Filmmakers Daneen Akers and her husband Stephen Eyer are deep believers in the power of story telling. Daneen and Stephen, who are new parents, grew up in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, attended SDA schools and both taught at Pacific Union College. And now they make documentaries. Their current project is making news. They are traveling across the country for three months, gathering stories for a feature-length documentary film they're calling "Seventh-Gay Adventists: A film about love, sex, and eternal life."
The stated goal is to create an honest and open conversation about the issue of religion and homosexuality that leads to a more just and compassionate future. The stories in the making of this production so far are heartfelt and courageous. In Lincoln, Nebraska, they filmed gay Adventists talking about attempting suicide, about feeling alone and alienated and struggling hard to reconcile their faith with their sexuality. One 39-year-old man told them about his ongoing depression since he came out in 1997, and his fears of losing his family and his job. And his desire to change the church he grew up in–and misses.
Giving gay Adventists a voice to share who they are with a larger audience is a running theme, and so is change. Change in the church. Change in people who see their gay friends and neighbors telling their stories.
I had many questions about the making of this film so I caught up with Stephen and Daneen. Here is the result of our chats during their travels across the country.
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Lets start with the people you're portraying. Who are you interviewing for this documentary?
Akers: Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) Adventists who struggle to reconcile their religious identity and their sexual identity. We are following a wide variety of subjects right now, some who are still very active in the Adventist church, some who wish they could be active if they felt more welcomed rather than ostracized, and some who no longer consider themselves Adventist. The interesting thing about Adventism–and we think this is one reason why this is a compelling documentary topic–is that to most of us, Adventism is far more than a belief system, it's also a unique cultural system that has a huge and profound influence on someone's identity, family traditions, and worldview. As one of our subjects says, "Adventism has been one of the biggest overarching influences of my life. I was aware first that I was a boy and second that we were Adventists." We're visiting a lot of Adventist areas, including college towns. In the Lincoln area, we interviewed SDA faculty members, gay church members and gay students were still not ready to come out. We also just attended the "Marriage, Homosexuality, and the Church" conference that was just held at Andrews University. Unfortunately we were not allowed to film any of the presentations of conference proceedings, but we were able to talk individually with several presenters who are represent major scholarly voices within the church.
Who is the intended audience?
Eyer: We want to reach an audience both within the Adventist church and beyond who is willing to engage in a meaningful conversation about religion and homosexuality. This topic has become extremely contentious recently, so we recognize that some people aren't going to be willing or able to engage their hearts in this story, but if we're going to learn compassion and to follow Jesus's example of looking past external labels and stereotypes to the heart, then we must learn each other's stories.
Akers: To reach both Adventist and non-Adventist–and even non-religious–viewers is going to be a tricky balancing act. The film must include enough apologetics and biblical scholarship to engage viewers who turn to the Bible for their moral compass, but it must also maintain an anthropological stance that observes and explains this growing denomination and its unique culture to a broader audience. Particularly after Proposition 8 (and the new legislation from both sides that is undoubtedly coming), the Adventist church makes an interesting case study for the broader political and cultural conflict between religion and sexuality.
As story-tellers, what do you anticipate for a running theme or dialogue as you piece this documentary together?
Eyer: One of the joys and big challenges of a documentary is that you really have to be open as filmmakers to where the story takes you. We have ideas, goals, overarching visions right now, but when it comes down to it, we are talking to real people with real conflicts, and we don't know exactly what they're going to say and do, or what might happen over the course of production. We know we want to explore the conflict–or the seeming conflict–between being gay and being Adventist. And we want to do that primarily through stories. As one Adventist religion professor recently told a Kinship gathering, "You have two incurable conditions–you're gay and you're Adventist, and it's awfully hard to stop being either one of those things." It's really one of the most major core conflicts imaginable, and from the people we've had the privilege of talking to already, it's almost an unendurably difficult struggle.
What are some of your gay subjects telling you so far in the interviews?Akers: Everybody said they prayed mightily to be changed. They knew how hard it would be for their families and their churches. And they couldn't make sense of the notion of love the sinner, hate the sin, because this is who they are–the way God, it seems, had seen fit to make them. You can't believe that God rejects part of you without feeling damaged. It affects you in profound ways. They just want understanding within the church and compassion. One man we recently interviewed longingly misses his church. He aches for his church. He'd like nothing better than to sing in a church choir on Sabbath morning, eat at a potluck, and play a mean game of Rook on Saturday night over popcorn and homemade pizza.
Eyer: We realize that this is an exceedingly sensitive topic. After the conversations we've had on this trip, we also know it is exceedingly important. The brother of a friend committed suicide because he was gay. A young man we talked to in Lincoln has attempted suicide more than once. More than twice. This is a conversation the church needs to have. And having the conversation out in the open, on film, will allow others to enter into the conversation in their own lives, their own circles, their own churches.
What locations are you choosing to include in the film as you travel across the country? how many cities with Adventist centers are you visiting?
Akers: Churches, campuses, and other major Adventist areas (for example, Battle Creek). Not only are we lining up interviews and conversations (both on and off camera), but we're also just wanting to get a sense of Adventism around the country, especially as it relates to this topic. We're trying to plan to be able to attend church all around the country–or at least we'll be checking out a parents' room near you soon! People can follow us on Facebook or Twitter to find our schedule and contact information.
What drove you two to pursue this project?
Akers: Our goal with this film is to spark meaningful dialogue about what it means to be both gay and Adventist. This is a topic that has become extremely contentious, and yet it's often very theoretical and abstract. We hope to tell the stories of LGBT Adventists in such a manner that the viewer can no longer just talk about theology or doctrine without also having a face to accompany the discussion.
Eyer: We personally came to this project because of stories. The vast majority of church-member are straight–we realize that things must be more difficult for LGBT individuals, but we just don't give the issue much time or energy. We didn't become passionate about this issue until we became good friends with several LGBT Adventists (both former and current) who started attending our church in San Francisco (Second Wind). Suddenly abstract topics like Old Testament theology or doctrinal stances--not to mention some of the malicious emails that went around before last year's election--had personal meaning for us. We couldn't sit on the sidelines anymore.
What paradigms do you hope to shift in how Adventists perceive the topic of homosexuality and the church?
Akers: Often Christians are portrayed extremely negatively in the media over the topic of homosexuality. Now, obviously there are some who deserve this portrayal, but the vast majority of Adventists I know really do want to act out of compassion and love. They feel very conflicted by what they have always been taught that the Bible says about homosexuality and the experiences they have had with gays and lesbians. The "love the sinner, hate the sin" approach, which is really what most churches advocate, produces genuine conflict for gays and straights alike. We don't want to be disingenuous and pretend that we approach this without any bias–we do want to provide the fodder and the forum for a transformational conversation to happen–but we are only willing to do this through respectful and fair filmmaking. This is not going to be a Michael Moore, "gotcha" sort of documentary.
Being Californians, did the strong Adventist reaction on both sides to Proposition 8 (the ban on same-sex marriage that became a state constitutional amendment last year) play a role in influencing the making of the documentary?
Akers: We both were involved in starting Adventists Against Prop 8, which garnered more than 1300 signatures (including a significant number of students, scholars, pastors, and church thinkers) on a petition asking the Pacific Union's Church State Council to rescind its support for Prop 8. We felt that Prop 8 was exactly the sort of religiously motivated civil mandate that the Adventist church had traditionally opposed due to our strong religious liberty values. Although Prop 8 passed, we were encouraged to realize that was clearly an issue that a key demographic in Adventism wanted to engage in--and we felt like the next logical step, especially given our backgrounds, was to make a film.
You chose a thought-provoking logline with "A film about love, sex, and eternal life." Will you attempt to reconcile all three in telling the story?
Eyer: The stories in this film are going to explore extremely core issues–this is an examination of how we reconcile what our religion tells us God desires and asks and what our hearts and minds tell us about who we are and how we are made. These are big questions with big consequences. And we want to stir the pot just a bit with that logline to remind people that these really are the big issues in life. But it's also acknowledging something a bit more subtle. For the vast majority of us, we meet people and get to know them without them giving the slightest thought to what we do in the privacy of our own homes. But, for gays and lesbians, this isn't the case. As a married gay friend put it, "When I meet someone and mention my ‘husband', they immediately realize that I'm gay, and they immediately start thinking about how I have sex. I can always sense the dynamic shift instantly, and I'm suddenly a person with a label and usually a judgment."
When should we expect the film to be released?
Akers: That's going to depend very much on funding! Films are costly and take time to develop. We are actively fundraising right now and really do need Obama-style grassroots support of $10 and $20 contributions to make this happen. The film is fiscally sponsored by the San Francisco Film Society, which means that all donations are processed by the film society and are tax-deductible.
Why make this movie now? Why should SDA's care?
Akers: There's no doubt that the question of Christianity and homosexuality is one of the questions of our time right now. The church demographics seem to largely mirror the larger culture, and particularly among younger Adventists, how the church treats LGBT individuals–personally, theologically–is a paramount question, a social justice question. There seems to be a lot of talking about and at gays and lesbians, but there is too little talking with. We hope this film will help make a contribution to these conversations and hopefully start new ones.
What challenges, obstacles or opposition have you encountered so far?
Akers: We're five weeks into a three month trip, and we've encountered really amazing support and some real obstacles already–one school hasn't officially responded at all to our request for a location release although we've been told they are considering rejecting it, and we weren't able to actually film any presentations at the Andrews conference even though it's the biggest church-sanctioned discussion on this topic to happen in recent memory. We've been told that our title is causing some consternation. It's causing people to realize that this isn't likely a church-sponsored project (it's actually a working title that may change). And, yes, this film will likely give voice to some stories that a GC-produced project wouldn't. But there are audiences who can be reached because of that too. I'd like to find a way to communicate to administrators that it is not our intention to make a film that is malicious in any way. We are a part of this church too. And so are our subjects. In fact, we need to be able to show just why it is that the Adventist church is a church that people long to be a part of even when they might have pretty legitimate reasons to just leave completely. We just had a conversation about how we're going to need to include a "Love fest to Adventism" segment. Really, the people we've talked to love this church.
Eyer: When this film eventually screens, I'd like to be able to point proudly to my church and brag about how it was willing to be an open partner in conversation even on this most exceedingly complex and challenging topic. We'd really like this to be a film that is for Adventists–not just about them. But the church is going to have to be a partner in this conversation if that's going to happen. Even after all of the angst I've gone through as I figure out how I relate to Adventism as an adult, I've found myself profoundly disappointed by some of the closed doors we've already faced. From the standpoint of the film, it won't truly hurt it if the church won't participate–the conflict only heightens. But, I really want my church to do the right thing. Wouldn't that be a great subtext of the film? That even when we have truly profound challenges we value engaging with each other in productive and meaningful conversation?
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Twitter: http://twitter.com/stepheneyer
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P.S. Bolds and Highlights added.
How naive can a 'contemporary' (cool) Adventist be? Is there no discernment about what the Lord's opinion of sodomy is?
If I could rename this project, I would call it: "Retracing Lot's Errors" or "Interviewing The Inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah Today".
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