I think the Calvinist angle is a good one to explore, because at the time, the evangelical sects (which I think was what the person recommending would have identified as) were more fully feeling their message of "we are all hopeless wretches, only by saying the proper words with our full conviction can we be saved" at the same time that the televangelists were really rising to prominence. We're not quite at Left Behind, yet, and the massive credibility hit that would follow, but we're on the cusp of it.