on January 19, 2006 by pat in christianity, society, Comments (11)
End of the Spear casting Chad Allen
When I first heard about the movie I admit I was very excited and eager to watch the film. I heard about Steve Saint talk much about this movie in the Piper Conference. Steve Saint’s father, Nate Saint, was killed by the Waodani tribe in the Ecuador in his attempt to reach this people group for the Gospel. So when I heard about the movie I was naturally intrigued and eager to watch it. However as the cast was announced, I realized that the actor playing Nate and Steve Saint was Chad Allen, an openly gay man. Then I started reading about the Christian blogs who are up in arms about the movie because there is a gay-man playing the part of Nate Saint, the martyred missionary.
At first, I reacted, “big deal — actors are supposed to play characters outside of themselves.” Further in my mind I thought the point of the movie is not the actors, but the message of the movie which I assume in this case about the Gospel proclaimed to a violent people group. Secondly, I responded by thinking, “we can’t expect Christians to play Christian characters in the movies.” Immediately I thought of Luther who was played by Joseph Fiennes who is not a Christian. Others have chimed in using examples like Chariots of Fire, who starred a gay-man to play the part of Eric Lidell.
Then Tim Challies argues an interesting point and that is today’s actor has a much broader range of influence through the mass media. Challies warned that actor’s today not only promote their movies but also use it as a platform to promote their world views and philosophies. This argument immediately surfaced when Chad Allen was on a panel of guests to discuss the subject of gay-marriage in light of the controversial movie Brokeback Mountain. And as Tim Challies predicted, Chad Allen used this interview to not only respond to the movie, but also to promote his movie and eventually his antithetical religion consisting of 1-part Christianity, 1-part Buddhism, and 1-part Hinduism where “his understanding of God” has revealed to him that homosexuality is not wrong but actually something that is pleasing to God, because in his mind the sin was feeling bad about homosexual thoughts and feeling guilty for being attracted to men.
Tim was instrumental in my evaluating my response to this whole fiasco. However it was Jason Janz from Sharper Iron who revealed something that drew the line for me. The producers of the movie, Every Tribe Entertainment, are Christian producers. This whole time I thought this was a hollywood movie made by unbelieving men interested in a good story. Never did it occur to me that the producers were actual Christians. Honestly, Christian movies made by Christians tend to be low-budget cheese-wiz movies and the trailers of this movie looked too good. So the thought of Christians casting a gay man to play the part of an honored Christian Missionary revealed a real lack of discernment on the part of the producers.
The issue now isn’t so much about Chad Allen being gay but about the producers and their casting of a gay man to play the part of a Christian man. Steve Camp posted a powerful comment regarding this issue. He poses a question to a close colleague of Dr. John Piper saying:
If Dr. Piper went home to be with the Lord say thirty years from now and a Christian based film company wanted to make a movie about his life and ministry, with the same choices that Steve Saint had in this scenario being afforded to you, would you want an actor who was also a gay-activist to play John’s life story?
Ouch. That illustration is a good one in identifying the mistake that Every Tribe Entertainment has made.
[UPDATE 01/20/2006]
Albert Mohler speaks out.
Phil Johnson (Pyromaniac) speaks out .. kind of.
Steve Saint (son of Nate Saint) speaks out.
Daniel
January 19, 2006 @ 11:28 am
Hey Pat,
It’s a choice that could have easily been avoided. Why do something that would cause so much controversy? I may just be a publicity stunt.
patrick
January 19, 2006 @ 11:33 am
I would expect a publicity stunt like this from hollywood producers, but Every Tribe Entertainment is supposedly a Christian group.. The level of accountability for these guys goes up.
Daniel
January 20, 2006 @ 1:50 am
Hey Pat,
I agree with Pyromaniac. I am not surprised of almost anything anymore,
especially when it comes to Hollywood.
For me, this is not about “homophobia.” I am not homophobic. The
definition of PHOBIA is being afraid of something or someone. But that’s not
the case here.
All I know is that ALL men are held under sin. “He who is without sin
among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7)
At my last Dot-com job, I developed friendships with many gay men. I
learned that they are just people who want to be happy, just as the next
straight guy. However, they are in denial of the fact that they have
SINNED against GOD by pursuing happiness in anything other than God…
just as the next straight guy.
What really matters the most here is WHAT JIM ELLIOT DIED FOR – and
that is THE GOSPEL of JESUS CHRIST – who died for all sinners – straight
and gay, and who was raised from the dead to give life to all who would
take His yoke upon them.
A big stumbling block for gay people is that they think that they are
condemned by Christians for being gay, but the fact is that they would
still be in the same predicament no matter what their sexual preference.
Rom 3:9-10 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For
we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
patrick
January 20, 2006 @ 2:03 am
Dan,
Right on — it’s not the gay issue its the sin issue in need of a savior issue. the remedy for sin is redemption in the savior.
My expectation for this movie is very high in terms of the story line.. but in terms of the gospel content — i wouldn’t hold my breath. i’ve placed and amazon order for elisabeth elliot’s telling of this story in gates through splendor. but i think amazon’s warehouses maybe running low since it’s been 2 days and it still hasn’t shipped.. cvbbs is next if nothing happens.
D-Dub
January 20, 2006 @ 2:11 am
Yeah,
Don’t hold yer breath. Saint says that there is no gospel preached in the movie.
“But despite the impactful nature of the events depicted in End of the Spear, Steve Saint acknowledges that some Christians may be disappointed that the movie is not a sermon — that is, that the gospel is not more overtly presented in the film. “The theater is not a good venue for doing that,” he asserts. Instead of going to hear preaching, he explains, “People go into the theater and they open up their ‘cultural heart’ — and that’s where new trends in our society start; they start in the theater.”
Andrew
January 20, 2006 @ 12:00 pm
What if it was Colin Farrell, playing the role…or Tom Cruise?
Farrell might not have agenda’s per say, but he is openly a drunkard and a fornicator.
Tom Cruise…scientology, nough said.
But I’d bet everyone (Christians who have raised a stink about Allen being cast)they would fill more comfortable with Cruise in the role instead of Chad Allen. And I bet that the controversy of Allen playing this role would’nt be as great if Tom Cruise played the role.
Cruise’s agenda is different, but it’s still an attack on the gospel just as Allen’s agend is.
patrick
January 20, 2006 @ 12:24 pm
The stink with me is not on Chad Allen, but on the Christian producers who made a bad choice. If this was a produced by unbelievers there would be less of an issue, atleast with me anyway. But, Every Tribe Entertainment purports to be a Christian organization and by their choice of Chad Allen, they clearly lacked discernment in picking not only an openly gay-man, but an openly gay-activist.
Where is the discernment and accountability?
Now, I’m not expecting a Christian to play Christian characters.. but why in the world did they pick a person they knew would raise such a controversy.
Chad Allen himself had enough of his own sensitivy towards Christianity by thinking, “don’t they know I’m a gay activist? are they sure they want me to play this role for this story?” At the very least I would expect a similar level of discernment on the part of the producers, which in this case was horribly absent.
Andrew
January 20, 2006 @ 12:56 pm
I think what we are dealing with here is expectation.
But with anything coming out of Hollywood are expectations should be very low if any at all, even if the producers are “Christians”
Let’s face it the table for Hollywood has been set decades ago, and that table is anything goes as long as it makes money.
With that said we should never expect anything from them, even if they are “Christian” producers, because they are sitting at the table that’s already been set.
They are going to pick the person who they think read the best for the part regardless of his/her back ground. They are going to pick someone who is easy on the eyes. All this comes into play and that’s the bottom line. What’s going to sell. Discernment goes out the window for them.
So, what’s the big deal?
Take it for what it’s worth a movie put out by Hollywood to make money.
It’s easier to enjoy when you know that’s what it’s about, and then you can just focus on whether or not the Movie is good, was it historically accurate? Was it shot well? Man, that person really got into that role…and so on and so on.
patrick
January 20, 2006 @ 1:55 pm
My concern here is your refernce to “them” — “them making money”, “[their] bottom line.”
The “them” here are those that bear the name Christian and they are making poor choices.
It’s sad to hear that we should let anybody flaunt the name “Christian” and not hold them accountable to that name.
Let them be anything else, call themselves anything else, but they bear the name of our savior and are diminishing not only what these missionaries died for but the name of Christ himself with their poor choices.
Is there no accountability or encouragment of discernment?
Patrick Lacson » The Gospel in the Movies
February 7, 2006 @ 12:18 am
[...] Jason Janz from Sharper Iron has written a wonderfully crisp article on the movie End of the Spear in how it presents the Gospel. I’ve attempted to track this story here and here. My primary concern was the lack of discernment of the production company, Every Tribe Entertainment, for the decisions that it made while making this film. Having never seen the movie, I obviously could not criticize the content and presentation. Jason Janz has been the one name in the blogosphere who has tirelessly covered the ETE controversy. He has written an article, after watching the movie, that criticizes ETE in its attempt at displaying the life of the five missionaries who gave their life to share the Gospel of Christ. His sobering article brings to light the greater problem of evangelicalism which is the failure to properly define and proclaim the Gospel. He lists three essential things that are required in order to at the very least present the Gospel accurately: [...]