Pensees: Chad Allen and Steve Saint

Hey bob nice blog-I was grived over this post however.

We don’t know for sure what Steve Saint said since an unbeliever is giving his quotation of it.

As for the “we are on your side” comment—Do you think Rachel Saint was on the side of Mincanyi as she went to preach the gospel to him?

I don’t think your looking at this through gospel eyes, Bob.

In the same way that the spearing of Nate Saint wasn’t a wise choice so the choosing of Chad Allen to play Nate Saint wasn’t a wise choice.

But the foolisness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men. It is the sovereign move of God to take a “foolish” choice and turn it for the elect’s good and for the King’s ultimate glory(tsunami’s are dismaying and so are earthquakes,Bob, but God uses them).

The whole nation is now watching how Steve Saint and Chad Allen interact.

Through this relationship- Steve Saint has been able to become close friends with Chad.
I see the purposes of God in evangelical’s learning how to love sinners where they are at and without compromising truth.

This love that Jesus had for sinners was compelling to the sheep scattered without a shepherd.

Steve loves his “grandfather” who murdered his dad in the same way. Both are divine intervention.

Here’s the essential problem. I saw the film with my family last night. It is a GREAT film as far as filmmaking goes. As finely crafted as any I’ve seen. (Which is unusual for a “Christian” film.) However:

1) The gospel has almost entirely been stripped from this film. By doing so, the filmmakers removed the motivational framework by which Nate Saint and Jim Elliott’s actions made sense. What were they risking their lives for? Just to stop the violence? The filmmakers WASTED a fantastic story about God’s selfless motivating love and His clear redemptive power. What a huge loss! How could anyone think of doing this to such a wonderful story?

2) Casting Chad Allen demonstrated that all involved didn’t use discernment or bring their Christian worldview to this decision. As such, now apparently Mr. Allen is using this movie as a chance to evangelize the Christian world for his homosexual views. He’s now got a platform (which he is agressively using) to continue the drumbeat that God homosexuality/heterosexuality is irrelevant to God. He’s already starred in a play (Corpus Christi) as a gay Jesus with gay disciples. I think it’s entirely possible that Mart Green rationalized that Mr. Allen’s gayness and activism wouldn’t matter - he’s just an actor. Mr. Green was very wrong.

The upshot is this: we are in a spiritual war and Satan is looking for every opportunity to thwart everything that can bring glory to God. We’ll see how much mileage the enemy will get out of this one. One thing’s for sure: the potential for this film largely wasted and for that, I’m very sad.

Gary

Going off of what Scott said, “The whole nation is now watching how Steve Saint and Chad Allen interact.” - This is an opportunity for the gay community to see the example set by Steve Saint - that Christians may not agree with their choices, but we love them anyway. It’s like a parent’s love for their child and, more importantly, God’s love for us - Both our parents and God love us, not because we deserve it, but because it’s the right thing to do. You do not have to agree with Chad Allen’s lifestyle; you do not even have to agree with Steve Saint’s choice in actors; but you do have to have faith in God’s plan to use this movie for His glory. Maybe it’s not even the movie He is trying to use - maybe it was a test for us Christians of our tolerance and non-judgement and setting the example that Christ himself set of love and acceptance, at whatever point we may be in our lives? What if you just failed that test? The bottom line is this: if, during the course of filming, Chad Allen had come to accept Christ, we would not be having this conversation. Everyone would have praised Steve for his gutsy choice and would have admired the way he allowed God to use him. What if the truth is that God just hasn’t finished using him yet…

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Rom 5:8