MOUNT VERNON — More than 50 people attended the recent screening of a documentary film on homosexuality and the Bible at First Congregational United Church of Christ. The film was sponsored by the North Central Alliance for Equality and Equality Ohio.
“For the Bible Tells Me So” was made by Daniel Karslake, a television producer, Christian, church employee and gay man. It has won several awards, including the HBO Audience Award at the Provincetown Film Festival and the Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award for Human Rights at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. It was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
The film asks, “Can the love between two people ever be an abomination? Is the chasm separating gays and Christianity too wide to cross? Is the Bible an excuse to hate?” It examines the meaning and cultural context behind Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. The scriptures appear to be perfectly clear: “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female. It is an abomination.” And, “If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death.”
But, the film asks, what if the verse has been misinterpreted, mistranslated? Is it being used maliciously, to justify hatred and condemnation of others?
“The Bible is the word of God,” Bishop Desmond Tutu said in the film, “[but] through man, in the idiom of their time.”
Keith Lewis, a Los Angeles talent agent who participated in the film’s creation, said, “If you look at the evolution of gay awareness in this country, the whole idea of gay identity is really brand new. Only in the last 50 or so years have people in all walks of life started to realize that they have gay friends and relatives. Our country is so faith-oriented that ... a lot of straight people really need ... tools to grapple with a whole new social era.”
“Almost everyone was meeting a gay person for the first time,” said Karslake, “either at work, in school, in their families, even on TV. But these same people had been given no tools to fight against the intrinsic intolerance and misconceptions perpetuated by literalist interpretations of scripture.”
Thus Karslake’s decision to center the film around five “very normal, very Christian, very American families [and] ... discover how insightful people of faith handle the realization of having a gay child.” Interspersed with those stories are news clips of rallies; film of Anita Bryant, in the midst of a genteel tirade against homosexuality, hit in the face with a cream pie thrown by a critic; a funny send-up cartoon on “Homosexual Biology 101”; tragic photos of gay men murdered by straights; and much more. Theological credibility and calm, rational thoughts are lent by Tutu, Peter Gomes of Harvard, Rev. Jimmy Creech and Orthodox Rabbi Steve Greenberg.
The families’ stories and responses are multi-faceted, and compared and contrasted. The Poteats — both pastors and believers in the Bible’s inerrancy — struggle with their daughter’s homosexuality.
“We’re not there yet,” said the father, when queried about their acceptance of the matter.
The Reitans followed their son into activism. When he “came out” in high school, they were afraid for his safety but, said his father, “Jake was having none of that.” He became a spokesman for gay rights, and he and his parents marched on Rev. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family headquarters, attempted to deliver a letter of protest and were willingly arrested for trespassing.
The Richard Gephardt family lived out their experience in the spotlight. Gephardt, former House Majority Leader, enlisted his lesbian daughter’s public help in his presidential campaign.
The elderly parents of openly gay Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire Gene Robinson tell their story, as the film documents the controversy surrounding his election, the high security required and the death threats he received.
Audience member Maria Casebeer said she was impressed.
“I think it did a very nice job of presenting the other side of the issue in a way that wasn’t too preachy or too patronizing. It presented the point of view of parents who have homosexual children, without slapping you in the face with it. It showed how people did change and come to new understandings because of the situations they found themselves in,” she said.
“I wish I had brought some of my friends to see this,” said Mike Kim, a student at Kenyon College. “It would have helped them to see. I grew up in a very conservative church that was against it [homosexuality], so I can see where they come from, but I’ve grown to realize there’s no one way to think about it. But gays are not abnormal.”
“Two years ago, I was going to a Baptist church,” said David Baker. “I was one of those literalists who thought homosexuality was a sin. I don’t know what has brought a change in my life, but I think years from now we’re going to look back on the way we treated homosexuals, and realize that it’s the way African-Americans were treated once. It fills me with sadness. But I’m encouraged too, to see that there are a lot of intelligent Christians who can make a persuasive argument that the way we treat homosexuals is wrong.”
The film will soon be available on DVD. The Mount Vernon event was one of 10 Ohio screenings in February and March.