{"id":9173,"date":"2006-02-02T12:30:16","date_gmt":"2006-02-02T19:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/02\/02\/if-thine-actor-offend-thee.html"},"modified":"2006-02-02T12:30:16","modified_gmt":"2006-02-02T19:30:16","slug":"if_thine_actor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/02\/02\/if_thine_actor.html","title":{"rendered":"If thine actor offend thee …"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can you separate the message from the messenger? Or, in cinematic terms, how much does the “real life” of an actor (or other participant in a film) affect the perception of the film itself? In some cases, quite a bit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Christian ministers were enthusiastic at the early private screenings of “End of the Spear,” made by Every Tribe Entertainment, an evangelical film company. But days before the film’s premiere, a controversy erupted over the casting of a gay actor that has all but eclipsed the movie and revealed fault lines among evangelicals.<\/p>\n

[…] The film relates the true story of five American missionaries who were killed in 1956 by an indigenous tribe in Ecuador. The missionaries’ families ultimately converted the tribe to Christianity, and forgave and befriended the killers. The tale inspired evangelicals 40 years ago with its message of redemption and grace, and the film company expected a similar reception.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 12, though, the Rev. Jason Janz took the filmmakers to task for casting Chad Allen, an openly gay man and an activist, in the movie’s lead role as one of the slain missionaries, and later, his grown son. An assistant pastor at the independent Red Rocks Baptist Church in Denver, Mr. Janz posted his comments on his fundamentalist Christian Web site, sharperiron.org. He also asked the filmmakers to apologize for their choice.<\/p>\n

[…] Some evangelicals have boycotted the film, and Every Tribe’s executives said that they had also turned over to the authorities material that they considered threatening.<\/p>\n

“Does anyone really believe that Chad Allen was the best possible actor for Nate Saint?” Mr. Janz asked in his Jan. 12 Web log entry, referring to one of the characters in the movie. “That would be like Madonna playing the Virgin Mary.”<\/p>\n

Philosophically, this is bushwah.<\/em> An actor is simulating a role. Judging the film based on the private lives (or even public lives) of the creative team seems to be missing the point. Though, granted, that sort of philosophical detachment isn’t always possible — Roman Polanski and Woody Allen (and, heck, even Tom Cruise), among any others, bring “baggage” to their cinematic activities.<\/p>\n

On the other hand …<\/p>\n

But Mr. Janz, who said he rarely weighed in on the culture wars, stood by his previous statement that “we must realize that the Christian message and the messenger are intricately related.” He wrote that Mr. Allen’s homosexuality was not so much the problem as was his open activism for gay causes, and that if a drunk who “promoted drunkenness” had acted in the movie, “I’d be just as mad.”<\/p>\n

One Web log, nossobrii.blogspot .com, written by Kevin T. Bauder, president of Central Baptist Seminary in Minneapolis, stated in a Jan. 13 entry: “Granted, we must not overreact. And it would probably be an overreaction to firebomb these men’s houses. But what they have done is no mistake. It is a calculated strategy.”<\/p>\n

Right. An evangelical film company telling a stirring story of “redemption and grace” intentionally cast a gay man as part of a “calculated strategy.” <\/p>\n

Though I’m glad to hear that firebombing someone’s house would “probably” be an overreaction.<\/p>\n

It’s one thing to say that the “Christian message and the messenger are intricately linked” if you’re talking about someone preaching a message. Even though, in orthodox Christian theology, for example, a sacrament is not contingent upon the moral turpitude of the adminstrator of same, certainly there’s cause to object about hypocrisy in Christian teaching, e.g., when televangelists turn out to be lying and fornicating scumballs. Even there, you should be able to draw a line between the message and the messenger, even though it’s been tainted by the contradiction.<\/p>\n

But an actor in a movie? He’s presumably working for a paycheck. Is the position here that the actors, the director, the production crew, the caterers, and the accounting firm that handles the production company’s payroll have to all pass some sort of Christian Virtue Litmus Test?<\/p>\n

Heaven forgive me for agreeing with someone from Focus on the Family, but …<\/p>\n

Bob Waliszewski, head of the media review department at Focus on the Family, said that he was saddened by e-mail messages from angry Christians who said they would not see the movie. A generation of young people were inspired to become missionaries by the true story, and Mr. Waliszewski said he had hoped a new generation would be moved by “End of the Spear.”<\/p>\n

“Has Focus on the Family made a strong statement against homosexuality? Absolutely,” he said. “But what is the message of the product? And do we at Focus feel compelled to check on the sexual history of everyone in a movie? Did they have a D.U.I.? Did they pay their taxes?”<\/p>\n

Mr. Hanon [the film’s director] echoed: “If we start measuring the sin of everyone in a movie, we would never be able to make a picture because none of us would be left.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can you separate the message from the messenger? Or, in cinematic terms, how much does the “real life” of an actor (or other participant in a film) affect the perception…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,41,27,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gay-stuff","category-media-movies","category-religion","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3705,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/10\/03\/kiss_and_cell.html","url_meta":{"origin":9173,"position":0},"title":"Kiss and Cell","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-Oct-02 1:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"An 50ish actress, whose actor husband passed away earlier this year sees a young student of his at a film festival. Filled with emotion, she gives him a motherly kiss...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129666,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/07\/my-sportsball-teams-number-is-bigger-than-their-sportsball-teams-number-my-tribe-is-superior-now-there-is-singing.html","url_meta":{"origin":9173,"position":1},"title":"My sportsball team’s number is bigger than their sportsball team’s number! My tribe is superior! Now there is singing!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 7-Feb-16 6:23pm","format":false,"excerpt":"My sportsball team's number is bigger than their sportsball team's number! My tribe is superior! Now there is singing! View on Twitter","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129665,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/07\/in-your-face-pagan-cat-worshipers-of-the-other-tribes-sportsball-team-we-are-a-better-tribe-broncos-sb50.html","url_meta":{"origin":9173,"position":2},"title":"IN YOUR FACE, PAGAN CAT WORSHIPERS OF THE OTHER TRIBE’S SPORTSBALL TEAM! WE ARE A BETTER TRIBE! #Broncos #SB50","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 7-Feb-16 8:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"IN YOUR FACE, PAGAN CAT WORSHIPERS OF THE OTHER TRIBE'S SPORTSBALL TEAM! WE ARE A BETTER TRIBE! #Broncos #SB50 View on Twitter","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137471,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/11\/26\/american-missionary-killed-by-indian-ocean-natives.html","url_meta":{"origin":9173,"position":3},"title":"American missionary killed by Indian Ocean natives","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 26-Nov-18 9:16am","format":false,"excerpt":"It almost sounds like a cartoon cliche -- like the proverbial missionary in a cooking pot, telling a joke[1] -- but (though there's no hint of cannibalism here) the basics of the story here fit the model: an American Christian missionary, refusing to take \"No\" for an answer, has been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":134056,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/07\/rip-haruo-nakajima.html","url_meta":{"origin":9173,"position":4},"title":"RIP, Haruo Nakajima","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 7-Aug-17 3:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"He played Gojira Godzilla in 12 films in the 1950s-70s, including the monster's premiere film. He was also in The Seven Samurai (as a bandit) and The Hidden Fortress.Thanks, sir, for all the hours of entertainment. Rest in Peace: Haruo Nakajima, the Original Godzilla Actor, Passes Away - Dread Central\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50279,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/04\/rip-nigel-terry.html","url_meta":{"origin":9173,"position":5},"title":"RIP, Nigel Terry","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 4-May-15 1:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Outside of Excalibur and The Lion in Winter, I wasn't familiar with Terry's body of work, but I'll give him a shout-out and a farewell for just those two efforts. Thank you, sir. 'Excalibur' actor Nigel Terry dies at 69 Nigel Terry, beloved actor of stage, film, and television, died\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}