Friends of God?

this evening, jamie and i watched the HBO documentary, Friends of God, by speaker of the house nancy pelosi's daughter, alexandra.

pelosi traveled across the country filming evangelicals in a variety of venues and settings...a drive-through church, a christian wrestling federation match, a rural family with 10 children, christian theme parks, and a host of congregations. the synopsis of the documentary on tivo describes it this way: "evangelical christians become a formidable force in culture and democracy." i am already somewhat in a state of disillusionment with the whole political scene and how christians, especially, behave themselves in this "war" to which people so often refer. this documentary only added to my quandry and left me sad and irritated.

i commend pelosi for not ridiculing evangelicals or lampooning them in any way. she was inquisitive and dispassionate, posing non-judgmental questions.

we were shocked by the number of times the war metaphor was used. it was absolutely pervasive. this warfare is portrayed differently than the one presented in the bible. if i were a nonbeliever watching this documentary, i would assume that the war that christians talk about is against me. we are communicating hatred to those we are commanded to love. maybe some would say alexandra pelosi edited her documentary in order to bring these specifics out, but sadly her portrayal is pretty consistent with my experience in the evangelical church.

the most striking comparison in the documentary was the between the former ghost writer for jerry falwell (who is gay christian activist) and the old man who drives his scripture plastered truck around town. the gay man is shown weeping in church while the truck evangelist stated that Christians are winners, and all non-believers are losers!

this really should be required viewing for every christian in the united states so that they can better understand how we are perceived. each christian could then decide for themselves whether this is the message we want put forth. our primary concern as christians shouldn't be how the world views us, but that is not the compelling thing about this documentary. "Friends of God" holds a mirror up to the church and we should think about whether we are accurately representing Christ to the lost world.