TRAILER:
HBO REALITY SHOW TO FEATURE DRAG QUEENS TRAINING "SMALL TOWN" AMERICANS FOR DRAG PERFORMANCE
BY HEATHER CLARK
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research
purposes:
A new reality show set to premiere on HBO next month features three drag queens who travel throughout small towns in America looking for contestants who they can train to perform in drag for a one-night show.“We’re Here” features Darius Pierce, who goes by the stage name Shangela; Christopher Caldwell, who goes by the stage name Bob the Drag Queen; and David Huggard, who goes by the stage name Eureka. The three are known from “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” a long-running television series where men in drag compete against each other for the title of “America’s Next Drag Superstar.”According to the “We’re Here” page on the HBO website, the six-part series follows Pierce, Caldwell and Huggard as they recruit residents from across America and train them to be their “drag daughters” for a one-night performance.“We travel across this country to take people from who they are to who they can be,” a trailer for the new show states. “We’re actually taking some locals [and] turning them into fierce drag queens.”The trailer shows some of the selected residents learning how to dress and dance, and some also talk about how they dealt with bullying growing up.One clip appears to be an interview of a couple whose daughter came out as a lesbian and who now apparently regret their opposition.“My mom had this look as she thought I would go to Hell,” the daughter states.In the trailer, drag is described as a “triumph of love over labels,” “electric” and giving one a purpose. When one man is asked how he feels dressed in drag, he replies, “Sexy as [expletive].”The promotional video ends with a tired Caldwell propping up his feet and stating, “All in a gay’s work.”HBO has expressed enthusiasm over the series, remarking in a statement, “Drag is about confidence and self-expression. We are so thrilled to showcase the transformative power of the art form with our audience.”While the show claims, “You can’t live for anyone but yourself,” the Bible teaches that men are to no longer live unto themselves but for Jesus Christ.“He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto Him which died for them and rose again,” 2 Corinthians 5:15 reads.
In expounding on the verse, the late Bible commentator Matthew Henry once explained, “All were lost and undone, dead and ruined, slaves to sin, having no power to deliver themselves, and must have remained thus miserable for ever, if Christ had not died.”“We should not make ourselves, but Christ, the end of our living and actions,” he noted. “A Christian’s life should be devoted to Christ. Alas, how many show the worthlessness of their professed faith and love, by living to themselves and to the world!”Theologian Albert Barnes also outlined, “To live to Him is the opposite to living unto ourselves. It is to seek His honor, to feel that we belong to Him, that all our time and talents, all our strength of intellect and body, all the avails of our skill and toil — all belong to Him and should be employed in His service.”Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” In Luke 14:27, He added, “And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”______________________________________________________________
