Posted on 10/28/2014 5:28:11 AM PDT by Colofornian
The Department of Theatre and Media Arts is releasing the first public screening of the student film Pride and Faith on Oct. 24.
The documentary, written and directed by BYU alumnus Scott Raia, explores the complex lives of two LGBT students as they reconcile their identity and faith.
Raia filmed Pride and Faith during his senior year for his capstone project as a film student. He hoped to become an ally of the LGBT community after broadening his awareness on the subject.
As I prepared for graduation, I looked to my future and some of my friends and their futures, he said. And theyre more complicated than mine because they have more complex struggles, with the intersection of their identity and their religious background.
The film is narrated through Raias perspective as he seeks to empathize with his LGBT friends Bridey Jensen, a self-identified lesbian Mormon, and Samy Galvez, a leader of the Provo LGBT community and current president of the unofficial BYU group Understanding Same-Gender Attraction (USGA). Raia hopes the film will sufficiently portray the depth of the struggles LGBT members of the Church face.
The topic of same-gender attraction and same-sex marriage have become an increasingly prevalent issue within the Church and in society, especially with the recent Supreme Court decision not to hear gay marriage cases. The decision will essentially allow states to legalize same-sex marriage. Following the decision, the Church reminded its members to be persons of good will toward all, rejecting persecution of any kind, including differences in sexual orientation, according to lds.org.
Galvez said many LGBT students struggle with depression and identity issues and are unable to seek help, fearing judgment or persecution. Finding a supportive group of people was the most helpful for him.
The most important thing is to have a support network, Galvez said. USGA gives people a place where they can find support and understanding, and resources that they can use.
BYU students may recognize USGA from its 2012 campaign, It Gets Better. The group, which can be found on Facebook, meets weekly and welcomes anyone who wants to understand more about the subject.
Raia and Galvez hope the film will educate its viewers and spread awareness on the subject of same-gender attraction and foster a more understanding, inclusive community.
The 20-minute film will be shown at 7 p.m. in F-201 HFAC. The screening will be free and open to the public.
They succeeded in killing Joseph, but he had finished his work.He was a servant of God, and gave us the Book of Mormon.He said the Bible was right in the main, but, through the translators and others, many precious portions were suppressed, and several other portions were wrongly translated; and now his testimony is in force, for he has sealed it with his blood.As I have frequently told them, no man in this dispensation will enter the courts of heaven, without the approbation of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jun.Who has made this so?Have I?Have this people?Have the world?No; but the Lord Jehovah has decreed it.If I ever pass into the heavenly courts, it will be by the consent of the Prophet Joseph.If you ever pass through the gates into the Holy City, you will do so upon his certificate that you are worthy to pass.Can you pass without his inspection?No; neither can any person in this dispensation, which is the dispensation of the fulness of times.In this generation, and in all the generations that are to come, everyone will have to undergo the scrutiny of this Prophet.They say that they killed Joseph, and they will yet come with their hats under their arms and bend to him; but what good will it do them, unless they repent?They can come in a certain way and find favor, but will they?
--JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, vol. 8, p. 224
Deconstructing Linus: Portrait of a True Believing Pumpkinist as a Young Man "Each year on Halloween night, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere and flies through the air with his pack of toys for all the good little children in the world." No. This is about sincerity, a subjective standard by any definition. |
I wonder if Linus blames himself every year for not picking the most sincere pumpkin patch for his vigil?
I wonder if other Great Pumpkinists castigate Linus by asserting if he were more in tune with the Spirit of the Great Pumpkin, if he were more prayerful, if he read the Holy Writ of the Great Pumpkin with a greater sincerity, that he could indeed rise to the challenge and, via the Spirit, be lead to choose the most sincere pumpkin patch?
I wonder how many years Linus will feel guilty for this failure and blame himself for receiving no answer no matter how sincere he believes himself to be?
I wonder if Linus ever gets frustrated because there is no objective way to measure sincerity? And if he realizes there is no objective standard for such a thing, I wonder if it ever creeps into his mind that his annual mission is nothing more than mindless busywork?
I wonder, does Linus ever has doubts?
For the time being, however, Linus will put aside his doubts and, perhaps as a means of proving his sincerity, begins to proselyte among his friends for converts. Most shrug him off. But Sally, who has a crush on him, believes Linus and agrees to spend Halloween in Linus Pumpkin Patch.
Linus then explains that by using positive language and positive thinking, they may be able to attract the Great Pumpkin to their Patch. He also cautions Sally that negative language and negative thinking will cause the Great Pumpkin to pass them by.
There is no room for doubt when one is a Great Pumpkinist. One should never say if the Great Pumpkin comes but always when the Great Pumpkin comes. "One little slip like that, can cause the Great Pumpkin to pass you by!" Its hard to imagine a benevolent icon such as the Great Pumpkin punishing TBPs (True Believing Pumkinists) for such a minor infraction, but there you have it.
Sally: The Birth of an Ex-Pumpkinist
Because Sally loves her sweet baboo Linus, she sets aside her own Halloween plans of trick-or-treating and a Halloween party in order to spend the evening in the Pumpkin Patch. She converts to Great Pumpkinism because she loves Linus. She respects his opinion. And she wants to make him happy and be supportive. And besides, if its really true, WOW! Wouldnt that be fantastic?
But in the end, the only Being that shows up in the Pumpkin Patch is Snoopy. Linus, believing Snoopy to be the Great Pumpkin, swoons into an ecstatic faint, happy in the knowledge that he has finally deciphered the Great Pumpkins standard for sincerity. But, alas, it is a misplaced hope, and when Linus regains consciousness, there is not only no Great Pumpkin there to reward him, there is one upset little girl.
"I was robbed! I spent the whole night waiting for the Great Pumpkin when I could have been out for tricks or treats! Halloween is over and I missed it! You blockhead! You kept me up all night waiting for the Great Pumpkin and all that came was a beagle!"
"I didn't get a chance to go out for tricks or treats! And it was all your fault! I'll sue! What a fool I was. And I could have had candy apples and gum! And cookies and money and all sorts of things! But no, I had to listen to you! You blockhead. What a fool I was. Trick or treats come only once a year. And I missed it by sitting in a pumpkin patch with a blockhead. You owe me restitution!"
Luckily for Sally, she only missed one Halloween. And though she is demanding restitution, because her participation was voluntary, she will never receive said restitution. Shell simply have to accept the experience as one of lifes absurdities and move on.
However, one can hope that this experience has made Sally a more skeptical person, so that the next time she is presented with such fantastic claims, shell perhaps be inclined to do her research before committing any time, money or emotion.
After all, fantastic claims should be supported by fantastic evidence, right?
The question now becomes, has this experience made Linus a skeptic? After yet again not having his Pumpkin Patch recognized as sincere and after having endangered his friendship with Sally, will he continue to believe?
In spite of a complete and utter lack of evidence pointing to the existence of the Great Pumpkin, and a complete and utter lack of the Great Pumpkins Promise ever having been fulfilled, Linus is a True Believing Pumpkinist to the core. To even admit the possibility that he may be wrong would be to negate all those years of hard work and sincere belief. Linus simply cannot turn his back on his belief.
So if Linus doesn't become an ex-Pumpkinist, what is his strategy? Well, hes going to keep on trying, isn't he?
"What do you mean, 'stupid'? Just wait until next year. I'll find a pumpkin patch, and I'll sit in that pumpkin patch and it'll be a sincere pumpkin patch, and the Great Pumpkin will come! Just you wait and see! I'll sit in that pumpkin patch, and I'll see the Great Pumpkin. Just wait until next year!"
No one is, or ever could be, excluded from the circle of Gods love or the extended arms of His Church, for we are all His beloved sons and daughters. As President Hinckley said: Our hearts reach out to those who struggle with feelings of affinity for the same gender. We remember you before the Lord, we sympathize with you, we regard you as our brothers and sisters (Ensign, “God Loveth His Children”, p 13 Nov. 1995, 99).
http://www.ldsresources.info/ten_issues.php#q6
...and, the money-changers in the mormon presidency are aware that tithing dollars from gays are as legitimate as from other members. The bottom-line trumps.
Well...I guess byu will make these kind of docudramas a staple series...next will be “polygamy pride and faith” where they present old Mormon fundamentalist geezers who “struggle” with their “affinity” for young teen virgins...
(A “POLYgamy PRIDE and faith” docu-emo presentation would certainly help properly “sensitize” Mormon freshmen coeds to the plight and isolation and insulation and stereotyping accorded these old geezers...perhaps they could “find a way” to help them out...given that 1 or 2 ain’t enough...e-haremny just doesn’t cut it when there’s so much competition for the same girls in these outlying areas)
Toot toot to yoot!
Office of First President & Living Prophet®: November 8, 2012
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Can't let the video propaganda mill sit idle and not be cost effective!
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700096820/LDS-Church-builds-movie-set-for-ambitious-film-project.html?pg=all
for more than 150 years the mormons declared they were not Christians...
and of course they never have been..
Discuss the issues all you want, do not make it personal.
Do not attempt to make the thread about another poster.
"Gay" is not your identity. You get your identity from your Savior, not from your appetite.
Reminds me of a saying:
"God calls you by your name and gradually erases your sin.
The devil calls you by your sin, and gradually erases your name."
He ceated Lucifer as a shining angel. Big difference between being Father of an only-begotten Son Who is also God, shares Your nature and is Your equal, and creation of a finite being who is infinitely lower than the infinite God.
And God --- the Blessed Trinity ---- does not have a three-way personality disorder. I think you have been very much misled somehow, my FRiend.
I like this! May I steal it?
But of course. Cheers.
>>> Reminds me of a saying: “God calls you by your name and gradually erases your sin. The devil calls you by your sin, and gradually erases your name.”
Never heard that one... interesting, but not accurate.
Our sin is erased INSTANTLY once we receive the gift of Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross.
The sin is gone but the tendencies to sin remain. This one may be a Christian but have a tendency to a short-fused tempter, or a tendency to ogle scantily-dressed shapely people, or a tendency to potato-chips-and-French-dip-while FReeping gluttony.
Sinful tendencies, a.k.a. concupiscence.
The devil will call you by this ("Hey, Gay!") and gradually erase your name.
It's shorter, though, to say it the way the "saying" says i. Of course, even shorter if you eliminate the word "gradually", I suppose!!
Thanks for the correction.
>>> Thanks for the correction.
Thanks for agreeing.
Maybe if the saying were altered to say that “God gradually conforms us to the likeness of Christ”, it would be dead on.
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