For The Bible Tells Me So

In Daniel Karslake’s documentary, For the Bible Tells Me So, he examines the intersection between Christianity and homosexuality. Karslake uses parallelism, appeal to emotion, and appeal to logic to highlight how the religious right has used its interpretation of the bible to stigmatize the gay community. With the use of these rhetorical devices, he is able to auspiciously convey his argument that there can be a healthy relationship amongst the opposing side of this belief. He attempts to enlighten the viewer with the thought that Christianity's homophobia represents a misreading of scripture, a denial of science, and an embrace of fake psychology. The families call for love.
Throughout the film, the documentarian utilizes parallelism to frame the five storylines of the contradistinctive families. He introduces five Christian families, each with a gay or lesbian child. As the parents speak about their marriages and their involvement in the church, the audience received a glimpse into their children’s childhood and their reveal of their orientation, their reactions, and the vicissitudes the parents must face over time. Karslake uses this parallelism as a way of categorizing the five different families, the Reitans, the Gephardts, the Robinsons, the Poteats, and the Wallners, into most accepting to least accepting of their homosexual children, while at the same time, see a general view of how each area responds to the belief of homosexuality due to each family’s location. The Reitans, a family in Minnesota who became lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender activists and founded the Soulforce Equality Ride, where not accepting of their homosexual son when they first found out, but they soon accepted him, as well as they did not wan...

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...l end up being gay if their twin is gay as well. The facts presented are very helpful to the film’s overall intent.
“For The Bible Tells Me So,” documented by Daniel Karslake, is a journey through the belief of homosexuality and its perceived conflict with Christianity, as well as various interpretations of what the Bible says about same-sex sexuality. Through the use of parallelism, pathos, and logos, the documentarian is able to communicate his creed that homosexuality and Christianity, with a lot of effort, can have a vigorous relationship. Whether or not your personal religious and political stances on homosexuality are influenced by Karslake’s film, the audience is moved by its portraits of unbreakable family love. The documentary skillfully dives beneath the constraints of its title theme to find deeper treasures that family values are still alive and well.