Category: Cultural news

Donnie Davies: Archie Bunker reincarnated?

While Donnie mania may be giving way to some Donnie fatigue, I continue to be interested in it for several reasons. One is the I teach social psychology and I am fascinated by the types of events and messages that persuade and capture the attention of groups of people. I showed The Bible Says video to my social psychology class and the reaction, as I expected, was quite negative. The discussion that ensued was subdued (I think my students were in shock) but focused on the persuasive potential of the video. As a caricature, the whole Donnie Davies episode could be quite persuasive. The analogy is to Archie Bunker and All in the Family. Take for instance, this episode where Archie reacts to the purchase of a doll for his grandson.

Donnie Davies may or may not literally mean what he sings (latest word from him is that he does), but whether he means it or not, the current Love God’s Way episode may function in the present day in a very similar manner to the way All in the Family did in its day. Those around then may recall the controversy over language and epithets used by Bunker on the show. Even though you knew it was spoof, it was still startlingly persuasive to see it acted out.

UPDATE: 1/28/07 – And the winner is…Looks like it is an actor named Joey Oglesby… And he’s a Baylor grad who once played a role in something called Jesus Hates Me.

My Space: A place for friends but not Donnie Davies’ videos

Well, add MySpace to the list of sites rejecting poor Donnie Davies. All his videos are down on that site now, which explains the blank screen on the 1/24/06 post. You can see (for now) Mr. Davies newest effort on You Tube.

And then my attempt at sermonizing…

UPDATE: 1/26/07 – Several bloggers have a new theory that I think may be correct. A full report is here. In reviewing the various bands and websites association with the band Bobby Conn and the Glass Gypsies, a common element is satire, with right wing fundamentalism being the prime target. The band member strongly resembling Donnie Davies is Colby Starck, a drummer and singer with Bobby Conn and the Head of Femur band.

I used to love to try to find Waldo in the Where’s Waldo? books.

Hating may still be involved, just not in the direction first considered.

New video from Donnie Davies: The saga continues

Master of buzz Donnie Davies feeds the flame with another video this evening. He is building toward something but it gets more interesting with this video. On one hand, he says he was “born this way” when talking about his weight (which he has changed, he says) but then talks about being a “reformed homosexual” in the next breath. He gives a shout out to Andrew Sullivan, a “great Christian man” who Davies thanks for “getting behind me.” He says, “if it wasn’t for the homosexual community, I wouldn’t be where I am today.” Lots of stuff that can be taken more than one way. Crazy like a fox or…

Amazing Day At Love Gods Way

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See my previous post on this topic for more…

UPDATE 1/25/07: This is more addicting than Idol. Donnie speaks. The theories about Mr. Davies and crew have not reached (E)X-Files proportion as yet, but theories abound. However, I doubt he is Todd. Perhaps Jason has something to do with this?

Google video has now removed The Bible Says video…

Now people are sending me stuff on this. Here is a bit more on the possible Jason Bolicki connection:

Then there’s the matter of Jason Bolicki, a gay director whose name surfaced on YouTube among commenters speculating on the video’s origin. Reached for comment at his home in Chicago, Bolicki denied any association with the video but said he laughed out loud when saw it “a couple weeks ago.” How’d you see it a couple weeks ago when there’s no record of the video existing before January 23? “Hm. Well, maybe I have the timing wrong.”

Weeks, days, what’s the diff? Sounds like Mr. Bolicki is either time challenged or has top secret info.

Donnie Davies 15 minutes of lame

Ok, maybe The Bible Says is going to turn out to be a parody, but it still seems pretty bizarre. I wrote Donnie Davies earlier in the day and asked:

“I cannot tell if you mean your song as a parody or not. Could you please explain?”

He wrote back and said

No, no Sir. We’re very serious. We made the video for serious reasons. Some people seem to think it is funny. I guess we can understand that but what’s been happening in this country isn’t funny unless you have a really dark sense of humor.

If have to have people in authority, we think they have to be trustworthy and honest. We hate what homosexuals liar like Ted Haggard, John Paulk and Mark Foley are doing. We hope that our song can help just a little bit to run sick creeps like that out of town on a rail. We hope people will learn that they can’t trust people so easily.

I attempted to post a video response to his video but I doubt he will post it.

UPDATE: At about 8:25pm, The Bible Says has been removed from YouTube with this statement: “This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.” The other “Love God’s Way” introductory video remains up. But you can still see it at Google video.

Mr. Davies has a new video on YouTube which says God Hates Censorship and lists the two websites.

UPDATE: 1/24/07 – Andrew Sullivan thinks it is satire. Truth is, no one knows but Mr. Davies and his band mates, and they aren’t talking.

Except here, Mr. Davies has issued a comment on his MySpace blog about YouTube:

Video on MySpace

Well friends, YouTube took down the video that Evening Service and I have worked so hard on. I don’t know what hurts more; being censored because of my message or people making fun of my weight. Hopefully MySpace believes in freedom of expression more than Google does. Maybe China isn’t the only country Google is censoring. 😉

Spread the Word

Keep the Faith

Donnie D.

ps. If any of ya’ll post the video anywhere else please tell us!

Read all the posts on this topic here.

UPDATE: The mystery revealed!!!