Bless Our Homo

It seems, somehow, a little late in the game for another film about the religious condemnation of homosexuality. But while Daniel Karslake’s documentary For the Bible Tells Me So makes the usual points -- about whether God censures gay relationships; whether the Bible actually even addresses the subject; whether gays and Christians will ever see eye-to-eye about gay marriage -- it offers new perspective, as well.

Karslake’s movie, screening in conjunction with Scottsdale Community College’s Many Faces of Hate Film Series, has scored big on the festival circuit in good part because it asks bigger questions. What, for example, is “normal”? And can faith be co-opted by politics? The film answers these queries by examining the lives of five Christian families, including those of former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt and Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, who discover they have homosexual offspring in their midst. It’s a ploy that could have turned up the usual rhetoric about hatred and the Bible, but, thanks to Karslake’s sensitive approach to this loaded topic, offers instead some real clarity about sexual identity and Scripture.