For the Bible Tells Me So (2007)
By MATT ZOLLER SEITZ,Published: October 5, 2007 NY Times

Daniel Karslake’s documentary “For the Bible Tells Me So” won’t win any prizes for technique, but innovation surely ranks very low on this filmmaker’s to-do list. Mr. Karslake has said that the movie is mainly intended as a feature-length primer that can be deployed in arguments with homophobes.

Directorially, the movie is unremarkable, with one conspicuous and unfortunate exception: when Mr. Karslake apes the supercharged empathy of an episode of “Dateline” on NBC, right down to the verging-on-schmaltzy music. Otherwise, the interviews with scholars parsing the Old and New Testaments are paired with the expected archival photographs and illustrations of biblical scenes. “For the Bible Tells Me So” is, strictly speaking, an educational film, with the artlessness that that phrase implies.

The movie’s ensemble portrait of parents (many of them ministers) with adult gay or lesbian children strives to demonstrate that homosexuality is a genetic predisposition, not a lifestyle choice, and that those who quote Leviticus to justify their animosity are guilty not just of intolerance but also of selective piety, an inability to understand historical context and poor reading comprehension. (Abomination, for example, does not mean against God, but against a civilization’s cultural norms.)

“For the Bible Tells Me So” moves through its stories of coming out, detailing how individuals adjusted (or failed to adjust) to their new reality and how parents reacted (usually poorly).

Mary Lou Wallner, one of the staunchest advocates of gay rights in the movie, became a political activist after her daughter, Anna, committed suicide — the result, Ms. Wallner believes, of the letter she wrote to Anna rejecting her after she came out. Brenda and David Poteat, married ministers, struggle to accept their daughter Tonia’s lesbian identity, and judging from Mr. Poteat’s statements, he’s not there yet.

Chrissy Gephardt, a daughter of the former House minority leader Richard A. Gephardt and his wife, Jane, talks about enduring a sexless marriage to a man before falling in love with a lesbian friend, admitting the truth about herself, coming out and eventually joining her father on the campaign trail, with his support and encouragement. Another profile subject is Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the first openly gay bishop of the Episcopal Church, who also survived a disastrous marriage before coming out.

Filmgoers and critics who are mainly interested in aesthetics will have little tolerance for this secular sermon. Viewers who got this particular memo long ago will likely deem it condescending, a word embodied by this movie’s most unfortunate sequence, a smart-alecky animated short in which a gay man, a lesbian and a booming Voice of God (Don LaFontaine) disabuse a homophobe of his ignorance. The dummy’s name? Christian.

But there is no denying that the film, however inelegant, fills a need. The inevitable DVD should be packaged in a plain cardboard sleeve, so that viewers can carry it in their pockets and, if confronted by a homophobe, hand it over and say, “Watch this, then get back to me.”

Opens today in Manhattan. Produced and directed by Daniel Karslake; edited by Nancy Kennedy; music by Scott Anderson and Mark Suozzo; released by First Run Features. At the Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 97 minutes. This film is not rated.

Does it have Brad Pitt in it? He's sooooo dreamy...

I assume this thread is about "For the Bible Tells Me So."

I have friends who saw it just last night in NY.

They said it was a good primer for anti-gay people to get an idea about the other side of the issue - but that it doesn't have much to say to people with more background.

I don't think Brad Pitt is in it, sorry myt.

I think it will be worth checking out on video. Somehow, I doubt it's going to play in the theater here in my tiny Wyoming town... LOL.

No Brad Pitt, eh?

Well, I guess I'll just have to stick with my fantasy about Bjork, Gwen Stefani and a big tub of strawberry ice cream.

So would Brad Pitt be enough to entice you to the other side of the fence, Myt?

Gwen Stefani makes herself look like shit with the way her hair is always plastered and raked down. This pisses me off.

Gwen has turned into the most ethnic white girl in entertainment. You would never think she was in Bananarama listening to some of her music now.

She still needs to quit plastering down her hair.

Not if that's what keeps the funds flowing into the bank account. You can't please everyone all the time, but she seems to be doing pretty well plastering her hair. My biggest problem with Gwens looks is her billboard flat chest. But that's just me.

Just as me and Myt's dream girl Bjork makes a pretty good living being pretty much weird.

HAHhahahaha. His name is Christan. That's awesome. Heavy-handed and smothering but awesome.