Andrew Seely ministers to youth at a Presbyterian church in California. His review of Brokeback Mountain was published at RelevantMagazine.com, a Christian publication by and for young adults.
Titled “Finding God on Brokeback Mountain,” Seely opens with:
Please do not boil this movie down to homosexuality. Please do not pass judgment without even seeing it. See the fact that there are great performances. See the gift of storytelling. View the beauty of God’s creation. Relate to people who have lives that are complicated. Remember that God’s love is far greater than any of us deserve.
Seely’s faith affirms sexual expression only in the context of opposite-sex marriage. At his blog, he mentions having casual conversations with his next-door neighbor who is gay; he doesn’t relate his perceptions of Brokeback to personal experiences with gay friends or acquaintances.
To whatever extent the dynamics of the film’s storyline are unfamiliar to him though, he recognizes the humanity and real-life struggles faced by the characters:
The film is filled with emotion, discouragement, pain, security, hope, loss and love—all of which echo human experience and God’s heart… The raw, carnal, male emotion displayed in the film is something not easily drawn out of most men…
These men and their wives spend the entire movie trying to figure out what it means to exist with other people and trying to figure out who they are as individuals in the midst of difficult relationships.
Seely connects with God in the scenic vistas captured by Brokeback. He felt uncomfortable at times, but notes his belief that “God shows up in the most extraordinary places,” and suggests that disagreeing with lifestyle choices made by the characters did not mean that Christians “are allowed to dismiss the whole thing as Godless.”
A Christian who commented at his blog had a strong reaction:
[W]hen I read your article in relevant magazine, I nearly vomited. Am I upset that as a Christian, you like the movie? Not at all. I’m not judging you for liking the movie; I’ve been intrigued enough that I’ve practically read the whole transcript of the movie. However, your attempt to “find God” in the movie was completely pathetic. Just because there are broken relationships, beautiful scenery, and human struggles, does not mean God is “in something”.
Seely appears to be comfortable breaking conservative Christian molds while speaking from both his head and his heart, though. He blogged recently about racism, recognizing his personal challenges and biases. He also penned an article on talking honestly about sex in the context of youth ministry which was published online by the Youth Ministry Exchange. In it, he suggests:
Maybe the whole “pledge card” or “promise ring” theory isn’t paying off as well as we’d like. Actually lots of studies (christian and secular) have come out within the year that show that all these programs really do is delay the onset of sexual activities for the participants. I’ll say it again in case you forgot. Studies over and over show that “christian” students are almost indistinguishable compared to other students. And I think we are only perpetuating this when they feel like they can’t relate to other students in a normal way.
He remains firmly committed to the goal of sexual abstinence until marriage, but insists that youth leaders have a responsibility to create open, nonjudgmental space within which youth can talk about their experiences and thoughts honestly.
Seely’s closing thoughts on Brokeback remind me of my own spiritual journey:
It is not easy to always find how God is breaking through in a situation. It takes work and time to listen… it may not have a “Christian” label smacked on the front, or an endorsement from Focus on the Family, but God desires to make himself known to us. We have to be open to how he is going to do that.
He sounds like a guy I could connect with over a cup of coffee. I don’t have to agree with him on every point in order to appreciate his thoughtfulness and respect his journey. He reminds me that labels — progressive, conservative, gay, ex-gay — need not be impenetrable barriers to being good neighbors to each other.
Not surprisingly, he’s PCUSA and part of the emergent church movement. See his blog, https://aslanseely.blogspot.com.
His ‘kind’ is routinely the target of conservative Christian ire, as he’s part of a liberal mainline denomination and a movement which many abhor.
But yes, good stuff.
Is the emergent church moderate or sympathetic on gay issues? Is this movement gaining ground?
I think that BBM actually can be used by those who oppose homosexuality. I’m surprised more of the anti-gay or ex-gay organizations are not using the film for their own purposes, beyond the usual “this movie is evil Hollywood propaganda”.
That seems to be a thoughtful and rational opinion. Hope it gains traction in the mainstream religious movements.
Seely’s perspectives grabbed my attention because he doesn’t fit the stereotypes. The majority of my church experience is in liberal/progressive venues. His approach to youth — casting any premarital sex as a mistake and limited awareness of glbt issues — is more conservative than those evironments. Yet, unlike many of the more conservative-leaning folks I’ve known, he’s exceptionally open to considering objective evidence as well as the experiences and perspectives of others.
Well, that’s progress. He’s working towards it.
That’s what I mean by the difference between people who want to confront bias, and those who want their’s validated.
He’s in the confronting bias camp.
Being misunderstood, cast as hopelessly uncivilized and immoral with little to offer in any other area outside of the bedrooom is exactly why this is all so contentious with the anti gay.
They feel NO obligation to learn more, move forward, look at the damage bias has done, as opposed to the successes that acceptance has allowed.
Even within the context of BBM, all the anti gay are looking at is the betrayal of the wives, instead of the betrayal of EVERYONE involved.
The betrayal happened to Jack and Ennis first, they were betrayed into thinking engaging in and behaving like heterosexuals is and should be the way to live.
And that betrayal continues as long as heterosexuals believe they have warrant enough from a 2,000 year old book.
Nobody else’s warrant is THAT old.
Statue of limitations and all that.
I just finished a 24,000 word undergraduate thesis on Relevant Magazine!
I’ll share my findings when i get permission from from all the sources.
I’m really encouraged to see this kind of post at XGW. Thanks for writing about this, Steve!
Don’t know how you input trackbacks, but here is mine: https://adammclane.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/01/ymx_article_get.html
Posted by: James at January 20, 2006 02:37 PM
Is the emergent church moderate or sympathetic on gay issues? Is this movement gaining ground?
Moreso than most evangelicals. Brian McLaren, who’s one of the emergent church’s standard bearers, effectively takes an “I don’t know” position in his book The Last Word and the Word After That.
I’ve spent some time lurking at theooze.com (a major emergent church site) and found that while the majority still appears to hold to the church’s traditional stance on a theological level, most also deplore the way conservative Christians have treated (and continue to treat) GLBT individuals.
And this is a growing movement, so I suspect that things will look a bit different once the current old guard (Falwell, Robertson, Dobson, etc.) passes off the scene.
I forgot to come back and post this reply about the emerging/emergent church–it’s not liberal in the sense of mainline denominations, from what I understand, but more in the sense of trying to “interact” with a “postmodern world” and be “relevant.” It arises, often out of Reformed Christians who see this as a second Reformation of the church, like what happened with Luther and Calvin.
Some info on it: https://www.emergingchurch.org/ (You can also go to Wikipedia and look there).
And its critics: https://www.modernreformation.org/dac05emerging.htm
So their attitude in engaging gay people will be different, though the doctrine underneath is the same. Time will tell whether this will last–and you’ve got to make up your mind whether this is hiding their agenda or showing grace.
From Adam McLane’s site”
“But that’s OK, God’s big enough for different opinions.”
I couldn’t agree with you more.