Scott Griessel, right, director of the "The Asphalt Gospel," works on the audio portion of the movie with Dave Labrecque of Labrecque Creative Sound.

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A Green Valley filmmaker will screen a new documentary this weekend about a lesser-known side of American Christianity — one that takes the Bible seriously, but not literally.

The Christians in Scott Griessel's "The Asphalt Gospel" stirred controversy as they walked 2,600 miles over 141 days from Phoenix to Washington, D.C., in the spring and summer of 2006, promoting a message of being open to other faiths and supporting the full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the church.

But mostly they were greeted with open arms, whether it was at the conservative Jesus First Baptist Church in Eagar, Ariz.,, or the Bible Belt Fellowship of Believers Church in Hereford, Texas.

Though the film's premise could be construed as an effort by liberal Christians to counteract fundamentalism, that's not the result. Griessel discovered in the course of making the film that the differences between conservative and liberal Christians "pale in comparison to the similarities."

"There are people within the Christian faith who assume all Christians are evangelical or Pentecostal — the truth is much more nuanced," said Griessel, who is 45. "We've heard some people who say we represent an extreme, but I feel like we represented the middle.

"It's a little scary to go in the buckle of the Bible Belt, but what we learned is that people sitting in the pews don't necessarily buy everything their churches are saying."

The 98-minute film focuses on six core participants in a walk across 12 states called CrossWalk America, which led to encounters with 11,000 people and 150 churches.

After the Tucson screening, "The Asphalt Gospel" will go on a nine-city tour of the United States, with stops scheduled to include Phoenix; Santa Fe, N.M.; Tulsa, Okla.; Indianapolis; and Seattle.

"We hope this movie opens people's eyes to what is out there on a grass-roots level. The comments we heard most on the walk were people who said they felt so alone, that they had literally been told they had to step outside of Christianity to love people of other faiths, to love gays and lesbians," said Eric Elnes, co-founder of CrossWalk America and the senior pastor of Scottsdale Congregational United Church of Christ.

"What we found in the real people that we met up with was that the vision and hopes and dreams that motivate people tend to transcend traditional labels in the media of conservative, liberal, moderate, red state, blue state, rural or urban."

Not everyone was a fan of the message that Elnes and the other CrossWalk America walkers advanced. The group encountered occasional critics and protesters, and in Clovis, N.M., was turned down by the Clovis Christian Ministerial Alliance. A Presbyterian minister with the alliance wrote the walkers a letter that said, "when it comes to excusing behavior that God has clearly condemned as sin, I must agree to disagree."

But Elnes stressed that the overwhelming response to the walk was positive. He is hoping the aftermath of the film will be a continuation of "an emerging Christian faith" that he believes CrossWalk America began.

"I'm not saying Jesus is passé. Jesus is alive and well today and still speaking, now perhaps about inclusiveness for women, people of color, gays and lesbians, and about understanding God's love and grace," said Elnes, who recently published a book about the walk titled, "Asphalt Jesus."

The documentary fueled Griessel's conviction in his own Christian faith.

"I'd had a hard time identifying as a Christian — it's so value-loaded, and I often felt it meant something different than what I am," said Griessel, who attends the Good Shepherd United Church of Christ in Sahuarita.

"Being with these people who are going through a lot of the same things as I was, it gave me a little more momentum. I really don't want someone who believes differently to take the label of Christianity away from me."