For the Bible Tells Me So

On Saturday, Eric and I met Kristin and Carrie for dinner at Ada's, this great Jewish restaurant downtown where we had great food (mmm...potato pancakes!) and a great waiter--Piotr--and then walked to the Gene Siskel Film Center to see the documentary For the Bible Tells Me So. The film tells the stories of several families who espouse conservative Christian views and have a gay or lesbian child. Two families feature public figures, Dick Gephardt (former House Majority Leader) and Gene Robinson (an Episcopalian bishop in New Hampshire), but all are families who have struggled with how to reconcile the reality of their child's sexual orientation with deeply embedded teachings from their church traditions. The stories reveal the deep love that parents have for their children, and the way that loving relationships with individuals have incredible power to transform, as well as the very real damage that has been and continues to be done to GLBTQ folks by the Church in the name of God. While the film follows the personal journeys of the families, it also explores the Bible passages that are used to support the conviction of many that homosexuality is a sin.

One of the few critiques I have is that too much time was focused on the extreme right (Jimmy Swaggart and James Dobson) and not enough on churches and leaders who are more inclusive but still restrictive in the beliefs about the level of welcome that gays and lesbians have in the church. For example, the United Methodist denomination's stance is that gays and lesbians are "people of sacred worth" but it maintains that homosexuality is "incompatible with Christian teachings" and does not permit openly gay leaders to be ordained as clergy. This position has been a source of pain for so many. Many other traditions teach people to love gay and lesbian people, but maintain that homosexuality is a sin from which people need to be saved and healed. I wish that these kinds of teachings had been explored further in the film.

Overall, this was an excellent film and I highly recommend it, especially if you believe that the Bible teaches that homosexuality is a sin.