Episode Twenty: Gomer Joe’s Bar
Gomer Joe’s, the most popular gay bar in the city, was packed, even though it was only five in the afternoon. The loud music that usually played was absent. Conversation was intermittent.
All eyes were on the large television screen that hung above the bar. The Zack O’Rourke show had just come on, and the denizens of the bar watched with great interest. There he was, Bishop Lionel Daniel, the pastor who had been humiliated by gay activist Mike Minor.
Ralph Merton, a government bureaucrat and a regular at Gomer Joe’s, said, “At least that liar Mike Minor isn’t on this one.”
His friends around the table looked at him with surprise. Ralph’s partner, Matthew Hall, chided him gently, “Mike Minor did what he had to do.”
Ralph gulped down his beer. “If we’re gonna lie, we’re no better than the religious fanatics.”
“Shut up, Ralph, this is the real world. This is about our rights. We need Mike Minor to keep doing what he’s doing.” Several of the men sitting around the table nodded in agreement. All eyes turned back to the television.
But Mike Minor hadn’t been doing any lying, charming, or wheeling and dealing for some time now. He hadn’t been seen at Gomer Joe’s, or any of his other favorite haunts.
Mike Minor sat in a little, rented mountain cabin three hundred miles from Washington D.C. He watched as Zack O’Rourke began the live telecast. He noted that Bishop Daniel looked calm but determined.
Mike Minor glanced down at the Gideon’s Bible placed on the rickety coffee table. “The trouble you’ve caused me,” he said.
To be continued…
Episodes of Attack of the Evange-hellicals:
1. How to silence the black Bishop: HERE
2. The Bishop and the televised lie: HERE
3. C.R.O.C.-o-matic: HERE
4. Declaration of Courtesy: HERE
Announcement: Evange-hellicals Anonymous help available: HERE
5. The LORD is a man of war (Exodus 15:3): HERE
Newsbreak: Unhappy Evange-hellicals Anonymous member speaks out: HERE
6. The Fleas and Pets Newsletter: HERE
7. Enough with the propaganda points: HERE
Intermission: Popcorn half price for evangelicals: SNACKS
8. Espresso with the Just Jesus Christian: HERE
9. Nothing he could say: HERE
Advertisement: Universalist “Big Tent” Toy Set For The Kids! HERE
10. Episco-contemplatives: HERE
10.5 Jenni Botswana knows the Lion HERE
11. What is happening HERE
12. Howls and Lamentations HERE
13. Unholy Times and an Unholy People: HERE
14. Jenni Botswana, Early Bird: HERE
15. The evangelist and the rotting fruit: HERE
15.5 Fleas and Heretics HERE
Evange-Smellicals Perfume Commercial: SNIFF
16. Gay Activist and the Puritan Preacher: HERE
17. HELL’S BELLS: HERE
18. Homo-Universalism: HERE
19. Evange-hellicals and People of the Book: HERE
Infomercial: Evange-hellicals Bible sells out first day: HERE
20. Gomer Joe’s Bar: HERE
21. Return of the Anti-Flea Sauce HERE
22. Hanratty praying, the enemy preying: HERE
Announcement: Talking Evange-tellicals in our lobby! HERE
23. “What, you’re a reformed lesbian?” HERE
24. This thing that is upon us: HERE
25. What a beautiful girl: HERE
26. Better to struggle than burn: HERE
27. The Street Preacher HERE
28: Epilogue: Rifles and Parade: HERE
copyright 2010 John Lanagan
(This is a work of fiction, and all characters are fictitious.)
