|
Product Description: Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Seattle Interntional Film Festival, Dan Karslake's provocative, entertaining documentary brilliantly reconciles homosexuality and Biblical scripture, and in the process reveals that Church-sanctioned anti-gay bias is based solely upon a significant (and often malicious) misinterpretation of the Bible. As the film notes, most Christians live their lives today without feeling obliged to kil anyone who works on the Sabbath or eats shrimp.
Through the experience of five very normal, very Christian , very American families - including those of former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt and Episcopalian Bishop Gene Robinson - we discover how insightful people of faith handle the realization of having a gay child. With commentary by such respected voices as Bishop Desmond Tutu, Harvard's Peter Gomes, Orthodox Rabbi Steve Greenberg and Reverend Jimmy Creech, For The Bible Tells Me So offers healing, clarity and understanding to anyone caught in the crosshairs of scripture and sexual identity.
Customer Reviews:
- Superb Approach to a Complex Issue: For the Bible Tells Me So is a superb approach to the issue of same-sex relationships and what the Bible actually says. It is well balanced, not only in presenting diverse points of view, but also in mixing human stories with those various points of view.
I highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to actually learn more, not only about what the Bible actually says, but about the experiences of people are who are gay or lesbian, and those who are their family members. - Says it all.: This documentary deals with the insane idea that you can take the Bible literally from beginning to end. It also shows how the Bible has been used to support all kinds of prejudice by selectively picking out passages and ignoring others. The Bible contains six admonishments to homosexuals and 362 admonishments to heterosexuals. Funny how lopsided these admonishments have become. This is a great tool to help gay people deal with religious fanatics in their lives.
- For the Bible Tells Me So: This is one of the best movies I have ever seen regarding Gay and Lesbian people. This should be mandatory for all schools and for all families, regardless of whether or not they "think" they have a family member who is gay.
- powerful stories, predictable story line: Don't watch this documentary film if you expect anything like a balanced treatment of homosexuality and Christianity. It's aggressively polemical, it incorporates all the worst examples of Christian hate and extremism, it omits any treatment of gay extremists like you might see in San Francisco's Gay Pride Parade, and in several instances it presents "experts" without identifying them as aggressively pro-gay (eg, Peter Gomes of Harvard). But there's a good reason to watch this film, nevertheless, because it presents the personal stories of five families, without exception all of which are deeply Christian, and how they dealt with the news that their kids are gay. Two of the families are famous-- Chrissy Gephardt is the daughter of two-time presidential candidate and Missouri congressman Dick Gephardt, and Gene Robinson became the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church. Jake comes from the suburbs of Minneapolis, Tonia is an African-American who grew up on a dirt road in North Carolina before going to Yale, and then Anna was from Arkansas. These families run the Christian gamut -- United Church of Christ, African-American, Lutheran, Catholic, and fundamentalist, and they respond to their child's coming out in different ways. It's a shame that the film makers resorted to predictable polemic instead of trusting the power of these deeply moving stories.
- Balanced, compassionate and fascinating: This isn't a Michael Moore, Errol Morris, or other major documentary filmmaker's work, and yet it succeeds quite well with what must have been a very small budget. Many people address different aspects (I won't say both sides, because it's more complicated than that) of religion vs. homosexuality, old ways vs. new thinking, and the journeys that families go through when a spouse or child comes out.
There is no voice-over from the filmmakers; they allow the subjects to speak for themselves, and this is quite effective; we can make up our own minds and ponder what they've said instead of being told what to think.
The story of Jay Reitan and his parents attempting to get their story to James Dobson at Focus on the Family was particularly moving. Sadly, someone like Dobson has already made up his mind on the issue and is unwilling to consider anyone else's experience.
Recommended for those who are willing to listen, learn, and think.
|
