Praise the Gay: Christianity and its relationship with Gays on film

Christianity and sexuality aren’t always the best coupling in films. More often than not, Christians are painted as a one dimensional, homogeneous character. They are the bogeyman in which no sense can be argued and are stuck in their backward ways; using scripture to back up their bigotry.  For sure, some Christians can act like this and the teachings of some churches indulge prejudges against homosexuality but it isn’t fair to paint every Christian in this way.

This is a concept truly understood by the film maker Stephen Cone. The son of a Baptist minister, he has a strong understanding of how faith and people actually interact with each other, especially in young people as they discover themselves. This is the principle theme of two of his films, The Wise Kids (2011) and Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party (2015).

The Wise Kids deals almost exclusively with characters who are Christians. It focuses on the burgeoning sexuality of the main character, Tim. In an astute decision Tim doesn’t begin the story as a religious zealot who has to leave this behind to embrace his sexuality. He is never completely at a loss over his homosexuality and his faith is a constant within the film. Though one of his friends Laura is conflicted over this; she doesn’t scream and shout but rather their friendship quietly parts away. It is tragic in its quiet truth as Cone skilfully shows that the friction that it can cause without overdramatic fireworks.

In both films, Cone decides to remove the tired dramatic trope of the main character’s parent rejecting their child for their sexuality. It’s not that this doesn’t happen, parents can be incredibly destructive to their child’s mentality but more it’s a decision made often for easy drama that comes off insensitive and untrue to people who really have had their parents react dreadfully to them coming out.

One film which does capture this well is Prayers for Bobby (2009). Sigourney Weaver plays Mary, the mother of Bobby Griffith. It is based on a true story and the truth of the situation abounds in the film. Whilst Mary never fully disowns Bobby, she makes it clear that she doesn’t want to know him if he embraces his sexuality. This broken disengagement pains Bobby more than the dramatic equivalent in which all contact is broken by a completely evil parent precisely because the promise of reunion is there, if only he can change his lifestyle. This complex dichotomy of love and rejection is far more difficult to depict on camera than the easy binary of good and evil. Mary comes to understand that her treatment of Bobby was not okay, regardless of scripture. In the process she finds a Church which takes a liberal interpretation of the bible and is accepting of homosexuality however this only occurs after her son takes his own life.

Cone explores the relationship and interplay between the secular and religious communities in Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party.  Henry is, as the title suggests, is celebrating his birthday and the party acts as the setting for the film which plays out not unlike a theatre script. The writing is phenomenal and again paints religious people as the complex people that they are. For example, in one scene, Henry’s sister who goes to a private Christian college feels the need to defend how they teach biology whilst also adhering to the idea of creationism in part. She is able to embrace It is in this scene in particular that I was struck by his willingness to question the treatment of the Christians by the atheists; I sensed a subtle acknowledgement of the level of hostility which has been reached by the two communities and a questioning of where this unwillingness to communicate will go.

Then again, though he might question the treatment of Christians he is in no way an apologist for the faith. Both of his films quietly and sensitively critique the negativity that the passivity of Christian communities on sensitive social issues. For example, a character in Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party suffers a mental breakdown when he becomes locked in the bathroom. Though this sounds like a rather on the nose depiction of the damage caused by being trapped in the closet; it works extremely well. It is compounded by the fact that throughout the film he was marginalized through silence rather than distinct ostractisation thus suggesting that even if the prejudices aren’t articulated, they can still be dangerous.

The party allows for an exploration of different generations as well as different belief systems. This is dealt with deftly when one character is confronted on their implicit homophobia when they are in a mixed race relationship. She believes that sexuality is a choice in a way that race is not. It shows that tolerance within the younger generation of people with faith is growing. It’s a realistic picture articulating the path that faith is taking for most young people in which a personal relationship is embraced with God. It is more about a dialogue between the individual and Him rather than adhering to a set of instructions decreed by someone else.

This is also explored in a cheesy though thoughtful film, Pass the Light (2015) which weirdly parallels the recent Presidential election except that in this film, the extremist running for congress loses. Essentially a high school student, Steve Bellafiore, decides to run against a congressional candidate, Franklin Baumann. He does this because he is a strong Christian who does not agree with the divisive message being spread by Baumann – supposedly in the name of the Lord. The film criticises the message of hate carried by many on the extreme right, especially in relation to sexual morality. It suggests that people with a genuine faith are being misled into a misunderstanding which will benefit the pursuits of the powerful.

The exploration of Christianity and how it deals with social issues is not something new to film. However, being portrayed as three dimensional people with complex emotions and understandings of their relation to faith is new. For too long, they have fallen into two categories, either they are entirely pious and the film holds their simple morality up on high or they are treated as simple minded sheep spouting beliefs they neither understand or agree with. This recent movement in the last decade to have films which critique faith and its social beliefs without villainising it is refreshing.