Magnolia Films chief Eammon Bowles called earlier today to explain his position about not wanting Michael Moore to show Jesus Camp, a doc about evangelicals, at the Traverse Film Festival . The film, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, is a balanced look at evangelicals, he says, and he doesn’t want Average Joes in middle America getting the idea that it’s a lefty, anti-Christian thing because they would almost certainly interpret Moore’s support of the film as evidence that it is, most likely, a lefty, anti-Christian thing.
Eammon has a good practical point, but even if Jesus Camp is as balanced and even-toned as he says it is, we all know who and what evangelicals are. They’re devout intense people who basically believe in a kind of fundamental absolutism, which is what hard-core righties are also about, which is why they’re generally regarded as being in more or less the same camp. But c’mon, honestly…does anyone anywhere know of any evangelicals who are liberal-minded and drive hybrid cars, and who voted for John Kerry in ’04? The most vile thing that has ever happened by way of American culture is the American right’s co-opting of the teachings of the gentle, imbued Yeshua.
As Max von Sydow‘s character says in Woody Allen’s Hannah and her Sisters, “If Jesus were to come back to the earth and see what’s going on [here] in his name, he would never stop throwing up.”