Hannah Anderson raises a fair question here:
You can read Anderson’s thoughts on X.
As someone who speaks to the media often, this is something I really wrestle with and will continue to wrestle with. I have been accused many, many times of throwing my fellow evangelicals under the bus in order to give the secular media what they want to hear. The temptation to do this is real. And I have probably succumbed to it more than once.
Sometimes it’s tough for critics of evangelicalism who remain in the evangelical fold, like me, to find a place to publish critical pieces. Christianity Today, for example, rarely publishes the kind of stuff I write about my evangelical tribe. My passion is to reach my fellow evangelicals with some good Christian thinking, but very few evangelical churches want to hear what I have to say because they think it might be too divisive. When I published Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump we could not land many book talks at evangelical churches. So I ended up spending most of my time preaching to the choir at secular bookstores, on secular media, and in secular websites and newspapers. My rationale was this: Offering commentary at such places is better than not saying anything at all. Truth-telling is truth-telling. Moreover, I am guessing that my fellow evangelicals read and watch secular media more than they do Christian media. It is likely that I would speak to more evangelicals in The Washington Post or The Atlantic than I would at Christianity Today.
I should also add that part of the reason I wanted to join Jay Green and Eric MIller in starting Current was so that I could have a place to write what I wanted to write in the larger context of a community of thinkers who do not always share my views. We like to think of Current as a place for democratic discourse. Become a member today! 🙂
When I wrote Believe Me, not a day went by in which I did not think the mainstream media was using me to advance its agenda. Actually, one of the reasons I published Believe Me with a Christian press (as opposed to a trade press) was because many of the trade presses and literary agents I approached wanted me to write a book that was more scathing and more critical of evangelicals. I wouldn’t do it.
The role that evangelical influencers are playing in Rob Reiner’s new film is worth discussing. I think that supporting Reiner’s film is something different than speaking to The Washington Post or talking to a religion reporter or CBS News. Reiner is not interested in news. He is an outspoken atheist with an axe to grind.
If Reiner asked me to join this film as a talking head (after all, I was using the term “Christian nationalism” way before it was popular) I don’t know if I would participate. If I did go on camera, I would probably regret it in the end. Whatever the case, I would definitely have to think and pray long and hard before contributing to such an effort. I hope the evangelical influencers who joined this project and are now on social media announcing to the world that they are in a Rob Reiner film have thought this through. I hope they realize that they will be Reiner’s poster men and women when the media blitz starts in February 2024.
Having said all that, I love “All in the Family,” “A Few Good Men,” “The American President,” and “The Princess Bride.” 🙂
Addendum (December 8, 2023 at 5:36pm): After I hit “publish” on this piece I ran across Jake Meador’s piece at Mere Orthodoxy. It is worth a read.
Addendum (December 8, 2023 at 5:55pm): Phil Vischer responds to this piece and I respond back.
Addendum (December 8, 2023, 6:10pm): Another exchange with Vischer:
Addendum: (December 8, 2023 at 6:23pm): I appreciate Phil’s engagement here. I will reserve judgement until I see the film and its rollout. I’ll look forward to listening to Phil talk to the producers. I still think these are real questions and they should not be dismissed out of hand. (For the record, I don’t think Phil is doing that).
Addendum: (December 8, 2023 at 8:47pm). If this IMDB page is true, Reiner was behind the project the entire time. Apparently talking heads like Andrew Whitehead and Phil Vischer were not told about Reiner’s involvement. If they did know, would they still have participated? That’s a fair question.
Update (December 8, 2023 at 9:23pm):
We are now learning that Reiner apparently funded the whole Christian nationalist movie:
Let me reiterate: Each Christian pundit or commentator or scholar will need to come to their own conclusions about participating in these projects. I tried to write with nuance as a person who has faced these dilemmas dozens and dozens of times. It is fair to ask where a Christian draws a line when it comes to serving a project with an ideological agenda of undermining the Christian faith. As I told Phil Vischer, I will reserve judgment as to whether Reiner’s project does this and whether he and his director are capable of finding any nuance in the evangelical community. I am also interested in seeing how the words of these talking heads are used and manipulated to serve the ends of the film. Phil assures me that I will agree with much of the film. (I am sure there will be much I agree with. It is based on Katherine Stewart’s book The Power Worshippers. See my conversation with Katherine “at” the Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.)
But I think for any Christian, the questions I am asking in this post are fair ones. We can come to different conclusions about whether Christian influencers should participate in these projects, but I reject the practice of dismissing my argument in this post as “weird” or a piece of “shit.”
I will continue to add addendums to this post when appropriate, but last year I promised myself I would not get into any more Twitter arguments. I am very close to violating that promise. So if you want to engage on this topic, come join us at CURRENT! ‘d love to dialogue in the comments sections of this post! 🙂
Addendum (December 9, 2023 at 9:42pm):
I have heard today from Andrew Whitehead and Kristin Kobes Du Mez. They were part of this project before Reiner came on board:
Wait a minute, when did you return to Twitter/X?
John, your sources date Reiner’s involvement from 2022; Du Mez says she was involved from 2021. Aren’t historians supposed to get dates in the right order? Reiner couldn’t have been involved “from the very beginning” given this evidence.
Ben: I’ve mostly used Twitter to share things from CURRENT. I still retweet as well. But occasionally I get sucked into things that I don’t want to get sucked into. I am trying to resist temptation! 🙂
David: You’re right. The math doesn’t add up. I changed the title of the post and added yet another addendum. Thanks for the comment.