Spiritual Lessons From the 2009 Oscar Nominees

'Milk': Preach Love Over Power

8 nominations, including Best Picture

Conservative Christians are the bad guys in "Milk," a biopic of San Francisco's martyred gay-rights activist and politician, Harvey Milk. Christian crusader Anita Bryant sings hymns while condemning gays. Politician John Briggs proposes anti-gay legislation under the cover of biblical morality. The one time Milk finds himself in church, it's for the christening of the child of Dan White—Milk's eventual assassin.

But the movie doesn't fire off a blanket condemnation of Christianity, and Milk is portrayed as a Christ-like martyr—a man who preached love over power, who stood up for the disenfranchised, and who was killed for his troubles. One Christian asks just where the love of Jesus is to be found in the debate over homosexuality—a question that seems awfully pertinent today, too.