Greetings one and all, haven't done much writing the past two months as I've been taking some time off and recovering from an overly exhausted period of time leading into the Christmas season. But coming out of that I knew I wanted to get back to work and as I have pondered what direction to go in next I have always had the idea of doing a documentary lingering in the back of my mind.
If we were to go back ten or so years I would say I classified myself as fairly conservative. When I became old enough to vote the issue of gay marriage came up in more than one measure and each time I voted against it without a second thought. Like so many young people I just went with what I convinced myself was accurate and gave it very little thought afterward. But as I grew older and became better educated both in book smarts and in general knowledge I found myself questioning how abruptly I had dismissed the homosexual lifestyle. On top of that, I have been a believer in God as long as my memory goes back. But I was not raised in a religious household and did not begin attending church until I was 20 years old. This said, I discovered and nurtured this belief entirely myself. But as I chose to make it grow and began attending a Catholic church it would be easy for one to presume that my dismissal of homosexuality would only grow. In fact, in telling anyone of my religious leanings often times the first response I get back is, "Oh, so you have a problem with gay people?" A misnomer yes, but not without some reinforcement.
But for me, the interesting thing has been that since I have become more and more religious my perspective on homosexuality has altered greatly. I've found that very fascinating since so many people turn to religion for some sense of identity and then blindly follow what it says without any real examination or understanding. You ask them why they think this way or that and they just say, "Well God told me so." And I hate that reasoning because I believe as a true believer one needs to educate one's self and learn why God says something to be so or if he says something is so at all. In this process I have done lots of retrospection and self-examination over time and considered a great many concepts in regards to this seeming fractured relationship between Christianity and homosexuality and in particularly the way many so-called "Christians" behave and received gay people regardless what their persona or religious leanings are.
What's lead me towards producing a documentary on such a concept is I haven't really seen a true understanding sought out. It's always just been gays against Christians or vice versa. This very much dismisses the truth that there are gay Christians out there when there are actually a great deal of them out there. The presumption is that because a gaggle of morons stand outside of gay gatherings waving their hate signs that somehow homosexuality and Christianity will always be separate. That bothers me greatly as well as the inaccurate notion that Christians are all just a bunch of homophobic gay-bashers. My focus is thus to bridge that gap between the two discussing many of the issues that I have considered in recent years. In this vein I am hoping to interview a rather large number of people but in particular I am hoping to interview those who regard themselves as “gay Christians”. I am most interested in interviewing these people because they can personally understand the perspective on both sides and will obviously have the most intensive things to say.
My interview structure is one of posing questions regarding several issues I would like to address and then also allowing for open time in which whomever is being interviewed can say what they please about their feelings on the relationship between Christianity and homosexuality. As a sexually straight Christian this film is going to be a learning experience for me as well as for anyone. Despite the amount of time I have put towards making this a reality and the great number of aspects I wish to cover I am sure there are some things out there that it hasn’t dawned on me to address that those I have the opportunity to speak with will bring to light and only expand on the significance of the point that this production can make. In the end the idea is to dispel many of the inaccurate and misguided perceptions as to what homosexuals and Christians are really like and, beyond that, how they can be when they are one and the same. The ground that such a production that this can cross is endless and I have little doubt in the power it will have upon its completion.
So obviously I’m not going to delve in super detail as to everything this film will cover as you’ll be here forever. This is primarily just to introduce the project because even though I do have a few gay Christian friends, I want to expand and connect with as many people as I can and that obviously requires networking and spreading the word. Being based out of Portland, Oregon and having not much money to go towards the piece my initial plan was just to interview those around Portland (especially since Oregon has a very low Christian population so it would be an interesting journey). But then my mind woke up and I remembered that it is the 21st century. It’s the age of YouTube and webcam videos so I can spread the word to anyone anywhere in the country down to Cal and all the way over to places like Florida and New York. So anyone who fits the bill or has something they feel is interesting to say in regards to this piece you can shoot yourself with your webcam or, preferably, a stronger quality camera - the higher quality video the better - and get that to me (preferably through something like Dropbox where the raw video file can be sent through).
Again, I’m just getting the ball rolling so hopefully the word will spread and reach anyone who is interested. Anyone interested can contact me either by responding to this blog or sending something to my email, which I will likely check more often. The email is: flmmkr25@hotmail.com. So if anyone interested feels the desire to get involved you can shoot me an email just letting me know a little about yourself and why you’re interested and I can email you back the questions I have prepared for interviews so you can read them yourself or have a friend read them so it’s still like a legitimate interview even if you’re doing it from the other side of the country. Then, just as the case would be if I were speaking to you directly, when you’ve finished going through those questions you can make any points or tell any stories you wish. And of course, if you really don’t have much of an opinion on a given question feel free to not answer. The only thing I am not going to tolerate is someone who only wishes to create conflict, expressing hostility towards Christians and/or homosexuals. Making the problem larger isn’t going to help anything and since it’s my film I control what goes in and what doesn’t so it would be a pointless pursuit to create havoc for the production anyway.
So there is my introduction and hopefully this reaches some interested or pertinent souls who can see where I am going and have something worthwhile to say. I’ll definitely be posting more on this production over the next few weeks as well and for anyone interested I am more than happy to provide further information on the film. And with that said, quoting the great Tobias Funke: LET THE GREAT EXPERIMENT BEGIN!
Thanks all!
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