Crème de bloggers 2
It’s time for another selection of great stories from the blogosphere. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…
This time round, I’ve got a self-hating gay man for you as reported by The Daily Irrelevant. Paul Barnes, founding pastor of the 2,100-member Grace Chapel in a Denver suburb, is stepping down. “I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy,” he said in a videotape played to his congregation. “I can’t tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away.”
Oh please. Like it hasn’t been fun for the guy or he wouldn’t have done it time and time again. If he’d actually not been so screwed up, he might have actually met another man, got to know him, and had a chance at something meaningful and lasting and loving.
Instead, Barnes’ self-hatred led him to rushed shady encounters which reinforced his view of himself as some kind of monster. I have no sympathy. This type of gay man is very dangerous. I have no doubt that over the years Barnes will have spent a lot of time attacking homosexual people, berating them and doing his damnedest to make vulnerable gay men, lesbians and bisexuals feel like shit.
Now it’s his turn. Karma’s a bitch. I do have every sympathy, however, for the struggle many have to come to terms with their homosexuality or bisexuality. But that doesn’t automatically lead to attacks on one’s own kind in an effort to subvert and control your own emotional and physical needs. I speak, of course, from personal experience of the trauma that is so glibly termed ‘coming out’ and, in most cases, is a process that takes years if not decades.
Read a mainstream media take on the story here.
The consistently excellent and widely-read The Wild Hunt Blog has an interesting article on Why the Empire Fell, in which the free love lifestyles of the Ancients are discussed along with the history of imagery and stories meant to titillate, and their importance to civilization.
The role of Christianity in bringing sexual neuroses, doom, despair and oppression is considered. It’s sad when you compare the history of that faith to the actual words and actions of Jesus. Whether you consider him to have been a real person, a god in human form, or a work of fiction, the simple truth is you don’t come across many Christ copiers among today’s most feverishly hardline evangelicals.
Howard over at The Web Pen Blog has developed an obsession with platypuses. Cards and flowers can be sent directly to the institution where he is now residing and trying to lay an egg.
Amethyst Dragon over at Musings of a Purple Dragon says goodbye. No, she’s not going anywhere. She writes about the demise of The Morecambe Hotel in, unsurprisingly, Morecambe.
Over the past year, the pub has played host to the wonderful monthly pagan moot attended by D and myself. We have made many friends there, had too many good times to count, and our best wishes for the future go to the landlord and landlady, the staff and all the people who have propped up the bar.
Scheel Photo always carries the most breathtakingly beautiful images. One of my current favourites is Oliver, the (allegedly wild but he has a collar) cat. He’s stunning.
The Wizard of Duke Street brings us the very welcome news that the most wonderful Torchwood is to get a second series. Was there ever any doubt? All you folks across the Atlantic or in Europe who are wondering what the fuss is about really ought to get into using BitTorrent clients, that’s all I can say…
Bubbling Cauldron always carries the most scrummy recipes but Goats Cheese Roulade with Leek and Walnut Filling has me drooling.
To end on some seasonal good cheer, Joanna over at Gaian Tarot Artist’s Journal offers up a truly festive treat: an MP3 file of her partner’s revised version of Christina Rossetti’s ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’.
More crème de bloggers will be highlighted in due course. For now, enjoy!
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