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Amid grief and joy, documentary looks at sexuality within families
For The Bible Tells Me So
A documentary
Director: Daniel Karslake
Running Time: 95 minutes
Check local media for release date in your area.
The documentary, "For the Bible Tells Me So," stands at the nexus of the Bible, homosexuality, and the family.
Filmmaker Daniel Karslake looks at the ways that fundamentalism and an inerrant reading of the Bible have toxified American society as related to the full citizenship of homosexuals in church and state. A religion reporter for PBS' "In the Life," he presents the idea that it's possible to focus on the family without excluding its gay and lesbian members.
After vintage footage of singer and fundamentalist Anita Bryant's being "pied" at a news conference, Karslake shows an old Southern couple. They vie to tell loving stories about their precious son Gene, who, they say, loved church and Jesus from the time he was a baby. The next talking head is Gene himself, now Bishop V. Gene Robinson of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire and the first openly gay man to wear the vestments of his office. "We're pretty proud of him," the Robinsons say.
Karslake, who co-wrote the film with Helen Mendoza, concentrates on five families across America, including the Wallners of Arkansas and the Gephardts of Missouri whose lesbian daughter Crissy stumped for her father, Richard, on the campaign trail.
The families tell their stories of rejection and acceptance, whole or partial. One woman confesses that she whipped her daughter with anti-lesbian lashes, which she had lifted, not from the Bible, but from James Dobson's reading of the Bible to his Focus on the Family organization. The mother railed right up until her daughter's suicide, at which point this woman started to educate herself about religion and homosexuality and grace.
In addition to the families, the film includes clergy, such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Rev. Peter Gomes, and Mel White. Karslake alternates points of view between pro and con. Thus, the film covers the main arguments in the issue, from contextual analyses of the Bible passages that cause such vitriol to the essential and political analysis of the hatred of women that undergirds many people's detestation of the idea of homosexuality.
Amid grief and joy (take a hanky), there's also humor in the funny cartoon about sexual orientation from a scientific point of view (family photos showing the wings and nimbuses of '70s hairdos tickle, as well).
Unfortunately, Karslake sometimes borrows mediocre methods from cable shows: he drops newsreel footage into people's stories, assuming (hoping?) the generic will be taken for the specific, and he recreates events with the principals' walking through them again self-consciously.
Despite these tics, "For the Bible Tells Me So" is a good documentary, a passionate and compassionate look at a topic that needs more heart and less heat.
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