For the Bible Tells Me So is one of the most important documentaries I've ever seen, and certainly quintessential for our time. It is about homosexuality and its apparent struggle with religion, depicting a variety of analyses of what the Bible says about it. Its main thread is an interweaving of extensive interview segments with several sets of ardently religious parents, including former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt and his wife, those of a young man from a long line of Lutheran pastors, and the parents of the first openly gay bishop, and the son of an endearing old church-going couple, on the subject of their personal experiences raising gay children, and we see the perspectives on those stories through interviews with those children, now grown.<br /><br />It is important that everyone, especially those who need to see this film the most, understand that this is not a film about sacrificing one's religion, or condemning it, for the sake of homosexuality. It is about various older people who find themselves in a spiritual rejuvenation through their acceptance of their children's identities, and thus their grasp of their belief in God's message and their view of how faithfully they follow it is revitalized. It's also about gay people who manage to hold their religious ground in spite of all the bigotry that they refuse to believe is inherent in God's word. I will not disclose whether all or some or few or most learn to completely accept this genuinely natural element of sexuality. But what we see of their experiences and of their stories, some beautiful, some heartbreaking, some infuriating, runs the gamut of the psychology behind followers conditioned for a lifetime by the narrow interpretations of a dangerously beheld book by charismatic leaders and idols.<br /><br />This stunning achievement from first-time feature filmmaker Daniel G. Karslake lets these families tell their stories, intermingling them with theologians, biblical scholars, even Desmond Tutu, by and large noting of biblical literalism, where one takes the Bible at face value and don't take into account the context, the original manuscripts, or anything else, being a 20th century trend. Before the 1900s, it was recognized that you had to study to grasp the Bible's significance. The film includes fascinating offshoots of these families' stories of acceptance and awakening, including a hilariously satirical cartoon in which a traditional Christian literalist stands between a gay man and a lesbian and challenges them with stunningly informed and persuasively concrete results. This is what is masterful about this documentary. It doesn't merely offer observations, but references to which a skeptic can go to corroborate its observations. It does this, and does not neglect the emotional effects of the socioreligious conventions wherein the filmmakers and interviewees find seams. We learn of mortifying results of lifelong self-hatred, confusion, repression and ostracision.<br /><br />We also learn that James Dobson, one of the most indisputably renowned and respected evangelical Christian leaders in America, chairman of Focus On the Family, a nonprofit Christian organization, believes that homosexuality is a preference that is inspired through a child's surroundings. In his warped point of view, any sexual activity beyond marriage including homosexuality, departs from the God-ordained male-female marriage, which he illustrates as the fundamental stabilizing foundation of this already over-populated carbon- emitting society. He states that homosexual behavior, or more in particular, "unwanted same sex attraction" has been and can be "overcome" via learning developmental models for homosexuality, and deciding to cure the multifaceted and completely fabricated developmental issues.<br /><br />We learn the enormously damaging, detrimental and destructive effects of such pronouncements and declarations by such a revered and trusted man, having been quoted as saying that it is the responsibility of a father to raise his son to be a "man," and to push his son's masculinity. This respected, wealthy, well-mannered man is a big part of what promotes some of one of the family's locals to throw a brick through their windshield and write "fag" in chalk outside the house. This happened in the 21st century, in a civilized nation. Various Christians say they believe homosexuality is sinful and unnatural because the Bible clarifies it, but the reality in most cases is that they believe it because it is what their churches have taught them, churches and church leaders like Dobson. Just reading through the Bible, with no predetermined ideas and no outside instruction, you'd be pressed to harking back to it referring to homosexuality at all. Merely a handful of verses cite it, and generally in the obsolete, outdated and laughably psychotic Old Testament book of Laviticus for the reason that the Jews were too intent on procreating to allow vain sex acts, so it's barely even a thematic element in the Bible.<br /><br />What is endearing and all-encompassing about this film is that it damns no one. Whether you are religious or not, and regardless of your politics, by the end, the faith emanating from the interviewed families is inspiring, as is the love demonstrated between them. Some magnified in their love for their children, seeing homosexuality is just another beautiful work of mother nature and the work of the Lord. Some have only regret that they may have run out of chances to accept or, God forbid, understand. Other variations are either just as heartfelt or they complement what the rest now see themselves has having been before they realized what being a Christian truly means.