In describing his superb latest four-part post entitled, Life During Wartime, that appears on his exceptional blog, Christ, The Gay Martyr, Don Charles emailed the following:
It is hard to do your own thing, and most people don't! They conform to the status quo, even if it's corrupt. The majority of LGBT folk conform, especially those who fancy themselves the most radical thing since seafood pizza. Society tells them that they're deviant, so they claim deviance. Society tells them that they're promiscuous, so they act promiscuous. Society tells them that they're fringe, so they distance themselves from the mainstream. Society excludes them from marriage, military service, religious faith, etcetera, so they adopt political stances that decry all of those things. My friend, Rev. Jerry Maneker, has coined a name for them: they're Happy Perverts, willingly buying into the pariah status that cruel heterosexists have created for them. What they get out of it is the right to call themselves culture rebels. In exchange, they give up dignity, integrity and justice. I'll be damned if I ever do a business transaction like that!
Christ, The Gay Martyr, the Gay-affirming Christian blog that reveals inconvenient truths, will become inactive soon. As the end draws near, the polemics of blogmaster Don Charles "Stuffed Animal" get hotter and hotter! The penultimate post is called "Life During Wartime", and you've never seen anything like it. There's never been an essay like it! Part One is media criticism. Part Two is Bible study! Part Three is political strategy; and Part Four is manifesto. "Life During Wartime" will make you angry, make you laugh, make you cry, and make you argue. It will make you think of what you never wanted to think about. As a matter of fact, it will blow your mind out and completely rock your world. Don't miss four sizzling pages of powerful punditry, now online at Christ, The Gay Martyr.
Here is a very brief sampling of Don Charles' no holds barred, courageous, and incisive four-part post that analyzes LGBT status and issues that every single LGBT person and LGBT rights activist owes to him/herself, and to future generations, to read in its entirety:
Knowing how hazardous it usually is to live as a perceptibly LGBT person outside the western world, it infuriates me to see how frivolously and recklessly American Gay people behave! For too many of us, equality goals pale in comparison to the next circuit party, the next steamy porn video, the next over-the-top Pride parade, or the next personal appearance by Kathy Griffin. We totally take for granted the relative freedom we enjoy, and seem clueless about how quickly it could be taken away. It happened before, in Weimar Germany during the 1930s. It could easily happen again! All that's necessary is a combination of grave economic times and angry, demoralized masses. Beware! Under such circumstances, citizens are quick to embrace reactionary agendas. What do you bet that when our power-hungry Bible bigot enemies see us acting out, they don't also see the word "scapegoat" written across our Pride banners in huge letters?....
Upon my death, I hope God will also reveal to me the names of all the prominent people in my lifetime who were Gay. If He does, I have no doubt that another theory I hold will be conclusively proven: That civilization could not exist without us! When I see the vast numbers of politicians, scientists, theologians, journalists, philosophers, business tycoons, visual and performing artists, national leaders, war heroes, doctors, lawyers, teachers, social workers, public servants and pioneers of all kinds who were and are secretly homosexual, and I take stock of their many contributions to society, I know they will dwarf those of every other minority group! There won’t be a single social class, discipline or movement that we haven’t penetrated and distinguished ourselves in.
Please read Don Charles' four part seminal post at Christ, The Gay Martyr
4 comments:
Two hundred posts! I can't believe I've written that much. But I was starting to repeat myself, and my readership wasn't growing, so I knew it was time to move on. I asked God to let me go out with something of a "bang", and I think He gave me just the right words to close my blog with.
Thank you so very much for your friendship and moral support, Jerry. While Christ, The Gay Martyr will soon be no more, I'll still be kicking around out here in Cyberspace, trying to walk the good walk and talk the good talk. I know you will be, too.
Hi Don Charles: You've done more good than even you can possibly know. I'm convinced you have helped remove unnecessary guilt and shame from LGBT people who have been fortunate you read your blog, and you have undoubtedly even saved some lives due to your forthright insights into the Scriptural basis for affirming God's creation of LGBT people; its necessity to express God's fullness in his LGBT children.
You have been a tremendous encouragement to me and my work, and I have learned a lot from you. I expect that your future work will reflect your keen intellect and insights that will continue to redound to the benefit of LGBT civil and sacramental rights.
We must never allow the ignorant and/or hateful clergy to set the paradigm of Christianity, as well as its relationship to God's LGBT children! I have no doubt that your fire in the belly for equality will continue to bless so many people now and in the many years to come.
My very best wishes, Jerry.
I have learned so much in the short time I've known you, Don Charles. You've challenged me and confirmed some things I've felt in my heart.
I wish you the best in you future endeavors.
Thanks, Genevieve. You can't go wrong following your heart. You also can't go wrong refusing to let people insult your intelligence. Sometimes, it can be so hard maintaining your dignity in a trifling, jive-ass world (pardon my French, Jerry).
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