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Dear Kinship Members, We’re writing to ask you to help us make the first feature-length film about what it means to be both gay and Adventist. We’ve just started production on Seventh-Gay Adventists: A film about love, sex, and eternal life. It’s a documentary which we know will move hearts and minds both inside and outside of the church through the stories of LGBT Adventists. Gay and Adventist? As you well know, being a gay Christian isn’t easy, but being a gay Adventist is especially difficult because Adventism is more than a belief system; it’s also a close-knit community with unique cultural habits. Most of us grew up attending Adventist schools, going to Adventist summer camps, socializing primarily with other Adventist families, and—naturally—eating a lot of haystacks at church potlucks. Even for those who later stop identifying with Adventist beliefs, somehow Adventism continues to have a lasting impact. As a consequence, gay Adventists can’t just join another, more progressive and inclusive denomination without leaving behind a core part of their identity. Besides the big issues—like what day to attend church—the nice Unitarian folks won’t quite understand your childhood stories about whether or not you grew up in a “wade only” or “go ahead and swim” on Sabbath type of family. Gay Adventists often ostracized, rejected And, while attitudes within the Adventist church are beginning to change (especially among the younger generation), the message from the pulpit is too often condemnation, and the message in the pews is often rejection and suspicion. The official church policy calls for love and tolerance of the person while rejecting any homosexual behavior—colloquially known as “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” Those of you whom we’ve had the privilege of including in this project have already shared how profoundly this policy fails. Frankly, we’ve discovered the people who have the most reason to hate the church are often the ones who are most passionate about changing it from within. This is why the complex intersection of faith, identity, and sexuality within the Adventist context makes for such a compelling documentary. Your stories are powerful and deserve to be heard. How did we come to this project? At Kampmeeting in Seattle, an attendee asked why we were making this film—after all, we aren’t gay, we don’t have gay family members (that we know of), and the chance of this project being financially lucrative is likely slim to none. The answer is really quite simple: it’s because we got to know the personal stories of several LGBT Adventists (both current and “recovering” Adventists) who began attending Second Wind, the spiritual community that we’re a part of in San Francisco. Suddenly things like constitutional law and New Testament theology that had previously been abstract had a human face. People that we knew and loved were being impacted by policies, doctrines, sermons, and hurtful e-mail campaigns. We could no longer sit quietly out of the fray. Why a documentary? We’re firm believers in the power of story to change hearts and minds. As we learned from past experience with a feature-length documentary, a film allows us to see the human impact of things that are often simply abstract. When we step into another person’s shoes—even for just a short time—we can’t go back. But Adventists aren’t our only target audience. Much like other documentaries that have shared stories within a particular religion (such as Trembling Before God, The Devil’s Playground or Jihad for Love), we believe the stories of LGBT Adventists will ring true with many others, especially conservative religious groups. This film can also help non-religious viewers understand what it’s like to have two core identities in conflict with each other. As a non-religious publicist recently said after hearing about this film, “I didn’t realize someone could be Christian and for gay rights. I really want to hear more about this.” Where we are now Our official project green light came when the San Francisco Film Society approved Seventh-Gay Adventists for fiscal sponsorship. This stamp of approval validated for us just how important these stories are both within and outside of Adventism. And we’ve already started shooting. Our first real day of production was May 26, 2009, the day the California Supreme Court returned their decision about the validity of Prop 8. We spent the day with one of our subjects and his husband who learned that while their marriage was still legally valid, all future same-sex marriages were banned in the state (talk about a conundrum!). That night, we marched with our five-month-old daughter Lily in the protest outside of San Francisco City Hall. Since then we have taken on a series of interviews, including a very meaningful ceremony at our church—blessing a transgender Adventist as he begins his female-to-male transition. What’s next We have most of the film’s in-depth interviews lined up, but we need to raise funds for travel and production in order to actually shoot footage. We’re about to embark on a multi-state production trip—adorable, bouncing baby included! We’ll likely be coming to a Kinship chapter near you (seriously, we’re covering most of the country and all of the major Adventist centers), and we’d love to meet you, hear your stories, and, yes, gratefully accept your contributions. Your support is vital We can’t make this film without a groundswell of grassroots support. We’d love to have the longest credit roll in documentary film history, filled with names of individuals who believed in the power of story to make a positive change. Because this film is sponsored by the San Francisco Film Society, your donations are tax-deductible. Please consider making a donation of $25 or more today. And ask your friends and family to contribute as well. After you’ve done that, join our fan page on Facebook! You can see when and where we’ll be coming to a town near you on our production shoot. We’d love to hear from you. Just search for “Seventh-Gay Adventists.” You can donate several ways:
c/o San Francisco Film Society 39 Mesa Street, Ste 110 San Francisco, CA 94129
P.S. If we’re going to be able to share the stories of LGBT Adventists, we’re really going to need your help to complete this project. Help us have the longest credit roll in the history of documentary film! Please take a moment right now to donate $25 (or more) and then make a commitment to tell at least three friends to do the same. P.S.S. Visit our website, www.SGAmovie.com, to learn about how you can be a part of our Seventh-Gay Adventists film montage. |
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| Last Updated on Wednesday, 13 January 2010 14:16 |
