I’d like to begin with a bit of personal history this morning. I was raised in the ELCA Lutheran Church. There are a few different “Synods”, sects/divisions/understandings – if you will, of the Lutheran Church. I then went to a United Methodist church, where I received further education, eventually going on to earn a B.A. in a weird triple major of psychology, sociology and business – (I was originally really interested in how religion, business and “work” interacts within people themselves and society in general).
So, while I am full of questions and doubts, that is the structure of my very understanding of the world. What I’d like to shallowly talk about today is “religion”.
What we are seeing in much of the political realm is not religions of faith, they are religions of control.
I say this knowing this is going to be offensive to many people. But there are times when the truth hurts, and I remember reading somewhere how the truth shall set us free.
Religion seems rife with the blind – those who will not see, will not hear, because they are desperate.
I feel for those taken in by people who have found a pulpit the fastest way to power and wealth. Folks searching for answers and hope will grasp at anything that seems to be a good solution.
I believe this is the prophecy of the age. Graham was right, and he knows it to this day.
Belief in God is a very humbling thing. It is the knowledge that you will never be “all that”. What’s worse is that when you think you are, you realize you have become an arrogant ass comparing your perfection on the flaws of others and completely ignoring that guy in the mirror.
Despite getting my degree from a Christian College and growing up in the church, I no longer go to church. I sometimes wonder if God isn’t welcome there all too often. Instead I find God in all that I see, in the trees and stars in the sky. I don’t know that there is a God, but I want to believe there is, and so I do. Be it Humanist or Christian, what really becomes important in my book is that we love our neighbor and ourselves, and give a big thanks to however all this beauty that surrounds us came to be.
Oklahoma school officials worship at the altar of Trump Read on Substack
(Some blue language within.)
Yes. This is happening.
A knuckle-dragging religious troglodyte Trump cultist in Oklohama disguised as the state superintendent of schools has made Bibles in the classroom a statewide requirement. Oh, it gets worse. Initially, when the requirement was made, only one Bible fit the requirement. I’ll let you guess which one.
The initial requirement was that the Bibles be bound in “leather or leather-like material for durability,” and include the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Pledge of Allegiance. The only Bible that fits that requirements cost $59.99 and puts the profits directly into the wallet of one Donald J. Trump.
Fortunately for Donald Trump, while the requirement was that the Bibles purchased for schools with state money contain the U.S. documents, there isn’t a requirement that they not be made in a factory using child labor in China.
Fun fact: The “God Bless the USA” Bibles, as they’re called and selling for $59.99, are only made at the cost of $3, and again, in China…the nation Trump claims is bribing President Joe Biden.
I never read the entire Bible but because of a mostly-Southern childhood where I was forced to attend church, Bible school, revivals, a Baptist Halloween, and even a Baptist private school against my will, I am pretty damn familiar with it. I know there’s no mention in the Bible of the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, the United States, or Donald Trump. Also, how was I forced to attend all that Baptist stuff when I was born Catholic? Why?
What fucknut Ryan Walters is trying to do is force his religion on the children of Oklahoma while making a broad appeal to Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is the easiest politician to manipulate because he’s a corrupt narcissist. It’s why Republicans and foreign governments rented his hotel rooms while he was president (sic), even when they didn’t stay at his hotels. There are many ways to purchase Trump’s affection.
William Barr once rented the ballroom at Trump’s Washington hotel. Who the hell goes to a William Barr party? That sounds brutal. You could run into a Cory Lewandowsky or a Stephen Miller at one of those. Scott Pruitt, a member of Trump’s cabinet needed a new mattress and instead of buying a new one at an actual business that sells mattresses, tried to purchase a used one from Trump’s DC Hotel. Why would you want to buy a used mattress that thousands of people got funky on and could possibly contain bedbugs instead of, oh, I don’t know, purchasing a brand new one nobody’s ever shagged on? A mattress that MAGAts got busy on is the worst.
Here, Walters is appealing to Trump’s narcissism and corruption, possibly to win a spot in his administration. Bribing someone is so much easier than working to charm them. And here, Walters, who probably has zero charm, is bribing Trump with taxpayer money.
Just as Louisiana is forcing the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public classroom in the state despite its abysmal literacy rate, Oklahoma is forcing Bibles in its classrooms when 45 percent of its fourth graders are below the basic reading level. That’s not OK (see what I did there?).
Maybe Oklahoma should use the textbooks it has now to teach its children how to read before sticking unnecessary zealotry bullshit on its walls that they can’t read.
It’s too bad “thou shall not grift,” “thou shall not bribe,” and “thou shall not force its religious fuckery on thy schoolchildren” aren’t part of the Commandments.
Also, Bibles should NOT be in any public school classrooms. The Bible should not be taught in schools. What should be taught in school is math, reading, and history. Maybe if we do a better job at teaching history, we’ll stop being so stupid to repeat it. Current events should also be taught in classrooms as well (not what Beyonce is wearing but news) so people in Oklahoma and Louisiana can see that their Republican officials are trying to turn their states into the Taliban. Don’t do that. Taliban bad.
Because of pressure, the state is backtracking and adjusting the requirements for the Bibles, which they’re taking bids for now. The Constitution, Declaration of Independence, etc, etc, don’t have to be a part of the Bible now, they just gotta come with it. They’ve also adjusted the requirements for Fruity Pebbles to be sold in Oklahoma as the Ten Commandments no longer have to be printed on the label and can now be the toy surprise inside. It’s gotta suck to be a kid in Oklahoma. I’d Sooner live in a blue state. See what I did there? Never mind.
Walters is upset about having to change the requirement and said, “The left-wing media hates Donald Trump so much, and they hate the Bible so much, they will lie and go to any means necessary to stop this initiative from happening.”
Hmmm….if it didn’t have anything to do with Donald Trump, then why are you bringing him up? Walters is having great difficulty in hiding that this was all about buying 55,000 Trump Bibles at $55.99 each.
But, you don’t have to hate Donald Trump or the Bible, which Trump has never read, to not want Bibles in public schools.
Instead of requiring that Bibles and the Ten Commandments be placed in schools, require that the Constitution be placed in schools. Or better yet, before you become the State Superintendent of schools, especially in a yee-haw state, there should be a requirement that you READ the Constitution…and take a test on it.
Ryan Walters would flunk on the First Amendment as it says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Now, I know Walters is not Congress but I’m pretty sure the Constitution forbids any government from establishing a religion, which is what Walters is trying to do. He’s not trying to force the Koran or Torah in classrooms.
And by the way, is Walters requiring math and history books to be leather-bound or just the school’s Bibles? Maybe could they use that cheap “leather-like” material the $59.99 Trump Bibles come with.
Hey, shitweasels… When you guys pull this kind of crap, can you find a way to make it appear that it serves the betterment of society, the public, and the greater good instead of just serving Donald Trump and yourself? Hmmm?
Music note: I jammed to Verbena while coloring. (snip)
A 1647 witch-finder pamphlet. Via Wikimedia Commons
The printing press – and a particular manual it printed – played a big role in early modern witch trials, according to a fascinating new study.
Between 1450 and 1750, some 90,000 people were put on trial for being witches across Europe. About 45,000 of these people were executed.
Reasons for the fervour of this “witch craze” are murky. People had believed in witches for centuries, but brutal witch-hunts weren’t nearly as common until the 15th Century.
A study published in Theory and Society uses data on witch trials and witch-hunting publications to suggest that manuals may have been a big contributor.
In particular, they believe the Malleus maleficarum, which was first published in 1487, could explain a lot of the uptick – alongside trials in neighbouring cities.
Frontpiece for a 1576 edition of the Malleus maleficarum. Via Wikimedia Commons
“Cities weren’t making these decisions in isolation,” says lead author Dr Kerice Doten-Snitker, a postdoctoral fellow at the Santa Fe Institute, USA.
“They were watching what their neighbours were doing and learning from those examples. The combination of new ideas from books and the influence of nearby trials created the perfect conditions for these persecutions to spread.”
The researchers tracked the “ideational diffusion” – the spread of an idea, and behaviours linked to it – of witchcraft by looking at trial data and publication data from 553 cities in Central Europe.
They looked specifically for the publication of witch-hunting manuals, like the Malleus maleficarum.
This book contained a detailed explanation of “demonology” – the theory of witchcraft – as well as practical advice on finding and convicting witches.
“At the time of its appearance, there was only a shaky consensus among learned authorities on the crucial questions of who witches were, what they did, and why they had supernatural powers,” write the researchers in their paper.
“The willingness of [author Heinrich] Kramer to expound confidently on these questions is part of what made Malleus so influential.”
Each new edition of the Malleus maleficarum was linked to an increase in witch trials in the city where it was printed.
“The printing press did not cause the inception of the elaborated theory of witchcraft, but our results show that it fostered its spread,” write the researchers.
The team believes this ideational diffusion can be seen in many other areas.
“The process of adopting witch trials is not unlike how modern governments adopt new policies today,” says Doten-Snitker.
“It often starts with a change in ideas, which are reinforced through social networks. Over time, these ideas take root and change the behaviour of entire societies.”
October 12, 1492 Natives of islands off the Atlantic shore of North America came upon Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, who was searching for a water route to India for Spanish Queen Isabella.
October 12, 1945 Pfc. Desmond Doss became the first conscientious objector ever to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Doss, a Seventh Day Adventist, enlisted in 1942 but refused to carry a rifle or train on Saturdays. On the island of Okinawa, under heavy Japanese fire, he saved the lives of 75 sick and wounded soldiers by lowering them, one by one, down a 400-foot cliff. The guest house at Walter Reed Army Medical Center is Doss Memorial Hall in his honor. Read more (includes movie trailer)
October 12, 1958 A Reform Jewish Temple in Atlanta (the city’s oldest) was firebombed with fifty sticks of dynamite in retaliation for Jewish support of local black civil rights activists. The Temple’s Rabbi, Jacob Rothschild, was outspoken in his support of civil rights and integration, and was a friend of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. before he became well known nationally. From Georgia PBS
October 12, 1967 British zoologist Desmond Morris stunned the world with his book, “The Naked Ape,” a frank study of human behavior from a zoologist’s perspective. Morris had earlier studied the artistic abilities of apes and was appointed Curator of Mammals at the London Zoo. Read more
October 12, 1967 “A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority” appeared in The Nation and the New York Review of Books. 20,000 signed it, including academics, clergymen, writers. It urged “that every free man has a legal right and a moral duty to exert every effort to end this war [Vietnam], to avoid collusion with it, and to encourage others to do the same.” This document became the main basis for the federal government’s criminal prosecution (for encouraging draft evasion) of five of the signers: Dr. Benjamin Spock, Marcus Raskin, Mitchell Goodman, Michael Ferber, and the Reverend William Sloane Coffin. Read the Call
October 12, 1970 Lt. William Calley was court-martialled for the massacre of 102 civilians in the Vietnamese village of My Lai; far more actually died during the incident. The full sad story
Lt. Calley
October 12, 1977 “Regents of the University of California v. Bakke” was argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. The question: Did the University of California violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, by practicing an affirmative action policy that resulted in the repeated rejection of Bakke’s application for admission to its medical school? Read more
Trump has a long history of endorsing police violence, having said that police reaction to the racial unrest in response to the murder of George Floyd in 2020 “was a beautiful thing to watch.”
The Purge is a revenge horror franchise.
The only thing Trump’s speech has in common with it is he’s talking about a temporary spasm of widespread violence.
That is NOT what this is. This is STATE-sponsored terrorism against a targeted group. This is 1938 in Nazi Germany. https://t.co/49S7Hkwe8A
— Jim Stewartson, Counterinsurgent 🇺🇸🇺🇦💙🎈 (@jimstewartson) September 29, 2024
The former president, who risks jail time and more criminal trials if he loses, has expanded his range of baseless attacks on U.S. voting procedures in recent weeks and months. Trump falsely claimed Monday that Democrats are exploiting an overseas ballot program for expats and military members in order to circumvent “any citizenship check or verification of identity.”
Look at the projection in the next story. Look the only end might be the clawing back some of the taxes owned to the public treasury from the wealthy people who constantly want more and more public funds only for themselves. The only loss will be a white majority nation, and Elon Musk is a full out South African racist bigot. Full out racist bigot. He is not worried about voting, he is a white man. He is worried brown / black people will get to vote. He and tRump talk bad about Haitians and immigrants while hiring them on the cheap. Hugs. Scottie
Trump: Crooked Joe Biden became mentally impaired. But lying Kamala Harris, honestly, I believe she was born that way. There’s something wrong and I don’t know what it is but there is something missing pic.twitter.com/RP5TaHMVhQ
These maga gang thugs think they can get away with anything and that they don’t have to obey any laws or rules. Hate rules their lives. It may have been this guy who said he wrote the bill because he couldn’t stand that kids were coming out at school and being accepted by other students instead of targeted for abuse. He wants LGBTQ+ kids to be scared to be themselves and to stay in the closet hiding from them straight cis bullies. Hugs. Scottie
Fine was in court due to a lawsuit involving a Brevard County election official. As I’ve said here before, he is probably the most obnoxious of all Florida lawmakers, which is really saying something.
He last appeared here when DeSantis vetoed funding for a “woke zoo” because it wouldn’t host a fundraiser for Fine.
Fine also appeared on JMG in May 2022 when he tweeted what many interpreted as a threat to assassinate President Biden. That tweet remains online.
Before that, Fine appeared on JMG when he called for felony charges after Florida Democrats staged a sit-in over the racist US House map submitted by DeSantis.
And before that, he appeared here when he threatened to defund a Florida Special Olympics event and called a local school board member a “whore” because she’d been invited its fundraiser gala and he was not.
Fine was a sponsor of the bill that stripped Disney’s self-governing status. His family owns annual passes to the “woke” theme park giant.
In 2022, he arranged for a Florida town to honor a war criminal who was convicted of executing four Iraqi prisoners. In April 2023 he declared, “Damn right, we ought to erase” LGBTQs.
Fine is also a sponsor of Florida’s bill criminalizing drag shows in view of minors. Of note, his wife runs a self-described “sultry” burlesque show that would violate her husband’s law.
ALEC member and Israel proxy Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) was "caught on camera appearing to give the middle finger and making other gestures during an Aug. 19 virtual court hearing." Fine and his attorney will attend a contempt of court hearing today.https://t.co/6CSOoF56Fm
A Michigan man, 61, was arrested after assaulting a postal carrier who delivered a flyer featuring Kamala Harris. He told the postal carrier that he didn’t want that "Black b****" in his mailbox and then threatened her with violence. https://t.co/DIlREaWx3b
The Straight Pride Flag looks like it’s the cover of MEN ARE FROM MARS, WOMEN ARE FROM VENUS if it was written by the Hamburglar. pic.twitter.com/k69ANfFc1y
Hit the link for other already known examples of Trump withholding federal relief from blue states. Earlier this week Trump posted that Biden was withholding relief from “Republican areas” in North Carolina.
You can’t only help those in need if they voted for you.
It’s the most basic part of being president, and this guy knows nothing about it. https://t.co/FuPHwtlZuu
Upon the advice of right-wing Christian Independence Law Center, South Western's far-right school board is cutting windows so passersby can look into the so-called “gender-identity” student bathrooms. "A new Level of Weird," writes @YorkDispatch. READ: https://t.co/KxuSQAaZojpic.twitter.com/usSfxhl451
I bet the next election will be well attended and these people will lose their seats and new progressive inclusive people will win. That is what has happened all over when the right bigots and haters snuck into school board seats, they go too far trying to erase the LGBTQ+ kids / people from existence, then they get kicked out. Sadly by then the damage is done. What they hell do they want people perving on kids in the bathrooms for? To make the kids scared to use them and to make sure the weird kids are not doing weird gay stuff in them, right? Hugs. Scottie.
By the way. We have a hurricane headed right at us. It will be here Wednesday at around noon, but we have three days of wind and rain beforehand. It will hit at a class three. It is projected to hit just above us but could hit us directly. We will be spending the next few days getting as much done as possible, stocking in cat food Ron forgot and getting more gas and propane for the generator. It is unlikely that pole of ours will survive another storm as it is already leaning hard. Repair crews are already stretched thin in other areas so won’t be able to come rescue us in our time of need. Going to be a very long few months. Hugs. Scottie
YORK DISPATCH EDITORIAL BOARD
York Dispatch
At the risk of stating the obvious, South Western’s elected school board is making some strange decisions.
For the last two years, they’ve fixated on which bathrooms LGBTQ+ kids use. In 2023, officials in this Hanover-area district played musical chairs with school bathrooms in a misguided attempt to appease the loudest bigots among them — ending up with five different types of bathrooms.
After a low-turnout school board election in which several far-right members joined their ranks, they hired a Christian law firm, decided to begin banning books and reopened the bathroom issue. Board President Matthew Gelazela, who was elevated to his post after previously serving as the board’s most vocal bomb-thrower, pointed to Red Lion’s discriminatory policiesas something to aspire to.
These adults want to make it easier for other people to watch your children while they’re in the bathroom. It’s absolutely mind-boggling.
Gelazela, who’s steadfastly refused to explain the logic here, said in a public meeting that the windows help “[add] privacy in the toilet facility” and that they “increase oversight of the wash area.”
There’s a reason public restrooms tend not to have windows — or, if they do, they have frosted glass.
No one wants to be spied on when they’re relieving themselves.
The parents who spoke to The York Dispatch about the latest bathroom renovations said their children no longer feel comfortable using these bathrooms. One of the parents went to the principal and asked for an exemption to allow her son to use a different bathroom further away from class.
Her 13-year-old doesn’t want to be spied on while he’s in the bathroom.
And we don’t blame him.
It’s creepy and weird.
And let’s not ignore the bigger picture: This is happening at a time when this and other York County school boards are pushing policies that would restrict what books students read, what sports teams they compete on and even which pronouns they use.
All of this is part of an attempt to erase LGBTQ+ people.
Cutting a window into these bathrooms is an intimidation tactic designed to make sure students who use the so-called “gender-identity” facilities — and, let’s be honest, any student who doesn’t fit neatly into the worldview of the school board’s far-right majority — know they’re being watched, controlled and judged.
In their quest to punish LGBTQ+ kids, however, the misguided “adults” on this South Western School Board are doing the things they accuse others of doing.
This is an invasion of privacy and a waste of taxpayer dollars.
A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit from a Denver Public Schools parent who sought to force the district to honor his request to display “straight pride” flags in his children’s classrooms.
Nathan Feldman brought suit on behalf of himself and his two children, alleging discrimination and a violation of the First Amendment stemming from DPS declining to add a straight pride flag in his children’s classrooms alongside displays of LGBTQ pride flags.
In a June 26 order, U.S. District Court Judge Regina M. Rodriguez determined the pride flags amounted to the government’s own speech, which the First Amendment does not regulate. Therefore, a decision by DPS not to display a flag did not violate Feldman’s rights.
“DPS policy reflects careful consideration about what views can be expressed and that any expressions must reflect DPS’s policy of equality and inclusion. Accordingly, the Court finds that DPS has maintained control over the flag displays,” wrote Rodriguez, an appointee of President Joe Biden.
Feldman filed suit after school administrators allegedly allowed “non-binary and non-cisgender students to have flags displayed that represent their genders but not allowing Plaintiffs to have flags displayed that represent their genders.” He asked for damages of at least $3 million and for an order allowing him to display the straight pride flag.
A “straight pride” flag. Source: Feldman et al. v. Denver Public Schools et al.
DPS, in moving to dismiss the lawsuit, noted Feldman’s allegations were contradictory, as he simultaneously asserted “each” classroom at Slavens School had a pride flag and that “not all teachers displayed these flags.” Nonetheless, the district argued the display of flags constituted government speech, as DPS policy endorsed the use of LGBTQ pride flags as “symbols consistent with the District’s equity-based curriculum.”
“Plaintiffs assert that passing a resolution recognizing LGBTQIA+ students or staff without providing equal recognition to those who don’t so identify is an actionable distinction. Not so,” wrote the district’s attorneys.
Feldman responded that individual teachers at his children’s school made the decision to display pride flags. Therefore, DPS was not in control of the displays and they did not constitute the government’s own speech.
In August, U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott T. Varholak recommended that Feldman’s claims be dismissed. He cited a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision involving Boston’s practice of allowing private entities to fly flags outside city hall. The court did not find such circumstances amounted to speech by the government.
However, wrote then-Justice Stephen G. Breyer, “when the government speaks for itself, the First Amendment does not demand airtime for all views.”
“Here, DPS selected the Pride Flag, and not Plaintiffs’ Flag, as representing the message that DPS wished to convey,” Varholak wrote in deeming the flag displays governmental expression. “Conversely, there is no allegation that DPS had a history of accepting for display other flags submitted by the public.”
In this 2018 file photo, a supporters of the LGBTQ community fly a Pride flag in the Colorado Springs PrideFest Parade.
(Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette, File)
As for Feldman’s sex discrimination and equal protection claims, Varholak noted that unless there are allegations of unequal treatment, there is no legal claim based on the absence of a flag representing cisgender, heterosexual students.
“Plaintiffs plainly disagree with DPS’s selected messaging, and phrase this disagreement in constitutional terms,” he concluded, “but ultimately fail to allege any injury except exposure to a flag that they do not feel represented by.”
Feldman objected to portions of Varholak’s analysis, but Rodriguez, the district judge, concluded Feldman was either raising new arguments for the first time or had failed to show why Varholak was mistaken.
To the claim that displaying a flag is discriminatory when it repesents a different group’s sexual orientation or gender identity, “Plaintiffs offer no legal support for their argument,” she wrote, “and the Court finds none.”
Attorneys for both parties did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case is Feldman et al. v. Denver Public Schools et al.
Full confession; this is an article from Sojourners Magazine. I subscribe, and I brought the whole piece here, for those who may wish to read it but don’t want to go on a Christian site. I did not see anything besides that to warn about; there is discussion of church but not of bad happenings. However, if I missed something, I am so sorry; if you would be able to let me know in comments, that helps me learn what I should look for. This article struck me as something that should be at Scottie’s Playtime.
This interview is part of The Reconstruct, a weekly newsletter from Sojourners. In a world where so much needs to change, Mitchell Atencio and Josiah R. Daniels interview people who have faith in a new future and are working toward repair. Subscribe here.
Flamy Grant called in to her morning interview after participating in a day-long silent retreat. Well, not a silent retreat exactly — it was a vocal rest.
After spending the last year touring the U.S. off the success of her album, Grant, who prefers to use her stage name in interviews, needed to rest her voice. Since her rise to Christian music stardom — or infamy, depending on how one feels about a drag queen topping the Christian charts — she has performed in bars, clubs, and churches spreading the good news in glitter.
Since then, Grant has collaborated with artists like Semler, Derek Webb, and Jennifer Knapp. And she has spoken out for LGBTQ+ rights, joining a lawsuit against the state of Tennessee in 2023.
A few weeks before the release of her second album, CHURCH, Grant and I spoke about her time touring the country, writing songs in drag, leaving the church but still going to churches weekly, and more.
Coincidentally, as the interview ended, Amy Grant’s “Lucky One” began playing over the hotel lobby’s speakers.
[Editor’s note: This interview was performed before Hurricane Helene devastated many regions in the South, including Flamy Grant’s hometown of Asheville, N.C. Grant and her team canceled shows in North Carolina, but continue touring in Georgia and Nashville this week before touring the West Coast.]
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Mitchell Atencio: How is touring? What have you heard from folks while on the road?
Flamy Grant: I feel like I’ve been on tour pretty much nonstop for the past year. A year ago I quit my day job and moved back to Asheville, N.C., where I was born and raised. And honestly, this is not even an exaggeration, I’ve spent more time on the road than I have in my bedroom at home.
This [tour], though, is very different. I’m on a tour with two other acts and a full band. Mostly, I’ve just been solo on the road, which I love in a lot of ways because I’m actually very much an introvert.
We’re only in our second week right now of the “No More Trauma” tour, and the response has been amazing so far. Now that I’m a year in, there have been people who’ve come up to me to say hello afterwards, and [they say], “This is our third or fourth time seeing you!” And I’m like, I’ve really only been doing this full-time for a year. What do you mean the third or fourth time? It is really cool to know that there’s this community and fan loyalty.
My favorite moment on tour so far was in St. Louis. We were getting ready, there was no green room at the venue, so I was literally just painting my face in front of the windows, right outside where the line was forming to get in. There was this family — a mother and a little girl, around 7-9 years old. She had a sign, painted in full rainbow lettering, that said, “This is my first concert!” And she was just holding it up to the window. So I popped out to say hello, and they had driven two hours to St. Louis to come to this show. Her name was Claire, and I’m her favorite artist, and I’m her first concert.
That was wild because it just threw me back to when I was that age and excited about music and wanting to go to concerts for the first time. Everybody always asks that question, “What was your first concert?” throughout your entire life. And now Claire is always going to say, “I saw a drag queen in St. Louis.”
Now I’m curious what your first concert was.
Clay Crosse. He had quite a big hit with that song “I Surrender All” in the ’90s. I just loved him. I probably had a crush on him, if we’re being honest. He had that classic jawline, that beautiful blonde hair, and yeah, I was obsessed with him. My parents couldn’t take me, so I roped one of my friends from church and got his dad to drive us down to this show. What I remember most about it was that Jaci Velasquez opened and she was so good. She was phenomenal.
Mine, for fairness, was the Newsboys back when Peter Furler was still leading them. Speaking of touring, I noticed you have a different booking process for churches and for “traditional venues” like bars and clubs. Why is that?
That’s been interesting to navigate. I feel like I’m definitely straddling two worlds. I very much want to be taken seriously as a musician and songwriter. The drag can sometimes be a little bit of a barrier to that, because people tend to see drag and think it’s a gimmick or, they just immediately associate it with Sunday drag brunch or weekend clubs.
I have done a fair bit of that, especially early on, but I’m a singer-songwriter and I write my own original music, and I happen to perform in drag. It’s been a challenge to convey that as we’re booking and marketing shows. My booking agent is fantastic, and she’s been really good at helping people understand that they’re booking a singer-songwriter who needs an extra hour in the green room to get ready.
What happened last year, with “Good Day” hitting number one, so many churches reached out and the first question was, “Can we do ‘Good Day’ in Sunday worship?” And I’m like, of course you can, just make sure they know it’s written by a drag queen. The next question was, “How do we get you to come?” Either on a Sunday morning or to do a special concert on an evening.
Because I know the church world and was a worship leader for 22 years, it just makes more sense for me to book those myself. I don’t generally go out seeking church bookings, those really do come to me, and that’s a gift in so many ways.
I’ve played in over 50 churches in the last year. Some want to integrate me into their Sunday morning service, I’ll be part of the service planning, and we’ll have a song during communion or the offertory. Others want to bring me in on a Saturday night and have me come sing to their congregation and community.
I have officially left the church myself. The last church I was involved in was in San Diego, I was a worship leader there for 8-and-a-half years and it closed down after the pandemic. I have not sought out a new church home since then, but I’m still in churches a lot.
You’re in churches about once a week — that’s more than many church members. What makes writing music as Flamy Grant feel different? How does one write songs in drag?
In some ways, there’s no difference at all. At the end of the day, I’m just writing about my experiences. Derek Webb says the artist’s role is just to look at the world and speak about it. That’s so much of what I’ve done since I was 9 years old when I wrote my first song. That process of songwriting doesn’t necessarily feel all that different.
And yet, there is this shift in the tone and subject matter of what I write about, because my life has changed so dramatically. And drag is a huge part of that change.
Flamy Grant poses for a photo. Photo by Ash Perlberg/Courtesy Flamy Grant
It’s been really fun to feel like I’m excavating parts of myself that have been dormant or suppressed for so long. [Drag] definitely changes the subject matter of what I’m writing about.
And it’s been there all along, I just haven’t allowed myself the pleasure and joy of exploring the range of my own gender identity, even the range of my physical voice. Being able to play with how I sing a song or a lyric, it’s opened up a world of songwriting to me. There are times now, when I’m writing, where I do think about what this is going to look and feel like on stage, in drag, in a big wig with sequins and glitter on my face and all of this.
I still love to write a gut-punch ballad; that’s one of my specialties. And I love doing that because that’s not really a thing you tend to associate with drag too much. That tends to be a more surprising moment for people in my concerts, when I get serious. People expect the fierceness and sass and qualities of drag that they’re used to.
Mostly it’s just a lot of fun. I really enjoy the opportunity to play with music in new ways.
It sounds like part of what you’re saying is that it offers an added element of creativity to a songwriting process, even in the “constraint” of writing as Flamy Grant.
That’s absolutely right, there is a constraining piece to it. Whatever music I put out, it’s going to be out under that name, Flamy Grant, and I know it’s going to be associated with drag.
In some ways it’s obviously pushing the boundaries of Christian music, but it’s also pushing the boundaries of what people might consider drag to be.
What has the response been like from the drag community?
I just got a message from a drag queen back in San Diego. Her drag name is Nadya Symone. I love this queen. She’s just one of the people I look up to. She’s a Southern queen who lives in San Diego now. She was there at my very first drag show; I was nervous, and she could tell. And she just said, “Baby, whatever happens, the show goes on. You make a mistake, you forget a lyric, you forget a line, your wig falls off, whatever — the show goes on.”
I just felt so taken in, included, and welcomed. And that’s never changed. The people who get [Flamy] the quickest are other drag performers. I don’t have to explain much to them. They’re like, “Oh you’re just bringing yourself to drag, which is what we all do.”
Anyway, the message that Symone sent me just yesterday was just, “I’m so proud of you, baby.” I don’t know what she had seen, but she’s still there and cheering me on. I had a lot of anxiety coming into this and a lot of imposter syndrome. Am I a real drag queen? Do I really belong in this community if what I want to do is write my own folk songs and sing them? And that has all been laid to rest by interacting with other performers.
Is there anything that you wanted to do differently between your first album, Bible Belt Baby, and your second album, CHURCH?
I’m so proud of Bible Belt Baby, but it did come together circumstantially and without a lot of intention. My initial conversation with my producer, Ben, who was my housemate in San Diego at the time, was, I think I want to sing in drag. And we were going to put together a five-song EP. I ran a Kickstarter, and we raised more than I expected. And it just continued to blossom and grow until it was a full album.
And in order to make it a full album, I was pulling from songs that predated Flamy. What was really cool about that was discovering that Flamy has been there all along, right?
But with CHURCH, I had the opportunity to really, for the first time, think about crafting a complete narrative. Thinking about themes that would all be contained on one record and writing, for the first time, a full album in Flamy’s voice intentionally.
The second thing was having the resources to go to Nashville and make a Nashville record with Nashville players. That was a really exciting prospect for me.
We sent them all the demos in advance. I, [pauses] I don’t know that they listened to them, but they didn’t need to. They heard the song one time, took a couple notes, went to their instruments, and five, six, seven takes later we had what we needed. It was wild to watch how, at the skill level of those musicians, they brought the songs to life in ways I could have only hoped for.
I really wanted a sound that was in this Nashville vein, but we also talked about how to make it still a drag record. How do we pull in some of this country disco feel? How do we make sure it stands on par with anything coming out of Nashville, but also uniquely Flamy. They did a phenomenal job.
[Lastly], with Bible Belt Baby, I didn’t know, up until a couple months before releasing it, whether I would even put it out as a Christian record. It wasn’t until we finished it that I was like, yeah, this absolutely belongs in the Christian genre.
Now, Christian music is largely worship music, which I personally don’t care for. I like music that tells someone’s story. I want to hear what an individual person has gone through in their life and how they got to where they are.
And that’s why I loved artists like Margaret Becker, or Jennifer Knapp, Caedmon’s Call, and folks famous for writing really personal. What’s that thing people say? We find the universal in the specific — that’s what I love about singer songwriters. I don’t know if I’ll continue to make Christian music forever or what the next album will look like yet, but for this album, I [wanted] to be really intentional with the messaging. I think the tagline for the Kickstarter was “Flamy Grant’s Big Gay Christian Record.”
He feels entitled to take anything he wants without paying for it. He also believes it is better to just due and ignore anyone else’s rights. He is the great cult leader. Hugs. Scottie
Walters has ordered daily bible lessons for Oklahoma’s public school students in all grades. Several dozen school districts are currently defying that edict.
Earlier this month, local outlets exposed Walters for spending state money to fund a national tour of far-right events to “promote himself on the national stage.”
Walters is widely expected to run for governor. Current governor and fellow Christian nationalist Kevin Stitt is term-limited.
Last month around two dozen GOP state lawmakers signed a letter calling for an impeachment probe into Walters for refusing to disclose his spending.
Walters has hired a raft of far-right figures, including Chaya Rachik and Dennis Prager, to help him “turn students to Jesus.” Raichik is reportedly helping overhaul public school libraries.
Imagine all the good that those millions of dollars could be used for. It could be used to pay Oklahoma’s hardworking teachers or provide additional supplies and resources for its struggling schools.
Instead, it’s being used to promote Walters’ Christian nationalist agenda. https://t.co/DE20Pw1846
Please remember the people who first led Israel in the beginning were also terrorist. Many in the Israeli government in the early decades of Israel’s existence were also labeled terrorist. One person’s terrorist is another person’s avowed wonderful member of government. It has been leaked that members of Israel’s government wants to annex another sovereign country’s land and make it Israel’s property. Just like they have in the West bank, and Gaza. In fact some have talked about trying to take part of Egypt. This is because religious fanatics are running the country now and they claim their god gave them the entire area so they simply have the right to take it. And no one can stop them as long as Biden stays in the mind set of the 1950 / 60s/ 70s, because Biden won’t let anyone else strike Israel back to show them their god did not give them permission to take others lands. Bibi has given the middle finger to every US president and he is desperate to get tRump to win by dragging the US into a war in the Middle East. That is his plan to help tRump and hurt Harris. And they bombed an entire area of occupied apartments in Beirut, which is another war crime they committed. Hugs. Scottie
A marketing director of a well-known Swiss brand, said, “When you look at all of them, they scream Chinese-made watch. None of them is worth the asking price. Those blue screws on the tourbillon cage are a dead giveaway that it was partly made in China. You won’t find blue screws on a tourbillon made in Switzerland. And you can pick up a Chinese tourbillon for $100.”
Trump's "Vastly Overpriced" $100,000 "Swiss Watch" Is Probably Made in China, Experts Say https://t.co/neyxxt5J0U
Milei has cut support for welfare programs, soup kitchens, and other efforts to aid the needy.
Milei’s biggest cheerleader is Elon Musk, who has vowed to bring similar policies as the leader of Trump’s supposed “Department Of Government Efficiency.”
Of note, the planned department’s acronym just happens to be the same as a cryptocurrency often promoted by Musk.
Earlier this year Musk posted the below porn-adjacent image in celebration of Milei.
Not only did Hawley vote against the project, the report below notes that in 2019 Trump defunded all such military projects to divert the money to his border wall.
“We can VERIFY: No, Hawley did not secure $100 million for Fort Leonard Wood's military housing.”
Lying about supporting military families? While even voting AGAINST supporting them? That amounts to nothing more than stolen valor.https://t.co/jWt78m2qd4
The party who has people arrested, charged, and found guilty of voter fraud is the Republican Party. Every accusation from them is a confession of their own actions. They are setting it up to challenge the voters will and overturn the vote in that state. Hugs. Scottie
Hancock said that he learned during the trial that Rittenhouse had allegedly used racial slurs in messages sent to his friends and appeared to be looking for an opportunity to use a weapon. “There was a history of things he was doing prior to Kenosha, specifically patrolling the street for months with guns and borrowing people’s security uniforms, doing whatever he could to try to get into some kind of a gunfight,” Hancock claimed.
‘Patrolling the streets for months’: Kyle Rittenhouse confidants reveal new details the jury never knew https://t.co/zDg2esDw0t
The party maybe have evolved into the kind of anti-migrant, anti-Islam populist force that has taken hold across much of Europe, but it began as a political refuge for former Nazis. Not only has the FPÖ not disavowed that past, it embraces it — at least in private — with the leading party figures regularly getting to trouble for paying quiet tribute to their Nazi forebears.
Abrasive and provocative, far-right leader Herbert Kickl has one of the lowest approval ratings among Austria's top politicians, yet he is the frontrunner in Sunday’s parliamentary election, which has at times felt like a referendum on him https://t.co/NAPLJKizYypic.twitter.com/IUoS0CaQoV
As I often remind the haters, almost all of the children in the foster care and adoption system are there due to abuse and abandonment by the heterosexual parents.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the federal government over its requirement that states provide LGBTQ+ affirming placement for foster care youth. https://t.co/Al87Q9y6L7
The SDA church through the farmer I talked about before rescued me from a childhood of abuse. I loved most of the people I met. I bought Christian music, I went all in to the faith but still kept my belief in science. I felt somehow as a 17 year old both could coexist if everyone cared for others. But then I noticed groups in the church community I was in, those who were looked down on, the behind the scenes gossip, the in people who were much better off and the other in group who had skills the church needed, and the last group. I realized that I did not buy into the stuff preached about Ellen G White. I found her legend to be built up by the church, but not backed by fact. The strict adherence that teen boys not masturbate and wait until their wedding night for their first release struck me an abuse victim as absurd, and after living in a church boarding school for over a summer and school year quickly realized every other boy there did also. Just some of them felt shame for doing it. I even started to despite all that I had endured and sometimes being made to do it in front of people. Indoctrination on a daily scale is powerful, but in this case it did not break through my prior abuse. But I loved the somewhat community I found. The first time in 17 years I felt accepted by both adults and kids. Oh but I quickly learned it was superficial and all teens deal with the same issues regardless of being abused, and I know of at least two others in the school I went to that were.
Why I left the church even though the farmer and his wife promised to pay for me to go through the seminary to be a pastor in their church, which was sincere on their part. I had already accepted by then I was gay. I even had other boys wanting to experiment in the boarding school … but sadly I stopped them because if found out I would have had to return to the hell I just had been patrol from. I needed to reach 18 so I could leave their control. I feel bad for the innocent gay feeling boys but I had to think of my own safety. The beating I took that made me hide at the farm was very severe and I knew from experience if I returned after someone intervened I could be beaten to death. Not a future I looked forward to. I was gay, their church to this day is anti-gay. I knew I couldn’t be part of it. I left on the best terms I could.
I joined the military the next week. I tried to keep contact with my boyhood friend I spent so much time with who was their son, but after I turned down their offer to send me to the ministry he turned against me and the last time he spoke to me, he told me he wanted nothing to do with me ever again. I had just come home from the military and this was a huge kick in the balls. He became a pastor in their church. I wonder if he regrets telling me that? This video means something to me, I hope you watch it. Hugs. Scottie
Scottie's Playtime 