You'd have to have your head in the sand to not have seen, lately, that the church is in tumult. From the Catholic Church and their sex scandals, deep inside of Protestantism with The Methodist Church, and through Evangelical Circles, the upheaval is live, and the world is watching it on Prime-Time Television.
This is especially true for the Evangelical church(es) as, for the first time since their arrival into the realm of Christendom - especially in America 150 years ago or so, they find themselves on the receiving end of scrutiny and public opinion.
What's one of the issues causing tremors? Gay folk. Or rather, LGBTQIA folk.
Over the course of several years, other documentaries have come out speaking about the effects of homophobia in the church. While those have been great films, what sets 1946 apart is their approach. The set out to not just talk about cause and effect of homophobia on folks who grew up in religion but to tackle an issue that has far more reaching implications beyond human sexuality. The error of Biblical Literalism.
Through the use of theologians, scholars, historians, and linguists, the "clobber" passages are opened up and examined thoroughly, carefully, even lovingly, amidst the backdrop of personal stories of the researchers who came to do the work.
1946 is a powerful film that is healing to those who've been hurt by bad theology in regard to human sexuality, a beacon of hope to the next generation of children coming up and asking themselves about God and what it means to be a human being, and a warning - a clear sign of the times- that this thing we call the Bible doesn't belong to any specific group or hierarchy. And it certainly doesn't belong to the powers that be inside these organizations to be used as a bludgeon.
This is a message Luther tried to make clear 500 years ago that, for whatever reason, needs to be reexplained.
I think 1946 is simply the beginning.
