Mandisa- the new anti-gay Donna Summers?

[SueSnell]

Posted: 3/29/06 at 11:51pm

A friend e-mailed this to me. I think it is so distressing and I hope she gets voted off next week. No one should vote for someone who mouths she loves God but rejects others...

"Mandisa Says Anti-Gay Author is her "Personal Idol"
Tonight on 'American Idol,' a leading contestant, Mandisa (no last name), introduced her song selection - a religious tune entitled, "Wanna Praise You" by gospel duo Mary Mary - with this statement (caps added):

"This song goes out to everybody that wants to be FREE. Your addiction, LIFESTYLE or situation may be big, but God is bigger!" In the taped segment beforehand, she said the song "means a lot to me because it's a testimony that there's nothing too hard for God."

Check out Mandisa's official profile at the Fox Idol site. She goes out of her way to single out anti-gay author/lecturer Beth Moore as her own personal "idol."

I did a search on just one of Beth Moore's books at Amazon, typing in 'homosexuality.' This passage came from from Moore's book, "Breaking Free: Making Liberty in Christ a Reality in Life" :

"A young Christian girl has a harsh abusive father. She grows up with a fear and distaste for men. Satan supplies a slightly older woman who seems tender and caring. The comforting relationship turns into a physical relationship, so the young woman assumes she must be homosexual. In her heart she knows what she is doing is wrong, but she feels helpless without her new comforter. Soon she starts socializing with other women who are practicing homosexuality, because they will support her new habit with the lies she needs to continue. She avoids the Bible and chooses books that advocate homosexuality. She drops all relationships except those that support the fraudulent attachment with lies... Scary, isn't it?"

Moore's site is here: www.lproof.org/ default.asp

She appears to be affiliated with "Lifeway" Ministries which has a healthy "ex-gay" resource section ("The Way Out: Finding Freedom from Homosexuality") on their website. "

I hope all of you down there will help send her packing....

Posted: 3/30/06 at 3:46am

I did root for Mandiva, but her constant God-referencing rubbed me the wrong way...I just knew that she'd be against the gay breed. Now I'm even more sure. Too bad.

[Calvin]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 9:39am

Well then, she should fit right in with the American Idol producers.

[staticradar]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 9:44am

Well we do have to remember this is FOX *sighs*

I love AI, but Mandisa is wearing my nerves a little thin, when I watch a show like AI i really don't want to be preached at.

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 9:48am

She won't win. Maybe they'll keep her on for the controversial aspect.

[Calvin]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 9:50am

BTW, wasn't the Donna Summer thing a rumor that she denied? She has done AIDS fund-raising, after all.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 10:04am

Who is Donna Summers?

[pab]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 10:16am

Ms. Summer has always been plagued with that extra S.

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 10:21am

I'm such a Donna Summers fan I don't want to believe all that stuff. She's THE disco diva of all time. After Sylvester, that is.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 10:39am

She will change her name to 'Medusa' and get a series on Fox.

The odds are 40-1 that Anderson Cooper will not interview her.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 10:53am

Summer only retracted her "God made Adam and Eve" stance after her popularity died. She had surpassed the disco curse, until she opened her big mouth.

Now she loves everyone!

Cal, I love you for mentioning the antigay producers...No gay contestants (out, that is) and the only gay auditioners were made to look like cartoons characters. I'm starting to hate this show.

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 10:55am

Disco "curse"?

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 11:10am

Many of Disco's biggest stars never made it into the mainstream because of the big disco backlash in the late 70's and early 80's. She was able to break thru with "She Works Hard for the Money" and other hits.

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 11:15am

Oh, ok. I was thinking you meant that being a disco star was a curse. And we all know that if it weren't for disco, she'd be nowhere! probably, anyway.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 11:17am

I remember how it was an awful, awful sin to admit to liking disco in the early 80s.

It'd be like wearing a mullet now.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 11:24am

So what, doodle - people are supposed to come in and wear I AM GAY teeshirts? If most contestants who audition and are on the show don't "fess" up about their sexuality - it seems a pretty realistic barometer of how the actual industry works.

There are gay contestants - even gay hosts and gay runner ups to the title. Who cares? Why should sexuality play a part in a singing contest?

[Calvin]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 11:26am

My comment was less about the lack of gay contestants and more about the show's constant willingless to use gay as a punchline -- and the producers' seeming insistance that any contestant who is gay hide (but beating your girlfriend with a phone is A-OK).

[Magdalene]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 11:29am

She sounds like a nutcase!

[Billboard Girl]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 11:38am

It's not just gays that the producers use as a punchline. The way a lot of bad auditioners who happen to be Asian are presented on the show has always made me kind of uncomfortable. And with a few exceptions, they're almost always rude to heavier contestants.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 12:49pm

okay, MB...jeez...I meant that it would be nice if someone could be out on that show...considering that there are probably many gay, talented contestants. My point was that the ones they play up are pretty cartoonish. I did love that very feminine kid this season who had long hair and makeup. I loved his attitude and his family, but he was so untalented.
The rude comments from Simon in the early process are very anti gay and very anti large...am I being overly sensitive? Always a possibility.

[staticradar]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 12:51pm

so basically if you're an overweight gay asian you're screwed within AI

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 12:52pm

I am a fan of Mandisa's voice, and had respect for her religious beliefs. It is strange that her possible anti gay tendencies should come to light now (at least for me) because, for the first time last night she made me feel uncomfortable. Did you see her face when sloppy Paula said that everyone was going to worship her? It was like satan himself was talking toher...it scares me.

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 2:35pm

Never liked her. Sorry.

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 3:14pm

I have to admit, I opened this thread cringing a bit, and not at Mandisa. It seems to me as though someone was Hunting for this rather than really getting the sense that Mandisa is anti-gay. Has she said, or acted in any offensive way? Not that I've seen thus far.

And to point out the lyrics from the Mary Mary song as "anti-gay" is absurd. "Lifestyle" doesn't exclusively refer to sexuality, and it's open to interpretation.

My point is the girl has every right to be religious, but it doesn't necessarily mean she's anti-gay. I feel as though we're jumping to conclusions and assuming things we really aren't sure of.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 3/30/06 at 4:04pm

That's why I said "possible" antigay tendancies...but if I stated my hero was Hitler, you'd have an idea of how I felt about some people.