This was a great lecture (sorry I’m a little late in writing). Actually, Dan Merchant first showed his upcoming film, “Lord Save Us From Your Followers” which has been picked up by Sony / EMI and is set to be nationally released this summer. After a viewing of the movie we spent about 1.5 hours in some great q + a. I highly recommend you see the movie, and here’s some things that struck me about the movie & conversation.
The film was a documentary focused on Christianity and contemporary culture, particularly political culture, with the illuminating subtitle: “Why is the Gospel of Love Dividing America?” A lot of it focuses on how we as the church have by-and-large in America presented a public image that is angry, hostile, divisive and un-civic. One of the things I really appreciated is how Dan doesn’t critique the church from the outside but identifies with the church along the lines of the classic Augustine quote: “the church is a whore, and she’s my mother.” He critiques not to see the church torn down but to call it to its calling to embody its witness to the kingdom of God more fully, compassionately and constructively in our culture.
It had kind of the feel of a “Super-Size Me”, of an everyday Joe who’s trying to figure out this complex thing of Christianity in America. He spent 2.5 years interviewing folks from Al Franken to Rick Warren to Bono to Tony Campolo to John Perkins to Michael Reagan to… all sorts of man-on-the-street interviews. While showing some really “hard-to-watch” pieces of how we make a fool of ourselves as the church in America, he also showed some really redemptive images (ie. World Vision’s partnership with a local radio station, the church’s response to Hurricane Katrina). I think the film is a great thought-provoker and conversation-starter on the church in contemporary culture, as the engaging ensuing conversation ‘til 10pm affirmed. Check out more on the movie at: www.lordsaveus.net.
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