One Nation Under God

Director: Teodoro Maniaci, Francine Rzeznik
Studio: First Run Features
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
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.

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

Description

One Nation Under God is a bizarre and fascinating look into "curing" homosexuality - making gays straight. Mixing archival footage and interviews with people from both sides of the issue, it shows the absurd lengths that straight religious and medical people have gone in their efforts to change gays and lesbians, which include beauty makeovers for butch lesbians, football for gay males, and truly frightening forms of aversion therapy. Funny, sad, outrageous, and though-provoking, this acclaimed documentary exposes the twisted ideology underlying many extreme religious right groups.

Customer Reviews:

Eye Opening expose on Reparative Therapy.......2007-02-07

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.

An Interesting Look at How Ignorance and Hate Can Be a Cancer.......2006-05-07

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?

1 star for the DVD & VHS quality, but 5 for the original film.......2005-05-14

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).

Great film for some LGTB folk, Good film for everyone else.......2005-04-03

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.

Ex-ceptional work!.......2005-04-03

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.

Average customer rating:

One Nation Under God

Manufacturer: Coral Ridge Ministries
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

A journey of discovery to find the truth about America's founding

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