I’m a lesbian and a preacher’s kid—both my mother and step-father are ministers—so organized religion and biblical interpretation as relate to gay rights are subjects near and dear to my heart. Well, near anyway. In any case, I tend to listen up when that stuff gets debated on the radio and folks start regurgitating Leviticus and Romans. (As someone said in the wonderful film For the Bible Tells Me So, “There’s nothing wrong with a fifth-grade understanding of the Bible—as long as you’re in the fifth grade.”)
Anyway, I made a point of catching NPR’s Talk of the Nation segment on Monday about Proposition 8 and the Bible. It featured Lisa Miller, religion editor at Newsweek, who, as you may know, wrote the magazine’s recent cover story: “Our Mutual Joy.” (Subtitle: “Opponents of gay marriage often cite Scripture. But what the Bible teaches about love argues for the other side.”) The December 15 cover story prompted a flood of letters from readers, print and online—thousands of letters so far. It spawned a follow-up debate between clergy and caused this Newsweek blog about the flood of letters to suspend its comment functions. Yep, churches are talking about this gay-rights business.
(There are other interesting stories on marriage equality on the Newsweek site, which you’ll see if you just click around. There are videos, slideshows, polls, and all sorts of stuff.)
If you’re more a film person, I highly recommend For the Bible Tells Me So, which I mentioned above. I recently saw it again and have decided I need to buy it for my mother and will probably insist a whole bunch of people watch it before I take it back to Blockbuster. You can see a trailer for it here and read reviews of it here.
It’s also available on Netflix, and I also hear they’ve got it down at the Lavender Library on 21st Street.
