I must confess myself more than a little stunned at what I have found out this evening.
In my days in Leeds, I always felt uncomfortable with standard forms of Christian evangelism, such as "door-knocking" or "street-preaching". It seemed too intrusive, too invasive, too impolite and not giving people the respect they deserved. I was part of a church drama group, and we were asked to do some pieces on the streets in York as part of an evangelistic exercise. Also invited was a young American guy named Todd Farley. He did mime to music, contemporary Christian music. I stood there almost open-mouthed as he was able to draw a crowd in. Ok, the music was loud and "different", but even so people just stood and watched. He then did a workshop, which I went to in order to see if I could add some depth to characters I portrayed. I came out a trainee mime, and joined with four others in Leeds to create a troupe. The last 3 years of my time in Leeds were dominated by mime ministry, and we were invited as a group by Todd to tour with him in Norway.
Even after I left Leeds, I was still involved in Todd's organisation for a while - until I moved to Scotland and it all got too difficult. I grew to know this guy a little - his love of Star Trek, his sense of comedy, his flaws too - such as the occasional "pig-out" on things which really weren't too good for him! And then - silence. Occasionally I would have a look on Mimeistry's website to see what was going on, but marriage and work meant that I was no longer fit enough to do what I had done before. It was more occasional interest than a strong desire.
I found Todd on Facebook last month, and decided I would see if he would become a friend to this strange woman. He did. And this evening I was thinking of him, so decided to look up his history on his "new" website. And came away feeling stunned.
He and his wife, Marilyn (who I also really enjoyed being with) are now divorced. He was disowned by Mimeistry for announcing that he believed practising gay people could be ministers in the church. He has had divorce, death (of his mother and brother) and a loss of career to deal with in the last 2 years. I was amazed - partly because I never thought that he would be someone who would make that stand for gay people in the church, although I don't really know why I thought that. I was shocked that divorce had happened - although I realise that I only really knew them in their very early years of marriage. And I'm left with some questions too. Is he gay himself? After all, Ray Boltz, who's music Todd used very powerfully, came out as gay a couple of years back, and was shunned by the evangelical Christian community as a result. Todd talks about being an advocate for a gay friend - was that Ray?
Part of me thinks "good riddance - these evo fundie types cut off their noses to spite their own faces again - I hope the whole edifice fails". But part of me is also sad, to see yet another person damaged by all of this, and this time someone who I did actually care for and respect, and who was in very, very deeply. I'm surprised at how deeply I'm moved by it. I guess it's because in 1990 I almost gave up my job to work with Todd for three months - unusually Todd gave me the choice - and also I guess because I look at what I could so easily have become or remained - a vindictive, small-minded, legalistic Christian.
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