Twin Cities Home to 97.6 Pride Radio

Twin Cities Home to 97.6 Pride Radio

OMG! June really is busting out all over.

We are living in some mighty fine times.

On June 11^th, the folks at iHeartMedia, launched the first and , so far, only radio station dedicated to the LGBT community – right here, in the Twin Cities.  97.6 Pride Radio kicked off with a 24 hour marathon of Madonna, followed by two weeks of commercial free content.

They are playing dance anthems, both old and new.  It is an amazing feat and testimony that the gay community has finally arrived!

Wow.  First Nienstedt resigns.  Then I learn about 97.6 Pride Radio.

What’s next?

A decree from SCOTUS explaining to the world that homosexual folks are entitled to the same rights heterosexual folks have been enjoying for, like, ever. 

Yeah?

Wow.

Pinch me, I must be dreaming…

Ding, Dong, Witch Dead

 Ding, Dong, Witch Dead

Archbishop Nienstedt has resigned.

The world will become a little kinder because of it.

My dislike for this man is no secret to readers of this blog.  He represented all that is hateful and divisive in the Catholic Church.  In light of the current Pope’s more enlightened point of view, I was surprised Nienstedt hung on as long as he did.

It’s not just the recent charges that he and his staff failed to protect children from a known pedophile.  And it’s not just because he’s anti-gay and wasted a million dollars on a stupid DVD that was supposed to persuade followers of the church to resist the idea that gay people should have the right to marry.  His old-school values may have played a part in his demise, but I believe it’s the manner in which he tried to bully Catholics that really sealed his fate.

It’s his arrogance.  His sense of self-importance.  His ego. 

They were his undoing.

He has no one to blame but himself.

Three weeks ago, he paid a Sunday morning visit to the church I attend.  I opted not to attend that week.  At one point, I considered mounting a protest – a little ‘welcoming’ committee - but I like the priest at our parish and did not wish to cause him embarrassment or anguish.  Also, mounting a protest would only serve to draw attention to myself – something I am loathe to do. 

I did let my mother, a hardcore Catholic, know why I would not be attending mass that weekend.  She surprised me and boycotted the event, as well. 

Not attending mass?  That’s a big statement on her part.

And now the witch is dead.

Let the bells resound throughout the land.

Ding, dong.

Wonderland Burlesque’s ‘Turdscooter of the Week’: Archbishop John C. Nienstedt

 

Wonderland Burlesque’s 
‘Turdscooter of the Week’:

Archbishop John C. Nienstedt

Last week, John C. Nienstedt, Roman Catholic Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, went on a media blitz in order to save his job and neck, telling the world he won't be resigning his position, despite criticism over the mishandling of sexual abuse claims involving priests.

As part of his spin campaign, he offered up an apology to those victims; an apology that has been dismissed by victim advocates, including Barbara Dorris, the outreach director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, who responded: “He continues to pretend that his deliberately deceptive behavior — over years — is just well-intentioned laxness, when ample evidence shows that’s just not true. He has repeatedly and knowingly protected predators and endangered kids.”

And she’s not alone in that opinion:

Jeff Anderson, the Minnesota lawyer representing a number of victims of clergy sexual abuse around the country, said “This guy is every bit the center of a serious and longstanding problem,” and that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ cover-up was “among the most grave we’ve ever encountered.”

Which is why, among other sins, that John C. Nienstedt is Wonderland Burlesque’s ‘Turdscooter of the Week’. 

Dear John,

As you know, I have had issues with the way you’ve handled your job for a number of years, dating back to the days when you spent over a million and a half dollars in support of banning gay marriage, here, in Minnesota. 

Let’s revisit your words at that time:

“Today many evil forces have set their sights on the dissolution of marriage and the debasing of family life. Sodomy, abortion, contraception, pornography, the redefinition of marriage, and the denial of objective truth are just some of the forces threatening the stability of our civilization. The source of these machinations is none other than the Father of Lies. Satan knows all too well the value that the family contributes to the fabric of a good solid society, as well as the future of God’s work on earth.”

A million and a half dollars, John - money that could have gone to help the poor, the hungry, the sick.  It was spent on mailing out a DVD full of misinformation, hate speech disguised as theology, self-justification, and manifestations of your misguided attempt to divide people. Your rhetoric actually called marriage equality the Devil's handiwork.

Your arrogance was on full display then, and, even though it’s spun in a softer manner these days, it remains your Achilles heel. I find your recent attempts to justify keeping your job self-serving and dishonest.

Claiming, now, that your efforts to ban gay marriage in Minnesota was nothing more than a desire, on your part, to preserve the rite as a heterosexual union and that, “it wasn't to put down people with same-sex attractions”, is nothing more than an attempt to rewrite history.

And, while I’m glad you finally admit that, “it is very clear that we did not handle all complaints the way we should have in the past”, I don’t believe for a moment that you “never knowingly covered up clergy sexual abuse.”   

John, all the polished spin in the world won’t make these ‘turds of truth’ vanish, nor will they erase the many skid marks you have left in the hallowed halls of the Catholic Church.

Given the current climate and circumstances, a wiser leader and man would realize that his continued presence in a leadership role in the church would do more harm than good.  A good leader and man would acknowledge his missteps, misdeeds, and mismanagement, and then step down. 

But you are neither a good nor wise leader or man, John.

“I have no doubt that my administrative and personal style, with its strong point of view, may have offended some. I apologize to those I have hurt. The last year has helped me realize I need to change my administrative style, soften my words, and get out from behind the desk to spend more time with the faithful. 

I have…, been too trusting of our internal process and not as hands-on as I could have been in matters of priest misconduct.” – Archbishop, John C. Nienstedt

Those sound like the words of a very flawed leader, John.

As to whether you’re gay or have engaged in sexual relations with other men?  I don’t care.  That’s your business.  If true, then you are a fraud, a hypocrite, and a self-hating homo.  I know you’ve denied these accusations, telling the Star Tribune, “I'm not gay,” but then you added, “And I'm not anti-gay” - something that your actions,  deeds, history, and past statements would seem to contradict. 

I don’t believe that an internal investigation, looking into the truth regarding “multiple allegations” accusing you of inappropriate sexual conduct with seminarians, priests and other men, as instigated by the archdiocese, will accomplish anything, other than spending more of the church’s money. 

The truth?  I don’t think you or your constituents are capable of recognizing it anymore.  And that’s why church members the world over a calling for resignation.  We no longer trust you, John.  And, at this point, your efforts to win back our trust are nothing more than a waste of your time and the church’s money.

So, do the right thing, John. 

Resign.

--- ---

So, dear readers, because we all know that ain’t never gonna happen, please raise a loving cup of comeuppance as we salute deceiver, spin artist, and established homophobe, Archbishop John C. Nienstadt as Wonderland Burlesque’s ‘Turdscooter of the Week!

John?  It’s not too late to change your evil ways! 

Repent.

And then, resign!

Nietzsche Was Right

Friedrich Nietzsche was right.

Growing up, going to church was simply something one did, like breathing and pooping.  You didn’t think to question it; you just did it because everyone you knew did.  The ‘why’ of it all was never questioned.

Of course, when I became an adolescent, I did begin to question.  Those mandatory Wednesday night catechism classes became opportunities to torture all those poor believers who volunteered to teach.  It was at that time that I began to fall in love with and perfect playing the devil’s advocate. As inarticulate as I was, debate became my ‘thing’.  That ‘deer in the headlights’ look on the teachers’ faces fueled my love of pointed banter.

And then, once away at college, church became an afterthought.  Theatre became my new religion.  I didn’t have time for anything else. 

After that, a variety of religions, religious expressions, thoughts of mind, and philosophies became my norm.  I tried them on like hats.  I was impressionable, to say the least.  My naiveté would lead me down one dead end after another.  The journey was as entertaining as it was disheartening.

Five years ago I returned to Catholicism and began to attend church regularly, singing in the choir and serving as cantor.  I did so, out of a need to please my mother.  She and my father had recently moved into my neighborhood at my insistence.  My father, as you may know, has Alzheimer’s, and as his illness has progressed it had become more difficult for my mother to manage.  The house across the street from me came up for sale. My business partners and I purchased it, renovated it, and moved them in.  

In order for my mother to acclimate, I took her around to various churches.  She chose one and it became part of my routine to accompany her.  It went well for the first three years.  I got swept up in the music and the sense of community the church provided. 

Unfortunately, I also became all too aware of the church’s attempts to prevent gay marriage from coming to Minnesota, as well as the on-going sexual scandals involving children, adolescents, and young adults.  Oddly troubling, too, was my discovery that a good percentage of the active clergy are gay – troubling, only in the sense that these men must live their lives in a way that supports the very thing that condemns them for who they are. 

Since returning to the fold, I’ve listened to countless sermons that plead for accepting others as they are, sermons delivered in a kind of code, skirting around the political reality that is the Catholic Church.  But until the church as a whole openly embraces gay people, I’m afraid those words, while truly meant by the individuals speaking, will continue to ring rather hollow and false.

Two years ago, during the Easter season, I began to wrestle with my conflicting thoughts and feelings.  I quit the choir and cantoring that Easter morning, though I continued to attend mass regularly until about three months ago.  By that time I couldn’t rationalize attending anymore.  Not that I didn’t feel welcome, I always did.  No, it was because I could not reconcile the life I was being told to lead and the world I live in.  When I looked at the world around me and the evil things men and women do in the name of God, the whole concept of God became something that made no sense. 

Yes, people like Michele Bachmann and Archbishop Nienstedt had robbed me of my ability to believe.  Their irrational world views and the fact that the world had given them and their ilk a means of spreading their fears, hatred, and harmful rhetoric defied common decency and common sense.  The fact that we live in a world where people actively reiterate garbage theology and support political platforms that work against their own self-interest appalls and amazes me - to say nothing of the everyday violence that is allowed to go unchecked; violence committed through some delusional sense of superiority, violence committed against one another, animals, and our planet - to say nothing of disease, illness, deformity, cruelty, homicide, genocide, hypocrisy, segregation, ignorance and greed.

And so, if one is to remain logical and place events and people within some type of context, one can come to but one conclusion: there is no God.

God is a construct upon which we place our hopes and desires.  God is a wishing well.  God is a comfort for mind and body.  God is a means of controlling ourselves and others.

But we made him up. 

This planet is really populated with nothing more than a bunch of animals trying to gain advantage over one another by any means possible.

It has left me heartsick.

And, of course, when my mother asks why I’m not going to church anymore, I can’t tell her any of that.   Her concept of God is all she has.  It’s the pillar of her whole life.  It would be cruel on my part to start ripping away at the fabric that is her life.

So, when she asks… I say nothing.

I’ll start believing in God when the likes of Michele Bachmann and Archbishop Nienstedt do the same.