Sigh…I wish I could stop linking to this stuff.
Harvard for the Home-Schooled
June 28, 2005 By
Pride and Remembrance 5K 2005 Pledges
June 19, 2005 By
Next Saturday, Brooke and I are running the Pride and Remembrance 5K for the third year in a row. This is one of our favourite races since it’s part of Pride Week here in Toronto and there is a real community feeling to the event. This year’s fundraising beneficiaries are the 519 Church St. Community Centre and the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives. Please consider sponsoring me by clicking on this link.
Who Was Lonnie Frisbee?
June 14, 2005 By
I’m not really old enough to remember it, but the “Jesus People” movement was a full-blown phenomenon in the late 1960s and into the early 1970s. Centred mostly in northern California, hippies began getting into Jesus and these “Jesus Freaks” turned the established church on its ear. One of the most influential figures in this period was a young man with the unlikely name of Lonnie Frisbee. Lonnie’s ministry was influential in the foundation of two of evangelicalism’s biggest denominations. And yet, his name has disappeared from most accounts of the movement. Why? Because Lonnie was gay.
David di Sabatino has made a documentary film about Lonnie and it will be shown here in Toronto later this month as part of the Reel Heart Film Festival. I’m very interested in seeing it, but I do find one thing interesting. The director, who is an evangelical, talks about Lonnie’s homosexuality as a “struggle with sexual sin” and points to Lonnie as an example of a flawed prophet. Sadly, Lonnie died from AIDS in 1993, but I wonder what would have been the outcome if Lonnie had been able to embrace his sexuality and be accepted in the evangelical movement for what he was, without feeling like he had to live two separate lives.
Film critic Peter Chattaway conducted a lengthy interview with director di Sabatino back in April and the director says that Lonnie was raped as an eight-year-old child and that this might explain his fragmented identity, but I always find it funny that Christian people always need some “explanation” for someone’s sexuality. It’s more likely his fragmented identity was a result of not being able to tell people close to him about his homosexuality for fear of being denounced.
That being said, the film sounds like it genuinely tries to understand a complex individual, and I hope I’ll get to see it. It doesn’t hurt a bit that there are lots of Larry Norman songs in the soundtrack.
Note: Music was a huge factor in the Jesus People movement. Here’s a great site with lots of history on “Jesus Music”.
Curses! Tagged Again!
June 13, 2005 By
I’ve been watching the latest “tag” meme float around and I’ve been desperately hoping to avoid it, but Johnny has tagged me. So here goes:
Number of Books I Own:
This is why I was hoping to avoid this one. You see, nobody knows exactly how many books I own. They’re spread all over the known universe. In my current living space, I’d estimate around 1,000. But between books stored in our storage locker, at my old apartment (thanks Brent!), my dad’s, and a friend’s parents’ place, it’s closer to 2,000 and might very well exceed that. You see, I used to have a bit of a problem. I loved books. I still love them. But I’m getting used to the idea that I don’t need to own every book ever printed. There are things like libraries. And now, when I finish a book, I try very hard to give it away or sell it. It’s tough, though. Don’t even get me started about my wife. She loves books, too. She buys them. She just doesn’t read them. So, we have a lot of books. (Whew!)
Last Book I Bought:
It just happens to be the book I’m reading right now. It’s called What Just Happened? and it’s by film producer Art Linson. It’s a short sharp account of some of his Hollywood adventures. It looked funny and it was on sale. I bought it along with a whole bunch of books on learning Italian.
Last Book I Read:
I just finished Craig Unger’s book House of Bush, House of Saud which is a pretty damning indictment of America’s (and in particular, the Bush family’s) relationship with the undemocratic, authoritarian and fundamentally brutal rulers of Saudi Arabia.
Five Books That Mean A Lot To Me:
- Traveling Mercies — Anne Lamott
- The Sacred Journey — Frederick Buechner
- The Seven Storey Mountain — Thomas Merton
- A Wrinkle In Time — Madeleine L’Engle
- The World According To Garp — John Irving
(Five is a very tiny number, though…)
Who’s Next?
- Brent (he has been around books a lot and has great taste, except for his sci-fi/fantasy nerd streak)
- Paul (because he needs some new content!)
- Lia (new to blogging!)
- Lissa (because she’ll say something kooky!)
- Brad (needs new content and actually works in the book business)
Under Attack
June 13, 2005 By
(image copyright Globe and Mail)
This story by Michael Valpy in the Globe and Mail worries me. (Go and read it now, because I think the Globe will make it part of a paid archive in a week. That’s why I posted the above picture). The same-sex marriage issue is coming to a head in Canada and we’re seeing the same sort of opposition from Canada’s admittedly less-aggressive Religious Right. One of the strangest sights I’ve seen recently was a demonstration against same-sex marriage featuring Sikhs, Muslims, and Christians. Wouldn’t it be great if we could all get together to work for something positive instead of just reacting to something that we’re afraid of?
I do a lot of head-shaking and eye-rolling when I read articles like this one, but the truth is that I’m a bit frightened. Every day I feel further and further away from a subculture that once nurtured me. I’m not sure how much I’ve changed, but I know that the evangelical culture has changed a lot in the past 25 years. It seems to me that a sort of rigidity has set in. (I’m tempted to say ‘rigor mortis’). Despite the claims of huge growth among evangelicals, I’m deeply disturbed that it hasn’t made a whit of difference in the world. Poverty, war, oppression. It’s the same old story. A recent book by Ron Sider called The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience explored this area and discovered that evangelicals have the same rates of divorce, the same levels of materialism, the same struggles with racism. It’s more disturbing because we preach so loudly about other people’s “sins”. Jesus said that before we can remove the speck from our brother’s eye, we need to remove the plank from our own eye. That’s always made me smile, but it’s so true.
P.S. I realize the irony that I’m ranting about the “sins” of the Religious Right, so I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not perfect either. But wouldn’t it be great if we could actually talk to each other rationally instead of shouting at each other? For a nice balance to the Globe and Mail story, here’s a story from the Sunday Star about a reporter who went across Canada asking regular people their opinions on same-sex marriage. As always, regular people can surprise you. (Same 7-day archive policy applies, so read it now)
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