Thursday, December 10, 2020

In his blog post Why Hollywood Praises Elliot Page (and Blacklists Me) Becket Cook explains how entertainment industry and his LGBT friends (“the world”) “hate” him now because in 2009 he chose to follow Jesus and opted “out of the world”.

His introduction is interesting. He writes “The world applauded the actress Ellen Page (…) when on December 1 she announced her decision to become a man, changing her name to Elliot Page. Meanwhile, my decision to no longer identify as a gay man because I follow Christ is anathema in our culture. Why the double standard? Elliot declares that “he” has finally become his authentic self. Why doesn’t our culture celebrate my decision to be my authentic self? Is my authentic self less worthy of praise? (…) Is it really wonderful to witness people becoming who they are? Or is it only wonderful when the “true self” they discover fits the popular cultural narrative of the day?”

I was personally touched by his testimony “I grew up in Catholic schools, and I honestly thought religion was just being a good person, doing good things. I don’t think the priests in my high school once explained what the gospel was.” (in an earlier blog post).

At least he says so. I don’t really believe it. The fact that he lose his friends and his career indicates something else. I suspect that neither his awakened fascination for Jesus nor his decision to stop having sex with his gay friends, nor the fact that he spoke about these things in public, were the reason for his fall. The reason for his fall was rather his way of explaining these changes.

So I am afraid that I wouldn’t enjoy reading his book Change of Affection: A Gay Man’s Incredible Story of Redemption (2019) where he shares his experience as a gay who became Christian.