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Allen says his father eventually came to accept him again. "When I realized he still loved me, that changed my relationship with God. Now I have a great relationship with my dad, and with God."

As for reconciling his lifestyle choices with the Bible's condemnation of homosexuality (Lev. 18:22, 1 Cor. 6:9-10, et al.), Allen says part of his interpretation is contextual, part cultural, and part gleaned from his own understanding of God.

Allen and Robert Gant in 'Save Me'

"I don't think you can discern the Word of God unless you're holding the love of God in your heart," he says. "I can take any piece of written material, and if I'm holding fear and anger in my heart, I will get fear and anger as a result. And if I'm holding love in my heart, I will get love as a result.

"I don't pretend to say that Scripture doesn't say what it says [about homosexuality]. And I don't have the intellectual and theological background to enter into a debate. But I know there's lots in Scripture that I can read and come up with fear. And there's lots that I can read and know those aren't aspects in my life. Certainly today we know that slavery isn't something we can condone, but it seems to be condoned in Scripture. And today we know that women have a role in society that wasn't there in Scripture. When I'm reading Scripture, it's about the experience of a loving God."

Some Christians say that sexual orientation alone isn't necessarily sinful, but acting on it is. Allen disagrees.

"In the three and a half years I've been loving and committed to my partner, the fruit born of that and of my sexuality is beauty and love and goodness, not fear and destruction," he says. "The fruit that was born of my alcoholism was fear and destruction."

Which brings Allen back to Save Me and his hopes for the film.

"I want viewers to walk away from it knowing that God is participatory in all of our lives and all of our experience," he says. "Maybe I don't have all the answers, but I can choose to love my brother. Period."

Save Me opens September 5 in New York and goes wider in the coming months. (Click here for screenings.) The film is unrated by the MPAA, but would likely earn an R rating for a steamy sex scene (between two men) in the opening minutes. After that, it's pretty much PG-13 territory, with mature themes and some foul language.

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