As seen at the 2007 San Diego Film Festival:

     America is in a state of emergency. Did you hear that folks? Yes, that’s right: America is in a state of emergency! Just look around you. What do you see? If the answer “the widespread persecution of gay people” doesn’t spring instantly into your mind, then you must be an Evangelical Christian. That’s right – you’re an Evangelical Christian, aren’t you? You’re one of those “chosen-ones” calling for a violent merge between Church and State, right? In fact, you probably just got home from a routine session of gay-bashing. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. You know – where you stand around town and scream out “God hates Fags!” and march around deviously with picket signs and you play Focus on the Family leader Jerry Fallwell’s radio program in the background? And not only that. You probably just discovered that your son or daughter is gay and you have decided to begin destroying their life over it. And you know what? I bet you live in Texas and admire the “strong leadership” that President George W. Bush exhibits over the United States.

     That’s the image of America that Daniel G. Karslake, director of the ridiculous documentary For the Bible Tells Me So, would like the viewer to believe. He claims that the Christian Right is damaging America in unspeakable ways, mainly due to its supposedly unrelenting hatred for gays. Karslake asserts that this deep-seeded, illogical malcontent is breaking up families by the boatload; he seems to think that it is one of the defining political issues present in the country right now. With For the Bible Tells Me So, the filmmaker wants to convey a message against this “unspeakable” social-oppression that the majority of citizens seem to be blind to. Despite never appearing on camera or speaking in the film via narration, Karslake stresses through his subjects that those who believe in equal-rights for homosexuals/bisexuals/transsexuals should stop at nothing to get their message of “tolerance” across.

     In response, I have a message of my own for Mr. Karslake: get over yourself, buddy. For the Bible Tells Me So deals specifically with the emotional damage that homosexual children are caused by Christian parents who do not accept their lifestyle-choice. As I watched the film, I couldn’t help but think of all of the truly oppressed minorities that Karslake could’ve brought to light in a documentary instead: the innocent victims of the genocide in Darfur, the millions of Iraqi refugees displaced by insurgent Islamic terrorists, the Israelis that were forced from their homes on the borders of the West Bank of Gaza. Let’s get real here: homosexuals make up a very small portion of the general population (let’s say one-tenth, to be generous). Even less gays are shunned by their parents because of their sexuality, genetic or not. Hardly any that didn’t have emotional issues to begin with become suicidal because of their parents’ aforementioned lack of acceptance toward their sexuality. Why must Karslake pretend that this issue is of such grave significance to America? Why must he act as if most gays do not lead normal lives? Is the radical homosexual agenda so strong that it will stop at nothing with movies like For the Bible Tells Me So to establish its members as more prominent and more attended to in American Society than the average citizens?

     Even if one were to accept the central “moral of the story” found in For the Bible Tells Me So—which basically breaks down to: “feeling malcontent toward gays on strictly Biblical pretenses is a convoluted, illogical, and dangerous line of thinking”—it would still be a stretch for one to buy the rest of the film’s assertions. Karslake’s subjects support an entirely ridiculous vision for America, one in which gays are given equal-representation as straight people and are federally granted the right to marry. The political agenda of this picture is so broad and far-reaching that it’s impossible to take seriously. Nor should it be, as the so-called “Bible-thumpers” who still believe in literally interpreting the Old Testament’s view of the wrongness of homosexuality have every right to feel this way under the pretense of their First Amendment Rights. For the Bible Tells Me So is, frankly, a piece of irresponsible journalism disguised as a straightforward documentary. Is it childish and wrong to discriminate against gays in today’s America? Yes, but viewers don’t need this film to irresponsibly and manipulatively force-feed this truth to them.