Cultural news – Page 17 – Warren Throckmorton

Church coalition files FCC complaint over suicide of Brent Dugan

David Blakeslee posted in January about Reverend Brent Dugan’s tragic death in Mercer, PA hotel room. Now, a coalition of Pittsburgh area church denominations have filed a complaint with the FCC surrounding the reporting of KDKA – Pittsburgh.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette posted a complete copy of the letter filed by the “Christian Associates, a regional ecumenical association representing 15 Christian denominations.”

I will be adding background and information on this matter as I find it. Local paper, the Sharon Herald filed this report. In November of 2006, the Post-Gazette provided some depth on the KDKA report. The Post-Gazette posted a report of Reverend Dugan’s death on November 4, the same day Ted Haggard was dismissed from New Life Church.

Has the real Donnie Davies finally stood up?

This email purports to speak for the “real” Donnie Davies (is it you Joey?) with the low down on the whole gig.

Thanks to “arlopop,” a commenter here for this link.

UPDATE: 2/9/07 – Early today, this YouTube video showed up with a “hot tub interview” of the Donnie Davies crew. I am not enbedding it here because it gets a little risque in a place or two. So watch at your own risk.

If you don’t want to watch it, essentially you have YouTube user “bsnation” providing webcam interviews of those who are purported to be the people behind the Donnie Davies episode. They were surprised anyone took it seriously and intended it as a lampoon of groups like Westboro Baptist. I will admit I was not sure it was a hoax at first which is somewhat unsettling.

The folks at Brainfood (or wherever) continued the hoax well past the initial reveal. “Donnie” continued to correspond with me up until a couple of days ago, once writing:

Hi Warren. Have you been following Ted Haggard’s recovery? Its a rather amazing demonstration of reparative therapy, don’t you agree? What do you know about Tim Ralph?

And then this from Joey Oglesby in a Feb 4th email on his feelings about Donnie Davies:

As for Mister Davies, if he isn’t real, it would appear to me to be taking a shot at those who preach hate in the name of Christianity. And those that would have audacity to protest a fallen soldiers funeral or a funeral of a mass killing in an Amish community.

John Amaechi, former NBA player, comes out

John Amaechi, British import to the NBA, recently publicly declared he is gay. His story is fascinating and his plans for British basketball are ambitious. Watch this video for more information on this interesting fellow. There is a Wikipedia entry about him as well (…raised by his mother, you know what that means…). His first TV interview on this subject will be on ESPN’s Outside the Lines program at 9:30am, 2/11/07.

David Jones, a Patriot-News writer who knows Amaechi from his Penn State University days provides an in-depth report.

His disclosures and the ESPN coverage is sure to raise the profile of homosexuality in sports. Watch the video on the ESPN website about the possible prevalence of gay athletes and the issues raised if a current player came out of the closet.

UPDATE: 2/17/07 – In a move toward Donnie Davies, NBA star Tim Hardaway disparaged gays in an interview and is reaping what he sowed. He later apologized but has been banned from All Star weekend.

I thought Mary Buckheit had an appropriate response.

CNN segment on Ted Haggard

I may add some additional comments later but I wanted to post the transcript of the Anderson Cooper CNN segment (scroll a bit over half way down the page) this evening regarding Ted Haggard’s rehabilitation.

The report was quite interesting with several points worthy of discussion. I felt Alan’s tone and responses were reasonable and quite consistent with the sexual identity paradigm. The stance of the Human Rights Campaign representative was less so in my judgment.

COOPER: Mark, you know people who have been through this kind of therapy. Some call it reparative therapy. In your experience, does it work?

SHIELDS: Again, absolutely not. Every bit of evidence we’ve seen is that it does not work. And at the Human Rights Campaign, we believe the only choice there is about being gay is, you know, whether or not you choose to be open and honest about it, if that’s how you were born.

I think that people have the choice that they can try and hide that or try and deny that piece of themselves, but ultimately, that’s not healthy for them or for their loved ones.

COOPER: But Mark, if someone is not happy being gay, as Alan clearly wasn’t as a child, what’s wrong with him trying to change?

SHIELDS: You know, again, the mental health professionals tell us that, in trying to change or fix something that’s not broken, you can actually cause a great deal of harm to yourself and ultimately to those that are around you.

You know, I wonder if Ted Haggard had been told as a child that it was OK to be gay and that he could have a rich, full life, if his life story wouldn’t have been less painful and contorted

Here is an example where the Shidlo and Schroeder study of possible harm relating to reorientation is referred to but not cited. Also, the real picture regarding research on etiology of sexual orientation and outcomes of sexual identity integration efforts is of course much more complex than depicted by Mr. Shields.

Another interesting point was the agreement between Alan and Mr. Shields that being gay does not preclude happiness. When I said this in the October, 2006 LA Times article regarding the NARTH controversies, I was the target of some conservative fire. I wonder how things will go for Alan.

Donnie Davies and Joey Oglesby: Long lost twins?

A Weirder than Fiction Exclusive…

Dallas, Tx (WTF) – A touching and bittersweet reunion was held here today in Dallas between local actor, Joey Oglesby, and recently famous Internet musician and youth pastor, Donnie Davies. Mr. Davies and Mr. Oglesby believe they are identical twins separated at birth and have lived in the same state off and on for most of their lives.

Mr. Davies has recently become a Internet sensation with his music video, The Bible Says, which uses epithets offensive to gays throughout the song. The video and song created a firestorm in blogosphere and set off a hunt for the elusive Mr. Davies. The search for Mr. Davies led to Dallas actor, Joey Oglesby due to their uncanny resemblance. Mr. Oglesby insists he is not the enigmatic Mr. Davies.

Instead, the men think they are twins.

“I always thought I had a twin,” said Mr. Oglesby. “You know it’s just a feeling you have, then out of nowhere, Donnie ends up in my own back yard.”

Mr. Davies said, “Texas is a big ol’ state, much bigger than the state of New Orleans, where I lived for awhile. I’m excited and elated to meet my brother Joey. I hope this answers all my critics out there and will stop the heinous censorship of my videos.”

Twin expert, Dr. Joakim Bottoms, is intrigued. “We are awaiting DNA testing, but they sure look alike. And there are other similarities too. They both have a preoccupation with homosexuality, they are about the same build, are musical, like Cyndi Lauper and they both can dunk a basketball. That’s a combination of abilities you don’t see everyday.”

Mr. Oglesby is half of the famous Chicken and Pickle Guys comedy duet which has been described as “a comedy stew of dance, homophobic/gay experimentation, male chauvinism, obscure racism, and spiritual revelation.”

Mr. Davies similar controversial work can be seen at Donniedavies.com.

Joey Oglesby

donnie davies

Donnie Davies

UPDATE: 1/31/07 – Donnie speaks about his recent trials. Strangely, he fails to mention Joey.

Read all posts about Donnie Davies…