A Heartfelt Look at One Side of a Debate

For a film proposing that most vehement anti-gay Christians just haven't met any gays, "For the Bible Tells Me So" does not spend a lot of time with the people it attacks. Daniel Karslake's documentary trots out the usual footage of evangelical preachers ranting about the "abomination" of homosexuality and 1970s anti-gay evangelizing by Anita Bryant, but is not interested in letting its Christian opponents defend themselves.

The film, which purports to document the intersection of homosexuality and the Bible, is more like a primer in the gay lifestyle and focuses on the existence of well-adjusted and happy gay individuals and their families.

The families profiled include Dick Gephardt and his gay daughter, Chrissy; Episcopalian Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Anglican priest; teenage gay Lutheran activist Jake Reitan and his family; a black lesbian, Tonia Poteat, and her fundamentalist minister parents, and Mary Lou Wallner, who blames her former fundamentalist religious beliefs for her gay daughter's suicide. All have found happiness by embracing homosexuality.

As a backdrop to these contented stories of acceptance are hellfire speeches and homophobic slurs. Footage of Jimmy Swaggart, Rod Parsley, and Jerry Falwell is crosscut with shots of unhappy teenagers wandering through Union Square, presumably because of religious shame, photos of Anna Wallner after she killed herself, and a particularly condescending cartoon preaching the "science" behind homosexual behavior.

The film does a good job of showing how people discussing the biblical rejection of homosexuality often lack knowledge of scripture, but only allows theologists who agree with the film's message to debunk the passages in question. Scholars from Desmond Tutu to Harvard's Peter Gomes argue the case for gay rights; sane, educated, traditional Christians are sorely lacking.

Mr. Karslake cites Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" as an inspiration for this film, and he shares Mr. Moore's penchant for straw men. But while Bible-thumping evangelicals provide great sound bites, they are not the sole or the most worthwhile interlocutors in this debate.

In particular, James Dobson, the chairman of Focus on the Family, a nonprofit organization he founded in 1977, plays a malevolent role. His group argues for treating homosexuality as a mental disorder and runs an ex-gay ministry. The film culminates with many of its subjects leading a symbolic protest on the grounds of Focus on the Family that results in the arrest of Jake Reitan and his parents.

But Mr. Dobson makes no appearance in the film, and "For the Bible Tells Me So" sidesteps educated Christians who disagree with the gay lifestyle and don't want openly gay men preaching in their churches. Only Ms. Poteat's parents continue to have difficulties in completely accepting their daughter's lifestyle, a detail given little attention.

The film argues that the gulf between homosexuality and the church can be crossed by a simple awareness campaign and shows many happy, healthy gay individuals enjoying their lives to prove its point. For people who agree, "For the Bible Tells Me So" will be an affirmative study, but the chasm is not entirely one of ignorance, and the film skips over those details. For all its talk of education and acceptance, the film manages to parody Christians much the way homophobes categorize gays.

mkeane@nysun.com