'GOD HATES FAGS' a novel by Joe Wellman
I wished I had listened to the person who warned me about the title. “It’s too controversial." She was correct. A better title might’ve been, “A Matter of Hate.” No one would’ve been embarrassed, afraid, threatened or identified as subscribing to the dictates of a major bigot by carrying a book with the current title. A lesson learned. An apt title may not always be the right title.
Print $12.99
Ebook $3.99
308 Pages
Second City Books & Windy City Publishers
Reviewed by Laurie Gray for Readers Favorite
"God Hates Fags" by Joe Wellman opens with the discovery of the abduction and brutal murder of a beloved high school teacher who had recently been outed as a closeted gay from the pulpit by a fundamentalist Christian pastor on a mission to rid society of the unforgivable sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. The story is set in a fictitious city of 35,000 people on the Mississippi River in southern Illinois and contains profanity, violence, sexual situations, and vulgar bigotry of every kind. After the police investigate and solve the murder, a State's Attorney with congressional ambitions decides to charge the pastor with a hate crime, even though his friends, family and party leaders believe he's committing political suicide. Does he have his own agenda and skeletons in the closet? In this book, everyone does!
Make no mistake. Joe Wellman knows, probably better than most, that God does not hate gays; it's only people who hate. He is not promoting the senseless abuse and self-perpetuating visceral hatred he depicts. For those who already suspect that "criminal justice" is an oxymoron and most people's lives are a tragic joke based upon their unspoken fears, "God Hates Fags" is clearly a skillful, perhaps brilliant, parody of society and the lies we take so seriously. The text itself could use some additional editing and a less offensive title. In context, the title is appropriate, but standing alone on a bookshelf or simply reading it in public sends the wrong message. I was fortunate to review an electronic copy where the title was not evident to casual observers. If you have a hard copy, I recommend duct taping the cover, suspending your own biases and expectations, and reading this book. Like it or not, you will learn something about yourself.
Rating: 5.0 stars
God Hates Fags
In a community of thirty thousand in the far western part of Illinois on the Mississippi River, a minister one Sunday morning identified a male high school teacher as a homosexual. The minister learned of the teacher’s sexual orientation from a parishioner, whom he knew to be a God-fearing woman. The forty-two-year-old virgin was in love with the twenty-four-year-old married man. One Saturday night the woman discovered the young man in a romantic embrace with another man. Jealous and morally offended, the woman confided in her minister whose view of homosexuality came from the Biblical injunctions found in Leviticus 20:13 and Romans 1:32. Homosexuality was an affront to God and an abomination. Learning of the gay teacher, the minister felt that God had finally given him the special mission the chaplain in Viet Nam said was the reason he survived the war. When school administrators refused to remove the teacher, the minister decided to act. Believing he was on a mission from God, he named the teacher. In the congregation that Sunday morning was a man who shared the news with his homophobic friends. The men decided to teach the teacher a lesson by giving him a beating. Unfortunately, he’s killed in the process. As a coup, the men scratched the words “God hates fags” on the teacher’s forehead. A tip led to the arrest of the three men. After reading the killers’ confessions, and learning the teacher was in fact gay, the states attorney decided the minister had unnecessarily put the teacher’s life in jeopardy by singling him out as a homosexual. He charged the minister with a hate crime. The states attorney reasoned you cannot use the Bible to justify homophobic behavior. “God Hates Fags” is like a rock thrown into a pool. Many in the community are touched by the teacher’s murder, the police investigation, the trial, and the jury proceedings.
Mr. Wellman is a retired high school teacher having taught for thirty-five years in Illinois. He lives with his wife in a suburb northwest of Chicago. Mr. Wellman was probably one of the first high school teachers to invite gays into his psychology and sociology classes to talk about their sexual orientation. For a description of that first event, readers are referred to an article, High School Days by Step May, appearing in The Gay Liberation Book, edited by Len Richmond and Gary Noguera.
For questions or comments email the author at: authorjw@godhatesfags-anovel.com
For my other novels, go to www.joewellman.com