It’s the System, Baby
Well, this is embarrassing:
The founding pastor of a second Colorado church has resigned over gay sex allegations, just weeks after the evangelical community was shaken by the scandal surrounding megachurch leader Ted Haggard.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if virtually all of the anti-gay Christian community leadership turned out to be self-hating gays who nonetheless act out on their desires?
The way things are set up, however, almost begs for this to happen. This particular culture’s mores say that homosexuality is a sin, and castigates those who “choose” it. But since homosexuality is not a choice but a biological reality, some within the religious community will be gay. Unable to exist as they are and unwilling to leave the community, they seek out a place that they believe will save them: the priesthood. Guilt and shame may motivate them to work harder and appear more pious than most, thus propelling them to positions of leadership. But they often discover that entering the priesthood does not allow oneself to simply turn off one’s sexuality as they thought it might.
I’m no expert. Maybe this analysis is wrong. But it would explain a lot. And it should be a signal to the religious community to deal with certain realities rather than trying to cram what their god created into a dark, hidden corner which, all too often, gets light shone on it at the most darned times.
Its also tied into the whole concept of biblical literalism on the one hand and the desire for power on the other and the ability religion gives one, if they are rascalian enough, to use the former to achieve the later.
Lots of people get fame and fortune simply because they can get on the stage and exercise some charisma. Some times its good, but most of the time, it appears to me, to just be circumstances. How many natural born ‘performers’ are gay?
The list, I am sure is quite long and out of proportion to the percentage of people who are gay in the overall population. Many, simply put, and for whatever reason, are tallented and charismatic entertainers. We owe them a great deal for the contribution they make to our performing arts: be it theatre, cinema, comedy, drama, or whatever. But what else is a televangilist if not a performer?
As to reasons, a person who lives a lie, for the point of influencing other minds, is in essence performing all the time. Its a skill that is constantly worked at.
So add all of that to the circumstances you describe and the situation becomes highly likely that the most charismatic preachers are either Gays, or people hiding some other “lie” or sense of guilt.
The most charasmatic person and best salesman I have ever known was my child hood friend, and he had some huge sense of guilt, shame and inadequacy – implanted into him I think from his father – that he tried to hide from the world – and he was funnier than anyone I’ve ever met and he could sell snow to eskimoes by the truck load. He was also highly compulsive and prone to indulging in porn and prostitution (got Crabs while only a junior in High School).