Broken, Brackish Mountain

I have not seen the movie "Brokeback Mountain," nor do I intend to (even though I grew up in Wyoming). The preview was quite enough to tell me all I needed (but did not want) to know about it. I wish the movie ill, of course, but whether it does ill or well, the point of why the movie is truly offensive is likely to be missed.

How could anyone miss why a “gay cowboy” movie is offensive? Simple: by assuming that it is the “gayness” of the movie that is the root offense. “Gayness” or (and I will stick to this) homosexuality is merely one more sin heaped upon the dung heap that is Hollywood. It is not what Catholics might call a “venial sin,” but neither is it at the top of the list of trespasses either. It is but one sin among dozens pandered to by the entertainment elites. Ho, hum….

The real sin here is pride—and a particular type of pride that causes one to assert that he is far more moral than the Christian God described in Scripture. It is a sin that defines as virtuous that which Christians call sin. It does this insidiously by first justifying one’s trespass as excusable under the escape clause of a nuance, then attempts to move us toward sympathy for those “unjustly” condemned of the offense. Finally, we are pushed to acceptance and acclaim for that which, but a few years before, would have shamed us merely to mention. The sin in question is merely a means to a greater, more subtle violation that seeks to invert the moral order of the universe. Compared to this, pandering to homosexual impulses is mere peanuts.