I Am Michael Page #3

I was finally allowed

to see a specialist

who could definitively test

whether or not

I inherited

my father's condition.

Now I have to wait

for the results.

Michael, just calm down.

Calm down!

Do you know

what this disease means?

It means I could die any

minute, just drop dead!

You calm down!

Dr. Williams?

Hi.

Thank you, god.

Thank you, god.

The test confirmed

that I did not inherit

my father's heart condition.

Although it's

a massive sigh of relief,

I keep thinking to myself...

If I was really

just having panic attacks,

then what's wrong with me?

What am I afraid of?

All I know is that when

faced with your own death,

it reminds you

of what's important in life.

And for me,

that's helping other people.

Okay.

So I've decided

to start my own magazine.

I'm calling it YGA.

Young gay Americans.

It's gonna be the biggest

and most sophisticated magazine

aimed at improving the lives

of LGBT youth.

Hmm.

What is this?

What is this?

Oh, my god! Hi!

You didn't.

I know you wanted one, baby.

Oh, my god!

Ooh.

What are we gonna call you?

What are we gonna call you?

Olly. Olly, heel.

I've been thinking

about the next issue of YGA.

I think we need to address

this whole Christianity thing.

What do you mean?

Well, people think that gays

and Christians are enemies.

We've met so many people who've managed to

balance their faith and their sexuality.

But we've also met

so many people whose parents

and churches tell them

they're gonna burn in hell.

Yeah, which is why we should

address it in the magazine.

I mean, the whole "you're gay,

you're going to hell" myth

was started by mistranslations and

misinterpretations of the Bible.

I mean, god doesn't care

what your sexual orientation is.

And the one thing that the gay

movement doesn't understand

that I think Christianity does

is that not everyone wants to

be a part of the subculture.

I'm sorry, what did you

do with my boyfriend?

Shut up.

I'm not gonna write like...

Gospel according to Michael

or something.

It might seem strange

for a gay youth magazine

to dedicate an entire issue

to religion,

but it's too important

to ignore.

When my parents died,

I blamed god.

When I came out,

I distanced myself even further

from religion.

You see, I thought I was

too smart to believe in god,

that he was only for the needy.

But after a recent health scare,

I felt this nudging

in the back of my mind:

The presence of god.

And you know what?

I was no longer afraid.

Aah!

Some religious figures

spout hateful rhetoric

and try to force

a monopoly on the truth.

But the only truth is love.

The only sin is denying love.

Stop hating.

Start loving.

You gonna join us?

Uh, yeah, just one second.

What?

Uh, you're really combing

through that thing, aren't you?

Look, my whole life, I thought

the Bible was full of hate...

And it's not.

There's a lot of love in here.

So your interest in the Bible

is more than just research?

Well, there's a lot of

Christian roots in my family,

my mom, my aunt and...

Just curious.

Your aunts disowned you

when you came out.

That's not family.

I'm all for curiosity but...

I-I just feel like

something saved me,

shook me and woke me up.

And that someone is god?

Mike, he didn't save you

because you were never dying.

Okay.

"Whoever finds their life

will lose it,

and whoever loses their life

for my sake will find it."

"Whoever finds their life

will lose it,

and whoever loses their life

for my sake will find it."

"Whoever finds their life

will lose it,

and whoever loses their life

for my sake will find it."

Don't see many people

flaunting that out in the open.

Oh.

I've seen you

reading out here before

and I thought maybe you'd

wanna come to my church.

Any Sunday,

just to check it out.

See what the Mormon religion

has to offer.

The gospel teaches us

that we are the spirit children

of heavenly parents.

Now, many people ask,

are we like other Christians?

Why of course we are.

We believe in Jesus Christ

and we believe

in life after death.

And everyone is welcome

at the LDs church.

Christ's atonement allows mankind

to be saved from their sins...

And to return to live with god

and their loved ones in heaven.

Did you grow up

with any kind of faith?

Not really.

My mother was Christian,

but she didn't really take

me or my sister to church,

and my father

was a Berkeley hippie,

kind of agnostic

or even atheist.

They were very good people

and I know

I'll see them again in heaven.

My mom passed away as well.

So I know how hard that is.

I was so afraid and angry,

you know?

Yeah, me, too.

It's really hard

to deal with death

when you don't know

where you're going.

But once you do,

then you have peace

and you realize

that god's not to blame.

Right.

Yeah.

Catherine.

It was nice to meet you.

You, too.

She's single, Fyi.

Fyi?

What, you think she likes me?

Yeah. Yeah,

it seemed like it.

But I mean, don't worry. There's plenty

of single ladies looking for a husband.

I wasn't even thinking

about that kind of thing.

Oh, well, maybe it's something

you should start thinking about.

I can get you in touch with her

if you want.

Oh, um...

If you're interested.

Sure. I don't know.

Yeah? Okay. Whatever.

Yeah, okay.

All right.

Okay, thanks.

Embarrassing me a little bit.

Welcome back to new beginnings

and thank you for listening

to our continued conversation

about the truth path to heaven.

Doctor, how would you respond

to other Christians

who disagree with your angle?

Look, all I'm trying

to do is help people.

It just pains me so much when

I hear so-called Christians

side with the left on issues

such as homosexuality.

Now, I'm not condoning hate.

In fact, this is about love.

Choosing a gay identity

will condemn you

to an eternity of suffering.

And I wanna save people

from that.

Whether it's abortion

or adultery

or accepting religions

other than Christianity,

you must obey god's law

or you will not be allowed

into his kingdom.

I'm not saying that. I'm not

saying that it's wrong.

I'm just saying that over the

course of thousands of years,

people with an agenda have made

Christianity what it is today.

Yeah, but the original message is

still the same, it's about love.

You know, I would've never

pegged you as a Buddhist.

Why?

What, 'cause I don't look

a certain way?

No, I...

I don't know why

I just said that.

I'm just kidding you.

Meditation.

People get weird in their head

about meditation.

They think it's weird or hippie.

I think it's about

developing mindfulness.

You know, it's about

living moment to moment.

And in a deeper level,

it's about knowing yourself.

That's why I started volunteering

at the Buddhist center.

They have classes on Friday.

You should come.

Oh, I have to go out of town

for this speaking thing.

What kind of speaking thing?

It's about gay youth in America.

No way. That's awesome.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes