"I joined the Church of Scientology thirty-five years ago. During my
twenties and early thirties I studied and received a great deal of
counseling. While I have not been an active member for many years, I
found much of what I learned to be very helpful, and I still apply it
in my daily life. I have never pretended to be the best Scientologist,
but I openly and vigorously defended the church whenever it was
criticized, as I railed against the kind of intolerance that I believed
was directed against it. I had my disagreements, but I dealt with them
internally. I saw the organization -- with all its warts, growing pains
and problems -- as an underdog. And I have always had a thing for
underdogs.
But I reached a point several weeks ago where I no longer knew what
to think. You had allowed our name to be allied with the worst elements
of the Christian Right. In order to contain a potential "PR flap" you
allowed our sponsorship of Proposition 8 to stand. Despite all the
church's words about promoting freedom and human rights, its name is
now in the public record alongside those who promote bigotry and
intolerance, homophobia and fear.
The church's refusal to denounce the actions of these bigots,
hypocrites and homophobes is cowardly. I can think of no other word.
Silence is consent, Tommy. I refuse to consent."
There are two main reasons why one would be psyched for the movie Angels and Demons: a Catholic church fetish and a Ewan McGregor fetish. Both are looking very, very good in this movie -- the church with all of her high rituals, secret societies and drama, Mr. McGregor with his well-tailored robes and his earnest, faith-based pleas for compassion and honesty.
Tom Hanks is part Jessica Fletcher, part MacGyver, only with worse hair than either one of them, and if a movie is going to rely so heavily on a character spouting off paragraphs of fun facts about statues being castrated or Illuminati member Galileo, I wish they'd hired someone more appealing in their vocal talents and less nasally to prattle on at us in the audience. Familiarity with the book or the other movie is unnecessary, in fact this movie implies it's a sequel to the Da Vinci Code even though the book is technically a prequel. But does it really matter why the Vatican is mad at Tom Hanks but must turn to him for their only hope? No, like everything else, its all just a plot device.
After this week's Tragic Event, there's a good chance Lindsay Lohan, a Catholic, did not spend last night drinking Manischewitz. (Or if she did, she was moping with a bottle alongside the railroad tracks, like we used to in college, not sharing it at the seder table.) It was just a month ago that Page Six reported that Lindsay was considering a conversion to Judaism for her beloved; but, oh, what a month.
Nevertheless! That news got Andy Borowitz thinking about the Talmudic themes in Lohan's life work. To wit: "At the time of its release, most critics saw Mean Girls as a
lighthearted satire of the world of high-school cliques. Many Jewish
scholars, however, maintain that the film is a complex allegory for the
Jews’ enslavement under Pharaoh, a theme that was first touched on in Freaky Friday." Left unexplored is her recent foray into psychadelic new wave nostalgia advertising -- if anyone's looking for a master's thesis topic.
The new version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary features an entry listing marriage as both "the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife..." and "the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of traditional marriage." While perhaps it's not as forward thinking as just writing "the state of one person being united to another person..." it is a huge step in the right direction.
Don't think our crazy right-wing friends aren't already up in arms about this. Conservative site WorldNetDaily.com asserts that the 1913 version of the dictionary "not only didn't mention same-sex 'marriage,' it supplemented its definition of traditional marriage with references from the Bible." Charming, we're sure, but in 1913 African Americans also couldn't go to the same schools as whites and women couldn't vote.
"We often hear from people who believe that we are promoting -- or
perhaps failing to promote -- a particular social or political agenda
when we make choices about what words to include in the dictionary
and how those words should be defined.
We hear such criticism from
all parts of the political spectrum. We're genuinely sorry when an
entry in -- or an omission from -- one of our dictionaries is found to be
offensive or upsetting, but we can't allow such considerations to
deflect us from our primary job as lexicographers."
In other words, if you're not going to be a part of progress (and ensuring equality) -- get out the frickin' way.
The new NBC show, Kings, is an ambitious undertaking. Not only does it take place in alternate universe, but it's a modern rewriting of the biblical story of David. The setting is Gilboa, a country just recently united under King Silas (Ian McShane, an altogether menacing presence), fighting a stalemate war with their Northern neighbor, Gath. David Shepherd (Christopher Egan), a simple country boy, comes along, rescues the King's son, Jack (Gossip Girl's Sebastian Stan), blows up the tank, Goliath, and wins the adoration of the masses. Even the King is impressed. And when the King likes you, you get invited to be the centerpiece at swanky palace parties and offered cushy military liaison jobs upon receiving a great big promotion.
WORLD MAGAZINE: … how do you think the Christian community will respond to that interpretation of Jonathan?
MICHAEL GREEN: That depends on how you define Christian community. Most of them we have heard from so far have been extremely positive about it. But I know that there are some people who think that any representation of any gay character on any network or cable show is wrong. And anyone who thinks that a gay character is not welcome on television is perfectly welcome not to watch my show.
You tell them, Michael!
We can't help but be thankful that the show-runners went in an unpopular direction, because the following scene features an intense conversation between King Silas and his son, about his Jake's "best-hidden" proclivities:
Essentially, it's thoughtful, well-made, and employs a cast of great actors. Now let's all pray that it -- like all the other good shows -- doesn't get canceled prematurely.
I admit that I was skeptical about what I mistakenly thought was a musical about the Rev. Ted Haggard. Instead, This Beautiful City is a play with music based on interviews with Colorado Springs, ground zero of the Christian Right. (In addition to housing Haggard's New Life Church, it's also the home to Focus on the Family, all told about a dozen evangelical groups -- not to mention the U.S. Air Force Academy.) The Civilians, the theatrical troupe that created the play, produces "investigative, collaborative theater." Think of it as a The Laramie Project without a gay-bashing murder at its center -- though by the end of the play you're likely to find yourself feeling more sympathy for Ted Haggard and his followers than when you went in.
Understanding does not mean excusing or forgiving, and there's a great deal of anger, defiance and sadness from all sides. The actors are outstanding in multiple roles, but particular kudos to Emily Ackerman who plays a young Christian ex-drug addict with a gay father as well as a "T-girl Christian"; Marsha Stephanie Blake who portrays a homophobic choir member in a black Baptist church and the (male) gay minister of the church who finally comes out; and Stephen Plunkett for his understated portrayal of Ted Haggard's son.
Overall the show is surprising, enlightening, and remarkably deft in its handling of a tricky topic and definitely well worth seeing.
This Beautiful City, written by Steven Cosson and Jim Lewis and featuring music and lyrics by Michael Friedman, is now playing at the Vineyard Theatre, 108 East 15th Street, New York, NY.
A new HBO documentary promises to shed some saddening/maddening light on disgraced evangelist Ted Haggard. Premiering next Thursday, January 29, The Trials of Ted Haggard shows the exiled megachurch minister
"shuffling
from motel to motel, driving a moving truck, enrolling in a college
psychology course, struggling as a door-to-door salesman and pondering
his fate while laying in a motel bed in a white undershirt. 'At this
stage in my life, I'm a loser -- a first-class loser,' he says." Ouch.
Lest ye forget, Haggard fell hard off his ultra-conservative pulpit in 2006 in a flurry of male prostitutes and methamphetamine. He promptly went to rehab for "sexual immorality" and afterward was declared "completely heterosexual" but recently admitted to still struggling with his sexuality. "Asked whether he could define his sexual identity, Haggard said:
"The stereotypical boxes don't work for me. My story's got some gray
areas in it. And, of course, I'm sad about that but it's the reality."
The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire [and Out's 2008 Humanitarian of the Year] who became
the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop in 2003 and last year
entered into a civil union with his gay partner, will deliver the
invocation for Sunday’s kickoff inaugural event on the steps of the
Lincoln Memorial, with President-elect Obama in attendance. The event
is free and open to the public. An Obama source: “Robinson was in the
plans before the complaints about Rick Warren. Many skeptics will read
this as a direct reaction to the Warren criticism – but it’s just not
so.”
Direct reaction or not -- we're happy someone's going to be there to stand in opposition to Rick Warren (symbolically or otherwise), and even more thrilled that it's going to be Robinson.
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