c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) “For the Bible Tells Me So,” a documentary that seeks to make the case that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality, is making the rounds at film festivals and screening in select cities.

The 97-minute film weaves biblical analysis with the stories of five Christian families who learn that one of their children is gay.

Two of the families are well known: former House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt, whose daughter Chrisy is a lesbian, and Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson, who made headlines as the church’s first openly gay bishop.

The documentary traces each family’s experience of wrestling with how their child’s sexuality fits in with their moral and religious beliefs. Some come to accept it; others learn to love their children while continuing to believe homosexuality is wrong.

One parent’s strained relationship with her daughter ends with the girl’s suicide. That mother, Mary Lou Wallner, became a gay rights activist.

“The gay kids are in the film, but it’s really about those parents,” said the film’s director, Daniel Karslake, at a discussion following the film’s Washington premiere.

The decision to focus on the parents was strategic.

“The film was made with a conservative Christian audience in mind,” Karslake said. His expectation was that those viewers would identify with the parents in the film as they struggled to reconcile their faith with the sexuality of their children.

The film has already won a number of awards, including the HBO Audience Award at the Provincetown Film Festival and the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Seattle International Film Festival. It was also nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

In addition to the families’ stories, the documentary features religious leaders, including retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Rev. Peter Gnomes of Harvard University, discussing biblical views of homosexuality. They maintain that biblical passages typically used to suggest homosexuality is sinful have been misinterpreted or distorted.

The film argues against a literal interpretation of Scripture and for one that considers the text’s historical context. With such a reading, the film says, many of the passages used to condemn homosexuality turn out to be about something else. For example, some scholars say the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was failure to take in travelers, not homosexuality.

Richard Mouw, the president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., is the one critical voice in the film, disputing the theory about Sodom and Gomorrah. One couple, Brenda and David Poteat, remain uncomfortable with their daughter’s sexuality.

Though filmmakers attempted to get evangelical leaders who hold the literalist view to appear in the film, they all declined, said Robin Voss, one of the film’s executive producers. Instead of interviewing biblical literalists, the film relies on archival footage of their sermons and television appearances.

The documentary includes a light-hearted animated segment asserting that homosexuality is not a choice, and should not be confronted with therapies that attempt to treat or change it.

Much of the film’s analysis of Scripture was based on seminars given by the Rev. Steve Kindle, a Disciples of Christ pastor and the founder of Clergy United for the Equality of Homosexuals.

Voss and her friend Keith Lewis were inspired to make a movie about the Bible’s take on homosexuality after attending one of these seminars in 2003.

Karslake, meanwhile, was working on “In the Life,” a PBS news show geared toward a gay and lesbian audience. Karslake came on as the film’s director.

Though reasonably respectful of the opposing point of view, the film is likely to attract an audience already open to the idea of Scripture and homosexuality being compatible.

“We’ll have trouble getting some people who are strident in their views to go,” Voss said.

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Photos of Robinson and the Gephardts are available via https://religionnews.com.