After Texas Lt. Governor/Boromander David Dewhurst denounced the staging of the play Corpus Christi at Tarleton State University, since it depicts Jesus as gay, the play was cancelled by the “professor” (Mary Anne wasn’t available):
The professor cited safety and security concerns for the students as well as the need to maintain an orderly academic environment as reasons for canceling the plays.
Because, without order, what’s a University for?
Though we all know that Jesus wasn’t gay, despite some interpretations of the felching episode in Matthew 30:15, it’s interesting to note that Lt. Gov/BM Dewhurst is in good company. The author of the play, Terrence McNally, is under a fatwa issued by a sharia court during Corpus Christi’s London premiere.
Next up: I wonder if they teach evolution at Tarleton State?
(via Slog)
Matthew Reid Krell
I would have guessed that Dewhurst was more likely to be an Arkon.
bago
Dom and Dan are tearing it up! Makes me wish I met some of the kids out in DC.
MikeTheZ
The real question:
Is snorkeling in the bible?
fucen tarmal
tarleton of the cigarette brand ad “i’d rather fight than switch”, i guess that only applies to white students who don’t want to switch their minds over to the 21st century with mlk day themed parties, ones that don’t include, a walk, a dream, but some fairly stereotypical costumes.
beltane
We need to have a new gay Jesus movement to counteract these Talibangicals. Jesus: a gay Jew from New York. Coming to a theater near you.
kid bitzer
“the “professor” (Mary Anne wasn’t available)”
that is some funny. i think i see why john brought you on board.
john–doesn’t mistermix deserve a promotion yet? at least to “lukore”?
i’m not saying he’s an arkon yet, like dougj, but he’s showing real promise!
WyldPiratd
America’s universities have gone to shit with the ass-covering, cultural correctness, treating the students as customers, top-heavy bureaucracies, etc.
Students pay more and more for less every year. The poor teaching faculty live in fear of not pleasing their “customers” if lectures are not entertaining enough and you require them to work very hard–or the low pay and job insecurity if classes don’t make enrollment. The “real” faculty wonder why all of these young kids are missing up their perfectly good university by interrupting their pursuit of grant money and pubs in obscure journals that no one gives two shits about and impact the world about as much as the smell from a steaming, fresh dump.
Just part of the big clown show of life….
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
If they would have cast the play with young boys I am sure that the Catholics would have got right behind
themit.Brick Oven Bill
This is a good fig-leaf to the gay lobby mistermix.
But I must warn you. You can only consider evolution as it affected human beings over a period of our development. Evolution for us stopped 30,000 years ago, when we all struggled to survive in the same environment.
We call this Belief System ‘Evolutionist Interruptistism’. And if you stay within the bounds of our teachings, everything will be fine.
Linda Featheringill
Good morning guys.
I believe y’all are missing part of the discomfort. Not only was Jesus not gay, he had no sexuality at all.
You don’t see the Christian establishment entertaining the notion that Mary Magdalene was actually the wife of Jesus, do you? That is because the idea of a sexually active Jesus is anathema to so many people.
On a bit of a tangent: In the US at any rate, LOTS of Protestant children have been molested by their minister or other church officials. And any child who complained was labeled a lying little monster. It is not just a Catholic problem.
A Mom Anon
@Linda Featheringill: Thank You. There have been whispers here in GA about the Southern Baptists having a huge problem with the abuse of women and girls,but it’s not attention worthy and no one’s ever really done much digging to bring the truth out.
Personally,I think any religion that elevates men over women and children to the extent that they have no importance is suspect and likely to be vulnerable to being a haven for abusers.
SiubhanDuinne
I think I was a happier person before I looked up “felching.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big believer in expanding one’s vocabulary, but eww. And first thing in the morning, too.
SiubhanDuinne
@Linda Featheringill: You are absolutely right. I know of at least three examples personally of Protestant male clergy molesting young girls, and two of those go back some 60+ years. I’m glad you brought it up — it’s been nibbling around the edges of my mind ever since the Vatican story broke wide open.
fucen tarmal
@siub then by all means do not look up santorum in the urban dictionary. its a concept that befits a man on dog kind of guy.
SiubhanDuinne
@fucen tarmal:
LOL, that one I know. And yes, I can see why your mind immediately made the connection.
Now I need to go throw up a little bit, if y’all will excuse me.
debbie
I still remember all the verbal abuse from evangelicals while standing on line for The Last Temptation of Christ in NYC. One woman got right up in my face; spittle was flying, Pretty gross.
fucen tarmal
i think if you want to give them a gay jesus, a new york jewish gay guy is just feeding their sense of other…
what they need is a gay jesus nascar pit crew member, who’s openly gay transvestite lifestyle away from the track is tolerated because he is a second faster at leaping over the hood and changing a tire than anyone else….
a gay jesus mechanic, who in addition to pit duties, can build, rebuild, and modify engines for all manner of cars from nascar down to midgets….while singing torch songs…a jesus who shows up at dirt tracks fixes all the cars, making the tracks profitable, and the racing more entertaining…
then gets into costume and seduces straight men on weekend golf outings…
Incertus (Brian)
@debbie: Which is just proof that the angry woman had neither read the book nor seen the movie, since even if you’re a psychotic Christian, there’s nothing to get upset about in that depiction of Jesus. I mean, unless you think temptations shouldn’t be tempting.
Incertus (Brian)
@fucen tarmal: A gay Jesus who creates an never-emptying gas tank. Can’t believe you missed that one.
arguingwithsignposts
Is it just me, or does it seem like “All Jesus, All the Time” around here right now? Oh, well. Another 24 hours and we’ll find some more wetsuits to glom onto.
Ron
@WyldPiratd: If you think the “treat students as customers” is a problem at big universities, you should see how it works at a small liberal arts college. They are supposed to be places where teaching is the emphasis, but for the most part this is often judged by student evaluations. I’m not sure what the best way is to judge effective teaching, but I don’t think that basing it on the evaluations of students is best.
As to the original story, I’d like to introduce the Lt. Gov. to the concept of “academic freedom”. The whole point of it is to be able to do something that some might consider controversial without fear of reprisal. Colleges and universities really are not supposed to have to have everything they do approved by government officials.
Cat Lady
@Incertus (Brian):
by changing water into Sunoco 260. Also too.
mistermix
@arguingwithsignposts: “right now”? How long have you been reading this blog?
SiubhanDuinne
@arguing: You’re right. Need moar SMUDGE.
arguingwithsignposts
@SiubhanDuinne:
did you see last night’s offering?
@mistermix: pre-schiavo. OT, but I am loathe to listen to anna marie cox on Maddow. Why does she let that hack on?
Incertus (Brian)
@Ron: I have found so many ways to game the student evaluation system it’s ridiculous. Nothing unethical, doesn’t even cost me money–just involves knowing when to give them and how to set it up. I hate the system, but I still feel like I have to play along, so I play the best I can.
SiubhanDuinne
@aws: I did. And she’s beautiful. And looking at that picture gives me a glad. But you know me, I always want MOAR.
scav
oh dear, quick slip in the mental plastic materials categories and I now have a vision of Christ wrapped in Saran Wrap greeting someone at the door while holding a martini.
I mean, I know the Catholics are going to have to try to polish their reputation, but The Total Savior?
BDeevDad
Great response by the author of the cancellation story to the wingnut complaining Muslims do the same thing.
Linda Featheringill
To scav:
It would be interesting to see who gets your reference.
Chuckle, chuckle.
Joey Maloney
I have no Smudge, but I would be happy to offer you some Patrick until Smudge is available.
I took Patrick home on, yes, St. Patrick’s Day. He’s a biter. The first few days I was awakened in the morning by the feeling of him trying to eat my face. He’s gotten over that, but I still have to put on jeans and socks first thing in the morning to prevent damage as he climbs onto the desk.
This case in Texas is pretty egregious, but it’s not universal. I have two in college at UTK right now. One of them is in the architecture program and I gotta say they’ve gone out of their way to make her time miserable. It’s a deliberate policy of a highly-competitive program. And while some of their policies have been downright mean, I gotta say it’s been a character-building experience for a kid for whom (a really good) public high school was nevertheless an easy-A coast.
Mustang Bobby
Corpus Christi isn’t even that great a play. If you want to rile the Religious Reich, do Angels in America.
[/theatre scholar mode]
Linda Featheringill
To Joey Maloney:
Patrick is CUTE!
I had a biter once, but then he was very hungry and had been for some time. As he started putting on weight, he became much gentler and more patient.
Do you have food out so that Patrick can graze throughout the day? [kitten chow mixed with a little water?] That might improve his manners.
BTW, nice portrait of Lady Smudge.
ed
Neat. Thin. Got along well with women. Not married. What more evidence is necessary?
Jesus was a fag. And a hippie. A hippie fag, Jesus was. That’s ironic.
Linda Featheringill
Well, Gee.
If I had known that Jesus was a hippie fag, I would have given his teachings a second look. Verrrrry interrrresting!
RoonieRoo
Tarleton State is a special place. They are the home of the Purple Poo. No, I’m not making that up.
The Purple Poo is their version of a secret society and their A #1 tradition. Poo….purple. Really.
canuckistani
Does anyone else regret that Monty Python chickened out and went with Life of Brian instead of Jesus Christ: Lust for Glory? Not that LoB wasn’t great, but it wasn’t as truly blasphemous as it could have been.
And I like the Tom Waits ref, mistermix
Sasha
Not really. When they went to write the film, they realized that Jesus, as presented in the bible, was a really decent chap and that there really wasn’t any comedy gold to be mined there. LOB did a spectacular job in satirizing what needed to be satirized.
Joey Maloney
@Linda Featheringill: No, the little bugger just likes to knaw. He has kibble available all day. Maybe he’s teething? Do cats teethe?
You should hear him squeal, though, when I put down a little shredded chicken for him. If he had a full-grown-size cat’s throat it’d be moaning but as it is, it just sounds like really really urgent squeaking.
Linda Featheringill
Hey! What is with Matthew 30:15? The book of Matthew does not have that many chapters!
[It took me how long?]
Sasha
My alma mater, Florida Atlantic University, put on a production of Corpus Christi. The Florida state goverment hammered down on FAU like a Roman centurion on crucifixion day and suspended some much needed funds that were promised to the university’s ocean studies program (because, apparently, that was the best way to get back at the theater department).
My favorite takeaway from the entire affair was that the lawmaker most responsible for FAU’s punishment demonstrated a fantastic lack of irony when he compared the staging of Corpus Christi to the Taliban’s destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan, likening both acts as equivalent examples of one group imposing its beliefs on another.
MoeLarryAndJesus
Of course Jesus was gay. It’s right there in the Bible – he asked 12 men to eat him.
attica
Can I just say how nice it is that you’ve shouted out one of my favorite Tom Waits songs?
See only a chocolate jesus
Can satisfy my soul.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Brick Oven Bill:
I know it’s a BOB post, and thus spoof, but the pedant in me cannot let this go…
No. Evolution (that is, the change in populations over time) still applies to humans now as it did 30 kya, thank you very much. As long as some people make more babies than others, then the human population will continue to evolve and change.
All we’ve managed to do is queer the selection criteria some.
Will
I’ve seen Corpus Christi twice now. One, a highly controversial amateur production in Kentucky. The other, a highly professional non-controversial production in NYC. Both sucked. It’s a relentlessly stupid play, designed entirely to provoke and piss off cultural conservatives. Of course, McNally has every right to do that, but he’s written much better plays.
pluky
@Joey Maloney:
They don’t call it “archi-torture” for nothing! It serves a purpose though. Out there in the real world the ability to persevere and maintain attention to detail under outrageous time constraints is not a feature; it’s a requirement.