Before the Academy’s board of governors voted to rescind the original song nomination for “Alone Yet Not Alone,” (music by Bruce Broughton, lyric by Dennis Spiegel), I had paid no attention to the same-titled film that the song is attached to. That’s mostly because it isn’t slated to formally “open” until June 14, and yet it had a half-ass opening in nine cities last September. (Which is how the song qualified for Oscar contention.) And yet Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic haven’t acknowledged its existence.

I haven’t seen Alone Yet Not Alone, but this still appears to depict young white girls being carried away by the wily pathan.

I have a theory about why I haven’t read any reviews. It might be because the critics who reviewed it write for Christian publications and the above-named aggregate sites don’t post that many reviews from that corner of the room? Either way Alone Yet Not Alone is basically a Christian movie…good God! A Christian movie trying to swim with the Godless Agnostic Liberal-Lefty fraternity of Hollywood and at the same capitalize on potential Oscar heat. But no more.

It should be noted that Alone Yet Never Alone contains elements that resemble The Last of the Mohicans, Drums Along The Mohawk and The Searchers.

A 1.18.14 Christian Post story by Morgan Lee film says that Alone Yet Not Alone was produced by Enthuse Entertainment, a San Antonio-based outfit that “describes its mission as one that works to create a ‘God-honoring, faith-based, family-friendly films that inspire the human spirit to seek and know God.'”

The story says the film has been supported by “many conservative Evangelical political figures including former presidential candidate Rick Santorum, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and Dr. James Dobson, formerly of Focus on the Family.”

Wait — there’s more. The “Alone Yet Not Alone” song was recorded by Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadraplegic Christian performer “with limited lung capacity due to her disability.” In the recording session Joni needed her husband, Ken Tada, to push on her diaphragm while she recorded the Oscar-nominated song to give her enough breath to hit the high notes. Ken has written a book about how devotion to Jesus saved their marriage.

Let’s see…Christian movie, Rick Santorum, quadraplegic diaphragm anecdote, Jesus marriage therapy and a movie that deals with white settlers struggling to survive under harsh conditions, including threats from native Indians. Could there be a slight element of Christian xenophobia or…?

“Since its nomination was announced, some critics have criticized Alone Yet Not Alone, claiming that it gives a negative and demeaning depiction of Native Americans,” according to Lee’s Christian Post story. “Native Appropriations, a Native American activist site, criticized the film’s IMDB summary that described the story’s primary conflict as ‘hostile native tribes are raiding the vulnerable frontier farms’ and the girls’ kidnapping as being ‘forcibly immersed into a primitive foreign culture.'”

“They give out Oscars for racism now?” Native Appropriations asked.

The Academy deep-sixed the song nomination when it discovered that Broughton, a former governor and current music branch executive committee member, had emailed members of the branch to make them aware of his submission during the nominations voting period.

“I’m devastated,” Broughton told Variety. “I indulged in the simplest, lamest, grass-roots campaign and it went against me when the song started getting attention. I got taken down by competition that had months of promotion and advertising behind them.”

In a statement, Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs said, “No matter how well-intentioned the communication, using one’s position as a former governor and current executive committee member to personally promote one’s own Oscar submission creates the appearance of an unfair advantage.”