Michael Medved's Homosexual Hypocrisy

Today on his syndicated radio show, Michael Medved spent time complaining about the gay agenda of Hollywood. Decrying (and I believe rightly so) the attention being paid to Brokeback Mountain, he called the recent awards show the "Golden Gays." I believe that is an appropriate conservative and moral critique. I applaud him for presenting it.

But his moral standing was gravely undermined when he then turned around and began promoting The End of the Spear. Now if you haven't heard about this movie, it is the story of Nate Saint, Jim Elliott and the other missionaries who were martyred in Ecuador 50 years ago this month, told from the perspective of the natives. This is one of my favorite stories. I even played the role of Jim Elliott in the play about their lives The Bridge of Blood when I was in high school.

I had heard about the movie being made, and was looking forward to the story receiving a fresh telling to a new audience. It is a story of Christian faith, love, sacrfice and forgiveness that should never be lost. But I was shocked and saddened (I know I should not expect this vile world to be a friend of grace, but still...) to find that the production company had deliberately selected one of the leading gay activists in Hollywood, Chad Allen, to play the role of Nate Saint.

The first I heard about this was in an article posted at Sharper Iron (which is worth a regular look if you want to know what's going on in the rational wing of the religious right), detailing that the "Christian" production company had intentionally chosen Allen for the role after seeing him profiled in the Advocate, a leading gay activist magazine! Needless to say that decision (and let me make it clear that while I firmly believe that homosexual conduct is a sin, my specific beef is not with Chad Allen, but with the promotion he is receiving from this project and the needless compromise of the "Christian" film company) has pretty much ruined this one for me. And hearing Michael Medved voice his unconditional support for this project and encourage churches to go see it to "send a message" to Hollywood was the final straw for me.

When I called Medved's show to voice my complaint, his producer refused to let me on the air to register my complaint and then hung up on me. If you go to movies, I strongly encourage you to give this one a pass. Rewarding this kind of intentional misconduct by "Christian" entertainment companies will only insure more of this abominable behavior.