Product Details

• Actors: -
• Directors: Francine Rzeznik;Teodoro Maniaci
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: FIRST RUN FEATURES
• DVD Release Date: June 8, 2004
• Run Time: 83 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0001WTVRU
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #66,233 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Documentary > Gay & Lesbian

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
It's a familiar story. Boy meets boy. Boy and boy start an organization to help gays "convert" to straightdom. Boy realizes he's in love with boy, and they leave their group to become outspoken denouncers of the movement.

Okay, so maybe it's not that familiar. Regardless, One Nation Under God is an insightful peek into the world of "ex-gays." Gary and Michael were two founders of Exodus, a ministry devoted to "curing" gays. Religious men, they felt that a gay lifestyle was incompatible with the teachings of the Bible, so they promoted heterosexuality. But despite leading heterosexual lives, the two men realized they were in love with each other. Their commentary anchors this documentary directed by Teodoro Maniaci and Francine Rzeznik. Interviews with the current head of Exodus, ex-gays, teachers in the ministry, psychologists, and ex-ex-gays create a surprisingly well-balanced film. While a glimpse inside the workings of the ministry would have been interesting (how, exactly, do you make a person "ex-gay"?), the archival footage from 1950s and '60s psychologists and discussions create an occasionally funny, definitely thought-provoking film that will both horrify (the implications of what the Religious Right is doing here are ghastly) and entertain. --Jenny Brown

Product Description
{WINNER! Audience Award-Best Documentary, 1993 San Francisco Int'l Lesbian & Gay Film Festival}

ONE NATION UNDER GOD takes on the history of the religious right in America and the techniques they've used over the past fifty years to try to change gays and lesbians into straight people.

ONE NATION UNDER GOD provides a historical context as well as political analysis of the frighteningly large and well-financed anti-gay campaign being waged by the religious right and conservative political leaders, who are "curing" gays and lesbians in the name of Family Values, Morality and Patriotism. It analyzes the underlying social and cultural factors that have contributed to the persistent and harmful myth that gay people are somehow damaged and can be "fixed."

"Reparative therapies" such as "orgasmic re-assignment therapy" sound too humorous to be taken seriously. Yet, they are part of a system of destructive aversion therapies that includes exorcisms, beauty makeovers for butch lesbians, football for gay males, and other truly frightening methods that have been used to cure, discourage and stigmatize homosexuality.

Interviews with people involved in the ex-gay movement, including the former ex-gays Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper. Bussee and Cooper were the founders of Exodus International, a large ministry aimed at changing gays into straights, but renounced the group after falling in love. Gary and Michael state, "We learn three messages growing up gay. First, don't be gay. Second, if you're gay be miserable. Third, if you're not miserable shut up!" By combining such insightful interviews with archival footage from the 1950s and 1960s in a stylish mixture of humor and horror, ONE NATION UNDER GOD not only entertains and enlightens, but also celebrates diversity and promotes a sense of shared values.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting look at "Ex-Gay" Ministries, June 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: One Nation Under God [VHS] (VHS Tape)

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...

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great film for some LGTB folk, Good film for everyone else,

By	Sarah Stumpf (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: One Nation Under God [VHS] (VHS Tape)

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.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ex-ceptional work!, April 2, 2005

By	Joe Kort "www.joekort.com" (Royal Oak, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.