Bevilacqua, who performs under the name “Rev. Magdalen,” was stripped of the custody of her 10-year-old son because of pictures found on the Internet of her performances with the satirical comedy group The SubGenius Foundation, Inc. The images were from a members-only yearly SubGenius convention (video) in upstate New York. Other images.
Rachel Bevilacqua’s blog details the full story and is online at http://rbevilacqua.blogspot.com/.
The SubGenius Foundation Inc. (www.subgenius.com) is a satirical comedy group responsible for many publications including The Book of The SubGenius, Revelation X, Arise – The SubGenius Movie, and the Hour of Slack radio show.
On February 3, 2006, Judge Punch heard testimony in the case. Jeff entered into evidence 16 exhibits taken from the Internet, 12 of which are photographs of the SubGenius event, X-Day. [Magdalen's son] has never attended X-Day and is not in any of the pictures. Rachel is depicted in many of these photos, often wearing skimpy costumes or completely nude, while participating in X-Day and Detroit Devival events.DONATIONS for legal fees -- Praise Bob and pass the moolah.
The judge, allegedly a very strictCatholic[Christian], became outraged at the photos of the X-Day parody of Mel Gibson's movie [The Passion of the Christ] - especially the photo where Jesus [Steve Bevilacqua] is wearing clown makeup and carrying a crucifix with a pool-noodle dollar sign on it while being beaten by a crowd of SubGenii, including a topless woman with a "dildo".
His Honor also strongly disapproved of the photos of Mary Magdalen [Rachel Bevilacqua] in a bondage dress and papier maché goat's head. The judge repeatedly asked, "Why a goat? What's so significant about a goat's head?" When Rachel replied, "I just thought the word 'goat' was funny," Judge Punch lost his temper completely, and began to shout abuse at Rachel, calling her a "pervert," "mentally ill," "lying," and a participant in "sex orgies." The judge ordered that Rachel is to have absolutely no contact with her son, not even in writing, because he felt the pictures of X-Day performance art were evidence enough to suspect "severe mental illness".
Since the news broke, people have been asking Magdalen to post the actual transcripts of the court proceedings, so that they can read Judge Punch's words for themselves and verify that she was speaking the truth. The transcripts of the case were to become available by March 6th. However, for the entire week since March 3rd, Magdalen has been absent from the Internet, and she has not been able to make the transcripts available.
The reason for Magdalen's absence (and the lack of the transcripts) became clear as of Thursday, March 9. On that day, I learned that the judge had ordered Magdalen to cease all communication on the Internet regarding her son. This was not a written statement – the judge had verbally ordered her to remain offline, and no written order was available. Magdalen stated that even though the order was verbal, the court considered it to be an official order from the judge, and so she has had to remain offline since then. This has kept her from updating her blog.
Q: Is the Church of the SubGenius a real religion?
A: Google it. The question has been debated by performance art critics and theology students for 25 years. Feel free to make up your own mind on the matter, it's a free country.
Q: Is the Church of the SubGenius Rachel Bevilacqua's religion?
A: No. Rachel Bevilacqua views the Church of the SubGenius as an art movement dedicated to cherishing the uniqueness of each individual and promoting free expression by all people everywhere, as long as it harms no one.
Q: Well, what does the government say?
A: The government agrees that The SubGenius Foundation, Inc., the corporation which does business under the performance name of "The Church of the SubGenius", is a "fan club" roughly classified in the same category as the Star Trek fan club that does business as "Star Fleet", and with roughly the same level of geeky obscurity.
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