found few images. So here, for her fans, are some press photos taken from her 1982 book Vivenus: Starchild. You can click on them to see them larger.
(Posted by Doug Skinner)