HE THAT HATH AN EAR,
LET HIM HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT SAITH UNTO THE CHURCHES

Dr. David C. Bennett

January 19, 2006

Is it old fashioned to desire purity for yourself and for the Lord’s churches? Are we not told in three places in Scrpture to be holy as He is holy? Sadly, the convictions once held by the Lord’s churches in their desire to be holy are now considered legalistic by some. But are they?

Then there is the preaching of today. Where are the preachers who will thunder "Thus saith the Lord"? Where are the men of God that will cry out against Hollywood and its ungodliness? Where are the churches that will stand alone with their pastor when other churches and their pastors are rushing headlong into entertaining the world on its way to hell?

It wasn’t that long ago that the evangelicals and some "fundamentalists" were purportedly using Mel Gibson’s THE PASSION as an opportunity to evangelize the lost. It didn’t matter if Gibson and the one playing the Lord Jesus were devoted Roman Catholics.

I recently received a critique of the NBC television show "The Book of Daniel". According to the critique this television programme is about an Episcopal clergyman and his family. In keeping with the times the Reverend’s son is a homosexual. The devil has an agenda!

How did we get to the place where a programme like THE BOOK OF DANIEL would be on television? Have the Lord’s people ceased to be the salt and light to their community because the pastor’s have ceased to thunder "Thus saith the Lord"? Have the messenger’s of the Word ceased to warn God’s people with tears and words to "abstain from all appearance of evil"? Has the Lord’s people so rebelled against His Word that they too find programmes like THE BOOK OF DANIEL entertaining?

Perhaps some professing Christians will not appreciate this NBC programme and therefore will not watch it. That is good. But then they will accept music, literature, entertainment and places of entertainment that are "sanctified" if a Christian story is told (or thought to be told such as Narnia) or mentions the name of Jesus?

In the December 2005-January 2006 issue of Jerry Falwell’s National Liberty Journal was the article FILM RECOUNTS ENDURING LEGACY OF SLAIN MISSIONARIES written by the Journal’s Editor J.M. SMITH. Mr. Smith wrote that "On September 2, Dr. Jerry Falwell, along with several family members and Liberty University staff, spent the morning in an unusual fashion: we attended a movie at a local theater." If it isn’t wrong to be there, why would anyone think it unusual?

The movie which Dr. Falwell took several of his "family members and Liberty University staff" was END OF THE SPEAR produced by Mart Green. It was interesting to read in the article that Mart Green is "¼ a member of the family that bestowed Liberty with a very special gift — the former Ericsson megaplex that now serves as Liberty’s Campus North¼ " Deuteronomy 16:19 "¼ a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous."

Mr. Green said he "¼ had never been to a movie theater prior to taking on this role." I wonder why he never attended the theatre before. Did he once have old fashioned convictions that determined where he allowed his feet to take him? Psalm 119:101 "I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word."

Of course now we are living in the twenty first century and Mr. Green "¼ believes the time is ripe for Christians to enter the world of filmdom." The editor of the Journal was so excited with the film, END OF THE SPEAR, that he said the "National Liberty Journal enthusiastically endorses this exceptional and inspiring film that is certain to touch the souls of many viewers — Christians as well as non-Christians."

Now, if the National Liberty Journal and Dr. Jerry Falwell endorse this film, by all means the pastor’s and their flocks are free to go to the theatre house and view this "Christian" film! Right? That is how gullible many pastors are! Perhaps Psalm 119:59, which says "I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies", applies here. Rather than following men, preachers need to follow God’s Word and use their God given capacity to think and make a U turn back to His testimonies! Would it be too much for God’s people to say with the Psalmist in 119:101 that "I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word." These films do not lead to spirituality. I remember a young man saying to me after he had been to see The Passion, how much closer he now was to the Lord. I asked him if he had read his Bible that morning or that week and his answer was he hadn’t. I didn’t say anything but I think he got the message.

The promotion of this film by new evangelicals such as Jerry Falwell and his editor is also interesting for another reason. Dr. Falwell has in the past been very vocal against homosexuality and same sex marriages. Why is it I was not totally surprised to read that one of the actors, Chad Allen, is a homosexual and a vocal homosexual activist at that!

Well, how does the family of a martyred missionary react to a homosexual playing the part of two of their family members, Nate Saint/Steve Saint? According to the 17 January 2006 Agape Press "Allen himself voiced concerns that the Saint family might object to having a homosexual man play their family members in the film. However, to his surprise the actor learned that Steve Saint himself had approved of his casting after seeing a 2003 article in The Advocate, in which Allen talked about the importance of doing good works and serving others."

I had never heard of Chad Allen before so straight to Google I went. Chad Allen has his own web page, http://www.chadallenonline.com/bio/index.html. Here you will read that "Courageously, in the October 9, 2001 issue of The Advocate, Chad came out as a gay man. He also acknowledged past problems with drugs and alcohol.

He also has spoken to a number of groups and at events about gay rights issues including taking part in a forum on Larry King Live on the issue of gay marriage."

Then Allen received the part "¼ as Donald Strachey, in Third Man Out. Here TV a gay and lesbian television network approached Chad with the detective story written by Richard Stevenson, and Chad signed on to do 6 movies in the Donald Strachey Mystery Series.

He has also lent his support to a large number of charities over the years, including¼ the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, AIDS Project Arizona, and AIDS Project Los Angeles" (emphasis mine).

Then on http://www.chadallenonline.com/press/advocate2005.htm one reads more of the promotion of sodomites and their lifestyle. We read that Allen "¼ was immediately entranced at the idea of [Donald's] relationship [with his partner, Timothy Calahan]. It's a fantastic, real, gay, monogamous, loving relationship. They have their ups and their downs, they've been together for a long time, they're really dependent on each other, and I just love that. And Donald was a great character, a detective in the classic sense of an old-school private eye detective." Then if this isn’t enough we read Allen saying "And that's what Donald is-and he's gay." Then he goes on to say that he gets "¼ to make this fun movie with all those classic elements¼ but our character gets to go home and get into bed with a man."

In the same article Allen says that "One of our major goals was to create a really powerful, loving gay relationship that hasn't really been done in television" (emphasis mine).

Is this the kind of person a Christian family would want to play the part of their martyred loved one? If the viewing "Christian" and non-Christian audience know this about Allen can they dissect his sodomite life from the film?

How did we get to the place where a prominent, once independent, thought to be fundamental Baptist, would "enthusiastically" promote a so called Christian film with a sodomite in two of the starring roles!?

Did THE PASSION by Mel Gibson get all this started or did it begin a long time ago? Think about this; is it right for born again believers to go to the movie house in the first place and secondly, go and help finance a theatre that also promotes the ungodly trash from Hollywood? Is it right for a Christian to view a so called "Christian" film with a self proclaimed homosexual activist playing in it? Is God pleased with this "Christian" film and a man who has left ‘the natural use of the woman" and has "burned" in his lust "toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet"?

If I know Chad Allen is a homosexual Jerry Falwell has to know it. Can viewing a film like this create a condition wherein many professing Christians will begin to accept sodomites and sodomy as just another lifestyle? The eye gate is not to be taken lightly. Jesus said in Mt 5:28 "¼ That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 1:8 that "¼ the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." Will viewing a self proclaimed homosexual in a "Christian" film incite some to experiment?

In closing consider Psalm 101:3 "I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me." This matter of homosexuality, evangelical and fundamental churches is serious. Please take time to read these articles if you have not already done so.

http://www.bennett.biblefortoday.org/Articles/homosexuality.htm HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE CHURCHES ACCORDING TO MARCUS BORG

http://www.bennett.biblefortoday.org/Articles/homosexuality2.htm AN ANSWER TO A QUESTION ASKED BY A RADIO LISTENER

http://www.bennett.biblefortoday.org/Articles/homosexuality3.htm INDEPENDENT BAPTISTS AND THE GROWING ACCEPTANCE OF HOMOSEXUALITY