12th entry - A Controversial Movie

"And the award for the most controversial movie of the year goes to ... "
















After learning that the highly-acclaimed Brokeback Mountain lost the Best Picture award to a "dark horse" movie Crash at the recent Oscars, I decided to write my own view about the highly controversial movie and some of the views I had come across, as well as the issue about homosexuality from a Christian viewpoint. But first, allow me to present two very contrasting perspectives or opinions about the movie.

The first perspective that I found about the movie was one that my good friend Teflonman put up on his Blog. It was written by Daniel Mendelsohn, a frequent contributor to The New York Review, and the author of a memoir, The Elusive Embrace, and a critical study of Greek tragedy, Gender and the City in Euripides' Political Plays. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18712

Mendelsohn critiqued both the film as well as the reviews that he read about it. As regards the film, he saw it as a "tale of two homosexual men". In his view, the film went beyond the portrayal of a tragic love between 2 men. It was "a tragedy about the specifically gay phenomenon of the 'closet'—about the disastrous emotional and moral consequences of erotic self-repression and of the social intolerance that first causes and then exacerbates it". More importantly, however, he pointed out that the film was "primarily a psychological tragedy, a tragedy of psyches scarred from the very first stirrings of an erotic desire which the world around them represents as unhealthy, hateful, and deadly." As regards the reviews, Mendelsohn disagreed with those who saw the film as one about romance with universal appeal, a "universal story" or a "love story", as these perspectives missed the whole point.

The second perspective that I chanced upon was found on www.christianitytoday.com. (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/004/1.46.html). The article was submitted by Dennis Belkofer, an active member of the Chicago Tabernacle, a plant of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Responses to the article could be found at http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2006/02/the_hidden_bles_1.html.

Belkofer suffered sexual abuse as a teenager, which, according to him, scarred him psychologically and affected the way he related to people and God in subsequent years of his life. He was ashamed by the fact that he was "secretly attracted to men", and his shame and guilt (in his mind he was committing a sin) prevented him from forming meaningful and satisfying relationships with both men and women. He eventually found refuge by turning to Christ. About Brokeback Mountain, the only thing he learnt about the film was that he did not want to end up like Ennis - and following Christ was the only way he could achieve this.

I tried to put my own opinion on the blog but I suppose the moderators found my response too "extreme" as I did not see it published on the blog. That's why I decided to say it here on my own blog. :-D

In my earlier comment that I tried unsuccessfully to post on the blog, I did not respond directly to Belkofer's story. Instead, I was expressing my view regarding the views of others who were apparently dispensing words of "encouragement" to him. I said that all of mankind is included in God's will, and His will is simply this: He wants us to love Him and love one another, justs as He loves us. I asked several questions at the end: How do we know God never intended homosexuals to be part of His will? Didnt God want us to love each other unconditionally, and leave judgment to Him? Shouldnt we examine our own behaviour first before imposing the same standards on others?

This is my subjective interpretation or assessment of Belkofer's story. Firstly, in my opinion he was confused by his earlier sexual awakening (corrupted by the trauma of sexual abuse) and his subsequent attraction to, and yearning to have sexual relations with, other men. Secondly, he mistakenly thought that homosexuality is a sin that he needs to repent from, and that the film proved there would be no happiness in pursuing a homosexual relationship.

To be honest, I feel sorry for Belkofer for 2 reasons. Firstly, I suspect that there is no one who can convince Belkofer that it is all right to be gay and Christian - he seems to have made up his mind that being gay goes against Christian principles. Secondly, he is a victim of society's narrow and prejudicial outlook on life and mainstream Christians' standards of holy living - he allows himself to be bullied in order to be accepted by others.

I am grateful that such a film was made. Prior to this, I watched Saving Face and Facing Windows. Commenting about these films probably warrant a separate blog entry to do justice to their merits, but in general I feel that more of such movies should be made, and more "Mendelsohn"s should come out to widen the narrow lenses of society. I hope society will start to develop and show (by their actions) genuine compassion and empathy for homosexuals who are oppressed psychologically and emotionally by them.

Meanwhile, the gay debate rages on in the Christian community.

I recently came across an article about Soulforce, a gay-rights activist group, launching Equality Ride, a 7-week bus tour that will take 35 gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and straight 18- to 28-year-olds to Christian colleges in the US with behavior codes that Soulforce calls discriminatory. The article is at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/110/42.0.html.

Jacob Reitan, the man leading the Equality Ride, said one goal is to raise public awareness of the colleges' policies by using the media. "We also hope to send out a clear message to gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender students that God loves them as they are," Reitan said. "Today, it's gay and lesbian people who are the outcasts of the church, and later the church will have to repent from it."

Reitan also wants to convince administrators to allow for biblically based dissent of school policies. "When Paul was writing in the New Testament, he didn't have an understanding of homosexuality as we know it today," he said. "We believe that Christ is our best defense, because the message of Christ was always to embrace people and love them." Reitan, 24, who graduated from Northwestern University (Ill.), was raised in a Lutheran home. He decided to form the Equality Ride after he met a closeted Wheaton College student in Chicago who spoke of his difficulty in reconciling sexuality with Christianity at a Christian institution.

In my opinion, since God created all of mankind, and He created us for a purpose - His purpose, and since He also created homosexuals, I think homosexuals are also in His divine will and created for His purpose as well. My hope for the Christian community at large is that God will allow them to mature and open their hearts and minds to love homosexuals for who they are, accept them as part of God's will for mankind and to stop imposing their views on others who are different from them. My prayer for homosexual Christians is that they continue to trust God as they fight the good fight - to stand up for their belief against those who stereotype them and oppress them, work out a way to coexist in harmony with the heterosexual majority, and discover for themselves what God intended to achieve in their lives.