You may know who Keith Haring was, but did you know he was a Jesus Freak at one point during his short life? Yes, one of the most recognizable gay icons and Christ bashers the world over was a “Jesus person.”

When I turned thirteen or fourteen, I remember, for whatever reason, wanting to be part of something. Well, the first thing that became available to me was the Jesus movement… People fell into the Jesus Saves movement because it was something to believe in. It was just like it is in the Bible, except you took everything more literally. Being born again meant that you didn’t just commit your life to it, but would convince others to believe in it. Not only was it a way of dealing with your own life, but it was your duty to convince the rest of the world about it. It was a self-declared mission.

So I read about all these things in the Bible and I read Revelation—about the end of the world. And I read a book called The Late Great Planet Earth, and I digested all this information and wanted to believe. All my art of this period was involved with these Jesus things… I was considered a freak—a Jesus Freak. I tried to convince others to be born again, and it just annoyed people—they got tired of my talking about it. Finally, I myself became bored with it. I had done it for about a year, and it seemed to make less and less sense to me, and it became less pressing. In between all that, I discovered smoking pot—that, plus listening to rock music. And there was peer pressure, so the Jesus thing became really boring, and I don’t know that I ever, really believed in all those things. It wasn’t as exciting as it appeared to be at first. Still, all that stuff stuck in my head and even now there are lots of religious images in my work, although they’re used in a more cynical way—to show how manipulative those beliefs and images can be. So, anyway, after the Jesus thing I got into drugs.

Keith Haring, Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography (15-16)

Perhaps America’s brand of secularism poses a particular problem. It allows for professing belief in God and respects the public role of religion and the churches, but at the same time can subtly reduce religious belief to a lowest common denominator. The result is a growing separation of faith from life.

The Pope speaking to American bishops during his recent visit, “Pope Praises Americans’ Faith and Warns of Perils of Secularism,” The New York Times (04.17.08)

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Quote of the Week | 04.06.08

Sometimes, when I set to thinking about the various activities of men, the dangers and troubles which they face at Court, or in war, giving rise to so many quarrels and passions, daring and often wicked enterprises and so on, I have often said that the sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room… The only good thing for men therefore is to be diverted from thinking of what they are, either by some occupation which takes their mind off it, or by some novel and agreeable passion which keeps them busy, like gambling, hunting, some absorbing show, in short by what is called diversion.

Blaise Pascal, Pensées (37-38)

Quote of the Week | 03.16.08

This is the first of several quotes I am going to post from Christian Hosoi’s testimony at the Christian Skaters Conference 2007. Enjoy.

If God is going to use skateboarding to, for a platform to preach the Gospel—the most rebllious, the most punk rocker, the most independent people on the planet—I’m telling you, Jesus is coming back soon. I’m telling you, He is coming back soon.

Christian Hosoi, Christian Skaters Conference 2007.

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Quote of the Week | 03.09.08

It’s a mistake to think of the climate crisis as one in a list of issues that will define our future. It’s the issue. Everything else has to be viewed through that lens.

Al Gore, Rolling Stone, (11.15.07)

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For my generation, looking like a virgin when you marry is completely unappealing, boring even. Who cares about that part anymore?

Natasha DaSilva, The New York Times (02.21.08)

Quote of the Week | 02.17.08

Barack Obama is promoting a change in circumstances for America. This will not work. It will not last, because America is decaying from the inside out. Until the tumor of the heart is taken care of, Obama’s message means nothing.

We are prone to think that a change in circumstances is always the answer to a problem. But the problem is usually within us and not around us. The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart.

Warren W. Wiesber, Be Wise (80)

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Quote of the Week | 02.10.08

I want the public to be very scared by what they see. I want them to see a very bleak future. I want them to feel disillusioned halfway through and feel hopeless.

Leonardo DiCaprio on his propaganda film The 11th Hour, Interview with Scott Roxborough of Hollywood Reporter (May 20, 2007)

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Quote of the Week | 01.27.08

This quote is disturbing in its reflection on the lifestyles considered normal in Ibiza, Spain. It is evidence of human and cultural decay. It is also a glimpse of the future—unhibited and legal public nudity and sex. This is only one of the debased activities brought to life by George Curley in the April 2007 Vanity Fair.

On another afternoon, a boat anchors a hundred yards from a popular beach, in full view of the sunbathing families. On deck an attractive woman strips, which is nothing new, but then she pulls the swimming trunks off her boyfriend and starts performing felatio. Next she gets on top of him, and after the couple finish they dive into the sea. More applause. It’s the same attitude everywhere you go on this tiny, outrageously beautiful island…

George Curley, “Ibiza” (Vanity Fair 4/07)

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Quote of the Week | 12.23.07

What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside of God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Quote of the Week | 12.09.07

You don’t need more stuff and you don’t need a hotter wife, you just need to get over yourself and surrender your will to God.

Stephen Baldwin, The Unusual Suspect