“for the BIBLE tells me so”

This Tuesday, March 11 Stage Left will be showing “for the BIBLE tells me so” at the Riverland College Community Theater (1600 8th Ave. NW, Austin, MN). Stage Left will start showing the film at 7pm and there is no charge for admission.

Not long ago my dad, who is a pastor in Mankato, told me about this film. He said it was one of the best documentaries he’d ever seen. When he and my mom came to help us clean carpets in our new house last week, he brought the DVD with him and wanted me to watch it. So after a fresh round of rug washing we sat down around my computer monitor so that I could see it myself.

He was right. It is a truly remarkable film. What makes it unique is that rather than just continuing with the same worn out arguments for and against the church’s acceptance of gay folks, it discusses and deals intimately with what it is like for the families of those who have children, brothers and sisters who come out of the closet. Along the way it discusses Biblical understandings of homosexuality and reasons why it is worth it for us in the church community to take another look at the struggle of GLBT folks.

Regardless of your position on homosexuality, if you have the chance to see this film, please do. I don’t wish for more conservative folks to suddenly support monogamous, consenting, adult, gay relationships…though I wouldn’t mind it if they did. Rather, I wish for them to listen to the families in this film, to listen to their love and their struggling to understand and love their children—even when they’ve been told by the church that their acceptance of their gay children should only go so far.