Turning Points Stories of Life and Change in the Church

This documentary is actually 4 15-minute stories of how gay people have been received by their Christian communities. The stories are done in a sensitive manner, but they do not come across as propagandistic. Our churches have shown hardened hearts in their interactions with people who find themselves same-sex-attracted. The stories call for prayerful reflection to allow love, compassion, and hospitality guide our relations with gays and lesbians. One comment that struck me was a pastor who was attending to a man dying of AIDS. The man said that people thought of him only as a homosexual, as if his sexuality defined his entire being. In fact, like everyone else, he had a long list of hopes, fears, and desires that have nothing to do with sex. The pastor related that he denied seeing the man primarily in terms of homosexuality, but on later reflection he realized that he, too, was guilty of this narrow perspective.