Controversy @ The End of the Spear

I first heard word of the movie The End of the Spear while in Ecuador as we were talking about Nate Saint and the other four missionaries and the 50th Anniversary of their martyrdom (January 6, 2006). However, upon arriving back in the states, I noticed that there was some controversy over the actor who is playing the role of Nate Saint in the movie. His name is Chad Allen, and also a publicly professing homosexual. I first heard of this through visiting Tim Challies website where he linked over to Randy Brandt's post "Did They Fall on Their Own Spears?" It appears that Allen produced a movie called Corpus Christi which Brandt explains through in an article thus: The play, set in modern-day Texas, features a hard-drinking gay named Joshua and 12 other gay male characters, most of whom bear the names of Christ's apostles... Different from other boys because he is a homosexual, Joshua grows up in isolation and torment, an object of scorn. He flees Corpus Christi in search of a more accepting environment, gathering along the way of a group of disciples who are bound to him by his message of love and tolerance. According to Time magazine, McNally's play is "a serious, even reverent retelling of the Christ story in a modern idiom -- quite close, in its way, to the original." Commenting thereafter, Brandt adds, " . . . what's harder to figure out is why a movie so obviously appealing to a conservative evangelical audience would risk alienating most of that demographic." I agree. Furthermore, Allen is going to be producing a documentary called "Save Me" on the Here TV! network - the first gay television network. A gay magazine called IN LA adds the following: Two years ago, (Allen) co-founded his production company Mythgarden, with Robert Gant and Christopher Racster. "We're working to bring the next generation of gay and lesbian storytelling to the screen, and we're really excited about that." Their upcoming project, Save Me, takes place in an "ex-gay" ministry that's run by Judith Light, in which Allen and Gant begin a relationship. Also coming up is a project called The Way Out, which they are co-producing with David Duchovny. "It's the story of two gay men who fall in love in a senior citizens home, and it looks at the issues of elder gay housing. It's a fantastic love story." Allen also stars in the upcoming film End of the Spears, based on the true story of a group of Christian missionaries that make contact with the Waodani, a notoriously violent Ecuadorian tribe. Having grown up in a Roman Catholic family, Allen saw this project as a challenge he wanted to undertake. "There were a lot of people on both sides that weren't particularly interested in me doing this movie. I am from a Christian background, but I have a personal spirituality that spans the distance from Buddhism to Hindu philosophy to Native American beliefs. That aside, this movie is about the power of love. I knew it was an opportunity to bridge these two disparate communities that are believed to be enemies- the gay and the Christian communities." (emphasis mine) While the film may be true to the actual events and excellently done (although they can get Hourani right - they spell it Woudani), should Christians still promote this movie and see it? Having just recently visiting the home of Nate Saint, the Missionary Aviation Fellowship air strip, the hospital he built, and the walked the streets he treaded 50 years ago, I must say that I was elated to hear about the news of this movie coming out. However, now I feel deeply disappointed and saddened. Hollywood has picked up on the fact that there is a huge market for religious films which will invoke the evangelicals out to the theatres, but they are doing it their own way. They want to profit off our values but reject them in the process. They know how gullible and desperate we are to have a quality movie in the entertainment marketplace in hopes to "evangelize" our culture, and as January 20 nears, I am wondering how much discernment and discretion the Christian community will show. Should we endorse homosexuals as leading actors in a religious film? Should we promote syncretism and New Age philosophy with Christianity? What do you think? Better yet, what do you think Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, and Peter Fleming would think about this? And what do you think the Houranis' who were converted from their Animistic religions to Christianity alone think about this? This may be a movie depicting a true story, but it appears to me that there is a whole lot of truth missing. To read Challies blogging of Session 6 of the Desiring God National Conference of 2005 called "Suffering and the Sovereignty of God" with special guest Steve Saint, son of Nate Saint, click here.