What’s Santa Gonna Bring Me for Christmas, or How I Learned to Like What I Want!

The Holidays are Desire on steroids. At few times of the year is Desire so much front-and-center in our lives. It is part of the lushness and bleakness of this time. You want so much, and you are disappointed so quickly. You want to experience love if you don’t have it, or more love if you do. You want to feel warm, cozy, secure, and happy with all the twinkling and glittering around you. But you know that all this twinkle and glitter is ephemeral—it will freeze and fall away in the January cold and darkness. That is why I want to share with you the wisdom in this entry in my blog on WordPress—to help you keep the warmth you want. Afterall, isn’t that really what Desire is all about?

Here is an excerpt from The Manly Pursuit of Desire and Love, Your Guide to Life, Happiness, and Emotional and Sexual Fulfillment in a Closed-Down World. (Belhue Press 2015). If you want to read more, go to my website, www.perrybrass.com or Amazon.

From CHAPTER 2.

18 things You need to Know About desire Before you read this Book

“They say I am queer, prince, but I can tell what people are like. For the heart is the great thing, and the rest is nonsense.” The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoevsky.

1. Desire is deeper than simple horniness, want, and hunger. Desire is you asking for completion, identity, and enlargement. It is a large component of consciousness.

2. It is a key to the deepest parts of yourself. The parts we often label your “soul,” or your “spiritual” feelings, or the basic aspects of your own ego and character. I will refer often in this book to the “Deep- er Self,” that is, that engine of your own deepest imagination working through experiences, where the keys to all of your feelings, personality, and drives lie. I will talk about the Deeper Self, how to connect with it and use that connection to bond with other people. How to experience huge joy and happiness from this connection, and expand with it.

3. Destroying and/or obstructing desire can lead to depression.

4. Desire has many facets, branches, and streams to it, often illuminating deeper parts of your experiences and personality, which you have either forgotten or have chosen to deny.

5. Being able to share desire with another person is what leads to genuine intimacy.

6. Understanding how desire works (and how it is repressed), allows you to understand much of the nature of yourself, as well as society’s own nature.

7. The spiritual aspects of desire are often repressed because they are so powerful. Many people who cannot deal honestly with these aspects often find extreme shame in them.

8. Desire is a part of consciousness, and yet runs deeper than consciousness.

9. The boundaries we put around desire very much constitute our own images of ourselves. Changing these boundaries (as well as seeing the boundaries for what they are) can be very important to you, and can become part of your own life changes.

10. A lot of what we call “therapy” is about either reinforcing these boundaries, or acknowledging them without actually opening them up to your own Deeper Self: that most basic inner part of you.

11. Love is more than physical desire but is a part of a greater desire that exists within your Deeper Self.

12. All of consciousness is understanding desire, not simply rejecting it.

13. Much of what we call “art” is about expressing desire.

14. Understanding desire and its place in your life can break harmful cycles of loneliness, depression, guilt, and shame.

15. The deepest love and feeling is allowing someone into your own “field of desire.”

16. This field of desire brings you back to a state of both vast consciousness and the genuine blissful innocence that many if not most of us seek through religion.

17. Desire as a sensual and psychological expression of your Deeper Self can be extended to reach into all parts of your life, and make you very happy.

18. Shame, guilt, self-consciousness, and self-abnegation, enforced on us by parental and social taboos, repressive religion, job requirements, or other aspects of society, systematically destroy our ability to understand the power of desire and how it fits into our real lives.

More Odd Numbers: 23 More Ways to be Seductive with a Man

"The Manly Art of Seduction, How to Meet, Talk to, and Become Intimate with Anyone" by Perry Brass

OK, I know that I came up with “37 Ways to be Seductive with a Man,” and it seems that just 37 is not going to be enough. So here are 23 more. Since a lot of women have written to me about the previous “37 Ways to be Seductive with a Man” post, I have specifically tailored these ideas for women to use. But I hope that my gay readers will try them just as seriously.

 1)            Say his name in a way that is deliciously suggestive. Most men either rarely hear their names spoken at all or even fear hearing it (after all, at work why say someone’s name who’s there unless it’s either to dress him down or make him feel on the spot). But make him feel like his name is a magic incantation, or a password to something wonderful. Example: “Christopher . . . guess what I’d like to do?”

2)            Call him and tell him you’ve missed him. Don’t email him: emails are so business. Don’t text him. Texts are so teenage. But actually call him, and make sure he knows that you mean it, and you mean business too—but in a really great way.

3)             Learn a lesson from dog trainers: Make him feel that you are a reward for everything he does. In other words, never let him associate you with punishment. Good dog trainers know this in spades. So, if you’ve had a bitch of a day, make sure there’s real space between the bitch and him.

4)            Remember something about him and repeat it. It can be his mother’s name, that he’s allergic to shellfish, that he likes having his feet tickled or his nipples slightly pinched, that he hates oatmeal and loves hamburgers. The important thing is that you remembered it. Write it down after you see him, if you need to. In fact, make a list of these things and refer to them. Ask him about his mom: “How’s Elizabeth doing?” or “How about just burgers tonight?”

5)            Tell him what you want: This is especially wonderful in the sex department. A lot of men are too shy to ask you if there’s something that you really like to happen. So tell him what you’d like him to do, as in: “I love having my back kissed.” “I love having my ass played with.” “I love having my ears nibbled.” “I love to get laid outdoors.” “I love watching you do things naked.”

6)            Ask him what he’d like. But not in a demanding way. Don’t make him feel that if he’s too shy to let out what really turns him on, then he’s a loser. Just repeat the request at some point later, but in a softer and more reassuring way.

7)            Feed him something that he’d really like. Especially out of your hand. There is something about feeding a man that makes him feel incredibly taken care of. So many times now food is confused with either stress (as in the idea of the “Business Power Breakfast”—really, who wants these twits around you at breakfast? Yuk!), or with relieving stress, as in guys who slug down a dinner at Bennigans and a beer after an awful day at the office. So, give him a chocolate-covered strawberry directly from your fingers, or your navel. One of my favorite ways to eat ice cream is slathered on his sex organs. It gives him a tingly shiver, and me too. And nothing adds to the flavor of ice cream like a man’s cock.

 8)            Ask him how much he would like to submit to you. Men who are assertive and commanding all day, who have to be Masters of the Universe at work, find that being completely submissive sexually is . . . well, fantastic. It gives all that hard-working testosterone some time off. A little B & D can go a long way, and he’ll either love the chance to experience it, or just say that he’s not interested—at the moment.

 9)             Ask him how much he would like you to submit to him. (But with boundaries around it!) You’re giving him a huge amount of license doing this, but as with a license to drive, you do have to obey the rules. So tell him that you are in for a little slavery, but in a nice way. (As in No Hard Hitting, No Marks, Nothing Mean and Disgusting.)

 10)             One day when he arrives at your place, give him a moment to breathe, and then suddenly be all over him. He’s sitting, and you’re now on his lap, kissing him, holding him, and making him feel that you are the very atmosphere he’s hot and bothered for. So many guys feel that sex has to be this cat-and-mouse game that takes too long and is too complicated. Make him feel that you aren’t playing games with him.

 11)            On the other hand, don’t do this too often. Allow him a time to be all over you: it’s his turn now to be aggressive. However, if for some reason, he can’t, don’t get huffy about it and demanding, but—let him know that a little aggression on his part would be very welcome.

 12)            Get him naked, lying facedown on your lap. That’s it: like a little boy submitting to be spanked. But, don’t spank him, at least not a lot. Guys love this. They revert to kidhood again. Play with his spine, his butt, the backs of his legs (very sensual places), his neck, and the backs of his ears. Caress his hair. He’ll come back for more.

 13)            Experience times when he’s completely naked and you’re clothed, or half clothed. Make him feel that he’s now a plaything: guys go crazy for this. Most of the time, it’s outside the Male Role to be the plaything. And all men fantasize about being it. They do.

 14)            Try making love with your clothes on, or at most of them on. Clothes can be very sensual, and provide a kind of erotic friction that turns up the heat—the Victorians were famous for this, having a good lay while still in half corsets, and those long knickers that men wore. If things get too hot, take something off, like your shoes and socks.

 15)            Stop making love for a while and have a snack. Something light, and sexy in its own right, like slices of melon with prosciutto. The juicy, salty, sweetness of food like this can be very stimulating.

 16)            Don’t rule out talking dirty, but don’t ever let it get vulgar. In other words, say something like “I’d really like it if you sucked my (tit, cock, ass, etc.)” but don’t say something like “Suck my tit! Suck my cock!” unless you really want to get into turbulent waters. It may be such a turn-off to some men that they never come back. A lot of men who live and die for porn don’t want it taken outside of their imagination, so remember that.

 17)            On the other hand, ask him if he’d like to share his favorite porn scenes with you. Ask, but don’t demand. Everyman has a “secret world,” and if he wants to let you in, great. But don’t barge in. At a certain point, he may open up to you about it.

 18)            Tell him you want to take a shower together, if you haven’t done it before. Water and soap are . . . well, water and soap. You can provide everything in between. Also, in the shower, play a few games, like spitting water on him. Directly at him, but not in his eyes. Also, showers are perfect places for “water sports,” if you are into them. But, if you have to ask what “water sports” are, then maybe you’re not ready for this.

 19)            Tell him how nice he smells. And if he doesn’t smell that way, make sure he does smell that way by rewarding him for smelling nice. This may mean getting into the shower, or giving him some cologne that you want him to wear. (Nothing overwhelming, just some nice light male fragrance with a hint of lemon or vetiver in it.) Also, many men have a smell that is simply their smell, and it can drive you nuts—especially a crotch, underarm smell, or fresh summer perspiration odor. So let him know it.

 20)            When you’re out, buy him a drink first. And always offer to pay for something—no matter who he is or how rich he is, it makes a man feel very good that you are offering to pay for something, even if the invitation has come from him.

 21)            When you’re at a bar, make him feel that you are taking care of him, like, for instance, pass him the peanuts or whatever is out there for nibbles. Then nibble a bit on him, too. There’s something about sticking your tongue in a man’s ear at a noisy bar that drives any man more nuts than the peanuts. It adds a refreshing ocean sound to an abrasive environment. Hell, the peanuts can wait.

 22)            When the two of you go out alone, never order something he hates: that way he can taste everything on your plate. If he’s one of those of tight-assed types who can’t bear to eat anything off someone else’s plate, cut off a piece of something and put it on his, saying, “I’d really like for you to taste this.” It shows that you want to share with him, and this in itself is very conducive to intimacy.

 23)             But don’t force the issue if he refuses. In fact, don’t force any issue with him unless you feel so strongly about it that you’re ready to renegotiate the relationship. What you want to feel is that you can enjoy everything you can with him, and don’t worry about the other parts. That’s what your other friends are for. One of the worst mistakes people make with their sexual/romantic partners is wanting them to be casual friends. They aren’t; when they do become this, then most of the heat goes out of the relationship and the question is: do you really want that?

The perfect way to be seductive with a man is to read The Manly Art of Seduction, available as a very popular Kindle book, also available on Nook, Smashwords, Diesel Books, Apple Ipod, and other formats. Or, you can read it in plain old black-and-white print through Amazon, many lgbt bookstores, and independent bookstores throughout America—ask for it. You can read more about famous gay author Perry Brass at his website, perrybrass.com, where he is also always available to answer questions (decent ones: don’t ask him if he’s as hot as his books. He embarrasses easily.)

Malachy McCourt and I discuss aging . . . and fawking.

 

Malachy McCourt and Perry Brass at Lincoln Center Barnes & Noble

Last night, Monday, March 22, 2010, I took part in an event at the Lincoln Center Barnes & Noble called—of all things—”Nifty After Fifty,” sponsored by the Greater New York Independent Publishers Association and produced by Francine Trevens. Fantastic evening. We got about 175 people there, mostly eager to hear Malachy McCourt, our guest of honor, talk in his sweet-and-salty Irish-tweed spun voice about the simple things of life that usually aren’t. He compared same-sex marriage to Adam and Eve—an idea that would make many Fundamentalists croak. Because . . . when Adam “lay” with Eve, she had all of his DNA in him (who else’s?) . . . so “he was just about fawking himself, right—now how different is that from same-sex love and marriage?” Malachy talked about “fawking” pretty often. “Fawking,” the Irish version of carnal knowledge, always sounds so much more picturesque than the American reference to it which sounds . . . OK, vulgar. There were also scenes from a few short plays that deal with getting older and hating it (let’s be honest: you don’t have a choice in this, but you can make the most of it) from Francine’s new collection of plays, Short Plays Long to Remember. “Short Plays” contains “Bar None,” my one-act about the Mattachine Society, an early gay rights group, opening the bars in New York to gay men in 1966: something most have long forgotten.

Prior to this, a bar owner in NYC could have his license revoked simply for serving booze to anyone who even appeared queer. Of course this law was rarely enforced because so many bar-keeps routinely paid off the cops, which in turn kept the Mafia happily in the bar business.

Other readers on the program were Norman Beim, Kat George, Francine L. Trevens, Andrea Troy, Marni K.Connelly, and Kay Williams.

Norman is a playwright and Kay was an actress before becoming an author (not that you can’t do both) so they read from two of Norman’s plays wonderfully. And Malachy read from “The Rocking Horse” by Daniel P. Quinn—I think you could hear Malachy McCourt read the Yellow Pages and get a kick out of it.

There was also a song, or two, from singer/lyricist Michael Colby and pianist Annie Lebeaux on a sparkly new hybrid Yamaha piano (does this mean it’s also a car?). 

As my part of the evening, I gave a talk entitled “The Erotic Life After 50.” It was actually more about The Manly Art of Seduction, but, hey, shameless self-promotion is something that gets most authors either on the bestseller list or somewhere in author hell where the company is Shakespeare and Voltaire. Why complain?

So, if you didn’t make it to B & N on a really crummy, rainy but fun night, here’s what I said.

If 30 years ago someone had told me that at 62, I’d be publishing a book called The Manly Art of Seduction, How to Meet, Talk to, and Become Intimate with Anyone, I would have said . . . of course, what else would I be doing at 62?

I came from a generation where seduction—that is, real seduction, not the TV Jell-O version of it—was a way of life. And I grew up in the Deep South where we not only depended upon the kindness of strangers, we invited it whenever we could find it.

The truth is seduction has been a wonderful part of my life, but it took me a while to figure out how it works, and how I can explain it to others so it will work for you, too. We live in what I call the “culture of rejection,” and often older people feel the sting of this. We’re overlooked, we feel rejected, and sometimes it feels that even attempting to initiate any kind of action is futile. This leads many of us into erotic shutdown: we feel that we are either too old or too “smart” to be seductive or allow ourselves be seduced.

This is sad, because the loveliness of your own inner self, which has no actual age, is being denied. Much of the Manly Art of Seduction is about being open to this authentic self inside you, and letting it open you to the seductiveness of the world—and of yourself. In other words, the seductive you is waiting to come out, and it—or you—will be successful at seduction, once you connect with it.

First, some definitions: Seduction—that’s simple: an invitation to intimacy.

Intimacy: a real closeness energized with the deeper aspects of yourself, and of someone else.

The Manly Art of Seduction gets you in contact with this deeper self through mind exercises and actual experiences. You will use this contact to give you the confidence to achieve closeness and go as far with it as you want to, or circumstances allow you to.

The world is not perfect—and neither are you—so you may strike out sometimes. But—and this is very important, so stay awake—as you become better at the Manly Art, you will find more men attractive and also attracted to you. Therefore, as you become more open to the inner beauty of yourself, a lot of other men will become attractive as well, and many of them, as you follow the techniques of The Manly Art of Seduction, will start to approach you now.

The Manly Art, using scenarios and exercises, explains how to approach men, speak to them, what’s really happening in a seductive conversation, and how to touch men physically and emotionally, becoming more intimate with them, negotiating possibilities. It also shows you how to keep rejection fears away, and maneuver a relationship into warmer and more satisfying waters.

Realistically, I tell you don’t expect clear weather all the time—there are some horses in fact who don’t want to be led to any kind of water. And I’ll tell you how to dive out of a situation just as I’ll tell you how to enter it. But there is one lesson I want you to keep no matter what: as you get closer to the real you that our relentless commercialism works so hard to keep you isolated from, you’ll learn not to reject yourself. So you’ll never beat up on yourself, feel hurt inside, and walk away.

This is at the core of the Manly Art. Now how you go from your inner self to your outer one, and then from you to him, or her, or her to her, or . . . well — seduction is universal — is laid out clearly with questions after most chapters for you to answer. So that the book also becomes a journal for your progress in Seduction.

One of my main goals is to open seduction up to everyone, especially people who feel left out, who often end up spending the night alone and feel self conscious about themselves because they are either too shy or have some aspect of themselves that they feel ashamed of. So I have a chapter on disability and seduction, as well as on weight and how we deal with that in a society obsessed with youthful slimness. I also included chapters on seduction across race lines and class lines, which sometimes feel like an even tougher barrier. And also issues like erectile dysfunction, penis size, seduction and married men, straight men, threesomes, and seduction within a relationship where sex has either become stalemated or nonexistent.

Since one of the keys to successful seduction is making yourself available, I have a chapter on seduction over dinner at your place, even if you can’t cook and your home looks like a gang of Neanderthals just left it, or what do you do when you go to his place and he’s acting like romance is just not on the menu. Turning cold potatoes into a hotter dish is at the meat of the Manly Art, but the most important thing is knowing that you are at the center of it and can bring someone else into it and love every moment of it.

If you’re intrigued about the Manly Art of Seduction, I’m co-leading a workshop on it with Jerry Kajpust on April 29, and will be happy to talk with you more about the workshop, too

PS. I want to thank Bart Greenberg from the Lincoln Center B & N’s Community Relations staff for making this event possible. Bart is the friend of many communities, and a great pal to have in the book world.

Deja Vu All Over Again, or A Gathering Storm in Newark

To quote that great American wit Yogi Berra (not to be confused with Yogi Bear, although they “bear” some resemblance), it’s “deja vu all over again.” Or, it’s the strange twisted sisters and brothers of Christian fundamentalism, that part of America that can’t claim a life of its own unless its in the fictional bosom of Jesus, infiltrating itself as a new fifth column into American life, desperately trying to declare every sperm sacred, kill a queer for Jesus, and join forces with any antifeminist, antigay factions they can scrounge up outside of Osama Ben Laden.

This is wonderfully exposed in a recent piece in Out In Jersey, “A Gathering Storm From Kampala to Newark,” written by Taylor Siluwe. Here is the article in its entirety, and my comments after it:

“A Gathering Storm From Kampala to Newark”
Taylor Siluwe

Are American evangelicals seeking to ‘Transform’ the world?
PrayForNewark seems innocent enough; so outwardly innocent that even Newark Mayor Cory Booker, possibly unaware of its ideological roots, gave it his blessing. But those roots have been exposed by Bruce Wilson (co-founder of Talk2Action.org), and PrayForNewark’s squads of church members. They are blanketing the streets “block by block” in prayer and are directly tied to the International Transformation Network (ITN.)
According to Wilson, “ITN is one of several global efforts, operating under the ‘transformation’ brand that are re-engineering along theocratic lines cities and even entire nations. For the Transformation movement, which claims homosexuals are possessed by demons and that prayer and faith healing have cured thousands of HIV and AIDS cases in the nation, Uganda is a prototype.” David Bahati (who drafted Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill) along with Ugandan First Lady Janet Musveni, have attended ITN conferences. Lloyd Turner, founder of PrayForNewark, spoke at ITN’s 2009 conference stating that the city of Newark is “97% adopted” and has seen a reduction in crime rates.

But the issues raised go much deeper. Rev. Bernard Wilks of Dominion Fellowship Ministries, a leader of the coalition behind PrayForNewark, is a member of the International Coalition of Apostles (ICA). According to their website, their mission is “… the fulfillment of Jesus’ great commission to make disciples of all nations.” One of Wilks’ fellow apostles is Jim Ammerman, the 83-year-old founder of the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches (CFGC), an organization in charge of endorsing 270 chaplains and chaplain candidates for the armed services. Ammerman worked with an evangelical group based in Arkansas, the International Missions Network Center, to distribute the Bibles through the efforts of his 40 active-duty chaplains in Iraq. According to a Newsweek piece, Ammerman called Islam “a killer religion” and Muslims “the devil.”

A watchdog’s role requires constant vigilance. So states the website of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. When asked for a comment about President Obama recommitting himself to repealing the U.S. Milatary’s anti-gay Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, Michael Weinstein, founder of the MRFF, succinctly said, “You don’t have to be straight to shoot straight.” While Weinstein expressed annoyance that the president hasn’t put a stop-loss in place to end the discharges of dedicated personnel while congress deliberates, he went on to point out other troubling aspects which insinuate a greater problem − what he described as the military’s “virulent” misogyny, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
The National Organization for Marriage produced an infamous fear-mongering ad on the dangers of same-sex marriage. It was titled ‘The Gathering Storm’, its words rang hollow and baseless to the ears of those fighting for marriage equality. However, The Gathering Storm’s often parodied opening − There’s a storm gathering, the clouds are dark and the winds are strong. And I am afraid − in the broader sense, inadvertently rings true. Because from the streets of Kampala, the largest city in Uganda, to the streets of Newark, the largest city in New Jersey, many see the creeping influence of fundamentalist Christian apocalyptic ideology creeping into the US government and our armed forces and are extremely afraid.
The MRFF describes itself as a “national movement to restore the wall separating church and state in the most technologically lethal organization ever created by man; the United States armed forces.” With military contractor Trijicon engraving scripture onto rifle sights (which Weinstein reported to ABC who broke the story); with the Family Research Council lamenting that “gay behavior” should be completely outlawed in America; with Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality bill reportedly not only tied to The Family (the secretive group of political elites responsible for the annual National Prayer Breakfast) but also with International Transformation Network, a disturbing picture of a growing fundamentalist Christian Taliban is emerging. It is seeking to transform global culture, through government and the military they say, for the glory of Jesus.

Should Americans brush off Pat Robertson ignoring his own devilment while also invoking the presence of Satan in Haiti, or when he blames the next hurricane on a gay pride parade. All of this while fleecing his faithful followers at the expense of the LGBT community. A watchdog’s role does require constant vigilance, especially when the enemies of human equality and liberty disguise their bigotry, misogyny, warmongering and lust for dominion behind the innocuous face of the Prince of Peace.
Maybe it’s time the watchdogs began to bite.

[end Out in Jersey piece]

What makes the information in this piece so pertinent to me is that it reflects so much the plot of my novel “The Substance of God, A Spiritual Thriller” in which I talked about powerful networks of “Christian businessmen.” The Christian business network has long been recongized, but most people ignore its real focus: dissolving any distance between church and state; between Christianity as a political power and the rights of people whose morality is not based on Leviticus; and scapegoating anyone who stands between them and this agenda. (Strangely enough, Christ said in one of his most powerful arguments—against the Jewish kosher laws and hypocritical Levitican morality—”It is not what you put into your mouth that is unclean, it is what comes out of your mouth.” Still Christian fundamentalists and their business allies cherrypick from Leviticus, and have come up with a convenient moral package bayonetting whomever they feel they can get away with. Gays and lesbians this week, Moslems the next, abortion providers one week, and anyone—ANYONE—who subscribes to the idea of your bedroom being a private place and birth control being a private choice, in another.

What is happening in Newark is something to watch out for. It is a “perfect storm” of fake morality, race and poverty, crime and the dispossessed, all working together to see who is destroyed in the end.

Hitler, you can smile now. The “Christians” are doing your work.

To quote that great American wit Yogi Berra (not to be confused with Yogi Bear, although they “bear” some resemblance), it’s “deja vu all over again.” Or, it’s the strange twisted sisters and brothers of Christian fundamentalism, that part of America that can’t claim a life of its own unless its in the fictional bosom of Jesus, infiltrating itself as a new fifth column into American life, desperately trying to declare every sperm sacred, kill a queer for Jesus, and join forces with any antifeminist, antigay factions they can scrounge up outside of Osama Ben Laden.

This is wonderfully exposed in a recent piece in Out In Jersey, “A Gathering Storm From Kampala to Newark,” written by Taylor Siluwe. Here is the article in its entirety, and my comments after it:

“A Gathering Storm From Kampala to Newark”
Taylor Siluwe

Are American evangelicals seeking to ‘Transform’ the world?
PrayForNewark seems innocent enough; so outwardly innocent that even Newark Mayor Cory Booker, possibly unaware of its ideological roots, gave it his blessing. But those roots have been exposed by Bruce Wilson (co-founder of Talk2Action.org), and PrayForNewark’s squads of church members. They are blanketing the streets “block by block” in prayer and are directly tied to the International Transformation Network (ITN.)
According to Wilson, “ITN is one of several global efforts, operating under the ‘transformation’ brand that are re-engineering along theocratic lines cities and even entire nations. For the Transformation movement, which claims homosexuals are possessed by demons and that prayer and faith healing have cured thousands of HIV and AIDS cases in the nation, Uganda is a prototype.” David Bahati (who drafted Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill) along with Ugandan First Lady Janet Musveni, have attended ITN conferences. Lloyd Turner, founder of PrayForNewark, spoke at ITN’s 2009 conference stating that the city of Newark is “97% adopted” and has seen a reduction in crime rates.

But the issues raised go much deeper. Rev. Bernard Wilks of Dominion Fellowship Ministries, a leader of the coalition behind PrayForNewark, is a member of the International Coalition of Apostles (ICA). According to their website, their mission is “… the fulfillment of Jesus’ great commission to make disciples of all nations.” One of Wilks’ fellow apostles is Jim Ammerman, the 83-year-old founder of the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches (CFGC), an organization in charge of endorsing 270 chaplains and chaplain candidates for the armed services. Ammerman worked with an evangelical group based in Arkansas, the International Missions Network Center, to distribute the Bibles through the efforts of his 40 active-duty chaplains in Iraq. According to a Newsweek piece, Ammerman called Islam “a killer religion” and Muslims “the devil.”

A watchdog’s role requires constant vigilance. So states the website of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. When asked for a comment about President Obama recommitting himself to repealing the U.S. Milatary’s anti-gay Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, Michael Weinstein, founder of the MRFF, succinctly said, “You don’t have to be straight to shoot straight.” While Weinstein expressed annoyance that the president hasn’t put a stop-loss in place to end the discharges of dedicated personnel while congress deliberates, he went on to point out other troubling aspects which insinuate a greater problem − what he described as the military’s “virulent” misogyny, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
The National Organization for Marriage produced an infamous fear-mongering ad on the dangers of same-sex marriage. It was titled ‘The Gathering Storm’, its words rang hollow and baseless to the ears of those fighting for marriage equality. However, The Gathering Storm’s often parodied opening − There’s a storm gathering, the clouds are dark and the winds are strong. And I am afraid − in the broader sense, inadvertently rings true. Because from the streets of Kampala, the largest city in Uganda, to the streets of Newark, the largest city in New Jersey, many see the creeping influence of fundamentalist Christian apocalyptic ideology creeping into the US government and our armed forces and are extremely afraid.
The MRFF describes itself as a “national movement to restore the wall separating church and state in the most technologically lethal organization ever created by man; the United States armed forces.” With military contractor Trijicon engraving scripture onto rifle sights (which Weinstein reported to ABC who broke the story); with the Family Research Council lamenting that “gay behavior” should be completely outlawed in America; with Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality bill reportedly not only tied to The Family (the secretive group of political elites responsible for the annual National Prayer Breakfast) but also with International Transformation Network, a disturbing picture of a growing fundamentalist Christian Taliban is emerging. It is seeking to transform global culture, through government and the military they say, for the glory of Jesus.

Should Americans brush off Pat Robertson ignoring his own devilment while also invoking the presence of Satan in Haiti, or when he blames the next hurricane on a gay pride parade. All of this while fleecing his faithful followers at the expense of the LGBT community. A watchdog’s role does require constant vigilance, especially when the enemies of human equality and liberty disguise their bigotry, misogyny, warmongering and lust for dominion behind the innocuous face of the Prince of Peace.
Maybe it’s time the watchdogs began to bite.

[end Out in Jersey piece]

What makes the information in this piece so pertinent to me is that it reflects so much the plot of my novel “The Substance of God, A Spiritual Thriller” in which I talked about powerful networks of “Christian businessmen.” The Christian business network has long been recongized, but most people ignore its real focus: dissolving any distance between church and state; between Christianity as a political power and the rights of people whose morality is not based on Leviticus; and scapegoating anyone who stands between them and this agenda. (Strangely enough, Christ said in one of his most powerful arguments—against the Jewish kosher laws and hypocritical Levitican morality—”It is not what you put into your mouth that is unclean, it is what comes out of your mouth.” Still Christian fundamentalists and their business allies cherrypick from Leviticus, and have come up with a convenient moral package bayonetting whomever they feel they can get away with. Gays and lesbians this week, Moslems the next, abortion providers one week, and anyone—ANYONE—who subscribes to the idea of your bedroom being a private place and birth control being a private choice, in another.

What is happening in Newark is something to watch out for. It is a “perfect storm” of fake morality, race and poverty, crime and the dispossessed, all working together to see who is destroyed in the end.

Hitler, you can smile now. The “Christians” are doing your work.