Church Displaced

I recently shot some film of a Reverend who leads a congregation kicked out of their church and are now forced to worship in an elementary school cafeteria. As I understand it, an Episcopal Bishop "came out" and there was quite a bit of ballyhoo that ensued. The dust settled and part of the congregation was forced to worship elsewhere--the part that was in support of the gay Bishop. I shot this assignment in a standard way, grabbing stills of the service, and such. At the end I decided to grab the Reverend David Kendrick, who was very patient with me, and we did a couple 4x5 portraits by the window.

But it did call to mind some question on the idea of religion, at least the organized type. I'm not a very religious person. I didn't grow up going to church on Sunday's, just Easter and Christmas Eve, maybe. The older I became, the less I went. Lest I launch into a full defense on why I don't go to church, let me just briefly mention that I think it's crazy that so many people have such a hard time with homosexuality.

I think it's simply a matter of time before homosexuality is accepted in this society, and, by extension, gay marriage. It's been proven that animals display homosexual activity. There is plenty of biological proof (1, 2, 3) out there demonstrating that homosexuality isn't a choice. So if it isn't a choice, if it's evident in the animal kingdom, then isn't it just discrimination?

The most explosive issue that comes up, of course, is gay marriage, which is equally perplexing to me as to why it should matter at all. If someone loves another, why shouldn't they be allowed to enter into a legally binding contract? That's really what it is, right?

But again, the assignment I shot wasn't about gay marriage, but it is about tolerance for people that aren't like yourself. And that should be a completely Christian value.