For the Bible Tells Me So: The Real Story, Part 1

BY BOB ELLIS
DAKOTA VOICE

The following is the first installment in a 8-part series examining the DVD "For the Bible Tells Me So."

Introduction - Why the DVD Deserves a Closer Look

The public debate over homosexuality has been raging for some time now, with disagreement which sometimes stems from the basis of health standards and societal norms, and at other times stemming from what the Bible says on the subject.

While I know there are many who aren’t interested in what the Bible says about the morality of homosexual behavior, apparently it’s relevant to more people that we have otherwise been led to believe. Why else would apologists for homosexuality have produced the film, “For the Bible Tells Me So”?

A public showing of this “documentary” was recently sponsored by the Center West, a homosexual advocacy and support group in Rapid City. The film was followed by a panel discussion comprised of clergy and counseling professionals sympathetic to homosexuality.

While by it’s very title the film purports to explore what the Bible says about homosexuality, I timed the various topics discussed and found it only spends about 15 of the 98 minutes, or about 15 percent of it’s time, actually examining Scriptural text dealing with homosexuality. The remaining 85 percent of the film is spent equating Christians with Adolf Hitler and the KKK, promoting biased “research” about homosexuality, and cultivating sympathy with the personal stories of several families of homosexual children.

Among the opening credits, we see video clips of protests against homosexual activism and hear various religious figures in the background speaking about the moral crisis presented by the homosexual agenda. Ominous music provides the emotional backdrop.

Some of the protesters displayed in these clips are the hate-filled Fred Phelps people from Kansas, who are representative of no Christians that I know. Old, grainy black-and-white video of a fiery evangelist calling for "old time religion" is played.

The entire opening segment is reminiscent of the marketing strategy outlined by homosexual activists Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen in their book "After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90s." In the book, the authors outlined a detailed and systematic campaign on how to make homosexuals look good and people of moral conviction look bad. Here is what Kirk and Madsen suggested:

For example, for several seconds an unctuous beady-eyed Southern preacher is shown pounding the pulpit in rage against 'those perverted, abominable creatures.'" While his tirade continues over the soundtrack, the picture switches to heart-rending photos of badly beaten persons, or of gays who look decent, harmless, and likable; and then we cut back to the poisonous face of the preacher. The contrast speaks for itself. The effect is devastating.

As “For the Bible Tells Me So” (FTBTMS) continues, we hear a number of Christians stating that homosexuality is wrong, and that the Bible says so.

Then a man is featured who claims that such beliefs come from the repeated telling of lies so that people eventually believe it. Another man comes on and says that such beliefs represent a "Fifth-grade understanding of God." Still another says that perhaps ordinary people shouldn't be reading the Bible because they usually get it wrong. Yet another says, "It really has been the church that is the place where the prejudice is born, and was nurtured, and has been promoted."
One of the men providing brief comments in the opening segment is homosexual Reverend Mel White of Soulforce, a homosexual group. White says that "the Bible has been misused to promote prejudice, apartheid, and segregation." White makes this statement as images and video clips of slavery and the KKK run in the background.

"Now it's being misused to condemn gay people," says White. "It's an old trick fundamentalist Christians have been using throughout the ages, and now they're doing it again."

Once this "introduction" is finished, we are introduced to the parents of V. Gene Robinson, the homosexual Episcopal bishop from New Hampshire. We are told by Robinson and his parents about his religious upbringing and his perfect attendance at Sunday School. This is apparently intended to convince us of his religious sincerity and genuine Christian background. Robinson also tells how he realized at a young age that he was "different." Robinson married for a while after he grew up, but eventually left his wife and embraced an openly homosexual lifestyle.

Next we are introduced to the Poteats family of North Carolina. The Poteats are a black husband/wife pastor team of a church in North Carolina. Their daughter Tonia is a lesbian. She "came out" to her parents while in college.

After the Poteats, we hear the story of the Reitans, who are Lutherans, from Minnesota. We are told of the great history of how many pastors there are in their family. Their son Jake is a homosexual. Jake says they went to church every Sunday and were a "very involved family" in church. He said he heard preaching against homosexuality when he was a child, but didn't want to ask any questions because he knew "the answers wouldn't be good."

Another of the families with homosexual children is the Gephardt family, specifically the family of former U.S Representative Dick Gephardt, his wife Jane and their lesbian daughter Chrissy.

Dick comes from a Baptist background and his wife is Catholic, and the children were raised Catholic. Chrissy was "athletic" and a "jock" but sometimes wore dresses. Chrissy was married for a while, despite her sexual confusion, but eventually the marriage came apart and she embraced the homosexual lifestyle.


In Part 2 next week: nineteen minutes into the film, we receive our first look at what "For the Bible Tells Me So" claims the Bible tells us about homosexuality.