Anyone worried that this movie glorifies homosexuality shouldn’t be concerned. Then again, it doesn’t glorify heterosexuality either. Jack & Ennis’ relationship is very rough and has only the slightest hints of tenderness. A lovers’ quarrel becomes a fist-fight with bloody noses. Although Jack and Ennis later part, marry, and have children, they cannot find fulfillment with their wives and keep trying to reconnect . . . with tragic consequences. It’s a real tear-jerker.

There were two scenes in Brokeback Mountain that I found intensely jarring and disturbing. One was the first sex-scene between Ennis and Jack, mainly because it was so graphic. Not that there was any nudity—director Ang Lee deftly makes the sex-scenes graphic without being explicit. The only nudity we see throughout the movie is the occasional bared bottom or breast. Rather, it was the violence of the sex-scene, coupled with the fact that I didn’t see it coming. Perhaps I was blind, but I don’t seem to have any trouble picking out the foreshadowing of a heterosexual sex-scene: the stolen glances, the tiny risks of closeness that are rewarded with complicity. There was none of that, and director Lee seems even to go out of his way to show them NOT stealing glances. So, when Jack initiates sex with Ennis, Ennis is surprised and reacts violently. What ensues seems more like a furious brawl until we realize how willing Ennis is. It was a difficult scene to watch, probably because it tapped into that unspoken fear that most men have of homosexuality.

The second jarring scene was the one where Jack and Ennis are reunited, four years after their first parting. Ennis is now married to Alma (Michelle Williams) and has two toddler daughters. Ennis races down the stairs of their apartment and unexpectedly embraces and kisses Jack, unaware that Alma is watching dumbfounded, speechless, and horrified. Ennis races back inside, packs hurriedly for a fishing trip, lies to Alma about Jack, and speeds off with him for a week-long trip, leaving Alma crying in the kitchen with their daughters. The powerlessness we feel for her in that moment is heartbreaking.

I came away from this movie wondering, as I do with most tragedies, what the main characters could have done to avoid their respective downfalls, and the answer seemed to be “not much.” If Ennis had been able to accept his homosexuality, then the suffering of his wife could have been avoided, but as the movie illustrates, the world of 1960’s western America is unable to tolerate the existence of such men. They are trapped in their circumstances. Whenever I feel trapped, I feel blessed that I can turn to God for comfort and direction. It saddens me even more to know that the majority of Christians reject homosexuality so vehemently that there is little place for gays in our faith. To whom in the church could Jack and Ennis turn? What kind of guidance could we offer them? I’m drawing a big blank.

One thing that I am certain of, though, is that the church is for anyone who recognizes their brokenness and seeks redemption from God through Jesus Christ. Homosexuals are no more broken than heterosexuals. Even Paul said that “It is good for a man not to marry. But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband” (1 Corinthians 7:1). He also said that it was better not to marry, because “An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs—how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— and his interests are divided.” (1 Corinthians 7:32-34). Who are we to decide that the sins of homosexuals are greater than our own?