Customer Reviews

One Nation Under God [VHS]

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

With the ludicrous "Truth in Love" campaign now fully underway, this video is a must-see for anyone who wants a more full understanding of the concept behind ex-gay ministries. As shown in the video, many of the original founders of groups such as Exodus are no longer associated with those groups and debunk their "conversion" therapies. Although I found some of the ideas that these "ex-gay" ministries espouse to be silly and ridiculous, I thought the video was not as "funny" or "hilarious" as the box quotes make it sound. Rather it was a chilling wake-up to the way certain religious groups in our country are preaching hate and intolerance in the thinly veiled form of "Ex-gay" ministries. Ever more frightening is that many of these groups are growing every day...

I suppose some people will accuse me of traking a seperate but equal way of thinking about this film, but tough beans. I would say that for gay people, especially gay Christians, especially gay Christians who have felt alienated from God, this is a wonderful and moving, powerful and important film. For those of the rest of us who are straight or gay but non-Christian, it is just good.

The film is a frank discussion about ministries that claim to be able to change your sexual orientation from gay to straight with the Bible, support groups, therapy (including electroshock), and a lot of hard work. However as the film points out, you never can work hard enough to change your sexual orientation, and all these ministries accomplish is self delusion, denial, hatred, homophobia, low self esteem and self destructive behavior including suicide. Every accredited scientific study of the last 30 years or so has collaborated this fact, but ex-gay groups like Exodus Ministries (the largest group) still claim to be able to "cure" a gay man by teaching him how to play softball and a lesbian woman by teaching her how to put on makeup, willfully ignoring the reality that gay women wear makeup already (myself among them) and there are gay men who can bench press 300lbs (like my roommate). The film is pretty low budget and shows production values that are pretty consistant with it being made in the early 90's, so it is no technical feat. However you can have a good laugh at the woman from Exodus trying to cure a lesbian by slathering her in blue eyeshadow ala Mimi on The Drew Carey Show.

As a final point, a reviewer on this site said that the film lies when it claims that Gary Cooper co-founded Exodus Ministries. That is a popular nitpick used by Exodus to discredit (the late) Cooper and his partner Michael Bussee. Gary Cooper was never on the board of directors, unlike Bussee. However Cooper was there before the group came together, when they were a loose patchwork on similar organizations. He put work into getting groups networked, doing advertizements, handing out literature at pride marches, even picking people up from the airport. However he never held a title in the group. This is why Exodus claims he was not really a founder, which I personally think is total bull.

I was appalled by the very poor physical quality of the DVD of this movie. I had often watched a VHS recording of a television broadcast about 8 years ago and I bought the DVD especially because I was hoping for improved video quality - however the DVD video has significant problems with dropouts and pixilisation, and the audio is just plain shocking with very many dropouts.

So I then bought the original VHS version, being prepared to sacrifice some video quality in the hope of improved audio, but sadly the VHS has exactly the same video and audio errors as the DVD - plus the added annoyance of a severely overloaded HiFi audio track which causes lots of clipping throughout.

The original content of "One Nation Under God" deserved the very best mastering for DVD and VHS presentation, so I am very disappointed.

I must correct another reviewer who misrepresents the claimed credentials of the film's main characters. They do not claim to have been "the two founding members of Exodus", but merely "two of the founding members" - there's a BIG difference. This film has lots of street cred and is just as relevant today as when it was filmed (1990-1993).

This DVD on ex-gay ministries will make you laugh, cry, think and educate you about the horrors that still exist today by people who are trying to be straight-acting.

There is nothing wrong at all if someone decides they do not wish to lead a gay or lesbian life openly and affirmatively. That is an individual choice. But to say that *all* homosexuality is wrong and bad and *never* okay is presumptuous and ignorant.

This documentary exposes that myth. Buy this DVD with the book, "Anything But Straight". Bought together you will cry and laugh all night.

Associated with right-wing Christian evangelicals, Exodus advocates conversion of homosexuals into heterosexuals through various programs--although precisely what these programs are, how effective they are, and whether such conversion should be attempted at all have been contentious issues since the organization formed in 1976. ONE NATION UNDER GOD seeks to describe Exodus and similar programs and compare their somewhat vague success stories against the realities of those who attempted this sexual conversion and crashed and burned.

The major focus of the film is on Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper. Bussee was among the five co-founding members of Exodus; Cooper was an Exodus volunteer who is sometimes described as a co-founder, depending on the exact source. Both were gay men determined to become heterosexual--but precipitated a mighty scandal in the Exodus ranks when they instead fell in love with each other. Other notables interviewed include Frank Worthen, founder of Love In Action, which pre-dated Exodus; and Martin Duberman, noted author, a gay man who sought to become heterosexual through psychotherapy and whose book CURES documents the process he underwent.

As these and other interview subjects speak out on camera they are occasionally interrupted by "scientific films" drawn from the 1950s and 1960s; religious leaders who condemn or support, as case may be; and some unintentionally hilarious moments, including one that can only be described as "beauty tips for lesbians." The result is a collage of questions to which no two people have exactly the same answer. Can one change one's sexuality? Or not? If so, how? And if so, is it actually a desirable sort of thing?

Although ONE NATION UNDER GOD clearly comes down on the side of those who claim that "ministries" such as Exodus are little more than dangerous pseudo-science, the answers to the questions are not quite as clear cut as one could wish--which is, in fact, one of the points the film makes: to this date there has been no serious study of Exodus' success rates. The DVD offers a reasonable transfer, but there are no bonuses of any kind--a great pity in this instance, for it is a fascinating subject that bears considerably deeper investigation than this fairly short film allows.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This documentary interviews the former ex-gays that started one of the "repartive therapy" movements to cure gays of being homosexual. It includes interviews with those who believe in being able to cure gays as well as Rev. Mel White (founder of Soulforce). Rev. White's testimony is intriguing as he experienced efforts to become an ex-gay. As a PFLAG chapter president, and a member of the GLBT community, I highly recommend this documentary to increase awareness of the reparative therapy groups and the harm that they cause to the GLBT community.

I agree with this reviewer..."To say that *all* homosexuality is wrong and bad and *never* okay is presumptuous and ignorant." A lot of thought was put into this documentary. Exodus is pushy and wants their way and they are sure, like Hitler was, that God was on their side. They are homophobic and want to hand lead us into the June Cleaver age. I felt sorry for the male couple in the film who were originally spokespeople for Exodus saying "Praise God we are cured. Praise the Lord." But wait....maybe we shouldn't be afraid to be like we are deep inside. Maybe it's OK to be ourselves without any short-sighted judgement from the outside. What we are deeply inside we cannot change. Michael and his partner made it crystal clear. "Why should we try being something that we are not?" I agree that life is too short for that.

What this world needs is more tolerance for people with differences. It is that simple. Let's not cloak it in all of this God stuff. Exodus are you listening?

One Nation Under God looks at Christian groups that try to train people not to be gay. Through activities such as football (for men) and makeup and hair styling (for women), homosexuals learn how they are "supposed" to behave and feel. Predictably, such conversions have a very low success rate.

There are some amusing moments in this film, but the laughs can hide the fact that these ministries cause many gays and lesbians heartache. Many people try very hard to become straight and feel self loathing when they fail to do so. One of the saddest stories in the film concerns a man who was dying of AIDS; one of the groups came and filmed him as he "admitted" that AIDS was God's way of punishing him for choosing a sinful lifestyle.

The film is a bit too long in my opinion. Also, it feels dated, given the number of documentaries that have appeared since 1993.

Still, I like One Nation Under God and I recommend it.

This DVD was shown at a campus-wide event sponsored by the Ally Group called "DocuMovie Night". Reception of the message was fantastic. Everyone present enjoyed all of the facts and ideas presented and we had a great discussion following.

This film does offer some interesting looks into the history of attempts to reorient homosexuality. It is valuable for those who want to get a sense of the history of the homosexual movement in a political sense.

However, the movie begins with a half truth. The film introduces Gary Cooper and Michael Bussee as the co-founders of Exodus. This is not true. Cooper was a volunteer and never on the board of Exodus. Bussee was among those who were involved in the initial conference and on the first board but he was not the only member of that board. Three of the five ex-gay board members are still ex-gay. The movie never mentions this.

It is difficult to know what else is true or false about the remainder of the film since this is such a blatant distortion at the beginning.