Of course, Banuchi's anti-gay ferocity reveals much about himself.
I am reminded of an earlier post in this column, which briefly recounted the tale of Lonnie Frisbee, the Jesus look-alike of the late-60s-early-70s. Lonnie essentially kick-started the "Jesus freak" movement, which transformed many a New Leftie into an Old Time Religionist.
(Nota bene: Lonnie Frisbee's widow, Connie, has informed me that -- contrary to some reports -- Lonnie did not have a hippie-esque aversion to bathing. Apologies if my piece misrepresented the man's habits.)
To recap:
Lonnie (forgive the familiarity, but I can't bring myself to refer to him as "Frisbee") utterly alienated his flock by dying of AIDS in 1993. Turns out he led a double life: While serving as the chairman of JC's Department of Grooviness, he was covertly cruising the gay bars of Laguna Beach.That post offered a telling quote from Chuck Smith jr., son of an Orange County pastor who was Lonnie's partner and/or mentor:
"Lonnie's misfortune is he got caught," says Junior, Capo Beach Calvary Church's pastor, "because there are a lot of charismatic homosexual ministers -- right now."(Emphasis added.) My comment on this phenomenon:
Some of you may recall an earlier piece I wrote called "Prancing Preachers," in which I poked fun at James Dobson, the minister who "outed" Spongebob Squarepants. If Dobson can scry unmanliness in a cartoon character, what would happen (I wondered) if we placed TV preachers under the same scrutiny? Many televangelists (I argued) hew closer to gay stereotypes than do the objects of their vituperation.A little web surfing reveals further indications that the anti-homosexual vitriol of the Christian right may, in fact, be driven largely by self-hating closeted gays. One can cite the sad example of Mel White, the ghost writer for Pat Robertson''s conspiratorial frenzies and Jerry Falwell's apocalyptic madness.
I mean, look at Jim Bakker: The man wept incessantly, dressed in pastels, and married a classic fag-hag. Maybe his infamous encounter with Jessica Hahn was just his attempt to hide the truth from himself?
I can happily report that Robertson's notorious The New World Order, based on the work of such old-line anti-Semites as Nesta Webster and Eustace Mullens, was ghost-written by someone other than Mel White. Mullens, however, is a Nazified Roehmosexual -- so even in this instance, Robertson is still relying on a self-hating gay to do his thinking for him.
(For a inside view of the many "unholy ghosts" who write the Christian books ascribed to TV personalities, you may enjoy this piece by Texe Marrs. Marrs' works may be crap, but at least he produces his own crap.)
Of course, we have the notorious example of Jim/Jeff, the GOP propagandist who claimed to be washed in the blood of the lamb while covertly offering his services as a gay Top. I could also mention such GOP stalwarts as Ken Mehlman (manager of the Bush re-election committee), David Dreier, Jay Banning, Dan Gurley and many more.
But why focus on homosexuality? Many conservatives and Christians, forever caught between id and image, inhabit a truly perverse sexual landscape. True, you can find sexual "outsiders" in both parties -- but most of the genuine sexual criminals tend toward the right.
Why, I wonder, do so many fixate on the Michael Jackson case while ignoring the many truly bizarre Republican scandals listed here?
We could note, for example, the case of Beverly Russell, a man who, like pastor Banuchi, is a leader of the Christian Coalition; Russell abused his 15-year-old stepdaughter. Another reverend, Stephen White -- a champion of "traditional values" -- was arrested on a charge of soliciting sex from a 14 year-old boy. Rising Republican politico Andrew Buhr was charged with raping a teenaged boy. Richard A. Dasen Sr., far-right funder of many Christian organizations, was charged with paying a 15 year-old girl for sex.
I find the grimmest amusement in those hypocrites who refuse to take responsibility for their own actions. When church-going Republican activist Mark Harris was arrested for raping an eleven year-old girl, he said the crime occurred "unintentionally." Bush appointee and anti-gay activist David Hager -- who insists that Christians are victims of oppression(!!!) -- repeatedly raped his wife anally; he later argued that he did so accidentally. (Hager's a gynecologist.) And not long ago, we heard fundamentalist Neal Horsley's admission of beastiality. To be specific: He admitted to sex with "consenting" mules.
If one man can rape an eleven-year-old girl "unintentionally," and if a gynecologist can anally rape a woman "accidentally," then I suppose a mule can offer informed consent. Though perhaps not in writing. (Give Rush credit: At least he never tried to convince the world that someone else shoved those pills down his throat.)
One can go on and on -- indeed, I've considered holding a contest: Guess the next Republican sex scandal to hit the newspapers! Who will be the perpetrator? Who will be on the receiving end? And just what, exactly, will that person receive?(Anyone who hopes to outdo Horsley's accomplishment will have to possess genuine imagination.)
Alas, the general public remains unaware of the disturbing and growing phenomenon of conservative "Christians" who commit such offenses. Instead, cable news pundits want us to concentrate on Michael Jackson -- a Democratic donor who has been accused (and exonerated) of a sexual crime against a young cancer victim. I do not know if Jackson truly has done to children what many believe he has done; suffice it to say that I found the "not guilty" verdict surprising.
But what should truly shock us is the pattern of "left eye open, right eye blind."
As long as you are a Southern Baptist Republican, you can do anything. You can have gay sex even as you thunder against gays, and no-one will score you for hypocrisy. You can have sex with children and the news media will do their best to avoid mentioning your name. You can even indulge in the love that dare not bray its name.
Well-heeled Christian fundamentalists are a privileged class. No law applies to them. And yet they would have us believe that they suffer from oppression...!
6 comments:
i'm tellin' ya, the psychological implications are so clear. remember that study that came out a couple of years ago, the one "funded by the US government [concluding] that conservatism can be explained psychologically as a set of neuroses rooted in 'fear and aggression, dogmatism and the intolerance of ambiguity'"? (in the guardian aug. 03) they compared hitler, mussolini, reagan, and limbaugh for "preach[ing] a return to an idealised past and condon[ing] inequality," and found w to be a textbook case.
well, that study didn't even scratch the surface. with all the pedophilia cases running rampant - and you'd think they'd get more coverage given the clear fascination with it (must be that selective media choice, like michael, eh?). with the many connections these cases seem to have to folks in power, whether within the government or a church, there is truly a profile emerging.
i believe i've mentioned here before my professional sense that those who would abuse power could not also have a healthy sex life. hence the insistence by many of these folks that it was an 'accident' because they're truly christain men, or they are not gay because they are 'on top'. well, this just exposes their deeper perversion: it's not about sex for them, and it's certainly not about love; it's about domination. rape.
and like i said, this barely scratches the surface. though i once thought it too bizarre to believe, i'm beginning to see just how these sickos work in the sickest dimensions, where children are harvested for servicing the wealthy who will pay and the powerful who will blackmail. the children are psychologically trapped by their 'sins' or their dependence or even their 'crimes' or fear for their lives, so they quickly develop alternate personalities to cope, the demonic sides forever under the spell of their master-monsters.
i would never claim that the republicans hold the corner on this craven market, but the extent of abuse of power we are observing, and without consequence - hell, it's regularly REWARDED!! - sure as death and taxes sends an open invitation to the creepiest logical corollaries.
It's not really surprising that the party of family values is full of rapists and pederasts.
These people would never have been drawn to the right-wing social agenda in the first place if they didn't have strong urges of which they're deeply ashamed. Who else would devote his or her life to condemning the sexual practices of others? A healthy, mature and well-integrated personality?
The right-wing social platform serves as institutionalized pathology for its most ardent practioners but also (unfortunately) has a powerful attraction for elements of the American public who find in it a means of releasing unacknowledged urges, confusion and class anger.
As for all the closet gays in the Republican Party -- Albert Moravia dealt with this subject years ago in "The Conformist", also the Bertolucci film (a very good one) of the same name, about a guilt-consumed homosexual drawn to fascism as an atonement to society (for a crime he never actually commited). That explanation may be too grand for some of these closet hacks, who do it largely for the money and power, but self-hate and the seductions of shame must also enter into it -- living life as a "bottom", but with all the privileges of a "top".
Guess the next Republican scandal to hit the newspapers. Well...
I nominate Scott McClellan (to quote Bush: "My Scott's prettier than yours.")
Rawstory has done a good job of covering Scott's frequent attendance at gay bars.
Maybe he's too close to the President (OOPS my naughty tongue) to ever really get outed in the nationwide press. But he sure is a candidate.
The big question: is Bush a candidate too? Oops my naughty tongue again.
Sexual deviants and their supporters are not only found on the left. Case in point Camille Paglia, Larry Kramer and Pat Cialfa Bruce LaBruce and John Waters who all support sex between adults and children.
this is a ridiculous premise actually: that crimes like these are confined to republicans who espouse christian family values. while they are the greater hypocrites, absolutely, i'd be genuinely surpised if, as a group, they were any greater (in percentage terms) than the perpetrators in every other party political group.
President Bush is right with family values. America was founded by religion (thats why it WAS the strongest nation) and its religion that gonna reclaim america.
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