The other day the subject of conversion therapy (therapy intended or expected to change the patient’s sexual orientation from gay to straight) reared its head once more. I know so many people who have been deeply harmed by this kind of therapy; it damaged their trust in God, it distorted their relationship with their family, it left wounds they are still living with. It brought some of them to the brink of suicide. If that’s not your story, if it... Read more
plus a brief interview: I am a recovering alcoholic; by God’s unexpected mercy I’ve been freed from the destructive habits that go along with alcoholism. But I have not been freed from the fun habits—like thinking of everything in terms of a drinking game. The following game is composed entirely of true stories: things that really happened to gay Christians I know, people who accepted their church’s sexual ethic and sought to be obedient to it. Almost all of them... Read more
Apparently this title is from reddit. I can no longer pretend to be above reddit; one should always be beneath things, plus also they brought us Jorts. Links are usually to my reviews. Previous years are here. (Tell me where all past years are….) Best books (nonfiction): 5- Peter Brown, Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350 – 550 AD. 4- Mitchell Duneier, Slim’s Table: Race, Respectability,... Read more
In the order I saw them! So there are some wild mood swings here. Venom: Let There Be Couples Counseling. A delightful romp about an extremely gay-coded tentacle alien and his dubiously consenting life partner, wrapped around a depressing and poorly-handed story about the prison-industrial complex. Days of Heaven: Remember how Abraham told the Pharaoh that Sarah was his sister? Remember how that turned out? Terence Malick reimagines this Biblical, or Bible-haunted, story on a Depression-era farming estate. It’s Malick... Read more
at We Are the Mutants: The new world is a place where a new kind of person lives — although many would argue that this new and dangerous person was always the only kind of person around. The old SF hero was that rational man you used to hear so much about: the imagined actor in liberal political philosophy, the person without dependents or dependencies, who confronted the stars with reason, self-control, and a spirit of adventure. He travels, as... Read more
quotes me, plus a bunch of other people–last quote is especially good: …Hartley is part of a small group of openly LGBTQ Christians who, while embracing their sexual orientation, also believe God designs sex and marriage to occur exclusively between a man and a woman. The group, called “Side B” (as opposed to Side A Christians who celebrate same-sex marriage and sex), is a largely virtual community that sits in a rare liminal space between two sides of a culture... Read more
Previous years: 2020, 2019, 2018. If you want something suitably atmospheric, but without lyrics, I’m enjoying Dragon Warrior’s “And If I Die on Reverb Mountain.” Jean Ritchie, “Skin and Bones.” The Mountain Goats, “Rain in Soho” Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, “Red Right Hand.” Sometimes the classics are still the best. Nancy Sinatra, “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” Prayers, “Gothic Summer.” Not quite seasonal but somehow right. Also the video for this is great. The Heavy, “Can’t... Read more
I review Mariam Petrosyan’s The Gray House: “… The House demands a reverent attitude. A sense of mystery. Respect and awe. It can accept you or not, shower you with gifts or rob you of everything you have, immerse you in a fairy tale or a nightmare. Kill you, make you old, give you wings.… It’s a powerful and fickle deity, and if there’s one thing it can’t stand, it’s being reduced to mere words. For that it exacts payment.... Read more
Revoice is a conference for lgbt/same-sex attracted Christians who accept what is sometimes called a “traditional sexual ethic.” It is not perfect and lol I have & express criticisms or suggestions for improvement every year because I am a backseat driver from of old, but I love that conference and the community it builds and brings together, so I was deeply honored to be able to address Revoice this year. This is what I said (a mix of my notes... Read more
The first frames of the new Candyman show the familiar logos–Universal’s cloud-wrapped earth and all the lesser production-house symbols–backward, a mirror image, so you wonder if something’s gone wrong with the film. It’s unsubtle in one sense: This is different! This is new! We’re not just rebooting a “property” (sort of a fraught word here, no?), we’re uhhhhhh rebooting it backwards! But then the opening credits appear against an upside-down city, the gleaming luxury city that replaced Cabrini-Green, and the... Read more
Eve Tushnet
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In