Lessons from "Brokeback Mountain" for the Presbyterian Church (USA)

[3-5-06]

Michael Adee, field organizer for More Light Presbyterians, and holder of a doctoral degree in communications, offers ten lessons we might learn from this much-praised film.

It is clearly becoming one of the most highly acclaimed and talked about films in history based upon the award-winning short story by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Annie Proulx. Her story appeared first in the New Yorker in 1997, telling of Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two ranch hands who meet in 1963 herding sheep on a mountain in Wyoming, fall in love and have a twenty year relationship against all odds. One film critic said that it is "a film in which love feels almost as if it were being invented."

Why is it in 2006 it has become "the love story" with 8 Oscar nominations and winner of 4 Golden Globes among other awards? Why is it that this film set box-office records in its limited release in major cities and opened under protest in small towns all across the country? Why is it that film reviewers and critics have hailed this film as the "one movie connecting with the heart of America?"

Moreover, what are some lessons from "Brokeback Mountain" for us as people of faith in the Presbyterian Church (USA)? I would like to suggest ten lessons. Unlike some of its most outspoken and virulent religious critics who comment on the film without seeing it, I read the book three times, saw the film three times as well.

1. "Love is a Force of Nature." The intriguing subtitle for the film reminds us that love is natural, that we are created to be in loving relationships with God, ourselves and others. Jesus teaches this ethic of relationships and love in Mark 12: 28 - 31.

2. Same-sex love is perfectly natural, and normal, for those persons who discover themselves falling in love with someone of the same sex, like Ennis and Jack. It is time for the Church to recognize that same-sex love and same-sex sex exists; it is natural and part of being created in the image of God just as being created heterosexual is natural for those persons who fall in love with persons of the opposite sex.

3. Homosexuality is about love, falling in love, being in love and wanting to be together, not different from heterosexuality. This is about integration of one's body, soul and life, and sharing life deeply with another. Annie Proulx says of her story, "This is a deep, permanent human condition, this need to be loved and to love."

4. The closet is not a place that offers life or hope, and the longer the Church insists that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons stay in the closet, not discover who they are and claim their creation in the image of God, the Church will be complicit in taking away life and hope.

Jake Gyllenhaal. who plays Jack Twist, said of the story and the film: "A friendship? No, its not. It's a love story. They're two men having sex. There's nothing hidden." And in reality the closet truly never protects anyone, it only prolongs the isolation and the waiting for liberation.

5. We do not need to fear same-sex love in ourselves, or LGBT persons in our families or church. Heath Ledger who plays Ennis del Mar has a theory about why the movie makes some men uncomfortable: "I suspect it's a fear that they are going to enjoy it. They don't understand that you are not going to become sexually attracted to men by recognizing the beauty of a love story between two men." At the Australian premiere of "Brokeback," a reporter told Ledger that some religious groups were protesting the film in America and he responded, "that's immature." Persons who are secure in their sexuality and comfortable in their own skin offer acceptance and hospitality to others. Ledger is right, it is time for us to grow up as a Church and a country.

6. Ex-gay ministry is bad theology and bad medicine. It is unnecessary, it does not work and it sadly too often leads to deadly results. After falling in love with each other, both Ennis and Jack obey the social and religious pressures of their day to be "heterosexual," marry women and become fathers. Neither marriage works of course, and everyone is hurt by Ennis and Jack’s not being allowed to be themselves and together. How many more lives, marriages and families will the PCUSA allow to be hurt and destroyed before it recognizes and embraces same-sex love and relationships?

7. Body and soul are connected, flesh and spirit are inseparable. The story of Ennis and Jack painfully reminds us that it is not possible for one to separate one's sexuality from one's behavior. For the Church to say that "it is [sort of, but not really] OK to be gay, but don't have sex" and to ask LGBT persons to split ourselves off from who we are and whom we fall in love with, in order to be part of the Church, is not only illogical, it is cruel and un-Christian. It goes against everything we are taught by Jesus in the Gospel and the Biblical teachings of becoming whole persons.

8. Times have changed, people are changing. People are much more open and ready to stretch, even embrace same-sex love and relationships than most of us are willing to accept, imagine, even dream of. Adam Robinson in a USA Today article entitled, "It's a date: 'Brokeback' romance draws couples," said, "Give us straight men some credit. Not all of us are homophobic and turned off by films that deal with relationships. We're not all 13-year old boys anymore." So, will the Church give people credit for being open-minded and open-hearted, or insist on old prejudices and discrimination against LGBT persons? We have a choice.

9. While it is often called the "gay cowboy" movie, Director Ang Lee suggested that it was much more and of course it is. Upon receiving his Golden Globe award, Lee spoke of "the power of movies to change the way we are thinking." Too often we only see others through our prejudice. The old stereotypes melt away in what one film critic said of "Brokeback" by calling it a "groundbreaking, deeply felt, emotional love story that deals with the uncharted, mysterious ways of the human heart." As people of faith and Christians, we often speak of the place of mystery within our beliefs, creeds and faith traditions. The uncharted story of Ennis and Jack seems profoundly familiar and first-person to many of us, myself included. I see myself in both Ennis and Jack, and pray for a different ending to their story and the mystery of my own story.

10. Brokeback Mountain was the only safe place for Ennis and Jack to be themselves, to be together, to express their love for one another, to be whole. It was sanctuary for them in every sense of the word. How often I wish that the Church would be sanctuary for all of God's children, not just some. Here's to the Presbyterian Church (USA) being sanctuary for all of God's children, including God's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender children – sooner rather than later.

Brokeback Mountain is up for 8 Academy Awards this evening at the 78th Academy Award Celebration in Los Angeles. You can bet I will be watching the show with a big box of popcorn and cheering on a film and a story that, as Director Ang Lee has said, "has the power to change the way we're thinking."

And, more than what we are thinking, it is my prayer that it will be part of the change we seek in how we treat each other in the Church and world by seeing the sacred in one another, recognizing and blessing love wherever it is found, and in being God's family with no one excluded, where everyone is welcome and loved.

with hope and grace,

Michael

Michael J. Adee, M.Div. Ph.D., National Field Organizer
More Light Presbyterians, 369 Montezuma Avenue # 447, Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 820-7082
michael@mlp.org, www.mlp.org

Sources of information and quotations for this essay include: Newsweek November 21, 2005, USA Today January 2, 2006 and The New York Times, January 24, 2006 and the film's website --www.brokebackmountain.com