Have you ever found yourself scrolling through the endless movie listings on Netflix, late at night, and then weeks later a DVD arrives in your mailbox and you wonder "When did I pick this?". I just had this happen. I'm a bit of a night owl, and sometimes that leads to late night blogging or random movie picking. This week "The Bible Tells Me So" arrived in my mailbox and I couldn't remember what it was about or why I picked it, but this seemed like a good night to watch it.
The basis of the movie is why homosexuality is rejected by "conservative Christians" and this theory is highly supported by many narratives from the founder of Soulforce, Mel White and by several Harvard Divinity grads. The setting varies between 3 small towns, each of which naturally have a more conservative vibe. One in the Kentucky countryside, one in a small farm town of Minnesota, and the last town being Haw River, NC (seriously, could you get more backward than here?) What poor and very slanted biases they chose to highlight people's "ignorance". I would have given them more credit if they would have chosen a country town, suburb, and city for a better variety.
I just want to say this up front, I am not a good arguer and am not trying to start a debate. Consider this one of my more serious "diary-like" entries where I just want to get these thoughts out. Obviously in today's world this is a relative issue that we all encounter whether its a coworker or family member, we all know at least one person who is gay. This is a lot different than my parents and grandparents generation and because of that most people my age are more "tolerant" or "open", but that doesn't necessarily mean "supportive". A few months ago while living in LA I had an ugly encounter with a group of gay men and that was a turning point for me where I realized that this is an issue I do need to learn more about, and how to defend what I believe. Maybe this memory is what led to my selecting "What the Bible Tells Me" to add to my Netflix queue. (The previous few DVD's have been about fashion: Valentino the Last Emperor and The September Issue.)
In addition to frequent narratives from Lutheran, Jewish, Church of Christ, etc. ministers and professors the movie creates a rather silly cartoon naming the scientific reasons to explain to "Christian"(the main character) as to why a person is born gay and it's not a choice, and in the credits section states "All this material can be found at any university library EXCEPT that on the Bob Jones campus in South Carolina". Growing up in the church I always knew about Bob Jones University and even I made fun of it (and Pensacola) for just how conservative they were. One spring break during my high school years we went to Georgia and on the way back home passed through Greenville, SC and my parents wanted me to take a campus tour, etc. since I was a junior and this was a college option. I think I threw the biggest hissy fit of my life and remember strapping myself into the backseat of our van with all 3 seatbelts (not one of my best moments).
Moving on, aside from this silly cartoon, I took issue with how most of the protest footage used I'm pretty sure is from Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), founded by Fred Phelps, who is known for their anti-homosexuality stand and outlandish protests most often at military funerals. The reason I claim the footage is of this group is due to what they are shown yelling and the signs they carry, typical of WBC. I think the hard thing about religion is that within a group there are always sub-groups. Just because they have the word Baptist in their name does not mean that I as a "Baptist" associate with their stand against particular issues or more importantly, how they deliver such hateful messages. It's so hard to convey the message that God loves us and is a God of mercy and grace, and is not the hateful, judgemental figure this church paints Him as when more often than not, the media will air a protest by WBC than a segment about a local church reaching out to their community in love. This is a random fact, but I just want to clarify that I've never been a part of any organized protest- religious or not.
Then on the opposite end of the spectrum we have the controversy that is just beginning to stir about a man who started out to be quite "solid" in his Christian teaching (degrees from Wheaton and Fuller Seminary who then taught under Ed Dobson, started the Velvet Elvis movement, etc.) to now what appears to be a Universalist point of view in the new book by Rob Bell: Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. I personally have not read this book, and don't want to buy it because in a way I feel that "supports" him, however in the past the sales of his books have been to profit missionaries and water purification systems in third world countries, so maybe I'll buy it. However, in the meantime, a few key Christian Theologians have summarized the book by saying the main message is that God is love, not an angry being who punished people to an eternity in hell, and that he ultimately forgives everybody. This is vastly different than what the members of WBC would tell you, especially if you were a gay person or supportive of that lifestyle, yet all of us left-right wing Christians are labeled under one stereotype while holding vastly different beliefs!
I worry about the influence that Rob Bell's new book will have on the Christian community. Read this statement he recently made:"I affirm the truth anywhere in any religious system, in any worldview. If it's true, it belongs to God." How vague and quite non-offensive. It embraces the "everything goes as long as you love" vibe he seems to be putting out these days. We all want things to be easy, and no one wants to deal with the hard or ugly matters in life, but we can't just say that Hell doesn't exist. If Hell doesn't exist then what makes God so great and powerful? What makes His mercy and grace towards us such a gift? Why would we want to turn to Him if we didn't have Hell as an option for eternity?
I'm afraid my brain is starting to hurt from all this pondering and it's bedtime. I just needed to get this out of my head. Sorry if you were waiting for me to make some grand statement or declare what is right and wrong. That wasn't my goal of writing this post.
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