The New Alchemists
News item:
I'm guessing that Ted Haggard's going to have an interesting Christmas this year. ...Being merry with the family that he cheated on for like three years. He'll be using their prayers to help him get over his addiction to being gay. The LA Times reports on The New Alchemists:
Those close to the restoration will not say whether Haggard will undergo therapy to try to eliminate same-sex attractions. But the conservative Christian leader James C. Dobson, a close friend, has said the healing process - which could last years - will probably aim to eliminate any homosexuality.
White evangelicals as a group tend to view homosexuality as a lifestyle choice, not an inborn trait, with 56% holding that sexual orientation can be changed, according to a poll taken this summer by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. (By comparison, the same poll showed 31% of Catholics and 22% of white mainline Protestants believe change is possible.)
In many evangelical congregations, men and women with same-sex attractions are expected to use prayer and Bible study to help them resist the temptation to sin. Haggard comes from a charismatic tradition that puts particular emphasis on the devil's corrupting influence. He has described supernatural visions of demons waiting to infect newborns with sinful desires.
This theology of constant spiritual warfare has led some of his followers to blame Haggard's fall not on any personal weakness but on Satan's cunning. As congregation member Jan Long, 60, put it: "The enemy wants to destroy us."
Notice how it's someone else's fault--it's the devil's fault.
It's just about impossible to take responsibility for anything. I think that's probably the greatest thing about being a public figure.
...That, and the poems frustrated idealistic nerds write about you.
Aggression Transcending
Put down a sixer of Arab democracy in the blink of an eye
then hit the keg next door
…hard
Four years later, still refuses to break the seal
Hope he enjoyed it, throwing up on my sofa-
the reason I avoid frat parties
Beer Wars! -I’ve got my loyalties, sure-
before the Pan-Hellenic gerrymandering puts us
against ourselves
and empty cans of Bud Light rattle
and bottles of High Life roll on the floor
the microbrews keep tight to their vests,
and don’t want to get involved
Could be hugging
but we lost our friends last night
forcing too many metaphors down throats
drunk and indifferent
and ready to die from the poison
I'm guessing that Ted Haggard's going to have an interesting Christmas this year. ...Being merry with the family that he cheated on for like three years. He'll be using their prayers to help him get over his addiction to being gay. The LA Times reports on The New Alchemists:
Those close to the restoration will not say whether Haggard will undergo therapy to try to eliminate same-sex attractions. But the conservative Christian leader James C. Dobson, a close friend, has said the healing process - which could last years - will probably aim to eliminate any homosexuality.
White evangelicals as a group tend to view homosexuality as a lifestyle choice, not an inborn trait, with 56% holding that sexual orientation can be changed, according to a poll taken this summer by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. (By comparison, the same poll showed 31% of Catholics and 22% of white mainline Protestants believe change is possible.)
In many evangelical congregations, men and women with same-sex attractions are expected to use prayer and Bible study to help them resist the temptation to sin. Haggard comes from a charismatic tradition that puts particular emphasis on the devil's corrupting influence. He has described supernatural visions of demons waiting to infect newborns with sinful desires.
This theology of constant spiritual warfare has led some of his followers to blame Haggard's fall not on any personal weakness but on Satan's cunning. As congregation member Jan Long, 60, put it: "The enemy wants to destroy us."
Notice how it's someone else's fault--it's the devil's fault.
It's just about impossible to take responsibility for anything. I think that's probably the greatest thing about being a public figure.
...That, and the poems frustrated idealistic nerds write about you.
Aggression Transcending
Put down a sixer of Arab democracy in the blink of an eye
then hit the keg next door
…hard
Four years later, still refuses to break the seal
Hope he enjoyed it, throwing up on my sofa-
the reason I avoid frat parties
Beer Wars! -I’ve got my loyalties, sure-
before the Pan-Hellenic gerrymandering puts us
against ourselves
and empty cans of Bud Light rattle
and bottles of High Life roll on the floor
the microbrews keep tight to their vests,
and don’t want to get involved
Could be hugging
but we lost our friends last night
forcing too many metaphors down throats
drunk and indifferent
and ready to die from the poison