Okay, this may be a little too easy, but it’s just too good to pass up: Billy Corgan has a new blog. It’s called Everything From Here to There. And it is frighteningly embarrassing. (And no, I have no idea what that picture of Sly Stone is doing up there.)

Auspiciously launched on 9/9/09, the website is dedicated to discussing “openly and without fear concepts of Mind-Body-Soul integration.” If you are drawn to the Hidden Truths,” Corgan goes on, “drawn to God as something beyond limitation, and drawn to Love as the greatest force in the Universe, then you have come to the right place at the right time. This is a place of Love.”

It is also a place of cultish, pseudo-spiritualist twaddle. In Corgan’s first three posts, he lays out his belief in “a unifying intelligence that manifests itself in Every-thing,” calls out the “bad apples and drama queens” who thrive off negative attention (did anyone see the Pumpkins’ 20th anniversary tour last year!?), and, most curiously, unburdens himself of an undying affection for Walt Disney: “To my heart, Walt is one of those dreamers who dreamt the biggest dreams and somehow didn’t let others cynicism get in the way of fulfilling his plans. Disneyland is one of those places where you can literally reach out and touch the power of one man’s heart to persevere and let faith in humanity’s greater good triumph over all obstacles.” Corgan has promised to open the site up to other contributors “applying spiritual principles to their daily life,” be they “doctors, teachers, healers, mothers and fathers, chefs, artists, rocket scientists …”

Maybe—we hope and pray—one of those folks will be Jessica Simpson. She is, apparently, a big fan of Corgan’s latest endeavor. In a recent Twitter post, she exclaimed, “My friend, Billy Corgan, has a pure and enlightning [sic] outlook on faith.
 Go to his new website. www.everythingfromheretothere.com God is real.”

So what, really, is so distasteful about all of this? It isn’t Corgan’s faith. Of course, all people—even fading rock stars—have a right to their beliefs, however wonky. The problem is Corgan’s narcissism, his assumption that we would care about the intimate details of his God-love, that it is, in other words, something to blog about. There’s something to be said for taste—for aesthetics—even in matters as personal as this. Being a rock star doesn’t (and shouldn’t) preclude you from being open about your faith, or lack there of. But there are way of expressing it with subtlety, on small stages and large.

David Bazan, for one, has been able to garner rare respect from both indie-rock and Christian-rock circles precisely for his soft touch with Godly matters. And his latest solo record, “Curse Your Branches,”—a chronicle of the singer’s slow, painful breakup with God—is certainly no different. “All falling leaves should curse their branches / for not letting them decide where they should fall / and not letting them refuse to fall at all,” Bazan sings on the title track. (Bazan built up much of the buzz for the record earlier this year by paying small “house shows” for 30 to 50 people in fans’ living rooms.)

At the other end of the spectrum, Bono has generally dealt with his faith with more nuance than his messianic reputation would suggest. Though we’ve heard the lines so much that they’ve almost lost their meaning, Bono’s proclamation in “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”—“I believe in the kingdom come / then all the colors will bleed into one / But yes I’m still running”—is actually rather eloquent, and moving in its ambiguity.

Beyond Corgan’s narcissism, it’s really his certainty—the complete and utter assuredness of his faith—that’s feels so false and self-serving, even it it’s completely sincere. And really, you’d think the guy would have better things to do, like repairing the relationship with his fans after that largely disastrous 20th anniversary tour. The Bald One, it seems, answers to a higher, more inscrutable power.

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