Schocked!


I was surprised to learn that the most famous person from Morris, Minnesota was a disgraced Republican politician, known for using campaign funds illegally to decorate his office. It’s a strange thing to have attached to the place where you live.

Now he has cemented his position as the biggest name from Morris by coming out as gay. He worked for years against LGBT rights, so that’s a bit surprising (or is it?).

There’s more! Now I learn that his family was a member of the Apostolic Church of Morris (we actually have two churches for that sect here in town, the other is the North Apostolic Church). Uh-oh. I know that church: fervent, hard-working Biblical literalists who have a rather oppressive influence on the rest of us. That’s where he started!

My story starts in the rural Midwest, as part of a family centered in a faith and its particular traditions. At the Apostolic Christian Church where we belonged, we were enthusiastic regulars. My parents did their best to raise me and my siblings according to biblical tenets as they understood them.

I wonder if they are aware of how their beliefs boomeranged against them in this one case. They’d probably attribute it to the fact that his family moved to “one of the less rigid branches” in his youth.

Comments

  1. rpjohnston says

    I could swear all of this came out a decade ago, including the being gay part

  2. Snarki, child of Loki says

    Was he found dead in a motel room, wearing two wet-suits, a ball-gag, and a butt plug?

    It’s just a matter of time, isn’t it?

  3. tulle says

    This was as big of a shock as finding out Liberace and Paul Lynde were gay for us gays

  4. says

    Well good for him.
    Fine, so he’s a crook. And a Republican. Don’t really know which is worst, though. But I have a suspicion that most of them (politicians, that is) are (crook, that is), if not by any actual laws then surely by any measure of common decency.

  5. harryblack says

    I wish people would stop using the pics he prefers to tell this story.
    The guy is a bad person, do we really need to focus on his perceived hotness?
    Do we do the same with Sarah Palin or other awful straight politicians?
    Just tell us how awful he is and leave the abs out of it

  6. microraptor says

    I’m really sick of how a big deal is made every time a homophobic politician comes out of the closet. It’s used to reinforce the narrative that LGBT people are just oppressing themselves.

  7. greg hilliard says

    Like rpjohnston, I thought Shrock came out years ago. I mean, he’ll, I thought he was gay first time I saw a story on him.