For The Bible Tells Me So (2007) +

An entirely lucid and utterly careful examination of the biblical basis of anti-gay rhetoric, sentiment and activism -- offered from the perspective of a group of families whose own views and activism within the church has shifted (albeit to varying degrees) as a direct result of loving a gay child. The film is not so much an expose of the radically arbitrary ways the bible is used to support and foment anti-gay sentiment (though, with the support of a diverse array of biblical experts, it does that too) but mostly an account of the various ways evangelical protestant families have made it "through" the challenges of loving a gay child. The families are a diverse lot -- a religious mom who shuns her lesbian daughter until that daughter's suicide transforms the surviving mother into a PFLAG activist; Senator Dick Gephart's maneuvering of the private/public challenge when his adult daughter comes out; two parents uncertain about their own feelings and beliefs when their attractive teen son comes out in high school; a mother and father's decision to love their daughter while disapproving of her life; the experiences of parents who are in their 70s and 80s when their son becomes the first avowedly gay Episcopalian bishop -- and this works to the films advantage, as the stories in concert demonstrate the particularities of each persons struggle reconciling homosexuality and faith. The film also feels very much like the kind of story one could show one's family with relatively little concern. An admirable piece of documentary filmmaking built around the project of awareness.