HJSDKFLSJDFHDSHFJKLDSFKJHQWEUQIWLVS

I think the one major flaw that keeps it from being good satire is the subject of its disparagement. Homosexuality? A choice? You mean it'll send us to hell? Now why didn't I think of that? I mean, these things are prevalent enough in this country, and despite the video's psuedoironic intent it just ends up being too damn easy. See, this is why I hate irony.

is what the band says the band about their music...

is what the band says about their music...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7021202528388041252&hl=en

i mean, pastel shirts, use of the term "backdoor," and check the obvious cock-and-balls imagery in that red candle arrangement! it's gloriously over the top!

but on the other hand, the eveningservice.com site has some design work behind it. they seem to have spent some money and effort getting that site up... seems kind of earnest.

which is it?

I think I'll remix it today - at least the refrain, and probably the knees bit. I wonder if the auteur will oblige me with the vocal tracks? It's worth a shot. On would hate to do a half-assed job given the quality of the original oeuvre and the size of the singers ass.

under safe music to listen to, they include cyndi lauper. if that shit ain't gay, i don't know was is.

word. i just don't know whether to congratulate the cleverness or be amazed at how inept these people are at making a point.

but of course, i love them either way. y'know, like jesus would.

Not to mention the amateur quality of the content outside the video itself. It was all recorded or put together in no more than a day I gather. A couple of domain names, some hastily gathered quotes and HTML, and the cheaply recorded mission statement that is Donnie's other spoken video.

That said, the victory with this video is how well it emulates the Praise Channel aesthetic down to the atom.

Donnie Davis could have become the "Is he or is he not?" icon of the year. The problem is: that would have required a lot of research on his part. Actually An Evangelical pointed out all these holes that would need to be filled. Furthermore, Donnie would have to make other songs, most of which weren't nearly as controversial as "The Bible Says" in order to be still undecipherable by even third-rate skeptics.

And had Donnie done all that, imagine the repercussions! Imagine all the legit homo-bigoted religious right organizations that would have handily accosted Donnie. Imagine this going on for even a fraction of a year, and then have it all blow up once Donnie was "outed" as being a fake. With some media attention, this would have been rather damaging to the religious right.

Donnie could have been a more effective religious version of Bob Roberts. Instead, he opted to be an amateur, fun-for-a-day-in-the-blogosphere Bob Roberts.

Parody or not, I still feel like punching Donnie in the fucking face. Perhaps it's a sign of how secular Western society has become, but any groomed artist looking at a camera singing "Faggot" in a negative context with a smirk makes me extremely angry, whether it's a joke or not. While it certainly is a compliment to "Donnie"'s ability to parody Christian rock in a video, it still doesn't make it funny, necessarily -- stressing "necessarily".

So, my final question is: why? Why did Donnie, or The Guy Playing Donnie go to all this effort to make a really convincing Christian Pop Rock video attacking homosexuality only to provoke reactions for a day in the blogosphere? Was it really worth it?

Here's part of his bio: "I am in fact a Reformed Homosexual and I'm trying to let people know that there is an escape from being Gay. By letting people know that "God hates a Fag" I am doing Gods work, I'm preaching.

When I was in highschool I kept having feelings for the boys I was in school with. Often I would let these feelings take over. I got into lots of trouble when I was Gay."

This young man needs to be pitied. He has no influence on society; he is just a gay boy whose self-loathing and confusion have spilled out onto the web. I've been reading comments and web info about him since I read Dan's first blog entry about this guy, and the overriding feeling I get is that he's just a sad young man whose sexuality has him so frightened that the only way he can deal with it is to decry it as loudly as possible.

Mostly I am reminded of the child who sticks his fingers in his ears and sings the Lalalalalala song to avoid having to face the awful truth.

Sure, there's an odd chance that this is the case.

Now, I have no clue exactly what goes on in de-homo-fication camps, and I really don't want to know. But I'd expect that a graduate of such a program, even if it was a house-arrest-with-family operation, would be equipped with stock quotes from scripture and basic talking points that would be transparent prose but prose nonetheless.

There's really nothing of that sort in Donnie's web content. There are more clues that this is a hoax than not.

If it is a hoax, I'll be very surprised. Then again, much stranger has occurred.

If it is NOT a hoax, I'll be very surprised... etc.

In the case that Donnie is indeed real, it would truly be an incredibly sad but incredibly powerful counter-argument to the whole idea of Reformed Homosexuals. In which case, Donnie would be putting himself out there to be ridiculed only to show that his actions are embarrassing to this general practice.

It's one thing for a Phelps type guy to go around and make himself to be a media ogre because he felts strongly about his hate towards homosexuality.

It's another for this hate to come from someone who has been recently "saved" from being a homosexual via horrific deprogramming practices. There's a sense of innocence here, as there would not be with Phelps. For a video like this to be made and publicized, it really paints an ugly picture of de-homo-fication in general, even to those who may not have thought too strongly against it at first i.e. the "I like gay people, I just don't think it's really natural" types. In which case, bring it on.

I still think it's a hoax, but just pondering the alternate reality here.

OK, let's presume it's all one big flipped out joke and Donnie is having us all on. What has he accomplished? A tempest in a teapot? He pissed off a few bubble-off-center commenters on YT and sparked a small but mostly one-sided conversation on the Slog.

I admit readily that there are so many indicators that this is a huge larf that it's difficult to believe it could be anything else - but I have personally had enough dealings with religious fundies to know that even though they act like complete and utter nutball lunatics, they are still dead serious.

Until and unless Donnie is truly outed in the mass media - or better yet, by Dan the Man right here in the Slog - I am going to believe that Donnie is one serious and seriously messed up boy.

I'm LOVING lovegodsway.org
on the list of gay bands:

Morrissey(?questionable?)

hahhaa