Movie Review: Milk

Bottom Line: Really good!

The premise: chronicling the political career of murdered San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, the movie discusses the gay rights activism of the 1970s and the election of the first openly gay person to major public office. Some may discount it as a politically motivated liberal movie, but it's more.

I should make a few disclaimers: as an evangelical Christian about to graduate Fuller Theological Seminary, I am well aware of the divide between the majority religious community and majority secular community regarding homosexuality (see the wake of Prop 8 to illustrate this divide). I should also note that this divide seems to be growing each day, and (for the most part) there has been a lack of initiative from the Evangelical/Christian community to talk about these issues openly, both within the religious community and with the secular community. As evangelicals, we must be willing to enter into other peoples' lives, rather than expect them to change their views to suit ours. In order to do that, we must be more open in talking about these issues and how our views affect other people's views of us.

With that said, I think that every evangelical should go see Milk, if only to better understand the chasm that has historically existed between the religious and secular communities. The movie goes to great lengths to show how religious views can lead to legal oppression of people outside of the religious community and what that can do to a community's views of religion, particularly Christianity, in general. These views do not help spread the Gospel of God's grace, but paint a dark picture of God-fearers as bigot supremicists. In turn, this creates a false image of all Evangelicals as bigots or supremists simply because the loudest voices that promote their own agendas drown out the rest of us.

Case in point: Rick Warren at Barack Obama's inauguration. People outside the religious community see Warren as a bigot supremist by forcing his views on others by openly supporting Prop 8 while people on the inside see him as a champion of letting the Bible shape his views. I don't think Rick Warren is trying to dictate policy (perhaps he is), but stand up for a definition of marriage that does not compromise the Bible. If we were more open about talking about these views with the secular community and in our own communities, there would be a lot less labeling on both sides.

Please note that I do not advocate changing the religious position itself, but simply opening the door for discussion to help people outside of our community understand our views, just as we should try to understand their views. In fact, I voted "No" on Prop 8 (*gasp*) for two reasons: it is descriminatory, and I do not feel that the government should be able to dictate the definition what makes a marriage in the first place. A marriage is a covenant between two people and God, and if God is not legally recognized by the state, then the state should not have any legal jurisdiction on marriage. Of course, and inevitably, I hear straw-man issues on gay marriage crop up, such as polygamy, pedophelia, or beastiality, and I personally feel they have no place in the argument because gay marriage involves consenting people, whereas the aforementioned issues often involve coercion of one party by the other, but that is a different discussion. The bottom line: go see Milk. Even if it doesn't change your views, you will probably have a greater appreciation of how the religous community should treat those outside of our community.