GCN Radio - April 7, 2006
Transcribed by polodixon

To listen to this episode, visit http://www.gaychristian.net/gcnradio

[GCN Radio Intro]

BRIAN: This is Brian.

JUSTIN: And this is Justin. Welcome to another edition of...

BRIAN AND JUSTIN: GCN RADIO.

BRIAN: I'm glad to be here on another edition of GCN Radio. And, it's Friday and we meet again Justin. Glad to have you there. And I'm here.

JUSTIN: Thank you.

BRIAN: Barely here, I must say, I probably got maybe about an hour of sleep last night. I just kept tossing and turning...

JUSTIN: Oh no!

BRIAN: I couldn't get comfortable. And, I had no Tylenol PM or Benedryl or anything like that, so I just had to lay there and toss and turn and fight with my blankets and everything, and so.

JUSTIN: I hate when that happens!

BRIAN: And everything today has just been hard because I am tired and I want to go home.

JUSTIN: Aw!! I'm sorry Brian.

BRIAN: I mean, I'm happy to be doing GCN Radio and all that, and it's actually...

JUSTIN: I'm happy to be doing GCN Radio and I had a great night's sleep, so...

BRIAN: Well good! Well, I'll have what you're having.

JUSTIN: I actually woke up this morning feeling really refreshed and thinking oh no! I've overslept, and I looked at my clock and I had woke up an hour before I had set my clock for. I don't know what happened last night, but I lucked out I guess.

BRIAN: You did.

JUSTIN: I was blessed.

BRIAN: I just need to have a balance and a routine in my life; none of which I have. But that's okay. It's okay. That's no rest for the whatever.

[laughter]

BRIAN: I don't know.

JUSTIN: [imitating President Bush] Fool me once... shame on... you? ... Fool me... Can't get fooled again.

[laughter]

BRIAN: Oh yes.

JUSTIN: Indeed. We have, you know, the last few weeks. We've had different guests and have talked about different things.

BRIAN: And we have completely ignored our audience basically.

[laughter[

JUSTIN: Well we haven't ignored our audience. I mean, we're talking to our audience. But we have neglected to go through some of our listener comments.

BRIAN: Exactly. So today on the show we're going to catch up on our listener responses and questions of the week content. And, we've got a lot of stuff going on.

JUSTIN: We do.

BRIAN: And I know one of the first questions that we asked way back, and I can't even remember when. Don't ask me to recall when....

JUSTIN: Millions of years ago.

BRIAN: Millions of years ago we asked about content of the show. What do people think? Do people think we should talk less? Talk more? Be less funny?

JUSTIN: That's right, and we specifically...

BRIAN: Be less serious...

JUSTIN: And we specifically asked about the humor quotient of the show. Is the show too serious or too silly?

BRIAN: The HQ.

JUSTIN: The HQ of the show. I have to tell everyone

BRIAN: Not the IQ. We were too embarrassed to ask about the IQ so we asked about the HQ.

JUSTIN: I have to tell you Brian, this question has generated more listener response than any question we have ever asked in the past. You know? We ask people about their coming out experiences and we get a few responses. We ask about, is the show to silly or not silly enough, or whatever... and we get just, the mail is coming in.

BRIAN: haha!

JUSTIN: It's like that scene on Miracle on 34th street. Most of these are text responses, so I'm just going to, just run through these because we've got a bunch. I'm sorry, but I can't get to all of them. But here were some of the things you listeners have to say.

BRIAN: All righty, here we go.

JUSTIN: Lynda writes in: "Your show rocks! And you having Candace on there was icing on the cake. She's awesome! I really think you two should give yourselves a round of applause. You have a wonderful and informative show and a good dash of humor to spice it up. My heart feels lighter thanks to you guys. God bless and keep it coming. I'm spreading the word about you."

BRIAN: So she thinks we should give ourselves a round of applause. Well, let me see what I can do here.

[canned applause, cheering and whistles]

JUSTIN: All right. Doctor H. I'm not going to use his full last name, because he's in the closet. Dr. H. writes: "I am new to your radio show, and I must say that it's really been a blessing in my life. I'm a 28 year old professional guy who's in the closet about my sexuality and don't really have any gay friends. Being a Christian and being gay can be a really lonely place for me, but I must say that your show really warms my heart. In my humble opinion, I think a mixture of silly and serious is best because as long as you continue to share the Word of God. You can't go wrong." Thanks!

BRIAN: Aww.

[canned applause, cheering and whistles]

JUSTIN: I've got about 20 of these, so. Barry says, "You have to do a little of both otherwise you speak only to a focused audience and market. Lean more towards the serious but keep it sane and light when you can." Todd says, "I think having it be a little silly lets us see y'all's personality, making y'all human. Just don't be silly, just to be silly, though. If silly happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Love y'all bunches. Keep up the good work." Marlin says: "I enjoy the light-hearted banter because it humanizes the hosts, although I also very much..."

BRIAN: I need to be humanized. SOMEONE HUMANIZE ME!

JUSTIN: "I also very much enjoy when a guest gets into the heart of some issue. I'm always sad to have a show finish because I want more." Josh says, "Definitely silly! Life has some hard times and I think that once in a while we should just let loose and laugh." Carl says, "It proves you're human, which I like. If I wanted stuffy, dry facts only, I'd just go read an encyclopedia." Brandon says, "I think it's just perfect the way it is. You guys have a sense of balance of taking being seriously and having fun at the same time." Daryl says, "Well, to me, humor is the best medicine." And, finally, Darrin: "I listened to your show for the first time, March 17, and I loved it! The goofy banter made me take notice and kept me tuned in, I found myself laughing with you and really enjoyed your interactions with each other. We so need more fun. You both have very humor. I say, keep it up. I look forward to updates on Justin's messy desk."

[applause and whistles]

BRIAN: [laughing]

JUSTIN: My desk is actually cleaner now.

BRIAN: Really?

JUSTIN: Yeah, for the work.

BRIAN: Okay, okay.

JUSTIN: Speaking of which, we had also had one final humorous comment from Ken, who writes, "regarding messy desks, even my computer desktop is messy!"

BRIAN: [laughing] Oh!

JUSTIN: So, those were some of the listener responses to our questions

BRIAN: That's excellent; thank you guys! Are we ready for the next question of the week responses? Are we ready to talk about party-line society?

JUSTIN: Sure! These are the responses from the show where we talked about whether or not we live in a party-line society, and I discussed some examples that bugged me - about people kind of jumping on the bandwagon before they know what's going on.

BRIAN: That was one of your soap-box shows if I recall.

JUSTIN: It was. I was a little bit on the soap box there.

BRIAN: But we did get some good responses. This first one comes from Tim, who says, from all the way in the UK, Tim says, "Hey Brian and Justin, great show! I know I've not responded before, but I've only really listened to this show haphazardly until recently getting an MP3 player. So I've just heard the show on my way to work. Love it! Anyway, I just wanted to say that you are right, we do live in a party-line society. To me, this is a big problem, especially for Christianity and the church. All that seems to happen these days, is that we get bogged down in specific issues and sometimes forget what the message of Jesus was actually about. All of the 'we must boycott this because of that' and what you guys were saying about taking an opinion without any experience or background, all that is just silly. The message of the gospel is Love. That is what Jesus came to show and teach us, and we still don't get it! What I say is that we need to get back to that message and start to work that out." Thank you Tim for that response!

JUSTIN: Awesome.

BRIAN: Another response submitted here by Joel: "Great talk radio, guys! Smiley Face. Party-line society? No. We are all predisposed to one to the law. It's not always the cause that matters as much as the need for belonging which can be the reason for the cause."

JUSTIN: We're getting a contrary opinion there.

BRIAN: Oh, yeah!

JUSTIN: Thanks for keeping it lively.

BRIAN: Absolutely. This answer submitted to us by Joey, who says, "I think that we do live in a party-line society, especially within the Christian community. I think that some Christians stay on the defensive so much because they live in fear, fear that our liberties as followers of Christ are going to be suddenly snatched away from us. People are willing to jump on the bandwagon on any issues without carefully examining it. Just as long as it appears to be protecting our Christian heritage." So, Joey's agreeing with you, Justin very much about how people can go along with things without really looking into them..

JUSTIN: Yeah, awesome.

BRIAN: Michael writes, "Yes, I believe that most people operate by following their party, be it political, social or religious. It is certainly easier to follow the ideology of the group you have close affiliation with to continue to have their protection in the battle of ideas. Side note: It's amazing to me, but after 10 plus months into research to the Side A/B debate, I think I've reached a conclusion: I still feel the need to continue researching, though.

JUSTIN: That's really interesting that he mentioned the Side A/B debate, because that's something we've talked about a couple of times on the show, but our new listeners may not be familiar with that. Side A refers to those folks who believe that same-sex relationships are okay with God, and Side B refers to those who believe that they're not, and within the gay community, people who as a result are committed to celibacy.

BRIAN: Right.

JUSTIN: Now, we've had both of those views on the show. We've had Justin Cannon on, talking about the Side A perspective. We've had Matt Hall on talking about the Side B perspective, and we do have some listeners struggling with that. So it would be interesting, maybe we should revisit that on a future show.

BRIAN: It's been some time since we've talked about that, so we may in the near future have that on the show.

JUSTIN: That's right. And those of you who are listening to the show, if you have specific ideas about topics you'd really like to see us cover, questions that are on our minds, or things that you think would be helpful, be sure to drop us a line and let us know and we'll consider those for future shows.

BRIAN: We move on to talking about positive coming out experiences, and I believe this is the show that you and Cannon did, the question that you asked on that show the week that I was gone.

JUSTIN: Cannon and I asked a question about positive coming out experiences, and we had some great call-in responses to that. Could we listen to a couple of those?

BRIAN: Let's hear from our first caller.

[Phone Clip Begins]

CALLER: Hey Justin, it's Ken in Toronto, Canada. You and Cannon did a great job this week, I was going to tell you about my experience of coming out. It was back in the early 80s. I came out to my mom and dad just after I read one of the Christian L Lawrence books, and she wrote a bunch of Christian gay novels. But, I told my mom and dad, and they said, "You know, all we want is for you to be happy." It was a very positive experience. And when I came out to them, I said, you know, I really believe that I can be gay and Christian. And they said, "Oh absolutely, we agree and understand and we believe that, too. And so it was a very positive experience, and that's what I said, 25 years ago.

[phone clip ends]

BRIAN: That was a very encouraging comment from Ken, and I find it really ironic how come his parents got it, and then we have so many other parents out there who don't get it. It baffles me. It really does.

JUSTIN: Well, you know, we tend to assume that coming out to parents always is a difficult, traumatic thing, and it often is. We don't want to minimize that, but it isn't always. This next caller had a positive experience as well coming out I believe.

[phone clip beings]

CALLER: Hi, my name is Joel, and I just want to let you know that it took me 34 years to come out of the closet, because I grew up in a very conservative home, and I had gotten so many negative messages about being gay. But, when I finally did come around, I realized that I had built up a wall between me and God, because I was so angry that he made me this way and he wouldn't take it away. So I got on my knees and I said, "God, I don't like having this wall, and this is the way you made me and you need me to accept it and embrace it that you're going to do everything okay with it, though. And as I was crying, I had this incredible warm sensation and I've had peace about it ever since. I really believe that that was the peace and love of God coming openly. I got right up and called my dad on the phone, and I told him that he better sit down I had something to tell him, and I said, "I'm gay" And, my dad said, "Yeah I know," And I said, "What do you mean you know?" And I said, "You mean you deducted it?" He said, "No. Over a year ago, God told me that you were gay and that I needed to pray for you and that I needed to accept it." So he has. He still has questioned himself, not 100% sure, but he does know that I am a good Christian and that he loves me, and my dad still loves me.

[phone clip ends]

BRIAN: Aw.

JUSTIN: Interesting to hear these....

BRIAN: It gives me an idea. I would love some time for us to do a show, specifically for parents, where people burn a show to a CD, and we could have some of these parents on who have accepted their children.

JUSTIN: Well, I will put this call out again, then. Because Cannon and I did this and we didn't get much response. But, if you have a parent, if you're listening to this show, and you have a parent who is accepting to you as a LGBT person. Or, if you are a parent, and you are accepting of your GLBT Child. Please let us know. You can send us an E-mail at gcnradio@gaychristian.net, and let us know that you might be interested in chatting up a little bit on the show, or maybe we could get you to record a little segment on our toll-free line. We got another response from a listener who had a positive coming out experience as well.

BRIAN: We did. This submitted by Ccisaacs, it's spelled "C-C-I-S-A-A-C-S," and this person writes, "Well, you asked for stuff about dads. When I came out to my parents, I was expecting trouble, especially from my dad. He was Southern Baptist, and I was so worried about his reaction that I came out via E-mail from halfway across the country. My dad called me and told me that he had just one question. I'm expecting along the lines of, "do you think the flames of hell are more red or orange?" But, all he wanted to know is if I was happy, because that's all he ever wanted for his children. I think in that moment, he taught me more about Christian love than all my years in church." [In a powering voice] Are the flames of hell more red or orange?! [normal voice] I think that's great that his dad was able to say those loving things and to respond lovingly, and one would think that that's a no-brainer, but as we all know, you know people really struggle with this.

JUSTIN: Yeah, I think it's good to hear these positive stories as a reminder that there are a lot of accepting parents out there. There are a lot of good stories out there, and God is doing a lot in people's lives to help them to come to terms with this and these things.

BRIAN: And I think, at least in the case of my mom. My father is deceased, and my mom and I have grown close over the last four years since dad's been gone, and we really don't talk about it, but she knows I have gay friends, and she knows a lot, and I think that parents have intuition, and they, and we heard from someone earlier whose parents said Oh we know. I think on some level, parents really do know, but it's just hard to have those discussions, but they are forever our parents, but it's just a struggle for some of them.

JUSTIN: Well, I don't know that I would say that parents always know. I think that there are some that do, but I've talked to a number of parents who were completely blind-sided when their kid came out. My parents tell me that they had no idea. And, there was difficulty... I connect with what the last listener was saying about coming out via E-mail from halfway across the country, I was so terrified back when I was 18 years old that I was just coming to terms with myself and I grew up Southern Baptist, and my faith was so important to me, and I believed so strongly that homosexuality was sin, and to realize that I was gay was so difficult, and it was so difficult for me to accept myself, and then to have to tell my parents, and I was so close to my parents, telling them was just a nightmare: one of the worst moments of my life, and I was getting ready to start college, and so I told them the week before leaving for college.

BRIAN: Wow!

JUSTIN: Because I wanted to have a couple of days to talk about it with them and then get out of the house, and it wasn't that I was afraid that they were going to stop loving me or whatever. I just didn't know how they would react; I didn't know how I would react to their reaction. I didn't know how to be around them for a while, because I felt like I had become a different person in their eyes, and my parents didn't really know what to say, which you know, they did respond in love, they didn't say, "Oh, it's all okay," but they did....

BRIAN: They never rejected you as a person

JUSTIN: They never rejected as a person, or as their child.

BRIAN: And, that's encouraging, and that's great. Praise God for that. So what else do we got going on here.

JUSTIN: Well, let's see. We had a response from a listener who called in about the show we were talking about trends

BRIAN: Okay

JUSTIN: And, I asked a question about, are you on the outside of any trends, or we want to hear your confessions. And wagging my finger at you, because we didn't get more responses!

BRIAN: But we did get one! Hearty Soul gave us a call.

JUSTIN: We did, and this guy is going to show you how it's done, listeners.

[phone clip begins]

CALLER: Hey Brian, Hey Justin! Hi this is Josh from Pennsylvania, and well I just wanted to say that you guys are so awesome. I mean, before I found gaychristian.net, I didn't know you could be gay and Christian, [yawns] [Justin and Brian laugh in background]. I just want to respond to one of the questions you asked last week about you know, trends. Well, you know how they say Gay guys love musicals and broadway and all that stuff? I have never been to a broadway show in my life. Okay that's my confession.

[phone clip ends]

JUSTIN: See? This is how you do it people.

BRIAN: Yeah, let's give josh a hand. [applause and cheering] Yea Josh!

JUSTIN: I swear Brian, if I have to hear that applause track one more time [laughing]

BRIAN: [applause and cheering] [laughing harder] I love having all of this technology and control in front of me.

JUSTIN: Yeah, Brian's got all of the control there. People, this is how it's done. You listen to the show and you call in a cool response, and Josh is showing you up, so the rest of you get on the ball and respond to some questions because, um, I've got a new one this week, and I want to hear some good responses like Josh's. And, learn from Josh: compliment the show when you call...

BRIAN: [laughing hard]

JUSTIN: Because, that makes us happy and more likely to play your call back. I'm kidding. Not really.

BRIAN: Very cute, very great, Justin.

JUSTIN: Okay, one more, one more and then we can wrap up this show, because....

BRIAN: Okay

JUSTIN: Because I know it can be a bit much. This is a good one because last week we talked about the Oscars.

BRIAN: Ah, yes.

JUSTIN: And we talked about Crash vs. Brokeback Mountain. And I expressed my opinion that Crash deserved the Oscar, and I was worried about the flood of E=-mails, and only one listener wrote in a response about this issue. It was Daniel, and this is what Daniel had to say: "Honestly? I agree with Justin on this Oscar business. I haven't seen Crash..."

BRIAN: Oh! And he still agrees!

JUSTIN: He still agrees! "I haven't seen Crash, but I have seen Brokeback, and I just don't think it's that great of a movie. It's sad, yes. It brought up important issues, yes. But the acting was terrible." He did not like the acting. "Don't get me wrong," he says, "I love Jake Gillanhal, but I don't believe that it deserved the high award. The script wasn't that great, and the storyline in general was just too cliche. Yes, so definitely Crash over Brokeback anyday."

BRIAN: Okay!

JUSTIN: And that...

BRIAN: And that is not the first time I've heard from my friends, I mean, I've heard comments like that.

JUSTIN: Well, them's fightin' words to some people, because I know we've got some listeners who are you know, big fans of Brokeback, but thanks Daniel for offering an opinion there. So that leads me to a question for this week. And this one, People, people, people, people, you must call in. I mean, we, you don't want to hear us keep reading all of these response. I mean, we're happy to read your responses, but we want to hear your beautiful voices. Well, here' the question, whether you write in or call in it's about movies. I would like to hear our listeners recommend your favorite gay movie and your favorite God movie.

BRIAN: Okay...

JUSTIN: Specifically your favorite movie dealing with sexual orientation or gender issues, and on the other hand, your favorite movie dealing with Christian themes and issues and so on. And I know that sometimes it's difficult to find a movie that's sort of explicitly Christian. It doesn't has to be explicitly Christian, but something that has to do with themes that are relevant as Christians, and then the movies with themes that are relevant to us as GLBT people.

BRIAN: We're asking for 2 responses.

JUSTIN: Yes, Now, if you only have a nomination for one of these, that's fine, but I'm not asking for one that deals with both. I'm asking for two separate movies. And also please, when you make these recommendations, if the film is not appropriate for all ages, let us know about any explicit content, sex, violence, language, that kind of thing. Just so our other listeners....

BRIAN: That we know.

JUSTIN: Yeah, because our other listeners like to be informed I think before they...

BRIAN: And you see what this is going to do is this is going to help Brian learn movies.

JUSTIN: That's right, so vote for your favorite GLBT-themed movie and your favorite Christian movie. I've got some of my nominations on my own, but I'm going to wait and see what our listeners have to say.

BRIAN: I can't imagine, I'm shocked that you actually have an opinion on movies. Um, let's give that all important phone number: 1-888-GAY-4-GOD. 1-888-GAY-4-GOD

JUSTIN: That's right. You can also submit your text response to the question of the week by visiting us online by visiting www.gaychristian.net/gcnradio, and right there on the GCN radio page is the link where you can subscribe to our podcast. You can download old shows and listen to them online, and you can, there's a little text box where you can submit your text response to the question of the week.

BRIAN: And I just want to add something that I may not have said before on the show, or maybe I did a long time ago, the toll free number is only available right now to people in the US and Canada.

JUSTIN: That's right.

BRIAN: But, if you're outside the US or Canada and you want to give us an audio response, what you can do is send an E-mail over to gcnradio@gaychristian.net, and let me know, and I can make some special arrangements either to have you record on your computer, or we have a couple of other little ways that we can do it on a case by case basis, but we're not excluding people outside the US or Canada, because we know we have people listening.

JUSTIN: So, we're always happy to hear from you, and we thank you for providing the content

BRIAN: Absolutely, yea! Great content!

JUSTIN: We have a lot of great stuff coming up on future sews, shows, so stay tuned, and again, if you have comments about the show, or ideas for future shows, you should E-mail those to us at gcnradio@gaychristian.net, and we'll go through those and use that to help us determine the future.

BRIAN: What the heck we're going to do next. Well thanks! We appreciate listening today, everyone who called and wrote in, and we've got more fun stuff on the way, so keep on listening, but for now, I am Brian.

JUSTIN: I am Justin, Goodbye

BRIAN: Have a good week

[outro music]