Lifeway’s recent decision to pull
“The Blind Side” from their shelves has been troubling me since it started
showing up in the press last week. There
have been varied numbers of people within the Christian community who have
shared their views on this issue. They
have expressed themselves well and I would encourage you, if you are so
inclined, to read them. I have put links
below:
If you are not familiar with what
happened, here’s the brief story. The
Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) recently resolved at their convention meeting
at the end of June to remove the movie, “The Blind Side” from their
denomination’s bookstore’s (LIfeway) shelves.
As soon as the press got a hold of it, they all told the story, painting
Lifeway and Southern Baptists as ignorant prudes who miss the point of a good,
redemptive story by focusing on the “impure” aspects of it.
After doing some research on this
whole story, I’ve discovered a different side of this story. Turns out that the pastor who made a big deal
about the movie, although I still don’t agree with him, began a resolution
within his own state’s Southern Baptist Convention back in 2010, the same year
that Lifeway began selling the movie.
So, in fairness to him, his objections to the film’s sales seem to have
occurred fairly quickly after the chain began selling the movie. But why did it take two years for it to get
to the national level? Other than
selling tons of copies of the film, what else occurred during this time within
Lifeway?
Like I said, I don’t have a
problem if people choose to filter the things that they watch, listen to, and
read. In my opinion, we need to be
careful about doing this as it can certainly promote a very one-sided viewpoint
of issues. But the removable of
objectionable material within stores and especially homes, I understand and
even support that. To that end though, I
question as to what caused Lifeway to have allowed the film to be sold in the
first place. If someone within the
organization had viewed it prior to the chain agreeing to sell the film, would
this whole situation have been eliminated?
Did someone watch it? I would
hope that Lifeway has learned a valuable lesson through all of this: monitor
and approve what you are selling to avoid embarrassments like this in the
future.
As I stewed over this situation
and this post, I began to think about the things that the chain sells. To be honest, there are things that are being
sold in there every day that are objectionable to me. Some of the T-shirts, bumper stickers,
movies, and books are downright offensive to me as a follower of Jesus Christ,
but that’s really another post. Part of
this Florida pastor’s objection was probably due to the store’s association
with his denomination, which I can somewhat understand, but don’t be surprised
when a world that desperately needs to hear about Jesus turns a deaf ear to
Christ followers after instances like this.
While I’m not encouraging us to all go out and watch films depicting
gratuitous amounts of sex, violence, and language, anyone who steps into a
mall, a school, or even a place of business knows that things are far from
sanitary in those places. Depending on
the neighborhoods where you reside, it might just be a matter of stepping out
your front door to hear things that you don’t necessarily promote within the
confines or your house.
My biggest struggle with this is
that it comes across as a promotion for a “better time” when Leave It To Beaver
and Father Knows Best ruled the airwaves, when family conflicts were resolved
in half an hour. Life can be very messy,
I have experienced that firsthand over the last 18 months. Things don’t always fit neatly into a box. Sometimes things spill over and they’re not
pleasant, they offend, they hurt.
Sometimes, while attempting to filter out certain offensive aspects of
mediums like movies and books, we miss the greater story and the greater good
that is being portrayed through it all.
As some of my fellow bloggers have written, there are some fairly
objectionable stories within the Bible that could easily be sanitized and
actually have been. How much of the
story of Jonah do kids really get? It
usually has a happy ending. Ever read
the end of the Book of Jonah? It’s far
from a happy ending? Ever read the Book
of Judges? Tent stakes through a man’s
head. A knife thrust into the obese
belly of a king and the fact closing in over it. I just wonder what happens with these
stories.
Throughout the narrative of
Scripture, the people of God are called to be different, to act differently, to
speak differently, and to live differently.
The New Testament writers speak of not being conformed to the pattern of
this world. Theologians have written
books about Christ and culture. There is
to be a difference between those who consider themselves followers of Jesus and
those who don’t. My concern is that
sometimes those differences look foolish not because of Jesus but because of
us. It’s one thing to look foolish over
the radical and reckless message of the Cross, it’s another thing to look
foolish because, well, we just look foolish.
There’s so much more to say on
this and I hope to in days to come. In
the meantime, there are a few takeaways that I see from all of this. First of all, be informed. Make sure that you do your best to get the
whole picture of the story. It’s easy to
think that everything I need to know I can learn from Fox News, CNN, CNBC, or
even Yahoo! News, but we really need to explore further to get a broader
picture. If you own a store or promote
something, make sure you are informed as possible about it. Second of all, think about your reactions to
things, they may look perfectly acceptable to you, but think about the message
that might be conveyed through you reactions.
Not to say that you back down from reactions based upon how others view
them, but there might be a different way of conveying it that maintains a witness
without losing face with those who we are trying to be a witness to.
As long as we live in this world,
we will constantly struggle with how to live.
I am sure that many of us will have our differences in this area. The key in all of it is to try to keep the
conversation going, we can all learn from each other in the midst of it all.
I knew there was a post coming....
ReplyDeleteI need to read through these links; thanks for putting them out there. From a strictly PR perspective, it wouldn't surprise me if Lifeway didn't want to do anything. Popular movie, popular stars. Maybe they didn't see the need to address the concerns of one person or contingent in the presence of solid sales and the possibility of bringing in a non-Christian buying audience.
But, the larger question, which you asked, is why did Lifeway go ahead with selling this from the beginning? What are their standards for items featured in their stores? What was the lobbying point that made the tables turn?
Denominations owning bookstores. There's probably a book in that, too....
Dare I say this, but this controversy does seem a little like "holier than thou." Granted, the man who first objected is well within his SB right to motion for it, but to call for it to be removed on the basis of illogical principles escapes me. It does not follow that seeing or hearing profanities will produce the will to act in kind.
ReplyDeleteObjectionable content in the Bible that I'd rather not explain to my girls:
ReplyDelete- Cain kills Abel
- The rape of Tamar
- Lot sleeps with his daughters
- Jacob cheats his brother; has two wives
- Potiphar's wife tries to seduce Joseph
And that's just in the first book of the Bible! But as Genesis ends off, I'm reminded that what is abrasive and harsh in the text - the things I'd rather not read about - God uses it and even intendeds it all for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.