 |
 |
‘God hates a fag. / If you’re a fag he hates you too,’ Donnie Davies sings in his video for ‘The Bible Says.’
|
|
|
| | |
|
| |
| |
|
|
| | |
HOME > VIEWPOINT > ACTION! ALERT
By: DYANA BAGBY
COMMENTS |
| 
Who is Pastor Donnie Davies, the internet sensation behind the song and video that touts “God hates a fag”? As of press time Jan. 31, the verdict is apparently still out.
On Jan. 27, Joe Jervis, the blogger behind the website JoeMyGod.com, wrote he believes Davies is actually a Dallas-based actor and sketch comedian named Joey Oglesby. Jervis thinks the actor is poking fun at the “ex-gay” ministry and speculates he is using the internet as a marketing tool for an upcoming movie.
But despite rampant speculation by gay bloggers, Davies states through his publicist that he, his song (“The Bible Says”), his band (“Evening Service”) and his video are the real thing.
“Donnie Davies believes in this message enough to devote his life to it. I think that is the best testimony to how strongly he believes in it,” Shane Kendall told Southern Voice via email on Jan. 31. “As far as a sense of humor, Donnie does have one, but he takes the message seriously.”
Kendall also said he is perplexed by accusations that Davies is not who he says he is.
“We don’t quite know how to answer this. So we don’t,” he said.
A phone interview request with Davies, who says he is a “reformed homosexual,” was denied and Kendall said Davies was too busy to answer the e-mailed questions himself.
Asked about Love God’s Way, Davies’ ministry, Kendall said the pastor is not ready to unveil much about it at this time.
“Donnie’s ministry is not associated with any church or denomination. The final stages of preparation for the full launch of C.H.O.P.S. [Changing Homosexuals into Ordinary People] are almost complete. He is not ready to give any of the details at this time,” Kendall said in the e-mail.
JERVIS STANDS BY his claim that Davies is actually Oglesby and said it’s time for “Davies” to come out with his true identity and intent.
“Joey Oglesby and I have exchanged about a dozen emails, and he continues to deny he is Donnie Davies, although I suspect he is staying in character pending an announcement of a movie (www.chopsthemovie.com). I’m just speculating about that, but Oglesby has promised to give me a statement ‘soon,’” he said in an interview with Southern Voice Jan. 30.
Jervis added that whatever and whomever Davies turns out to be, the song and video and the ensuing brouhaha it wrought among gay bloggers “has elevated the idiocy of the ‘ex-gay’ movement to levels previously unseen.”
“I applaud the skillful way in which the entire operation has kept the gay blogosphere transfixed,” he said. “The Donnie Davies phenomenon is successful viral marketing that is unprecedented in the gay media world. In fact, I can’t think of a single viral campaign that directly took on ‘The Gays’ like this.
“I do think that they are just about at the over-doing it point, however, so now is the time to pull back the curtain and show us what this is all about,” Jervis added.
DAN SAVAGE — author, syndicated sex-advice columnist and editor of the Stranger, a Seattle alternative-weekly newspaper — theorized after the video hit the internet on Jan. 21 that Davies was serious about his message that “God hates fags” but was using humor to get his message across.
Savage said Davies is a shrewd bigot, citing his use of double entendre in some of the lyrics to the song and video, as well as thanking gay blogger Andrew Sullivan — who called the performance “brilliant” satire — for backing him when Google removed Davies’ video.
“It’s a hoax but Davies — or the man playing him — means every last word,” Savage wrote.
“Davies is trying to be funny — heaven’s ‘back door,’ thanking Andrew Sullivan for ‘getting behind [him],’ kneeling next to the guy at the control board — but he means it when sings ‘God hates a fag.’ He may not be ex-gay (those desperate dudes don’t have a sense of humor about their predicament), but a straight religious bigot with a sense of humor,” Savage added.
|
