Things to Think About
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m_emerson_news . I generally don't repost articles about Michael Emerson in this journal, but I thought that, because his politics is mentioned, as well as his opposition to Proposition 8, which was unfortunately passed in California, it merits to be posted here. Michael Emerson, in my opinion, is a great actor, as well as a great soul. I also placed a video that Keith Olberman made regarding Proposition 8. I urge members of my f-list who agreed with Proposition 8 (banning gay marriage) to listen to Keith and, if you can, could you please show me the line in the Bible that says that marriage is between a man and a woman only.
When I read the Bible, I found so many other type of offensive passages. For instance,
Incestual marriage
(Genesis, 20:11—13)
11. Abraham answered, "I thought that there would be no one here who has reverence for God and that they would kill me to get my wife.
12. She really is my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not of my mother, and I married her.
13. So when God sent me from my father's house into foreign lands, I said to her, 'You can show how loyal you are to me by telling everyone that I am your brother.'"
and Genesis, 22:20—24,
20. Some time later Abraham learned that Milcah had borne eight children to his brother Nahor:
21. Uz the first-born, Buz his borther, Kemuel the father of Aram,
22. Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel,
23. Rebecca's father, Milah bore these eight sons to Nahor, Abaham;s brother.
24. Reumah, Nahor's concubine, bore Tebah, Gaham , Tahash, and Maacah.
The Origin of the Moabites and Ammonites (Genesis, 19:30—38)
30. Because Lot was afraid to stay in Zoar, he and his two daughters moved up into the hills and lived in a cave.
31. The older daughter said to her sister, "Our fathers is getting old, and there are no men in the whole world (or in this land) to marry us so that we can have children.
32. Come on, let's get our father drunk, so that we can sleep with him and have children by him."
33. That night they gave him wine to drink, and the older daughter had intercourse with him. But he was so drunk that he didn't know it.
34 The next day the older daughter said to her sister, "I slept with him last night; now let's get him drunk again tonight, and you sleep with him. Then each of us will have a child by our father.”
35. So that night they got him drunk and the younger daughter had intercourse with him. Again he was so drunk that he didn’t know it.
36. In this way both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their own father.
37. The older daughter had a son, whom she named Moab. He was the ancestor of the present-day Moabites.
38. The younger daughter also had a son, whom she named Benammi. He was the ancestor of the present-day Ammonites.
The Descendants to Terah (Genesis, 11:27—30)
27. These are the descendants of Terah, who was the father of Abram. Nahor, and Haran. Haran was the father of Lot,
28. and Haran died in his hometown of Ur in Babylonia, while his father was still living.
29. Abram married Sarai, and Nahor married Milcah, the daughter of Haran, who was also the father of Iscah.
30. Sarai was not able to have children.
In other words, Terah had three children: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran had a daughter named Milcah, who married her uncle, Nahor.
Incestual Rape
(2 Samuel, 13:1—20)
1 David’s son Absalom had a beautiful unmarried sister named Tamar. Ammon, another of David’s sons, fell in love with her.
2. He was so much in love with her that he became sick, because it seemed impossible for him her; as a virgin, she was kept from meeting men.
3. But he had a friend, a very shrewd mean name Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shammah.
4. Jonadab said to Amnon, “You are the king’s son, yet day after day I see you looking sad. What’s the matter?” “I’m in love with Tamars, the sister of my half brother Absalom,” he answered.
5. Jonadab said to him, “Pretend that you are sick and go to bed. When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘Please ask my sister Tamar to come and feed me. I want her to fix the food here where I can see her, and then serve it to me herself.’”
6. So Amnon pretended that he was sick and went to bed. King David went to see him, and Ammon said to him, “Please let Tamar come and make a few cakes here where I can see her, and then serve them to me herself.”
7. So David sent word to Tamar in the palace: “Go to Ammon’s house and fix some food.”
8. She went there and found him in bed. She took some dough, prepared it, and made some cakes there were he could see her. Then she baked the cakes
9. and emptied them out of the pan for him to eat, but he wouldn’t. He said, “Send everyone away”—and they all left.
10. Then he said to her, “Bring the cakes her to my bed and serve them to yourself.” She took the cakes and went over to him.
11. As she offered them to him, he grabbed her and said, “Come to be with me.”
12. “No,” she said. “Don’t force me to do such a degrading thing! That’s awful!”
13. How could I ever hold up my head in public again? And you—you would be completely disgraced in Israel. Please, speak to the king, and I am sure that he will give me to you.
14. But he would not listen to her; and since he was stronger than she was, he overpowered her and raped her.
15. Then Ammon was filled with a deep hatred for her, heated her now even more than he had loved her before He said to her, “Get out!”
16. “No,” she answered. To send me away like this is a greater crime than what you just did!” But Ammon would not listen to her,
17. he called in his personal servant and said, “Get this woman out of my sight!” Throw her out and lock the door!”
18. The servant put her out and locked the door. Tamar was wearing a long robe with full sleeves, the usual clothing for unmarried princess in those days.
19. She sprinkled ashes oh her head, tore her robe, and with her face buried n her hands went away crying.
20. When her brother Absalom saw her, he asked, “Has Ammon molested you? Please sister, don’t let it upset you so much. He is your half bother, so don’t tell anyone about it” So Tamar lived in Absalom’s house, sand and lonely.
So, if the Bible does not condemn these activities, how can It condemn love?
****************************
Between The Lines Newspaper
From issue number 1646
Straight couple in a gay world
With latest indie charmer, married actors (and gay cheerleaders) - one of 'Lost' fame - make mom-approved movie
By Chris Azzopardi
Originally printed 11/13/2008
How ironic that Michael Emerson calls for a tamer world. As the is-he-bad-or-not antagonist in ABC's mind-game-playing "Lost" and in the very first "Saw" flick, the last thing you imagine the guy most know as Ben Linus saying - and so tenderly - is: "There's a sweetness in the movie, I think. But I don't think it's too much sweet. I think it's just sweet enough."
The creeptastic-character actor, currently in Honolulu shooting "Lost" (the fifth season premieres on Jan. 21), is referring to his latest indie stint, "Ready? OK!" Here, he's Charlie New, the white to Ben's black: A soft vest-sporting gay man who helps a single mother, Andy Dowd (played by his wife Carrie Preston), accept her gender-bending son.
Screening at the Reel Pride Film Festival at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 16, at the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak, the tale of a 10-year-old boy, Joshua, wanting nothing to do with wrestling and everything to do with cheerleading is familiar to anyone who was that out-of-place kid. Emerson, who chose Shakespeare over ball-kicking, was.
"It's hard enough to grow up in America and live up to all the sort of imaging that our culture has on us," he says, reflecting on his small-town Iowa upbringing, "and to be different in any way is sort of a burden."
He's living proof that artsy children don't always turn out to be queer - something Preston, who also co-produced the film, praises in "Ready? OK!", where Joshua is never labeled as homosexual. Just different.
"There are a lot of people who watch our movie who think that Josh is gonna grow up to be straight - and there are a lot of people, obviously, who watch it and think he's gonna grow up to be gay," she says. "But it's more about letting him be who he is."
The motif's familiar to Preston: She played the loving but weirded-out sister to Felicity Huffman's transgender character in self-discovery-themed "Transamerica." She also popped up again as Huffman's mom-hating sibling on "Desperate Housewives."
"I've made a career playing Felicity Huffman's sister," she laughs.
That's not entirely true. As mom to Emerson's eerie Ben Linus, she made a cameo on "Lost"; she's Arlene, a red-headed waitress, on Alan Ball's HBO series "True Blood" - and she's got more queer creds to her name than she does as Huffman's sibling. She starred in the 2004 comedy "Straight-Jacket" and directed "29th and Gay," about a gay man who's met life's dead end. Emerson had parts in both. And they're married?
"Both of us live in a sorta predominately gay world," Emerson says, adding that they share a parallel culture, including a fondness for theater. The day we chatted, Obama was named president-elect and it seemed likely California's Prop. 8 would pass (and it did). Both Preston and Emerson (he celebrated Obama's win the night before with the "Lost" cast - and some champagne) are passionately fuming about the ban on gay marriage.
"The one thing that I continually miss in American culture - whether it's in politics or what-have-you - is the sense of, let us be gentle with one another, let us be easy, let's stop the yelling and pushing," he says.
In that respect, Charlie New is a clone of Emerson. And that's why when asked, if he had to play matchmaker, which "Lost" survivor would fit his amiable gay character in "Ready? OK!", he has to really consider this.
After much deliberation, he simply answers: No one. "Charlie would do what Charlie does: He would make good conversation, and be a good social companion to everyone, but keep to himself."
Emerson's played gay before - as Oscar Wilde in a late '90s off-Broadway production of "Gross Indecency: The Trials of Oscar Wilde" - but he's especially humbled to be part of "Ready? OK" - which was shot on a shoe-string budget in 18 days. James Vasquez, who's worked with Preston on past projects, wrote Charlie New - an already-self-accepted character who's there to help others, an attraction for Emerson - with the usually-sinister actor in mind. Emerson was flattered. "It's another one of those examples of how you don't have to have all the money in the world to make something meaningful and to have a proud experience doing it."
His wife took pride in the film's resistance to be just another dime-a-dozen coming-out story: "The little boy is actually OK with who he is," Preston says. "This is not a movie about a coming-out process or a kid finding who he is. The kid is who he is from the beginning of the movie to the end; it's everyone around him that we're watching. A lot of gay movies want to do the former."
The dramedy's matriarch grew up as a strict Catholic, so she envisions her son's future to be filled with bullying, hardships and hate. Preston's aware of these realities, but also - because she grew up in an accepting household - would be thrilled to raise a gay kid.
"We're incredibly queer-friendly over here in the Preston-Emerson household, obviously," she says. "I make gay movies that you can take your mothers to."
When she's not Felicity Huffman's sister, that is.
'Ready? OK!'
6:30 p.m. Nov. 16
Main Art Theatre, Royal Oak
m_emerson_news . I generally don't repost articles about Michael Emerson in this journal, but I thought that, because his politics is mentioned, as well as his opposition to Proposition 8, which was unfortunately passed in California, it merits to be posted here. Michael Emerson, in my opinion, is a great actor, as well as a great soul. I also placed a video that Keith Olberman made regarding Proposition 8. I urge members of my f-list who agreed with Proposition 8 (banning gay marriage) to listen to Keith and, if you can, could you please show me the line in the Bible that says that marriage is between a man and a woman only.When I read the Bible, I found so many other type of offensive passages. For instance,
Incestual marriage
(Genesis, 20:11—13)
11. Abraham answered, "I thought that there would be no one here who has reverence for God and that they would kill me to get my wife.
12. She really is my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not of my mother, and I married her.
13. So when God sent me from my father's house into foreign lands, I said to her, 'You can show how loyal you are to me by telling everyone that I am your brother.'"
and Genesis, 22:20—24,
20. Some time later Abraham learned that Milcah had borne eight children to his brother Nahor:
21. Uz the first-born, Buz his borther, Kemuel the father of Aram,
22. Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel,
23. Rebecca's father, Milah bore these eight sons to Nahor, Abaham;s brother.
24. Reumah, Nahor's concubine, bore Tebah, Gaham , Tahash, and Maacah.
The Origin of the Moabites and Ammonites (Genesis, 19:30—38)
30. Because Lot was afraid to stay in Zoar, he and his two daughters moved up into the hills and lived in a cave.
31. The older daughter said to her sister, "Our fathers is getting old, and there are no men in the whole world (or in this land) to marry us so that we can have children.
32. Come on, let's get our father drunk, so that we can sleep with him and have children by him."
33. That night they gave him wine to drink, and the older daughter had intercourse with him. But he was so drunk that he didn't know it.
34 The next day the older daughter said to her sister, "I slept with him last night; now let's get him drunk again tonight, and you sleep with him. Then each of us will have a child by our father.”
35. So that night they got him drunk and the younger daughter had intercourse with him. Again he was so drunk that he didn’t know it.
36. In this way both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their own father.
37. The older daughter had a son, whom she named Moab. He was the ancestor of the present-day Moabites.
38. The younger daughter also had a son, whom she named Benammi. He was the ancestor of the present-day Ammonites.
The Descendants to Terah (Genesis, 11:27—30)
27. These are the descendants of Terah, who was the father of Abram. Nahor, and Haran. Haran was the father of Lot,
28. and Haran died in his hometown of Ur in Babylonia, while his father was still living.
29. Abram married Sarai, and Nahor married Milcah, the daughter of Haran, who was also the father of Iscah.
30. Sarai was not able to have children.
In other words, Terah had three children: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran had a daughter named Milcah, who married her uncle, Nahor.
Incestual Rape
(2 Samuel, 13:1—20)
1 David’s son Absalom had a beautiful unmarried sister named Tamar. Ammon, another of David’s sons, fell in love with her.
2. He was so much in love with her that he became sick, because it seemed impossible for him her; as a virgin, she was kept from meeting men.
3. But he had a friend, a very shrewd mean name Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shammah.
4. Jonadab said to Amnon, “You are the king’s son, yet day after day I see you looking sad. What’s the matter?” “I’m in love with Tamars, the sister of my half brother Absalom,” he answered.
5. Jonadab said to him, “Pretend that you are sick and go to bed. When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘Please ask my sister Tamar to come and feed me. I want her to fix the food here where I can see her, and then serve it to me herself.’”
6. So Amnon pretended that he was sick and went to bed. King David went to see him, and Ammon said to him, “Please let Tamar come and make a few cakes here where I can see her, and then serve them to me herself.”
7. So David sent word to Tamar in the palace: “Go to Ammon’s house and fix some food.”
8. She went there and found him in bed. She took some dough, prepared it, and made some cakes there were he could see her. Then she baked the cakes
9. and emptied them out of the pan for him to eat, but he wouldn’t. He said, “Send everyone away”—and they all left.
10. Then he said to her, “Bring the cakes her to my bed and serve them to yourself.” She took the cakes and went over to him.
11. As she offered them to him, he grabbed her and said, “Come to be with me.”
12. “No,” she said. “Don’t force me to do such a degrading thing! That’s awful!”
13. How could I ever hold up my head in public again? And you—you would be completely disgraced in Israel. Please, speak to the king, and I am sure that he will give me to you.
14. But he would not listen to her; and since he was stronger than she was, he overpowered her and raped her.
15. Then Ammon was filled with a deep hatred for her, heated her now even more than he had loved her before He said to her, “Get out!”
16. “No,” she answered. To send me away like this is a greater crime than what you just did!” But Ammon would not listen to her,
17. he called in his personal servant and said, “Get this woman out of my sight!” Throw her out and lock the door!”
18. The servant put her out and locked the door. Tamar was wearing a long robe with full sleeves, the usual clothing for unmarried princess in those days.
19. She sprinkled ashes oh her head, tore her robe, and with her face buried n her hands went away crying.
20. When her brother Absalom saw her, he asked, “Has Ammon molested you? Please sister, don’t let it upset you so much. He is your half bother, so don’t tell anyone about it” So Tamar lived in Absalom’s house, sand and lonely.
So, if the Bible does not condemn these activities, how can It condemn love?
****************************
Between The Lines Newspaper
From issue number 1646
Straight couple in a gay world
With latest indie charmer, married actors (and gay cheerleaders) - one of 'Lost' fame - make mom-approved movie
By Chris Azzopardi
Originally printed 11/13/2008
How ironic that Michael Emerson calls for a tamer world. As the is-he-bad-or-not antagonist in ABC's mind-game-playing "Lost" and in the very first "Saw" flick, the last thing you imagine the guy most know as Ben Linus saying - and so tenderly - is: "There's a sweetness in the movie, I think. But I don't think it's too much sweet. I think it's just sweet enough."
The creeptastic-character actor, currently in Honolulu shooting "Lost" (the fifth season premieres on Jan. 21), is referring to his latest indie stint, "Ready? OK!" Here, he's Charlie New, the white to Ben's black: A soft vest-sporting gay man who helps a single mother, Andy Dowd (played by his wife Carrie Preston), accept her gender-bending son.
Screening at the Reel Pride Film Festival at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 16, at the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak, the tale of a 10-year-old boy, Joshua, wanting nothing to do with wrestling and everything to do with cheerleading is familiar to anyone who was that out-of-place kid. Emerson, who chose Shakespeare over ball-kicking, was.
"It's hard enough to grow up in America and live up to all the sort of imaging that our culture has on us," he says, reflecting on his small-town Iowa upbringing, "and to be different in any way is sort of a burden."
He's living proof that artsy children don't always turn out to be queer - something Preston, who also co-produced the film, praises in "Ready? OK!", where Joshua is never labeled as homosexual. Just different.
"There are a lot of people who watch our movie who think that Josh is gonna grow up to be straight - and there are a lot of people, obviously, who watch it and think he's gonna grow up to be gay," she says. "But it's more about letting him be who he is."
The motif's familiar to Preston: She played the loving but weirded-out sister to Felicity Huffman's transgender character in self-discovery-themed "Transamerica." She also popped up again as Huffman's mom-hating sibling on "Desperate Housewives."
"I've made a career playing Felicity Huffman's sister," she laughs.
That's not entirely true. As mom to Emerson's eerie Ben Linus, she made a cameo on "Lost"; she's Arlene, a red-headed waitress, on Alan Ball's HBO series "True Blood" - and she's got more queer creds to her name than she does as Huffman's sibling. She starred in the 2004 comedy "Straight-Jacket" and directed "29th and Gay," about a gay man who's met life's dead end. Emerson had parts in both. And they're married?
"Both of us live in a sorta predominately gay world," Emerson says, adding that they share a parallel culture, including a fondness for theater. The day we chatted, Obama was named president-elect and it seemed likely California's Prop. 8 would pass (and it did). Both Preston and Emerson (he celebrated Obama's win the night before with the "Lost" cast - and some champagne) are passionately fuming about the ban on gay marriage.
"The one thing that I continually miss in American culture - whether it's in politics or what-have-you - is the sense of, let us be gentle with one another, let us be easy, let's stop the yelling and pushing," he says.
In that respect, Charlie New is a clone of Emerson. And that's why when asked, if he had to play matchmaker, which "Lost" survivor would fit his amiable gay character in "Ready? OK!", he has to really consider this.
After much deliberation, he simply answers: No one. "Charlie would do what Charlie does: He would make good conversation, and be a good social companion to everyone, but keep to himself."
Emerson's played gay before - as Oscar Wilde in a late '90s off-Broadway production of "Gross Indecency: The Trials of Oscar Wilde" - but he's especially humbled to be part of "Ready? OK" - which was shot on a shoe-string budget in 18 days. James Vasquez, who's worked with Preston on past projects, wrote Charlie New - an already-self-accepted character who's there to help others, an attraction for Emerson - with the usually-sinister actor in mind. Emerson was flattered. "It's another one of those examples of how you don't have to have all the money in the world to make something meaningful and to have a proud experience doing it."
His wife took pride in the film's resistance to be just another dime-a-dozen coming-out story: "The little boy is actually OK with who he is," Preston says. "This is not a movie about a coming-out process or a kid finding who he is. The kid is who he is from the beginning of the movie to the end; it's everyone around him that we're watching. A lot of gay movies want to do the former."
The dramedy's matriarch grew up as a strict Catholic, so she envisions her son's future to be filled with bullying, hardships and hate. Preston's aware of these realities, but also - because she grew up in an accepting household - would be thrilled to raise a gay kid.
"We're incredibly queer-friendly over here in the Preston-Emerson household, obviously," she says. "I make gay movies that you can take your mothers to."
When she's not Felicity Huffman's sister, that is.
'Ready? OK!'
6:30 p.m. Nov. 16
Main Art Theatre, Royal Oak
