Ask the Flying Monkey! (April 15, 2008)

Chenoweth was raised Southern Baptist, but now describes herself as a “liberal Christian” and attends a non-denominational church in Malibu. That said, she has been very clear about the importance of her faith and did, in fact, appear on Pat Robertson’s TV show The 700 Club to promote a Christian-themed CD.

“I wasn’t thinking about what it represents,” Chenoweth later told the New York Times, describing the appearance as a mistake. “I guess I was living in a little bit of a bubble, and I was surprised that it upset so many people. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t go, because I don’t agree with that antigay stuff. I don’t understand what the big deal is with gay marriage. Get over it, people.”

Truthfully, Terry, the same way Chenoweth doesn’t understand the opposition to same-sex marriage, I’ve never understood religion. When I was a kid at Catholic grade school, the nuns would talk about this guy called Jesus who “spoke” to them, and they’d say all these patently ridiculous things like, “It’s really important that Mary was a mother and a virgin.”

And I’d think to myself, “Are you people all nuts?”

But in college, I got in a long argument with my then-best friend about the existence of God, saying belief in God was both (a) completely illogical, and (b) didn’t answer any of the questions of the universe anyway, just pushed them back onto a supposedly argument-ending “God.” (“Okay, God created the universe,” I’d allow. “Who created God?”)

I eventually “won” the argument with my friend, and I felt proud of myself…for about a day. Then I watched as she had a crisis of faith. Belief in God and being a Christian was important to her; it was a fundamental part of her being, at least as much as my being gay was a fundamental part of me. And I realized that I’d been a real horse’s ass to assume that what was right for me, the way I saw the universe, was necessarily right for everyone else. None of us is ruled by pure reason; we all live with illogical, inconsistent beliefs and wild leaps of faith. And I realized that what people believe does not concern me and is none of my business anyway. What might concern me, and what I can have an opinion about, is how they behave, especially toward me.

The delightful and enormously talented Chenoweth is a friend of gays, and I’m a big fan. Her religious beliefs make no sense to me whatever, but they seem to work for her, so more power to her!

P.S. I was kidding about Keanu Reeves, above. Will that mean more flames?

Q: I recently heard about a new documentary called A Jihad for Love [2007], which is about how gay and lesbians reconcile, or not, their sexuality and their Muslim faith. I have always been interested in how other cultures, religion, etc., deal with homosexuality. Have you heard about it? Seen it? If so, what’s your take on it? And is it going to have a wider release? — Erick, Guatemala City, Guatemala

A: First, why does every “Eric” insist on spelling his name differently? Wouldn’t it confuse you if I suddenly decided to spell my name “Brentt”? Let’s find some consistency, shall we? Talk to “Erik” up in question #2, figure out a standard, and get back to me, okay?

As for Jihad, I haven’t seen it, and I confess I find Islam only slightly more interesting than Christianity. But I agree the movie sounds worthwhile. In the coming months, it will be playing at a number of film festivals and at New York’s IFC Film Center on May 21^st.

Basically, a wide release depends on how these initial screenings are received, but the producers tell me that a 2009 DVD release is likely.

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