Let's Netflix and maybe feel a bit uncomfortable

I am Michael (2015) 

This week’s Netflix film, I Am Michael, deals with gritty and complex ecclesiastic issues of viewing and dealing with sexuality and gender in the church -- and those things will be discussed in this post. But first, a pet peeve: how films deal with crucifixes and crosses in film. This isn’t just a matter of aesthetics, but of theology and values.

It’s common to see characters in movies attend what are purported to be independent, fundamentalist churches, and yet the sanctuaries where they’re worshiping have crucifixes. In the real world, fundamentalist churches have empty crosses, while Catholic churches (and Lutheran and Episcopal churches, too) display crucifixes -- crosses with Jesus suffering. These different kinds of crosses are displayed because there’s a difference in emphasis. The Catholic Church focuses the perpetual suffering of Christ, which leads to a greater emphasis the sin which led to His suffering. The empty cross is said to emphasize the power of the resurrection and to focus on God’s grace rather than people’s sins.

I Am Michael, a 2015 biographical film, repeats the error of showing a crucifix in independent, fundamentalist churches, but it’s a more interesting, more plausible, mistake in this film. Michael Glatze, who in the course of the film is shown making a transition from gay activist to (Protestant) Christian pastor, seemed to be obsessed with blame and punishment in all the stages of that change, both as LGBTQ spokesperson and as a fundamentalist.  Glatze's sexuality is frankly presented, as is his spiritual struggle.

Early in the film, we see Michael (James Franco) and Bennett (Zachary Quinto), his business partner and lover, learning from news accounts about Matthew Shepard’s death. Michael believes Shepard was killed because he was homosexual and blames the churches for teaching that gays are evil. He says, “Those Christian fundamentalists should burn in hell.” (Since that time, the work of Stephen Jimenez has shown that Shepard’s killers had entirely different motives for his murder, but as they say in The Man who Shot Liberty Valance, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend”.)

Michael and Bennett are particularly concerned about bullied, sometimes suicidal, gay teens. They tour the country, speaking and writing to encourage young people to accept themselves as they are. They also use their platform to advocate LGBTQ rights and causes.

While traveling, they meet a gay student at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. They ask why he’s there at a school that is not “gay friendly.” The student explains that he didn’t come out to his family and friends until he had already gone to Liberty for two years, and he wanted to complete his degree. And he is still a Christian. A gay Christian. We then see a young woman, a friend of the young man’s, in the background. Surrounded by other women, she’s crying because her mother has died. The young man leaves Bennett and Michael to pray for his friend. Michael is obviously moved by the incident.

Michael’s own mother died a few years before, and he’s still dealing with it. He wrestles with the possibility of life after death and his family history of faith (his mother was a nondenominational Christian, while his father was agnostic). He’s afraid for his health, afraid he’s dying of the same heart trouble that killed his father, but doctors find nothing wrong with him and attribute his symptoms to hypochondria. Bennett believes he is suffering a mental breakdown.

Michael begins a spiritual journey, exploring Buddhism and Mormonism. During this time he begins to question his own sexual preferences. As a gay activist, Michael speculated that there’s really no such thing as gay or straight, but that human sexuality falls on a spectrum. During his search, Michael proclaims, “I no longer identify as gay,” and he begins to write very critical things about the LGBTQ movement. He goes to a Buddhist retreat center which claims to accept anyone, but is asked to leave by the director of the center (Daryl Hannah) because she considers his anti-gay blog posts to be hateful.

Michael goes to a small fundamentalist Bible college in Wyoming, but finds himself in conflict with the faculty. He appreciates what he learns about Scripture, but believes the leadership of the school is authoritarian. Also at this school, he meets Rebekah (Emma Roberts), and falls in love with her.

They are married and go off to pastor a church in a small town in Wyoming. A sign outside identifies the church as Shepherd of the Plains, and it seems much larger, fancier, and better maintained than churches I’ve seen in small, rural towns.

Throughout the film, Michael seems to be a very troubled man. He is judgmental of Christians as a gay activist and judgemental of gays as a Christian, but he does come to see the Bible as “full of love.” From a documentary we saw earlier this month, Michael Lost and Found (also on Netflix), the real Michael Glatze seems to have come to more of a state of grace. Because of this, I have hope for the church we see Glatze pastoring at the end of the film, and I’m giving that church a Movie Churches rating of 3 Steeples.

Confession Movie Churches: Easy A (2010) and Big Eyes (2014)

I confess to enjoying both "Easy A" and "Big Eyes." I thought I should confess since that's what both films are about; an elaborate deception and the need to confess. In both films, there's an attempt to confess in church and in both films that attempt is not successful. Talking about Movie Churches is what we do here, but I'll need to tell about both movies' plots to get to the churches and the confessions.

Emma Stone stars in "Easy A" as a high school girl named Olive. She lies about losing her virginity in order to look cool in her friend's eyes. Her lie gets around and builds, plot complication after plot complication, until everyone at the school believes that the virgin Olive is a prostitute spreading venereal diseases.

There is a Christian club at Olive's school (one could stretch things and call it a church), but Marianne (Amanda Bynes) the leader of the club, shows no compassion to Olive. She calls her a "slut" and tries to get her kicked out of school. Marianne does say (at a club meeting) that Jesus calls us to "love whores and homosexuals but it's so hard" -- so hard she doesn't even seem to try.

In homage to The Scarlet Letter, Olive, like Hester Prynne, feels ostracized from the community and racked by guilt. Olive goes to a Catholic church and enters a confessional. She pours out her heart, admitting she doesn't have to confess to sexual sin but rather dishonesty and lies. She also admits she's not a Catholic but she's wilingl to say ten Hail Marys or pay a fine or whatever it takes. When there is no response, she realizes no priest is there, so she leaves the church in embarrassment.

She goes to another church and asks to see the pastor. Please allow me at this time a tangentially rant about church fashion in films. The church appears to be of an independent, fundamentalist bent. And yet the pastor is wearing a clerical collar. In my experience, clerical collars are worn by priests (Catholic or Anglican/Episcopalian) and a few mainline pastors. And fundamentalists don't want to be confused with such "heretics." Tangential rant over; back to the movie: Olive asks the pastor if he thinks adultery is a sin, and he assures her he does. She asks if he believes in Hell and he assures her he does. He tells her Hell is underground near Asia (apparently he got his theological training from Loony Toons). Olive then realizes from a photo on the desk that the pastor is her tormenter Marianne's father. She flees again.

Failing to find a way to confess in church, she confesses her sin (or her sin of lack of sin) on the Internet.

"Big Eyes" is based on the true story of painter Margaret Keane (Amy Adams), who was enmeshed in a different elaborate deception. She fell in love with a man who claimed to be a painter. They married, and her husband Walter (Christoph Waltz) convinced her to allow him to pass off her paintings as his own. Her "big eye waif" paintings become an international sensation and her husband takes all the credit.

Walter persuades Margaret to lie to everyone about the paintings, even to her own daughter. The guilt from the lies (and the envy of Walter's acclaim that she believes is rightfully hers) eats away at Margaret, so she goes to a confessional in a Catholic church. She tells the priest she was raised Methodist but needs to talk to someone. She tells the priest her husband was having her lie about "something" to her daughter. The priest tells her that there is probably a good reason her husband had her lie, and that as a Christian she should recognize the importance of submitting to her husband. The sexism of the priest is annoying, but Margaret was so vague in her confession that the priest had no way of knowing how serious the matter might be.

Eventually Margaret finds another venue for her confession -- the courtroom. She divorces Walter and sues him for the rights to her paintings.

In James 5:16, we are told to confess our sins to one another in order to be healed. But if confession is taking place in church, people will seek healing in other places. And I think experience has shown that the internet and the courtroom are not the most healing of places.

Easy A: 

Big Eyes: