Right America: Feeling Wronged
a film by Alexandra Pelosi
45 mins (approximate)
HBO Documentary Films

We sometimes think of Rev. Fred Phelps as a lone wolf, an outsider that not even hardcore Republicans want to be associated with, thanks to his funeral protests and “God Hates Fags” signs.

After seeing the deeply disturbing Right America: Feeling Wronged, filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi’s latest, you’ll see that Phelps’s attitudes actually represent a much larger portion of the Far Right than some of us have realized.

Shot in October 2008, Pelosi followed John McCain and Sarah Palin on the campaign trail. As the losing team stopped at various spots in the Midwest and South, Pelosi conducted impromptu interviews with their supporters.

As she has with her other subjects (which includes Ted Haggard) Pelosi focuses her camera and lets her interviewees speak for themselves. In not offering her own judgments or commentaries, Pelosi (the daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) gives new meaning to the term “let them hang themselves.” (Read More)

The Trials of Ted Haggard (2009)
Directed by Alexandra Pelosi
HBO Documentary Films
45 minutes

In San Jose, California, the Rev. Sky Anderson lives as a heterosexual married man. He has raised five children. Long ago, Rev. Sky was a lesbian. Soon after his transition around three decades ago, Anderson became one of the first, if not the very first, transgender men ordained as a pastor. Rev. Sky, now nearly 70 years old, preaches as he has for years, at MCC San Jose. The love between him and his community runs deep and is mutual.

After seeing Alexandra Pelosi’s stunning new documentary The Trials of Ted Haggard, one can only hope that the disgraced preacher will look to Rev. Sky as a role model, and be who he truly is.

There’s a word for people like Ted Haggard: bisexual. He genuinely loves his wife, and he’s sexually attracted to her. But he’s also attracted to men. The B in LGBT applies to people like Haggard.

When it was revealed that Pastor Haggard, a personal friend and advisor to former Pres. Bush, had engaged in sex acts with a male escort, he was banished from the mega-church he had founded, and was barred by the church from preaching and from living in the State of Colorado. (Did anyone ever question the legality of the latter?)

Filmmaker Pelosi (daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) presents a deeply disturbing portrait of a sad,  conflicted, browbeaten man whose life stands as a  testament to the cruelty of the ex-gay movement.
Pelosi follows Haggard and his family after their “banishment”, as he struggles to find a job so he can feed his family.

As he sits before Pelosi’s camera, Haggard says that the “revelation” of his  having been cured of his “homosexual tendencies” in “Jesus camp” were not made by him, but by Elders at the New Life Church in Colorado. The press fallout from that story made Haggard a national laughing stock, and rendered him virtually unemployable. When the money runs out, he asks for financial help from “Christians” so he can care for his family.

“Christians” respond with “You’re disgusting. Get a job, loser.” Pelosi actually shows these emails, followed by brief on camera interviews with cold, uncaring judgmental followers of Christ.

Throughout it all, the Haggard family stays together. Haggard and his wife Gayle read the Bible together. Sometimes they try to forgive the church who abandoned them — but sometimes the hurt and bitterness comes through.

Haggard now speaks openly of his attraction to men, but falls short of admitting that he’s gay or bisexual.
Sadly, he remains afraid to speak his full truth.

Mike Jones, the gay escort who uncovered Haggard’s secrets, is seen on a book tour. He speaks eloquently on how LGBTs have been victimized by the hate of right-wing preachers. He mentions Haggard, along with several others, in this context.

I beg to differ. Far too many of us have indeed been hurt and victimized by fundamentalist Christianity and in particular by the cruelties of the ex-gay movement. After seeing Pelosi’s film, I would name Ted Haggard as one of those victims.

The Trials of Ted Haggard is brilliantly executed. It’s profoundly tragic to see the broken man Haggard has become. The former preacher stands as a testament to what the ex-gay movement, and fundamentalist churches in general, does to those who fail to toe the party line.

I would therefore call upon Haggard to look to Rev. Sky Anderson as an example of what his life could be.

Live your life as who you are Ted, an openly bisexual man who loves his wife but enjoys the “company” of men. Join MCC, where you can preach the Gospel in a manner that Christ would approve of: with love and tolerance toward all.
In doing so, you can live with dignity and help bring down the ex-gay movement.

The Trials of Ted Haggard will air on the following dates in February:
HBO:
Feb. 1st, 4th, 10th & 20th
HBO 2:
Feb. 3rd, 8th, 12th and 23rd
Due to differing satellite feeds for various time zones, check local listings for actual times.

David Alex Nahmod lives in San Francisco, where he does film/DVD reviews & celebrity interviews for a variety of publications. Visit him at: DavidsOpenForum.Blogspot.com

Chasing the Devil: Inside the Ex-Gay Movement is a new documentary available for download via IndiePixFilms.com for $14.95.

Here’s a preview:

(Read More)

The website for the upcoming documentary Religulous describes Bill Maher as “known for his astute analytical skills, irreverent wit and commitment to never pulling a punch.”

While I’m eager for documentary filmmakers to expose the self-contradictory fictions and power-grabs that corrupt religious institutions, I’m afraid I see little insight or humor in the following short excerpt.

(Click here for the AfterElton.com video.)

The “ex-gay” man is John Westcott, a Florida man who walked away from a seven-year committed gay relationship to become an antigay activist.

Nowadays, Westcott proclaims he is freed from the “gay lifestyle” and says “I don’t believe that anyone is gay.” In the curiously named New Man Magazine in 2006, Westcott asserted long-rejected myths about homosexuality as if they were fact:

“There are many root causes [for homosexuality],” Westcott says. “But some of the common denominators are: A breakdown in a same-sex parent relationship, not relating to other male peers, an early exposure to sexuality and sexual abuse.”

Earlier this year, Westcott violated Canadian TV ethical standards with an ad that supported antigay discrimination as a means of suppressing the visibility of gay people and increasing the visibility of self-closeted ex-gays.

Maher has been prone to cherry-pick various religions’ lunatics, as if one group’s fringe could automatically discredit the entire group. Has Maher resisted that temptation with Religulous? We’ll find out in 10 days: The movie enters broad release on October 8.

A new documentary, The Cure for Love, explores a discreet network of ex-gay ministries throughout Canada.

According to Xtra.ca, “The documentary follows the lives of people on the inside of the movement: a pastor who runs an online youth forum, a robotics engineer who considered suicide, and Brian and Ana — two people who married last year after they ‘reoriented.’”

The documentary, produced by Christina Willings, premieres Saturday, April 12, on Canada’s Global TV.

Addendum: Here’s an interview with Christina Willings, published by the National Film Board of Canada.

For The Bible Told Me So is a documentary of five Christian families, from traditional backgrounds, that struggle with the knowledge that a family member is gay.

A screening at Stetson University in Florida drew positive reviews from both sides of a panel consisting of ex-gay activists as well as gay-affirmative viewers, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

From the ex-gay side:

“I loved that the core of it was families’ stories,” said Mike Ensley, a counselor with Exodus Ministries, which helps youth wanting to overcome homosexuality.

From the gay-affirming side:

Matt McKeown, associate pastor of United Brethren in Christ Church in Holly Hill, said he was embarrassed to see so many preachers spewing hatred toward homosexuals.

“I kept slinking lower in my chair,” McKeown said.

His complaint, which was shared by a few panel members, was that the only conservatives seen in the film were “bigoted idiots.”

On her blog, ex-gay advocate Karen Keen encourages conservative Christians to watch the film and “hopefully dispel certain harmful stereotypes about gay and lesbians.” But she cautions:

Yet, despite resonating with the family stories, I also felt strangely alienated by the film. Ultimately, despite what one would expect, it did not represent me—a Christian with same-gender attraction. The only reference to me, and those like me, was during a cartoon segment that portrayed ex-gay ministry participants as repressed and depressed. Admittedly, I laughed during the cartoon. It was funny. But, it was also mocking. It mocked me and my story. That struck me as hypocritical given the claims of the filmmakers who say they want to help change myths and stereotypes about gay people. Ironically, For the Bible Tells Me So reinforces stereotypes of same-gender attracted Christians who decide not to affirm or act on their homosexual desires.

Filmmaker Daniel Karslake said he invited conservative Christian commentators James Dobson, Gary Bauer, and Dick Cheney to participate in the documentary, but they declined.