Rating: 7.9
For The Bible Tells Me So (2007)
Atticus Group

Description

Dan Karslake's provocative, entertaining documentary brilliantly reconciles homosexuality and Biblical scripture, and in the process reveals that Church-sanctioned anti-gay bias is based solely upon a significant (and often malicious) misinterpretation of the Bible. As the film notes, most Christians live their lives today without feeling obliged to kil anyone who works on the Sabbath or eats shrimp.

Through the experience of five very normal, very Christian , very American families - including those of former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt and Episcopalian Bishop Gene Robinson - we discover how insightful people of faith handle the realization of having a gay child.


Collected reviews and ratings

8.8 TV Guide | Ken Fox

Filmmaker Daniel Karslake takes aim at the ways in which Scripture has been used to discriminate against gay men and women, and reveals the ways in which literal — and often grossly inaccurate — readings of the Bible have damaged countless lives.
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8.8 DVD Verdict | Brendan Babish

As a whole, For the Bible Tells Me So does an effective job of portraying how intolerance of homosexuals tears families apart, exposing the irony of those who make the inexplicable claim that only through marginalizing homosexuals can the American family unit be saved.
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8.3 Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

This documentary ode to tolerance takes a shrewd, detailed, eye-opening look at how speciously selective and ahistorical the church condemnation of gays really is.
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8.0 Salon.com | Andrew O'Hehir

Along the way, "For the Bible Tells Me So" tries to wrestle with the theological controversy over homosexuality, which is too complicated and divisive to be summarized in a few sound bites. Like the rest of the movie, it's a brave and noble (and perhaps doomed) effort to heal a gaping wound in our society.
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8.0 DVD Talk | Brian Orndorf

While cyclical at times, "For the Bible" is an informative, heartbreaking documentary about intolerance and manipulation, sadly and assuredly never to be seen by the people who need this info the most.
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7.0 New York Times | Matt Zoller Seitz

There is no denying that the film, however inelegant, fills a need.
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7.0 Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

"For the Bible Tells Me So" is a brisk, entertaining and even moving exploration of the sometimes frayed intersection where Christianity meets homosexuality.
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7.0 Variety | Justin Chang

Filmmaker Daniel Karslake lobs a grenade into the culture wars with his heartfelt, provocative and unabashedly polemical "For the Bible Tells Me So," which examines the intersection of homosexuality and religion and finds the latter wanting.
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