When I first spotted this story on TMZ, it seemed too “out there” to be true. The given details were outlandish and lacked context. The tale was so sensationalized that I almost decided not to cover it. The Guardian filled in many blanks, and here we are.
In 2008, author Nicholas Sparks (author of many weepy novel-turned-movies such as The Notebook, Nights of Rodanthe, and Safe Haven) founded a Christian academy called the Epiphany School. The school is supposedly non-denominational, depending on the source. The former headmaster, Saul Benjamin, has filed a lawsuit for unlawful termination. The suit alleges that Sparks is a racist, anti-Semitic homophobe. Saul, who is of Jewish descent and Quaker faith, says he was degraded and made to defend his Jewish heritage in front of a roomful of directors. Saul had wanted to make the school more diverse. He says Sparks didn’t handle the request well, and things were never the same. Whoa:
The former headmaster of a school founded and funded by Nicholas Sparks is suing for discrimination, alleging the bestselling author’s “despicable and outrageous views” led him on a campaign to “humiliate, degrade and defame” the teacher.
The 47-page complaint is filled with a range of accusations against Sparks, including that he endorsed a group of students who attempted to enact a “homo-caust” against a group of gay students and that he told people the plaintiff, Saul Benjamin, had Alzheimer’s.
Benjamin, the former head of Sparks’ Epiphany School of Global Studies in North Carolina, said in the complaint that the “greatest fiction” Sparks created was that he is a proponent of diversity and inclusiveness.
“In reality, the non-fiction version of Defendant Sparks feels free, away from public view, to profess and endorse vulgar and discriminatory views about African-Americans, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender individuals, and individuals of non-Christian faiths,” says the complaint, filed on Thursday in the US district court for the eastern district of North Carolina.
He also complained that Sparks “diagnosed” him with Alzheimer’s disease, harming his reputation in the community of New Bern, North Carolina, where the school is located.
Benjamin accused Sparks of trapping him in a room for hours without access to a bathroom during a meeting which Benjamin said had been orchestrated to “unlawfully remove” him from his role at the school and the Nicholas Sparks Foundation.
Benjamin, who is of Jewish heritage and Quaker faith, believes that his efforts to make the school more diverse “enraged” Sparks and members of the school’s board of trustees.
He also claims that Sparks repeatedly expressed “disdain” for African Americans and endorsed a group of students who “sought to enact a ‘homo-caust’ against a group of gay students.”
The complaint, which begins with three lines from Sparks’s 2000 novel The Rescue, asks for an award of monetary damage for things including the “mental anguish and emotional distress” Benjamin claims he suffered at Sparks’s hand.
[From The Guardian]
Saul’s suit also joins the Epiphany school, its board of trustees, and the Nicholas Sparks Foundation, as defendants. This story is so bizarre and highly detailed that it could be true.
Over the years, Sparks has dropped enough hints in interviews that it’s easy to believe he’s a righteous douche. He grew indignant with USA Today and argued that “I don’t write romance novels. Love stories — it’s a very different genre.” Ha. Just because Sparks doesn’t write books with Fabio on the cover doesn’t meant that they’re any less pr0ny. His books specialize in a manipulative type of emotional pr0n. I read A Walk to Remember after losing a bet, and I’ll never pick up another one of Sparks’ books. Yeah, he’s a douche, but is he a racist and homophobe too? If this story is true, then yes.
TMZ does have a tiny follow-up so far. Sparks’ lawyer says that he is gay and Jewish, so Sparks can’t possibly be homophobic or anti-Semitic. Nice. Anyway, Sparks’ lawyer denied that anything in this lawsuit is real. We’ll see.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN
Any defense that begins with ‘ I can’t possibly be X because my friends/employees etc are X’ always makes me think they doth protest too much and the accusation has merit.
When I read that I thought “SOMEONE’S clapping their hands with glee over a new summer home with the mess they’re about to clean up!”….
I agree. Even Neo-Nazi groups have been represented by Jewish ACLU lawyers in the past. Doesn’t mean they still don’t hate Jewish people. They just needed a lawyer.
Yep. Also his books are horrible. HORRIBLE! And they are romance books. Whatever to this Felicia.
All forms of discrimination are about the worst PR a person/company/etc can have right now, so even the biggest homophobe in the world would hang around a gay person just to say “oh, if I WAS homophobic I wouldn’t be friends with him!”. Truth is, if you really considered that guy your friend, you wouldn’t care about his sexuality.
It’s incredibly mercenary and brazenly so…and a popular tactic.
What I like is the blonde in the low-cut wrinkly dress. Pretty racy for such a religious guy.
He sounds off like Stephen Harper and his favorite pet subject.
Pipecleaners?
Or his complete indifference towards the harrowing plight of First Nations women in this country?
It’s crazy the things Stephen Harper has gotten away with. I await the next election with fear and trembling though, as at least some of the votes for him have been real.
So…wait a sec. Why did he hire Benjamin in the first place? I mean, why wouldn’t he have hired the Duggar dad or someone like that to be headmaster? There are plenty of “Christian” divinity schools etc that he could have hired from. This seems a bit weird. As for the “homocaust” thing-if that’s true it is horrific. Up to this point, Sparks’s greatst crime is his writing, but if any of this is true, he has got ALOT more to answer for.
You have a good point there , why hire a Benjamin in the first place if he was so anti Semitic? Each story has two sides.
But did Benjamin tell him any of these things when he was applying? Aren’t those ‘illegal’ questions by employers. I’m not sure how it works for a religious school though.
I think for religious schools it’s different. Because you must be willing to follow and live by the tennants of the faith in most cases. I think for a private religious school a lot of those rules go right out the window. i could also be 100% incorrect as well.
“Jewish heritage and QUAKER faith”
I’m guessing that Quaker beliefs are acceptable to Sparks, but Jewish religious practices would not be.
You would need to be told that someone called Saul Benjamin had Jewish heritage?
It’s not like you can tell at a glance if somebody’s a Quaker….or a lot of other things.
Well it seems that Sparks didn’t have a problem with the director until he tried to make the school more diverse. So maybe that was the problem? Maybe I’m misreading…
does DuggarDad know how to read and write?
Wherever you are I hope you can hear bells of laughter – was bored and came back to this thread – thanks very for the chuckle he totally does look like jim-bob 🙂 🙂 🙂
Is anybody surprised by this?
Not at all. This is a guy who when asked why his ROMANCE novels never feature PoC he said he “writes what he knows”. Which is ridiculous considering Safe Haven was told from the perspective of an abused woman, I believe.
No, and I hate his books. I will spare you the normal rant I give when someone suggests one of his books to me.
I hate them too. And movies based on them too. It’s the same type of story over and over again. I had to watch Dear John with my sister and it was one of the most boring films ever.
Dreck.
Oh I want the rant! Maybe if I use the same one my sister/cousin/mom will stop telling me to read his books
I want the Bluemarie rant too.
Aww, I went and saw Annabelle so I’m sorry I missed this.. But I’ll give it anyway. It starts with the stink-eye, quickly followed by “Why would I read this crap? All his stories are all the same! Young love, ripped apart for some reason or another, only to find each other again while one of them is with somebody else. There are tears, they get back together and inevitably someone gets screwed over, then one of them dies. It’s bullish-t. The one book of his I did read, he killed the dog, apparently I’m supposed to believe the dead husband’s soul occupied the dog and when she found love again there was no longer need for him so let’s kill him off, give me a break!!” And sometimes I like to throw in “The Notebook sucked tater-nuts” (always a crowd pleaser)
Nope. And I have to add, I find it EXTREMELY odd that he even opened up a religious school in the first place.
No. I don’t even think a POC exists as a romantic lead in any of his books.
Well, as far as that goes, a non-person of color writing about a person of color tends to get raked over the coals for not using an “authentic voice.” I hate that phrase anyway because when I looked in the mirror this morning I couldn’t help noticing that I was not entirely invisible and did, in point of fact, have a variety f colors going on.
I am only surprised by the fact that Sparks has a school. Weird.
NOT at ALL–This is a man who has compared his writing to the great Hemingway! As if, Mr. Sparks.
Nope, the same guy that trashed McCarthy & believes he’s as good as Hemingway.
Nope. His books (and the movies based off them) will always be in my DO NO WANT category.
LOL!! I thought the lawyer was saying Sparks was gay. I had to read that 3 times. 🙂
Dorothy, I read it the same way! I was wondering if Sparks’ Catholic wife knew he was gay and Jewish! LOL
Haha!! Glad I’m not the only one!!
Yeah, I read it that way, too.
Me too lol
LOL! I’m still reading it that way! So he’s not?
Lol, PandaBird. It’s his attorney who is gay and Jewish.
Me too. But, I’m not surprised that a gay Jewish lawyer was chosen to defend Sparks. In racial discrimination suits, for example, the defendants will often select a lawyer of color to try to muddy the waters and erect a few straw men. It doesn’t prove anything but gamesmanship!
Me too!!!
Same here! I was like whoa, wha…did I read that last paragraph right?? Lol
I didn’t know who he was before I clicked this thread, but now I’m surprised sexist wasn’t on the list. I haven’t read his books or seen the movies, but I’ve heard “The Notebook” tossed around as something akin to appletinis and hope chests.
HA! Hope chests.
As proof he’s not a racist homophobe, he hired a gay, Jewish lawyer. Isn’t that part of their racism? That the only way to win is to hire a Jew?! LOL I’ll reserve judgement of course, but he’s not looking good here.
Jews are not another race, aren’t they?
Correct. People are saying racist when they mean bigoted.
http://www.differencebetween.info/difference-between-bigot-and-racist
Sometimes its race, sometimes its religion. Meh.
Haha, yeah, delorb. Now, I’m worried he’ll win his case. *bidda boom*
LOL. Dammit, he wants to WIN!
I don’t have the energy for this today, so I’ll just be childish and say his books are sh-t.
*snerk* Awesome.
“I can’t be racist/sexist/homophobic because I have such and such as friends.” – I can’t believe this reasoning still has traction. Actually… I can. I had a coworker who the most racist person I’ve met, but completely not self aware. It was bizarre, but a curious look inside the most dangerous type of racism. She would say “those effing Indians,” “the effing Mexicans,” and called anyone East Asian a “Chinese ching chong.” To top it off she once said that no one in our California offices looked “American” and I said, “What do you mean? They look like it to me.” To which she responded, “Well, you know…white.” I’m Black, people. Let that marinate. She said this to her Black coworker born in the Midwest, whose family has been on these shores for quite some time. Probably longer than her ancestors (because they were Eastern European). I’m baffled to this day.
Wow. You could have so easily gotten her fired for that. Props for taking the high road, although I kind of wish you hadn’t.
I wish I could call it the high road. I was just fearful. The department was mostly white and they had all worked together a long time. Even if she was in the wrong, I would have been singled out for pulling the race card. I just didn’t want to go through that.
Sorry HH, that really sucks. I like to think that not all white people act like assholes but people like her don’t help matters.
I’m a longtime celebitchy reader and coincidentally my kids go this school!!! I can’t believe we’re embroiled in DRAMA and are debating this on Celebitchy!! Kinda excited! Anyway, this is a wonderful school run by lovely people. Mr. Benjamin’s background wasn’t an issue when he was hired and it wasn’t an issue when he was fired. I believe this to be a case of a disgruntled former employee hitting back at a very wealthy target. Not a fan of Sparks novels but love the school. FYI this is a nondenominational school with a focus on global studies. My elementary age daughter spends half her day learning in English and half the day learning in Spanish!
Are you a person of color? If not, what percentage of the students are people of color? The faculty? And out of the faculty that are POC, how many are black?
No, I’m not a person of color. I will tell you the majority of the student body are also not people of color. I can speak better to the lower (elementary)school as far as demographics go. There are several African American elementary school teachers. In grades k-2 half of the teachers are from either Central or South America and they conduct class in Spanish. I agree that the student body could be more diverse and wish it were so. This is an issue for all of the private schools in our area, not just this one.
Thanks for the info, Lizzie! It’s great that they are learning a foreign language so young — though I do question the impetus. In a few years, are these kids going to be encouraged to go to South America to “convert” folks, instead of learning to appreciate and simply learn about another culture? Just food for thought….
Do I have to call you AlwaysConfused? You don’t sound confused!:) Anyway, I think the impetus is to give them a more global outlook and for them to achieve fluency. It is a nondenominational Christian school but is no way a fundamentalist school – no creationism,nothing like that thank goodness. The school was started several yrs ago and was initially going to be a Catholic High School, the only one in this area. Sparks was instrumental in pushing for this school. However as I have been told, though the proposed Catholic High School would accept students of all faiths, the demographic research in Eastern N.C. suggested that the school would not get the numbers of enrolled students to survive. Thus it became nondenominational. Last year the name of the school was changed to include the words “of Global Studies” to reflect their language immersion program and a more global oulook. I think one of the reasons Mr. Benjamin was recruited was because he had professional experience in foreign countries.
Again, Lizzie, thanks for the info! I’ll have to keep an eye on this case — and the school. I’ll do my best to keep an open mind. I guess I have always been a bit skeptical of Sparks, based on interviews he’s given in the past. Time will tell, I suppose. 🙂
Not very ‘global’ in my view. Why not spend half the day learning in French? Or Italian? Or German? Or since China will become a superpower and most things come from China, why not half the day in Mandarin Chinese? Spanish? It sounds just like every other American public school. This school does not seem very ‘global’ to me. I certainly would prefer my daughter to be learning a more global language (such as Chinese) and not a localized one such as Spanish.
Um, Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the world after Mandarin, outpacing English by many estimations. In what universe is Spanish a “localized” language, whatever that even means? It’s the second most commonly spoken language in your own country.
I don’t live in America. I am down under. The fact that you say Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language in America proves my point about it being a localised language. French and Italian far outstrip Spanish. Spanish comes in at the 6th most spoken. Behind Mandarin Chinese, English, French and Italian. Spanish is a local language in America due to the proximity.
Lemony, Mexico only borders 4 of the 50 states in the US (Canada borders much more of the US) ; Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic are in the Caribbean; and because of a decades-long embargo, there isn’t a substantial amount of traffic between the US and Cuba. Most Americans are not going to call Spanish a “local” language since most of the country is not near a Spanish-speaking country. North Carolina is certainly nowhere near Mexico or the Caribbean.
I have no idea where you got your information about “French and Italian far outstrip[ping] Spanish” in the world but that sounds false to me. In fact according to the following link, it IS false. http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/languages.htm
However, there are a large amount of Spanish-speaking immigrants in NC (I know because I used to live in the state), so Spanish would be the most useful foreign language for a school in NC to teach.
And FYI, in most American public schools, you get maybe one hour of foreign language study each school day. When I was growing up, foreign languages only became somewhat of a priority when you reached secondary school. Some public school districts in the US are starting foreign language study in primary school but it depends on where you live as to whether you get that earlier instruction and which language you are taught.
We Are All Made of Stars is correct. See http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size. Spanish is only a localised language if you consider the continents of North and South America to be somehow more “local” than, say, Europe or Africa.
commenting on Kitten’s comment…
As I was reading about the tolerance level of Catholics, I was bemused. I grew up in Ireland, was educated by nuns and have observed with horror the attitudes of many church defenders in the wake of the paedophile and single mother scandals.
If I can thank them for anything, it’s my fast track to atheism.
I also grew up in Ireland. Raised AND educated by nuns. And my experience is that it is not the religion that is the problem. It is people. People with free will who choose to use religion as a weapon and an excuse. People who believe that the fallible human beings involved in religion are infallible. I am no longer a practicing Catholic, and I in no way defend the choices of the people who have used their position of trust to betray that trust in the worst possible way nor do I defend the decisions of those who chose to look the other way or sweep it under the rug. Those decisions have nothing to do with the Catholic Church being open to the exploration of other religions, which is what the discussion was about..
I went to a catholic school although it was in England we only had one nun as the head mistress most of the teachers were fine it as always the subsititues that seemed crazy we had one who when you questioned him his answer was “All you need to know is in the bible”. We had visiting nuns most of which were terrifying.
I love how everyone just jumps on the bandwagon and believes this.
I’m not a fan of his novels, i find them to be very sappy, but I do think there should be due process of law, and this sounds like a disgruntled employee.
I think the people are are willing to jump on the bandwagon are the people who realize that Nicholas Sparks is a talentless cocky douche who is so delusional that he honestly thinks he’s a literary genius. He is also prerty vocally Catholic, and I’m not saying all Catholics are this way, but it’s not much of a stretch to anyone who’s read even part of one of Sparks’ interviews to think he wouldn’t be the most open-minded person when it comes to other’s faiths/religions/sexual preferences.
Yeah this pretty much.
Actually, when it comes to accepting other religions and beliefs, I usually find Catholics to be the most open minded among Christians.
Compared to Evangelical Christians, any religion would seem open-minded. Plenty of Catholics are welcoming and open-minded, and some most definitely suck.*
*like the ones I grew up with who called me names and teased me for not believing in God.
I grew up being raised by Catholic nuns (I’m a Green Witch now and have been since I was 25) and they are the ones who encouraged me to take comparative religion classes during my undergrad work at Uni. I’ve found most of the Catholics I know to be very respectful and “accepting” (for lack of a better term) of other religions. Are there some who are narrow minded bigots? Absolutely. And they would be that way regardless of their religion.
@paranormalgirl- “And they would be that way regardless of their religion.”
I think you’re probably right and I think what happened to me happens when any religion is a majority (and where I grew up, Irish Catholics ruled).
It’s just harder for me to wrap my head around someone mocking the beliefs (or non-beliefs), the sexual orientation, the race, or the lifestyle of someone else while simultaneously claiming to believe in Jesus, a man that was so opposed to these things. It’s the blatant hypocrisy that makes me want to punch a wall.
So it’s not so much the fact that there are assholes in every corner of the country (which is indeed true), it’s the fact that some of them claim to uphold religious ideals that they don’t exemplify. There is no “creed” or belief system behind atheism, but most atheists I know are welcoming and open-hearted. Some atheists suck, but they don’t claim to take the moral high road and they don’t believe anything can “save” them or absolve them of a life of bad behavior. Atheism grants no free pass to be a d*ck. There is no salvation for us.
I should have written atheists don’t “claim” to take the moral high road. Hopefully, we do though.
This article pretty much sums it up:
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2014/09/27/people-are-the-problem-and-they-pretty-much-always-will-be/
As someone watching from the sidelines, I can only say what I observe. I hope I come off inappropriately. To me, it really hasn’t got that much to with the actual faith as it seems. When people react in a manner the way that is alleged Sparks, he’s not just protecting his faith, he’s asserting a lot more. The identification speaks to the a person’s overall brand as an American. Evangelical Christianity is one facet of the branding. When you hear ‘Evangelical Christian’ under the current presidency, there are myriad associations that go along with it. Those same associations come up I’d you say something about, patriots’, ‘the troops’, ‘real Americans’, traditional family values’, perhaps ‘liberal media’, but that one isn’t as cut and dry. Does that make sense?
commenting on Kitten’s comment…
As I was reading about the tolerance level of Catholics, I was bemused. I grew up in Ireland, was educated by nuns and have observed with horror the attitudes of many church defenders in the wake of the paedophile and single mother scandals.
If I can thank them for anything, it’s my fast track to atheism.
I read about his school before and I remember it was a place focused on global studies that sends its students all over the world to explore various cultures. Sounds like a pretty great place to go to. Now, why was the fired employee pushing his faith and believes on an institution that follows Christian believes openly? I find it obnoxious. Can you imagine a muslim or Christian going to Jewish School and demand they accept his views? I’d like to see how that turns out! If you want to preach your faith go find a place of a similar faith or start your own school. It sounds like a disgruntled former employee’s attempt to make some money.
The former employee is Quaker, not Jewish.
It really is a great place to go to school! My kids are learning Spanish in elementary school from elementary teachers who have themselves learned English as a second language. There also is an emphasis on volunteerism and foreign travel. It’s a nondemoninational Christian school but as agnostics, we are pretty comfortable there. I will tell you that we were all pretty excited about Mr. Benjamin and his credentials when we learned he was joining the staff.
He wasn’t fired for pushing his “believes” onto the students and is not a practicing Jew… Did you read the article??
The thing is, though, a lot of Christian schools promote mufti-culturalism, and then sponsor trips and missions to “far away” places — not to learn and appreciate other cultures, but to go and convert. There is a BIG difference.
I’n not surprised,who didn’t know this?
I also want to add that part of his lawsuit alleges that he was held against his will in a conference room by Sparks and some of the board of directors and not allowed to use a bathroom for hours. (you can read about this claim on Page Six) I don’t know Sparks personally although I’ve seen him at school events. But I do know some of the board members . They are also moms who have had kids at the school and I find this claim to be absolutely ludicrous. I also truly hope either the school or Sparks will help them with their legal bills.
I found this a really strange claim. You’re an adult, you certainly can leave a room and go to the bathroom. I don’t believe for an instant that he was restrained in any way or that a group of adults told another adult he couldn’t go to the bathroom.
I also don’t believe for an instant that he was made to defend his faith. That he was Jewish was known before he was hired; I doubt a board hires someone knowing that and then discriminates based on it.
It all makes me think the entire lawsuit is crap. More likely, he tried to push a progressive agenda on what was essentially a fairly conservative school, and they didn’t like it.
HE’S NOT JEWISH. Read the article. He has Jewish heritage but is a practicing Quaker.
He looks empty behind the eyes in those photos.
Anyway, I’m taking the time to thank the merciful soul who removed the greasy beef jerky photo that stood beside the links. THANK YOU.
I miss him.
Bring back the McCaunaghey Meat!!!
HE CALLED HIMSELF A MODERN ERNEST HEMINGWAY…FOR HIS SPECIAL GENRE
(caps used on purpose)
^^^Caps are so warranted…..
Lol.
hahaha he’s a crackpot.
Aside of anything else, I always think of what Roger Ebert had to say when Sparks compared himself to Cormac McCarthy.
“To be sure, I resent the sacrilege Nicholas Sparks commits by mentioning himself in the same sentence as Cormac McCarthy. I would not even allow him to say “Hello, bookstore? This is Nicholas Sparks. Could you send over the new Cormac McCarthy novel?” He should show respect by ordering anonymously.”
I’m not the world’s biggest McCarthy fan, but damn.
Lmao. I never knew Ebert said that. I love him even more.
Roger Ebert threw some impressive shade over the years. I suppose you can’t even call it shade, since he pretty much said everything flat-out.
Nicolas has done much worse saying he’s better than Cormac McCarthy & insulted Cormacs writing being valued over his. He seems like too be a big headed delusional arse. Does he not realize he’s just a celebrated Harlequin romance writer?
Except… I prefer Harlequin novels.
At least the Harlequin stories are honestly intended; what you see is what you get. AND they don’t kill off major characters over the course of the story. On the other hand, the body count in Mr. Sparks’ novels would impress the Corleones.
I’ll be curious to see how this turns out, but just wanted to chime in how much I dislike his books/movies too. A lame former book group insisted we read Safe Haven. Those are hours of my life I’ll never get back.
Agreed and I regret it.
I can’t with this man’s books. He writes bad pulp and claims they are “literature.” So much delusion.
I used to like Nicholas Sparks books about 10 years ago when I was 14, but I grew tired of them after about 4 books. They are essentially all the same story but with different names.
As for the lawsuit, if its true then I really hope it damages his career. I kind of feel bad for James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan if bad press ends up effecting their movie…but….
The only book of Nicholas Sparks that I could even get through ( couldn’t get through The Notebook–his writing is really dry), and actually enjoyed was The Guardian. I loved the relationship between the heroine and her Great Dane. That’s all I remember about it–the heroine (Jennifer or something) was dating this dude named Mark, who turned out to be a murderer and abusive…..and somewhere along the line she started getting it on with some other dude. Her poisoned dog saves her at the end. The end.
Something in his writing/work has always given me the creeps. There’s a falseness behind the superficially saccharine story telling. Makes my skin crawl. I have no idea if this story is true, before reading this article I couldn’t have identified him in a photo, I know virtually nothing about him personally. His work is enough to repel me. It goes beyond simply thinking his writing stinks, his notion of “love” feels like a gross lie, and there’s something so off putting about that.
In most of Sparks’ novels about love someone dies. That’s not very saccharine.
I guess it’s the world that his characters inhabit that seem so false. Like a Disney village, where when you peek behind the buildings, every building is a cardboard cutout. Death in and of itself as a subject is not automatically deep and honest. Many Lifetime movies also include death as an easy way to immediately garner sympathy, but a lot of them also feel hollow and pointless. Just my opinion. Some authors write fluff and have fun with it. Even without his interviews, his work is self important to a degree that its lack of quality does not justify.
that’s my issue with his books, it’s a case of “count the minutes” until someone dies. Pure formulaic. You can now always “guess the dead one” when watching a movie preview for a movie made of his books. No need to see the movie at all (much less read the book)
Bitch sit down. Any prepubescent girl with a functioning keyboard can write the same crap you do.
another uberconservative type who uses Christianity as an excuse to be bigoted, eh?
good spot to say i found that Jesus might have affirmed a gay couple by healing one of them? because the word used to describe the centurion’s servant in Matthew was also a term used to describe one’s male lover, an affectionate slang type thing.
i made a slideshow about it because even though my equipment sucks, I do have a copy of the Greek new testament so i could show people where this word is. I could show the Greek, two copies actually.
help me pass it around?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7ftJoxhnBw
As I recall from the story, Jesus not only healed the ailing servant, but praised the centurion for his faith.
What an article to read just in time for Yom Kippur. I hate hearing stories like this. I know there are many anti-Semitic, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, etc. people in the spotlight. One would hope they are smart enough to keep their mouths shut and keep their close minded views to themselves. However, generally they are not. Prejudiced people don’t tend to be wise.
This really does make sense. Has he every had a gay story line in any of his books or a black person in his books? I don’t read them b/c I hate them. I read A Walk to Remember years ago and thought it was awful. I talked to him via direct message on twitter and he was such a jerk! That solidified how much I disliked him right then and there. I do love the Notebook movie, though. I know it sounds hypocritical but I can’t help it. It was a good movie.
I don’t like romances or love stories so I would never read one of his books. My daughter did drag me to see “The Notebook” and the only black people in the movie were servants. I know that this is probably the way things were back then in the South but that doesn’t mean I have to like it, especially since my late grandmother worked as the “help”. The stories she told were not pretty. Also saw part of “Nights in Rodanthe” with
Viola Davis playing Diane Lane’s friend/confidante/advisor, a stock figure in movies for decades. These black and sometimes Latina “friends” have no lives of their own, their only role is to fill the white heroine’s emotional needs. I am still waiting for that movie where a black woman has a Caucasian friend whose sole purpose is to nurture support, help, advise and guide her — you know, a white “mammy” — but I feel like I am going to be waiting a looong time.
@skipper That’s a bit of a stretch. Just because Sparks doesn’t have black or gay characters in his novels doesn’t mean anything. Stephen King doesn’t have a lot of black characters in his novels either. That doesn’t mean he’s a racist. Terry McMillian is a black author and she rarely has white characters in her novels. That doesn’t mean she hates white people.
Maybe not racist but it wouldn’t surprise me. He really has a douchey vibe to him anyway. I wasn’t talking about Stephen King or Terry McMillian, just about Sparks so those comparisons don’t really matter.
Clearly you’ve missed my point, so you’re right it really doesn’t really matter.
Racist people often hire people of the very races they consider beneath them; they just end up firing them a lot quicker. It’s obvious he was probably okay with this guy when he hired him. It was just when the guy dared to question things that Sparks became outraged and began retaliating in every way imaginable.
Racism has gone undercover–it’s more often an unconscious bias that drives people to discriminate. Take the Harvard implicit association test. Most of you will be disappointed in yourselves. I know I was. However, awareness is necessary in order for change to occur.
I don’t find anything about this to be “obvious” because accusations do not prove guilt. I dare say the percentage of persons of color and/or religions other than Christianity who lie for personal gain or revenge is about the same as it is among colorless and ethnicity less folks like me. The fired individual may or may not be giving an accurate account. I surely don’t know enough about either party to be able to form an opinion of their relative trust worthiness.
There is no such thing as a person without ethnicity. If you live in a country/society where you belong to the dominant group, it’s easy to simply think of yourself as a person, without any other distinctive categorizations, but it’s also inaccurate. Your lineage comes from somewhere. My husband is Nordic, Scottish, and English. They are are separate lineages with distinct ethnic differences and genetic implications.
Ethnicity-less? Birch, that’s not a thing that is possible. You have an ethnicity, it just sounds like you have the privilege to live in a place where you are not discriminated against by yours.
Yes. I was being facetious about the ethnicity because it is often used to mean people whose ancestors are from anywhere but western Europe. Obviously my skin has color as well but the term person of color excludes me. I know discrimination and racism exist but that doesn’t mean that every person accused of it is guilty of it even if he writes bad novels. If this is true then he’s a jerk but it’s a he said/she said situation right now and I don’t take it as a given that the white guy must be at fault because he’s white and he writes bad novels.
@ Evelyn
You are correct about everything. I have realized/seen this myself.
As I said above, a lot of racists/homophobes/etc hire people of the minorities they hate just to brag about how open minded they are. Millions of companies do this. They give someone of those minorities a position in the company powerful enough for them to have their own office, some notoriety, and a good salary; but not powerful enough to actually control anything.
It’s not just PR, the contract of those people can be used as proof on court too in case lawsuits like this appear. And the hired people may not be aware of their role in the company (or don’t care if they are paid well), so they can testify in favor of their boss too. Happens ALL the time.
The lady in pink outshines sparks by a mile and what amazingly put together outfit and accessories : also, both parties look like they sparked one shortly before the event.
He writes awful books, but his biggest insult to literature is naming Stephen King as the writer posterity will remember. Yep. Totally serious.
He’s an Evangelical Conservative Christian romance writer whose books have some very in-depth descriptions of young, taut male bodies. He also is outwardly homophobic.
No, he’s definitely not a closet case. Definitely not. Look at that face. That face SCREAMS straight. *eye roll*