Oregon-made movie's look at Christians gets national notice

By JOHN FORTMEYER
CNNW publisher
   PORTLAND — Take those thought-provoking and often anger-generating messages many people place on the backs of their cars, slap them instead on a walking, breathing Oregon resident who has a friendly demeanor, and see what happens.
   Done creatively and prayerfully, what happens is dialogue between segments of society otherwise totally polarized. So much fascinating and even deeply emotional dialogue, in fact, that it has inspired a book and documentary film project titled Lord Save Us From Your Followers. It has caught national attention and may prompt America’s Christians to look at themselves — and their witness to others — in a whole new way.
  “I think it’s a fascinating title ... and this is a stroke of genius in the film — people need to see that the world knows better how we think, than we know how they think ... learning about ourselves is humbling,” writes famed pastor and author Jack Hayford, president of the Foursquare de-nomination, in an endorsement of the movie.
   The book and movie are the results of years of work by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and TV comedy writer Dan Merchant of Lake Oswego, and his business partner Jeff Martin. Martin secured funding from private donors, Christian organizations, churches and friends; overall production cost was “just a shade under a million dollars,” said Merchant.
   Thomas Nelson Publishers last month released the book, and the movie made its theatrical debut before a packed house June 13 at Portland’s Hollywood Theater after special showings in local churches, Lewis and Clark College and dozens of other sites nationally. That followed a review of the film by the college’s Tom Krattenmaker published in USA Today in March, and live interviews of Merchant by Matt Lauer on NBC-TV’s Today show in April and on the Trinity Broadcasting Network and radio’s Dennis Miller Show.
   Merchant and Martin are both Christians, respectively attending Beaverton Foursquare Church and SouthLake Foursquare in West Linn. But after a 2004 trip to Ethiopia exposed them to Christians there living out an effective, uncomplicated faith, the two wanted to explore why back at home the message of the Gospel — a message they personally know to be movitated by love — nevertheless seemed to create such divisions — the so-called “culture wars” in America.
   To investigate, they sought out the views of not only prominent names on both sides of the cultural debate, but also average Americans.
   On the national level, among those who faced the camera were Al Franken, liberal radio host and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate; Rick Santorum, former Republican senator from Pennsylvania; Michael Reagan, radio host and son of former President Ronald Reagan; Rick Warren, pastor and author; Sister Mary Timothy, a transgendered homosexual rights activist in San Francisco, Calif., and Tony Campolo, professor and evangelical author.
   Not surprisingly, the Oregon-based production also offers many faces and backgrounds familiar to locals. Among those representing various perspectives are KXL radio personality and national talk host Lars Larson; Oregonian columnist Steve Duin; Multnomah Biblical Seminary professor Paul Metzger; KINK-FM radio news director Sheila Hamilton; Dale Ebel, pastor of Rolling Hills Community Church in Tualatin and Kevin Palau of the Luis Palau evangelistic team.
   But to gauge what Joe — or Joanne — Citizen had to say on the streets of America, Merchant took a different approach. He dressed up in a white jumpsuit covered not only with popular Christian “fish” depictions but also the pro-evolution “Darwin” fish-with-legs symbols, and a wide range of bumperstickers — some humorous, some controversial, that covered the gamut of issues. Examples were “Nuke a Gay Whale for Christ,” “God is a Conservative,” “This Fish Won’t Fry! Will You?” , “Jesus is a Liberal,” and “Choose Life (Your Mom Did).”
    Clad in the suit, Merchant became an instant conversation starter with passersby in several U.S. cities, who before the lens expressed a full range of opinions about Christianity. What Merchant found was that many people had a positive attitude about Jesus, but less than favorable opinions about His followers.
   Merchant and Martin then took their more than 100 hours of footage and boiled it down into a documentary that seeks to provide an honest overview of Christianity in America.
   Also filmed locally was a “Culture Wars” game show segment, patterned after TV’s Family Feud, but featuring competition between local liberals and conservatives; and a look at both the annual Portland Pride gay rights celebration and the Nightstrike Christian ministry outreach under the city’s Burnside Bridge.
   In one of the more poignant scenes, Merchant manned a “confession booth” at the Pride event. But rather than seek confessions from the gay community, he humbly and tearfully invited members of that community to hear his own confession, on behalf of himself and the Church, for a lack of compassion and for casting judgment and condemnation during the AIDS crisis.
“Through the process of making this movie and really seeking the answer to our question, I found that, if I’m willing to rely on God’s grace and truth and explore these conversations with people who are not like us, that we are all children of God, and all loved by God,” said Merchant.
    Churches and ministries interested in showing the film are invited to contact the producers through the movie’s web site, www.lordsaveusthe
movie.com.