Being the giant homosexual that I am, I decided to purchase a DVD called Fish out of Water, a documentary on homosexuality and the Bible. I’m not a Christian, I’ve never experienced any real discrimination from the Christian community for being gay, and I come from a largely secular part of the UK where, on the whole, people are less passionate about religion, unlike in America, where the documentary is filmed.
The documentary is about a young woman’s abandonment by her Christian friends when she came out in college, and then her realisation that Christianity doesn’t condemn homosexuality. Ky Dickens, the creator of this film, interviewed over 100 people, including several church officials, all but two who accepted homosexuality (one was from the West Borough Baptist Church), including an AfterEllen.com writer, Trish Bendix.
I can’t convey how much this film affected me. It’s made me revaluate my life, so to speak. I am a strong believer in equal rights for everyone, especially the homosexuals. I am so passionate about being gay and being involved in the community that I’ve literally become absorbed in my gay bubble, which protects me from all the condemnation, so I brush past the real homophobia out there because I’ve never had to deal with it. As far as being active in the fight for gay rights, I occasionally troll the anti-gay groups on Facebook, educate my friends on the topic and attend pride festivals. This DVD has made me really want to be so much more active in the LGBTQ community, at the risk of sounding like a clichéd douche; it’s been an inspirational eye opener for me. It really has.
I don’t understand how people can have so much hate in their hearts and claim it to be Christianity. Personally, I’m agnostic, but I’ve studied religion at a relatively low level, but I’m not uneducated on the topic. The backbone of Christianity is love. ‘God is love’, 1 John 4:8. In pretty much any situation that can be applied, so why are these ‘Christians’ allowing their souls to be overcome with hatred for their fellow man?! It doesn’t make sense to me.
The film disproves theories that fundamentalists have clutched onto for decades to coin homosexuality as a sin, when really, if you look into the verses, as the documentary shows, the verses, such as Leviticus, “A man shall not lie with another man as it is an abomination”, they’re out of context, outdated or are shown from another perspective to not speak about homosexuality at all! I can’t articulate what the pastors, philosophers and other specialist say as well as them, so I strongly urge you to watch the DVD.
I’m not intending to offend anyone with my words. I respect people of faith; I really do, because I personally can’t commit myself to one religion and believe it to be the inerrant truth. Having said that though, I do not tolerate homophobia, or discrimination of any sort, and I think that Christians who condone this discrimination are fools, to be honest.
I think one of the reasons that this affected me so much was because it showed the true extent of homophobia to me. You know when you’re forced to study World War 2 in History, and you look at the holocaust? Or when you’re studying slavery, or other forms of extreme discrimination? You study it, but you don’t really understand it because it’s easier to generalise it and overlook the true scale and horror that happened.
I can’t urge you enough to watch this film. It’s just amazing. Another incredible film about homosexuality and Christianity would be Prayers for Bobby, which is based on the real story of a young man who commits suicide because his extremely Christian mother refuses to accept his sexuality. It takes a lot to make me cry, but that film made me cry hysterically. It’s definitely worth watching, and it can be easily watched online for free, or bought.
