Loving Jesus and Hating Gays
A gay comic spotlights the dissonance between the Christian message of universal love and the Christian practice of bigotry and hate.
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“Yeeeah, Sydney!” the songwriter and comedian Tim Minchin shouts into a microphone. “Are you up for a . . . sing?”
The crowd laughs a little nervously when Minchin, an outspoken atheist, begins to sing, “I love Jesus, I love Jesus.” They bought tickets to a comedy show, not a religious revival. Minchin prompts the audience to join him. “Who do you love?” he asks. “Sing it!” Soon the whole crowd is singing “I love Jesus, I love Jesus,” along with Minchin, in a video that has been viewed half a million times on YouTube.
Then Minchin changes the lyrics: “I love Jesus, I hate faggots,” he sings. “I love Jesus, I hate faggots.” The crowd stops singing along. Minchin looks up from his guitar, pretending not to understand what the problem could be.
“What happened? I just lost you there,” Minchin says. He makes a halfhearted attempt to get the singalong going again before giving up. “Ah, well,” he shrugs. “Maybe these are ideas best shared in churches.”
-- Dan Savage at The New York Times
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“Yeeeah, Sydney!” the songwriter and comedian Tim Minchin shouts into a microphone. “Are you up for a . . . sing?”
The crowd laughs a little nervously when Minchin, an outspoken atheist, begins to sing, “I love Jesus, I love Jesus.” They bought tickets to a comedy show, not a religious revival. Minchin prompts the audience to join him. “Who do you love?” he asks. “Sing it!” Soon the whole crowd is singing “I love Jesus, I love Jesus,” along with Minchin, in a video that has been viewed half a million times on YouTube.
Then Minchin changes the lyrics: “I love Jesus, I hate faggots,” he sings. “I love Jesus, I hate faggots.” The crowd stops singing along. Minchin looks up from his guitar, pretending not to understand what the problem could be.
“What happened? I just lost you there,” Minchin says. He makes a halfhearted attempt to get the singalong going again before giving up. “Ah, well,” he shrugs. “Maybe these are ideas best shared in churches.”
-- Dan Savage at The New York Times
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