Prediction Of "Same Kind Of Different As Me" Flop - a race-baiting misfire for Christians and seculars alike

Full disclosure: I have interests tied to this commentary; and that's as much detail as I can give.

I want Pure Flix to succeed. I want Christian film to succeed. But - and I can be wrong, God knows I've been wrong before, I don't think Same Kind of Different will.

I'm guessing Pure Flix encountered a deal, since production here was at least partially leveraged by Paramount. And Paramount has tried in the past to get in on faith-related entertainment, to disastrous ends. It seems they've learned their lesson here, at least to some degree, cutting losses before they stepped too far in.

In accordance with news convention, I have to disclose that I have interests indirectly effected by principals involved in this article, though I can't divulge details. To the effect of my personal involvement, I really would like to help Christian films be better, but they seem to be headed in a rather hapless, unintelligent direction. This article, as well as all my writings, are intended to help steer Christian films onto a more effective course. There's no malice intended; although, naturally, these kinds of issues stir lots of strong feelings all around. And it doesn't give me any joy to make a negative prediction about a group of people claiming Christ making a film. But unless I'm specific about my predictions, when it's proven right, it bears no credibility. And that's the reason I take the trouble to name the movie, "Same Kind of Different As Me," here.

I'm not further belaboring the point about the fact that I expect it to fizzle. And perhaps Pure Flix expects as much, and only acquired it because it was a deal already partially financed. No doubt, this prediction will have an impact on release, but that can't be helped. That's not the intention of this post; the intention here is to illustrate at least one facet of the reason today's "Christian" cinematic fare is failing.

Christians are some of the most intelligent folks in the country. Christians showed in "Woodlawn" (also associated with Pure Flix" that we really don't like being bashed over the head with trite racial narratives.

It's not that Christians are haters. Quite the opposite. The problem is that Christians are dwelling on a theme that is derived principally not from the Bible - despite the modern "hermeneutics" behind the well-worn theme - but rather, from the media.

We Bible-believing Christians believe in the virtues of being a "Good Samaritan." What's a Good Samaritan? Somebody who helps someone in need close by. Someone who helps widows, orphans, and aliens. I applaud that Biblical aspect of the faith message of "Same Kind Of Different As Me."

So, what's the problem? Why do I predict this will barely make bank, or eke by in the Box Office?

The same reason Woodlawn did. And you'd think we'd have learned from Woodlawn.

Christians who really believe in the Bible may find the idea of whites helping out a black man a curious and charitable endeavor. I kind of do. But it will have to be better than Sandra Bullock in The Blindside. And The Blindside did a pretty good job.

Now, I'm certain "Same Kind of Different" will be more overtly Biblical. I'm sure Pure Flix will score major points with the liberal media who's pushing this kind of mildly veiled white-guilting thing that's so popular among the liberal media, which, remember, is the world that I come from.

I have to be really clear, too, I think it's great for anyone who's privileged to help someone who's not, regardless of race, including the situation portrayed in the movie.

But the fact is, from "Remember the Titans" to Django Unchained, the theme has been all but run into the ground over the past fifty years. There would have to be some major plot hook that sets this apart from all of the above, a radical spin that will appeal to guilty-leaning secular liberals to pull this off.

Real, Bible-believing Christians - we care about minorities, and for that matter, poor people who aren't minorities. We care about those struggling with sin. What we don't care for is - really as a result of guilty-conscience media personalities playing the race card for fifty years - having the media dump in our living rooms every evil and negative social and existential threat happening around the world every day of our lives.

We enjoy caring for the disenfranchised neighbor next door, but we don't appreciate Barack Obama dumping violent illegals and terrorists in our backyard. We don't appreciate again, those guilty-conscience do-gooding politicians who, likely, are guilty about something entirely unrelated, and try to compensate morally through their own sacramental obsession with dumping more social problems in our living room than we have the mental, emotional, physical, or spiritual wherewithal to handle. And really, that's what I mean when I say that the producers of this overwrought white-guilting, black-victim kind of race narrative - which I'm certain shows the inevitable Christ figure in the minority character; I'm still kind of shaking my head at the thought of the wistful-sounding limping coach from Woodlawn.

I think it was the Christian movie critic Ted Baher who pointed out that Woodlawn failed principally because it tried to hit two targets at once - Christians and the mainstream, and thus solidly missed both.

And that's kind of what's happening here. Christianity has such a lucrative market potential. But once again, it seems that unlike in the advent of pop Christian music, Christian movies trying to be popular today are rooted in a Hollywood filled with behind-the-times ideas, and simply all-around lack of genuine inspiration.

It's like Christian Hollywood has forgotten even its own roots, classics like the Gospel Blimp, which clearly call attention to the threat of technology (implicitly, movies themselves) to genuine, authentic faith.

And that's the real hangup of Christian cinema today. It's a kingdom divided against itself, in that it doesn't understand its own identity. It's clinging to this old kind of - again, not Biblical, but media values, and not only media values, but values which are quickly going out of favor with the American people. And again, by that, I mean the quickly dwindling American self-hatred narrative, which is really kind of what the race card narrative really is.

Nobody loves this blessed nation and the people who made it more than Christians. Christians have an indelibly clear "organizational memory" of how God delivered us from the wilderness of a world that did not allow freedom of Worship. That's how this blessed land got founded. It was by taking those life-risks that the Puritans, that Columbus, discovered this blessed place. And while I'm sure Christian Hollywood means well, it's not just adopting a narrative about adoption and kindness to foreigners.

Christian Hollywood is unwittingly buying into an outmoded - I would go so far as to call it a superstition. A media-imposed superstition that Baby Boomers have been trained into by old Broadcast Television and Radio, and its Hollywood culture. Like many false gospels, it's a kind of salvation-through-works gospel, this media-imposed gospel of the mainstream media. And Christian movie-producers mean well by buying into it, and continuing this Hollywood trend of white-guilting, of black-guilting, of America-guilting. It's a kind of confessional booth, except instead of performing ten "Hail Mary's," the media says our sacrificial goat instead is to forcibly integrate all incompatible American subcultures faster than they could ever hope to assimilate.

And real, Bible-believing Christians understand this is bogus.

Now, as I said, as this project originates from Paramount, which apparently knows better than to try to force the integration of Christian movies and secular culture - I'm assuming that this was a much sweetened deal financially to acquire by Pure Flix. But as a Bible-believing Christian, I guess I'm simply bewildered by the ignorance among Christian movie producers of their own audience. I don't even think minorities particularly enjoy the patronization any more.

It's just a case of a so-called "Christian" movie producer, rooted in really bad theology, race-bating as a means of attempting to guilt Christians in to buying a movie ticket. And as for the secular person - again, it's a really, really old media trick that unless you're an out-of-touch baby boomer, who likely doesn't have the time or will to sit in a movie theater for fourteen dollars a pop - and even Baby Boomers never really liked being guilted into hating the best darned nation on earth -

Who is this movie for? It's not intelligent enough for Christians. I can tell you right now, I'm not a homeschooler, but homeschooled people are some of the smartest in the nation, because they haven't been brainwashed by the failing public school system. And they're not going to stand for this kind of thing. Certainly won't pay ten, fifteen, twenty dollars for a Woodlawn-Blindside- already-been-done with a predictable and well-trod theme.

Finally, I have to say that if you want to make a winning picture that the secular and Christian audience really will love, I have the script and score ready for you to check out. It's not an easy read, as it's intended first and foremost as a ground-breaking musical screenplay that makes full use of the screen and the audience's attention. It really is a work of art.

And Pure Flix, if you'd like to check it out, I'd be more than happy to co-produce it with you. I am sincerely sorry it's come to this. We did try, didn't we?

See, God's Not Dead, like War Room, knew its audience well. But Christians are a patriotic people. We're the smartest people, because, simply, we still read stuff and talk to people in real life. And Christian Hollywood, you're taking the very worst quality of the mediasphere, which is it's entirely being out-of-touch with real people who have real lives. I respect the effort, but I don't think anyone can really respect the methods. Not secular audiences, even in urban-educated cities most vulnerable to race-baiting, and certainly not those of us who strive to live that Word. I'm sorry for any errors in communication here. I wish there were another way to communicate this.

I care for the church, and my writing this in a rather public setting is something of a last resort. And I can't help but feel that the evils that both those who call themselves the church are steeped in sink to a sub-Christian, even sub-human level. But if you're a major studio, you've read the screenplay, and so you understand. Please do be in touch, so we can resolve this matter like Christians are supposed to. I don't enjoy this any more than you.

As a Christian, I'd use the word "pride" with great caution. But I acknowledge the great blessing that being a part of the great American tradition is. Any kind of story that hints that somehow, the Bible belt is to blame for believing in the Bible; any suggestion that the American way, though faulty, is somehow something that needs to be overhauled by the kind of entertainer-type that ends up in TinselTown, "Christian" or not -- and I can tell you, even the churches in Hollywood aren't churches - it's just not a Christian narrative. And while guilty feelings serve the purpose of helping correct us when we are wrong, millennials both religious and non-religious, both saved and unsaved, have an acute awareness and disdain for false guilt. And actually, nowhere is that disdain more pronounced than in the modern Evangelical church that you're trying to reach.

That said, as with Woodlawn, I would suspect that "Same Kind of Different" will garner the same allies in the Mainstream Media, possibly including even Fox News - which will give it great opinion press - however, of course, nobody respects the mainstream media any more, so I do not believe it will help make bank on the project.

Again, I can't be apologetic enough writing a post like this. It truly is kind of a last resort. We tried to connect, but failed; and if you do want a profitable, God-edifying script, all you have to do is ask.

You know who you are, the people I'm apologizing to for the means in which I feel is the last resort for communicating this message. I'm not naming you here out of profound respect for your spiritual journey. But you're not being financially, morally, or pastorally, spiritually responsible. And if I don't tell you, who will? I'm a servant of the Lord, and I sincerely believe it's my purpose to tell you when you're steering my brothers and sisters in the Lord wrong. And if you don't understand the fundamental idolatry baked into the medium of film, or at least entertain that kind of question - and I'm sure you do to some degree - I guess I just think that the place you're taking viewers is less than - well, pure. None of us are perfect communicators. But this is a discussion that needs to be had.

It's bad enough that Mosaic is leading people astray in Hollywood, with cult-pagan theology. And I don't want that theological cancer to spread throughout America just because you have some fancy technological toys the rest of us don't. Thankfully, Hollywood has all but been dethroned as a producer of content, so we will be free from the way it's poisoned America. I just feel so strongly as a man after God's heart about sticking a "Christian" label on content I feel is leading people into the same dark place as that Mosaic cult on Hollywood Boulevard. And I can't have it. I just- as I said, you have that call of conscience, a Christian thing, a manhood thing - that sense you just can't sleep at night because you know something's terribly wrong. And that's the still soft voice of God haunting me, and telling me, Peter, do something about this.