Song of Sodom

The Killing Fields has a scene where Khmer Rouge officials are indoctrinating a pavilion full of children. The young captives watch as a girl steps up to a chalkboard that displays a stick-figure drawing of a child and parent holding hands. The girl erases their hands, spurring applause from the officials and children.

Hollywood’s sexual revolutionaries work on a larger tableau, but they know the key to a cultural takeover lies in targeting children and delegitimizing parental authority. Love, Simon, about a gay high schooler coming out, is a big-studio breakthrough with an underage homosexual lead character. According to Rotten Tomatoes, more than 90 percent of critics are applauding the film. And weekend box office results indicate audiences are receiving the film warmly, too (although at No. 5 Love, Simon came in two places behind I Can Only Imagine). But there’s evidence that the film’s gay director, Greg Berlanti, missed part of his target, as I’ll explain below.

“I’m just like you, except I have one huge secret,” 17-year-old Simon (Nick Robinson) declares in an opening voice-over as he ogles a brawny landscaper outside his bedroom window. Otherwise, Simon’s the typical coming-of-age-movie protagonist: He spends many hours alone in his concert-poster draped bedroom, has a retro taste in music, and cringes at his parents’ displays of affection. (Simon’s parents are a man and a woman—probably need to say that.) Simon begins anonymously trading emails and texts with an unknown gay teen boy, “Blue,” from his school. (The film’s numerous sexual references and expletives push the boundaries of its PG-13 rating.)

The class jerk, Martin (Logan Miller), discovers Simon’s secret. In exchange for his silence, Martin demands a date with one of Simon’s female friends. Simon lies to arrange this, hurting his friends. The moral? All secrets are lies. Meanwhile, Simon tries to figure out who among his acquaintances Blue is.

It’s hardly a spoiler to reveal that everyone learns Simon is gay. And applauds. The entire school body goes to the fair to await the arrival of the mysterious Blue. The onlookers cheer when he and Simon engage in a long kiss atop the Ferris wheel.

Berlanti has no love for the film’s adult characters, who personify irrelevance and impotence. The vice principal (Tony Hale) is a crass buffoon. Simon’s father (Josh Duhamel) falls all over himself apologizing when he inadvertently glimpses Simon’s open laptop screen. And after Simon comes out, his mother (Jennifer Garner) reassures him.

“You get to exhale now, Simon,” she says. “You deserve everything you want.”

But maybe boys don’t really want all of this. At the opening-weekend matinee I attended, there were four middle-aged adults and 20 teen girls, but, curiously, not a single boy. Sadly, most of the girls applauded and giggled with delight when Blue’s identity was revealed. Now, I don’t know if the film’s male attendance was low nationwide. Still, we must pray that boys will withstand the pressure to erase God’s design in and for them.