Cynical? Unfeeling? Jaded?

I just realized that, unlike every other blogger on earth, I didn’t post yesterday about the bombings in London. In fact, my post last night might have seemed purposely callous, seeing as how I dissed the English Premier League. That was not my intention by a mile.

But I wonder why I didn’t leap immediately behind the controls of my blog and start writing about how I was shocked, saddened, etc. etc. I think I felt vaguely like I’d be hitchhiking on other people’s misery, just like in 2001. Of course I’m miserable about the tragedy. I have family there (who are all ok, thank God). But I guess I’m just a little jaded by how the media (and here I include the so-called “blogosphere”) jump all over each new horror and make us look and look and look. It’s kind of gruesome, actually.

I’ll more than likely not be commenting further on this. Like most Londoners, I’ll be trying to live my life without caving in to fear or morbid fascination with violence. Sorry if that sounds self-righteous.

Futbol!

Last weekend, on a whim, I picked up a book with the rather interesting title How Soccer Explains The World. After finishing the book in one day, I’m starting to grow in my appreciation for the Beautiful Game. I’ve always liked football (soccer to North Americans), but found a lot of the competitions and leagues and teams confusing. I’ve preferred to follow the World Cup every four years. But I must admit I find the fact that the game is played in almost every corner of the earth completely fascinating. And the book, by journalist Franklin Foer, uses all the controversies of the game (racism, fascism, corruption) as well as its transcendent joy to talk about wider issues of globalization and nationalism.

So, since the weekend, I’ve picked up the latest issue of World Soccer magazine, added a dozen or so websites to my bookmarks, and ordered a heap of books to help explain this World Cup world to me. I’m also about halfway through Nick Hornby’s love letter to Arsenal, Fever Pitch, which I’ve owned for several years but not yet read.

I’m actually not that fond of the English Premiership teams, so my newfound enthusiasm will have only limited value when conversing with my Manchester-mad father-in-law, but it’s a beginning. After reading Foer’s book, and remembering my own time in the city, I think my new love is FC Barcelona.

Can’t wait for the World Cup next year. Check out their comprehensive web site.

P.S. One of the more interesting sites I’ve come across is for the Mondiali Antirazzisti (the Antiracist World Cup), which is a tournament of 192 amateur teams (men, women, and mixed) from all over the world that is played in Montecchio, Italy. It began yesterday. What an amazing event.

Pride and Remembrance 5K 2005 Pledges

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?

Lonnie Frisbee

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”.