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For the Bible told them so
Documentary shows how the Bible's verses have been used to justify discrimination - and how modern conservatives use the Good Book to lambaste gays
By Jessica Ravitz, The Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/faith/ci_5047696
"Last week I bought a gun. Yesterday I wrote the note. But last night I happened to turn on your show and just knowing that someday I might be able to go back into my church, I threw the gun in the river. My mom never has to know."
-- A boy in Iowa
The e-mail was only four sentences long, but it shaped Daniel Karslake's future.
Karslake, 41, was a young television producer in 1998 when he received the above note from a boy in Iowa. His segment on a lesbian theologian had just aired on the PBS program "In the Life." This boy's short message, one that still brings Karslake to tears, was the first of hundreds he would receive from gays and lesbians across the country - from people who felt rejected by their church families. The aspiring filmmaker had found his mission.
"This e-mail fueled everything I've done since," he said this week.
Opening Sunday night at the Sundance Film Festival is Karslake's "For the Bible Tells Me So," a documentary in the independent film competition. The production, which took more than three years to complete, was funded in large part by Orem-resident Bruce Bastian, co-creator of the word-processing software that became WordPerfect. The film shows how the Bible's verses have been used to justify, over centuries, various forms of discrimination, and how today religious conservatives
use the Good Book to back anti-gay rhetoric.
For gay and lesbian people who grew up steeped in Scripture and tied to church communities, this rhetoric - something referred to in the film as "a modern invention" - has been especially painful. Not just for them, but for their families.
By focusing on the journeys of five Christian families, each with a member who came out as gay or lesbian, Karslake paints a personal picture.
Viewers meet Mary Lou Wallner, who blames herself, and the teachings that shaped who she was, for the suicide of her daughter. They gain an insider's perspective on the coming-out process for Chrissy Gephardt, daughter of former Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) and his wife, Jane. They also get to know Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the first openly gay Episcopal Church bishop, his parents and his ex-wife.
The path for Tonia Poteat's family wasn't easy to navigate, but by agreeing to be interviewed for this documentary, Poteat, 37, said lines of communication were opened.
"I was shocked that they agreed pretty easily to do it," Poteat, of Atlanta, said of her parents, who live in North Carolina. "I actually think it's a coming-out process for them also. . . . It's been a journey for me to recognize this is a struggle for them."
Randi Reitan, also featured in the film and reached in her Minneapolis-area home, thought back to when her son, Jake, came out. The family was then living in Mankato, Minn., a place she described as "a very closeted town," and she and her husband, Phil, "knew nothing about homosexuality."
The Reitans never stopped loving their son, but the strict Lutherans first sought counsel and understanding from a pastor who told them, "Don't worry, Jake can change," she remembered, her voice cracking. "I get emotional just speaking about it."
Now the Reitans count themselves among activists, finding their voice and passion in an organization called Soulforce.
The Rev. Mel White, a former ghostwriter for evangelicals such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Jim Bakker, is behind Soulforce. The organization combats "the misuse of religion to sanction the condemnation and rejection of any of God's children" through "relentless nonviolent resistance," the group's Web site explains.
White, 66, is one of many religious leaders and scholars, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who appear in Karslake's film. Contacted in Lynchburg, Va., where he moved so he could regularly attend and silently protest in Falwell's church, White said for 30 years he battled his homosexuality with therapies including electric shock. Only after he slit his wrists did he part ways with his wife and face up to who he was.
"I realized my orientation, too, was a gift from God," he said.
He also realized preachers such as Falwell and Robertson were doling out messages that were "the ultimate source of disinformation," he said. "Fundamentalism is based on fear and politics of blame. . . . They were so smart at knowing what would create the kind of fear that would lead to donations."
Peppered throughout "For the Bible Tells Me So" are snippets, including a cartoon, outlining statistics and research findings. Mixed in is the annual revenue of Bible-thumping moneymakers. James Dobson, of Focus on the Family, brings in $138 million a year, the film reports. Robertson: $459 million.
The problem, too, the film points out, is the masses blindly accept biblical interpretations offered by these popular personalities rather than read and study for themselves. As a result, historical context is ignored, as are broader and supplementary materials, said the Rev. Laurence Keene, a soon-to-retire sociology professor at Pepperdine University.
"I have a soft spot in my heart for literalists because I used to be one," he said in the film. "There's nothing wrong with a fifth-grade understanding of God [or the Bible], as long as you're in the fifth grade."
Take, for instance, the word "abomination," which is used over and over by fundamentalists to describe what the Bible says about same-sex relations. Keene reiterated in a phone call this week that the word "abomination" refers to actions that were deemed "ritually impure." Other abominations include eating pork or shrimp, wearing linen and wool at the same time, and commingling crops.
Abominations, Keene explained, are not "intrinsically evil or immoral"; they are the actions that were considered "unclean" or "un-Jewish" at the time when the Hebrew people were trying to build a nation and procreation - requiring sex between a man and a woman - was paramount.
Rather than shy away from talk about religion, Keene said it's time people other than conservatives "stood up" to "give the public another look at how the Bible can be understood."
And it's this longing to spark conversation, this longing to reach gay youth like the boy who wrote him years ago, that motivates Karslake.
"I'm hoping fair-minded people of all kinds see the film, and it makes them think," he said. "These kids just want a glimmer of hope."
---
JESSICA RAVITZ can be reached at jravitz@sltrib.com or 801-257-8776. Send comments to the religion editor at religioneditor@sltrib.com.
For the Bible also tells them . . .
* And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, . . . the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death (Leviticus 20:10).
* For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death (Leviticus 20:9).
* Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings.
* Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people (Leviticus 11:26-27).
* Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you (Leviticus 11:12).
* IF A MAN LIES WITH A MAN AS ONE LIES WITH A WOMAN, BOTH OF THEM HAVE DONE WHAT IS DETESTABLE. THEY MUST BE PUT TO DEATH; THEIR BLOOD WILL BE ON THEIR HANDS.' (LEVITICUS 20:13)
© Copyright 2006, The Salt Lake Tribune
(\\__/) And if you don't believe The sun will rise
(='.'=) Stand alone and greet The coming night
(")_(") In the last remaining light. (C. Cornell)
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Thanks, E.J.
When (if) the film is made available on DVD in America, will you please tell us.
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Aussie
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Really getting into it |
Registered: August 2006
Messages: 475
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Thanks EJ for that report
Sounds like the film would be good motivation to help us do the things we should be doing here. I look forward to seeing it one day when its available here.
Aussie
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Yes I agree it is so sad to know that some who are called Christians must be admonished to "look to the log that is in their own eye before they make issue of the small speck that is in someone else's eye". Not an exact quote out of the Bible but it is close enough.
As to me personally, although I have stated many times I do not think we are born gay and I do not think that the gay lifestyle is to be preferred or glorified, I do feel strongly that noone should be led to believe it is something to be hated and despised. I am abhored by the hate projected towards gays and I have tried to defend the case of anyone thought to be gay and subject to any kind of descrimination. If it occurs to others that I must also be gay or I would not defend them so much, then that is their problem and not mine. I am not going to out myself, but I will no longer stand mute either.
I know that many do not agree with me about how we are gay and I only ask for the tolerance of others as to me having my opinion. I strongly feel that all of us need to show the same tolerance towards everyone else that we are demanding for ourselves. I would welcome seeing the movie and maybe it will be as good as "The Cure" or some of the others I have seen that try to get those who profess to be good people to stop their hate and prejudice.
Ken
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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I have the videostream attached to one of the websites I administer.
Past episodes are archived.
go to..... and then click on the resources button in the nav field.
http://www.firelandspride.org/
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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Aussie
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Really getting into it |
Registered: August 2006
Messages: 475
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Well EJ we must be pretty backward here because it has only taken 3 years to arrive here. It turned up on TV on Sunday night. I thoroughly enjoyed the film but was reduced to tears at the end when jake was standing hugging his parents standing beside him.
Thanks for the report
Aussie
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I'm delighted, E.J., that some people are trying to rebut the notion that religion condemns homosexuality.
Doubtless it will do good but surely it will have only a small overall effect since most such conservative christians (and that includes most of Africa) will not listen to such messages.
Will anyone do the equivalent for Islam? What about the many other religions?
Doesn't religion always involve extreme prejudice and priests or elders trying to control people by telling them what god commands? Doesn't it always involve prohibitions about foods or sex (and, in some religions, compulsory acts - anything from human sacrifice to prayer or attendance at ceremonies)?
Is any of this good? Is it a good thing to make religion more acceptable to people that ought to abhor it?
Love,
Anthony
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... or is it that the "link" does not work?
Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada
"... comme recherché qu'un délice callipygian"
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13750
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Marc is not here.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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I went to the source, The Salt Lake Tribune, and got this message...
Thank you for visiting Salt Lake Tribune. We are sorry the article that you requested is no longer available.
It would seem that the church hierarchy in Utah found the article offensive to their beliefs... lol.
Youth crisis hot-line 866-488-7386, 24 hr (U.S.A.)
There are people who want to help you cope with being you.
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So how the heck did he manage to post this???
Youth crisis hot-line 866-488-7386, 24 hr (U.S.A.)
There are people who want to help you cope with being you.
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saben
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On fire! |
Registered: May 2003
Messages: 1537
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Read the date- Jan 07.
Look at this tree. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time [...] No matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.
Master Oogway
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The article was probably sent to archives.......this post IS more than 3 years old.
(\\__/) And if you don't believe The sun will rise
(='.'=) Stand alone and greet The coming night
(")_(") In the last remaining light. (C. Cornell)
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Nothing like keeping up with the times.
Hugs
N
I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.
…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.
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