Product Description

Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Seattle Interntional Film Festival, Dan Karslake's provocative, entertaining documentary brilliantly reconciles homosexuality and Biblical scripture, and in the process reveals that Church-sanctioned anti-gay bias is based solely upon a significant (and often malicious) misinterpretation of the Bible. As the film notes, most Christians live their lives today without feeling obliged to kil anyone who works on the Sabbath or eats shrimp.
Through the experience of five very normal, very Christian , very American families - including those of former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt and Episcopalian Bishop Gene Robinson - we discover how insightful people of faith handle the realization of having a gay child. With commentary by such respected voices as Bishop Desmond Tutu, Harvard's Peter Gomes, Orthodox Rabbi Steve Greenberg and Reverend Jimmy Creech, For The Bible Tells Me So offers healing, clarity and understanding to anyone caught in the crosshairs of scripture and sexual identity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1838 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-02-19
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 99 minutes

Amazon.com
For the Bible Tells Me So is a compassionate and insightful documentary about the contemporary face of an old conflict between Christian fundamentalists and gay and lesbian people. The film looks deep into the hearts of several families--a few of them quite famous--that have struggled with making sense of having a homosexual son or daughter in the fold. At the same time, For the Bible Tells Me So is a deconstruction of thin arguments that the Bible actually condemns homosexuality in a few passages and through the story of Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction. A number of clerics and scholars explain the cultural and historical context for Old Testament quotes routinely referenced as arguments against homosexuality, and point out translation confusion about the real meaning of the Sodom story. Unquestionably, the most compelling part of the film is its focus on various families, including that of former U.S. presidential candidate Dick Gephardt, who has a lesbian daughter for whose safety he worries. Also among the interviewees is Gene Robinson, a gay man who became bishop of New Hampshire’s Episcopal church in 2004, and his parents, as well as a gay teen whose folks joined him on the front line in protest of their church’s negative stance on gays. Not every story is affirmative: there are tragedies within these tales, too, as well as an indictment of so-called cures that supposedly banish the gay drive from homosexual men and women. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

For the Bible Tells Me So
Excellent documentary debunking the apparent conflict between homosexuality and the Bible text. Good historical review of the origins of Literalism as a way of interpreting Bible readings and how this method of Bible interpretation has been used in the past to defend slavery and condemn Jews, interracial marriages and other social phenomena. And all this coming from a very authoritative and gay episcopal bishop beloved by his congregation. He should know.

For the Bible Tells Me So
For The Bible Tells Me So
Packed full of emotional tugs of all sorts. For The Bible Tells Me So is an inspiring DVD that may help Christian families deal with the stuggles that come about when a family member or friend "comes out". I think this DVD should be in every church library. To some, the shock of a family member sharing that they are gay or lesbian, can cut against the grain of the Christian family core. Learn how other devout and well rooted Christian families learn to deal with their issues between acceptance and what the Bible tells them.

Excellent documentary about an emotionally charged subject.
This was well worth purchasing and viewing. Anyone who knows a gay person, or has a gay friend or relative, should watch this. Many so-called religious people are vicious in comment and/or action towards gays, basing this on the Bible. This video offers some excellent arguments against behaving or speaking in this way. Of course, only those who are willing to think about things in a new way will be open. Many who are vicious in their dealings with gays have minds that are tightly closed.