Some people might think this is some kind of organized conspiracy against the message of the Westboro Baptist Church. I didn’t realize when I wrote my song that it might compete with their message. I mean, I was utterly clueless to that. Now that the DJs keep asking me about it I had to think about it and I think people in America have a right to chose their own message.sic] not the same thing as censorship. No one has a right to utterly control what you see, what you hear and what you think. Thats [sic] fundamentally anti-American and you should fight it with a resolve that strikes to the very core of your being even if it risks everything you have, otherwise America risks losing everything it is and should be. [link added]

Aside from being grammatically challenged – and a poor speller – Donnie’s hokey, down-home, I’m-an-idiot prose simultaneously suggest what Besen and Savage concluded. Either Donnie is mocking people like Fred Phelps, the leader of the Westboro Baptist cult, or Donnie is a bigot expressing his belief that “god hates fags.” Or he’s both and, as Savage suggested, succeeding in promoting a message of hate – and himself – while using humor to showcase religion-based bigotry.

A cursory visit to the Love God’s Way ministry web site provides a seemingly clear sign that it, at least, is a fraud. There’s no “Donate” button. When’s the last time you heard of an anti-gay ministry that wasn’t constantly clamoring for donations to fight those marauding hordes of wild-eyed homosexuals hell-bent on destroying civilization?

Aside from pleading for donation to fight the “homosexual agenda,” those “godly” anti-gay web sites support brainwashing and various form of repression collective known as “ex-gay therapies,” all of which have been decried as ineffective, unethical, and harmful by every professional medical, psychiatric, and psychological association in America. Among the “treatments” some ex-gay therapies embrace are exorcisms and making male clients drink large quantities of GatorAide which, they believe, will make them more masculine.

Self-proclaimed “ex-gay” Donnie and Love God’s Way have their own version of such therapies called “C.H.O.P.S” which stands for “CHANGING HOMOSEXUALS into ORDINARY PEOPLE”:

I have been called a “Faggot”. You are not alone and guess what, God Loves You even if he hates your Homosexuality. You just can’t stay that way. Let me help you love yourself. Follow me and together we’ll C.H.O.P.S away the Gay.

Aside from the fact that it’s impossible to get the “S” in the acronym “C.H.O.P.S” from “Changing Homosexuals into Ordinary People” and the curious missing period after the “S,” Donnie’s invitation to “follow me” and his proclamation that “together we’ll C.H.O.P.S away the Gay” seem to parody one of the anti-gay and ex-gay movements’ favorite “scientists,” discredited psychologist Paul Cameron who would, if he had his way, chop the life out of gay people:

At the 1985 Conservative Political Action Conference, Cameron announced to the attendees, “Unless we get medically lucky, in three or four years, one of the options discussed will be the extermination of homosexuals.” According to an interview with former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, Cameron was recommending the extermination option as early as 1983.
– Mark E. Pietrzyk, News-Telegraph, March 10, 1995.

The C.H.O.P.S video is a laughable caricaturing of sanctimonious preachers who claim to be representing “God’s love” while propagating hate and promoting themselves as victims. Donnie – in his typical bucolic bumpkin prose – claimed to be a victim in the January 30, 2007 update to his “ministry’s” website:

Your poor old Pastor Donnie was just awakened from the first real sleep he has had in days by his computer guys telling him that someone in San Diego on a DSL connection and another person in San Francisco on a cable connection had been trying to destroy our rolodex of people that sign up for the Evening Service newsletter. Last time we checked this was still America and its [sic] not illegal for a Pastor to conduct his Ministry. … Why don’t you guys turn in and let poor ol' Donnie sleep?

That January 30, 2007 update also included this: “We would be even more disappointed to squander the funds of the Ministry on having our lawyers contact your ISP, identify your IP address and time of attack and bring charges against you in a court of law.”

With no solicitation for donations, where would Donnie and his “ministry” get the money to have “our lawyers contact your ISP, identify your IP address and time of attack and bring charges against you in a court of law”? Is Donnie blowing smoke into mirrors? Or is the Donnie Davies persona just doing some more shrewd marketing? Perhaps he’s doing both, simultaneously.

Love God’s Way’s also features a list of music that “is Gay or propogating [sic] a Gay message.” And who are among these homo-promoting artists? Ravi Shankar, Cole Porter, The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Metallica, The Rolling Stones, Kansas, Eminmen, Nirvana, Lou Reed, Red Hot Chili Peppers and, of course, Ted Nugent and Frank Sinatra.

But Donnie also offered a list of Safe Music: “The Right Brothers (Loves Ann Coulter!), Dresden Dolls, UnderOath, Cyndi Lauper, Falling Up, Flyleaf, THE TURNING, Disciple, P.O.D., Evanescence, By The Tree, Scott Reed, Michael W. Smith, Jars of Clay, DC Talk, Danielson.”

“Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” gay-rights activist Cyndi Lauper? Either Donnie is living under a rock, or these lists are grand parodies of similar lists concocted by various groups in the radical Christian Right.

On January 27, 2007, the mystery of Dannie Davies, Love God’s Way, and “God Hates Fags” seemed to be solved:

Thanks to the sleuthing of Dallas JMG reader Bob Stoller, “Pastor Donnie Davies” has been exposed as Dallas-area actor Joey Oglesby (First name corrected from post headline). Here he is. Joey Oglesby recently appeared in a production of Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical. Joey Oglesby is a former member of the Chicken & Pickle Guys sketch comedy duo.

Finally. Our long national nightmare is over. I tip my hat to Joey Oglesby and his crew for a fun diversion. …

But there was more from the JMG web site:

UPDATE: I’ve exchanged a few emails with Oglesby and he is swearing that he is not Donnie Davies. I’ve asked him for a statement to publish here.

As of this writing, no statement from Joey Oglesby has appeared on the JMG web site, but he has adamantly declared he is not Donnie Davies. The technology Donnie uses may also have exposed him, as one JMG commenter noted, “It is him – look at the chicken-pox scar on the bridge of his nose. Matches Donnie Davies perfectly.”

Another JMG update is also telling:

UPDATE II: I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier, but somebody has reserved the domain ChopsTheMovie.com. What say you, oh sleuths of teh intarwebs?

Whether a hoax and satire by a self-promoter, or a serious message from a pathetic excuse for a human being, a lot of attention has been given Donnie Davies and his video prompting the “minister” to proclaim “The people have spoken! The Evening Service and Love Gods [sic] Way Ministries are among the most popular sites on the Internet!”

In the final analysis, “Donnie” should be thanked. He’s helped bring attention to the absurdity and intrinsic, malignant evil of those who pervert religion to propagate hate and promote themselves. We can only hope that James Dobson, Don Wildmon, Lou Sheldon, and the rest of the sanctimonious anti-gay leaders of the Christian Right see themselves exposed and caricatured in Donnie and “God Hates Fags.”
 

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