MovieChat Forums > For the Bible Tells Me So (2007) Discussion > Preaching to the converted

Preaching to the converted

posted 15 years ago by grayure
8 replies | jump to latest

I went to a screening of this last week. It had been put on by a local Anglican church and they hadn't publicised it for fear that they would be seen as promoting homosexuality. In the meantime, i publicised it among other Christians i knew. In the end, the only audience apart from me, my wife and our friend (who is not a Christian), was the local LGBT group. If the only people who see this are those who are already opposed to the perceived homophobia among Christians, what is the point? Also, why did no-one who was opposed to the film's view attend? I wanted a fierce and passionate debate but nothing happened. Everyone just went home.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] fileboy2002 15 years ago

Well, it sounds the local church did all it could. It screened the film, advertised the showing, and invited people to attend. What else can they do? As one of the film's subjects pointed out, fundamentalists are incapable of engaging in conversations; they can only issue pronouncements. Fundamentalists learn to mentally block out ideas that challenge their faith. That they would skip a showing of of "ungodly" film is to be expected.

[–] robertbilotta 15 years ago

Well as somebody who isn't religious, it does bash the bible alot....They should have been softer with the whole "God hates the gays" thing."

[–] hadmatter 15 years ago

It's not the bible they're bashing, it's the people who use it, and how they use it.
And the reason for this bashing is that the bible is the weapon wielded by most people who are out to hurt gay folks. It's pretty logical.

I eat god for breakfast.

[–] cubdukat 15 years ago

As someone who has been in a situation where I've seen that sort of behavior in action, I absolutely agree.

"I trust everybody. It's just the devil inside them I don't trust."

[–] mulhollandpsycho 14 years ago

The film doesn't bash the Bible. Instead, it offers an alternate context in which to read the words, which were later translated into English from other languages, and then re-edited. The people depicted defending the Bible's "position" as gay-hater do not represent God. They are not official carriers of the words of God. They are indeed profiteers of demonizing human beings, because the greatest act of human compassion ("WWJD") would apparently be to preach hate against the blameless. The film isn't soft on the whole "God hates the gays" thing because that is the entire purpose of the documentary: self-proclaimed Bible experts misinterpret passages to persecute humans for how they are wired. The people behind this film cannot skirt that issue.

[–] JosiahSilas 14 years ago

I let my mom watch this when I first got it and it gave her a lot to think about, so I think you just have to pick your audience. If you have someone who is open to other ideas or at least a healthy dialogue on the subject, they might be open to what this movie has to say.

Pretty much every family researched homosexuality after their son or daughter came out to them, and that research would have been previously rejected or dismissed as only being for "the converted". So I don't think this movie is pointless just because "liberals" are more interested in it. Maybe one day you can pass it on to a friend with a gay son or daughter. Who knows?

I'm just waiting for the sun to shine.

[–] puirt-a-beul 14 years ago

If the only people who see this are those who are already opposed to the perceived homophobia among Christians, what is the point? Also, why did no-one who was opposed to the film's view attend?

I guess none of us could ever know what was in the minds of the people who didn't come to the screening, but your story (and thanks for sharing it) reminds me of a conversation I was witness to just yesterday. It was the annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras here in Sydney (Australia), and I witnessed a confrontation between a group of gay men and a group of proselytizing Christians.

The Christians certainly bore out a comment I heard, actually in this documentary: that many people don't want to discuss, they just want to utter pronouncements. These Christians spoke as if they thought they had the answer to anything the Gays could possibly say, and were expending so much energy invalidating them at any and every turn, until it became clear that one of the gay men was actually a student of Middle East cultures and history; when he started putting the Leviticus "abomination" quote into cultural context, suddenly the Christians didn't want to discuss it any more -- they started complaining about not wanting to "analyze things to death", and started to talk as if they had been cruelly picked on, and actually accused the gay men of trying to destroy their Faith.

That's my understanding of what Christians do around such issues. The don't *want* to debate; they want to already have the answer and impose it on other people, whether those other people actually want to have "the answer" given to them or not, and regardless of anything those other people might have to say about it. So I'm betting that's at least a part of why they didn't come to the screening.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.