“Why is the gospel of love dividing America?” This poignant question posed by Dan Merchant sets the framework for his documentary Lord, Save Us from Your Followers. Merchant, a longtime producer and writer whose resume includes stints working for television’s VH1 and CBS, makes his directorial debut with this film. If you’re a fan of Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, it’s probable you’ll enjoy Merchant’s Lord, Save Us.
Lord, Save Us from Your Followers challenges the us-vs.-them mentality that’s become characteristic of American Evangelical Christianity. Quotes such as “outrage and being more right than them doesn’t remind me of Jesus” and “fight fire with fire and you get a bigger fire” are prevalent in the film. Merchant’s call to “get out from behind the microphones and megaphones and have civil conversations” with people will resonate with many church leaders tired of evangelicalism’s bullhorn tactics and mass protests being touted as viable forms of cultural transformation.
Merchant believes the yelling needs to stop and dialogue needs to start, and starting conversations is exactly what Lord, Save Us aims to do. The tagline on the official movie poster, The Conversation Starts Now articulates this. With that in mind, it’s safe to say this film accomplishes its purpose—you will feel the urge to converse.
Indeed, the film itself is a collection of conversations. Merchant travels the continent dressed in a whacky homemade jumpsuit speaking with people from all walks of life. In addition to individuals on the street, Merchant speaks with celebrities such as Al Franken, evangelical leaders such as Tony Campolo, plus many other famous talking heads and politicians. Merchant’s adventures take him to places such as San Francisco, where he encounters Ron Luce’s brainchild BattleCry—a rally organized by Luce that involves teenage Christians protesting the immorality that permeates contemporary culture. Sparks fly when counter-protesters made up of local San Franciscan drag queens show up to confront the sign-holding teens; Merchant seizes the opportunity to have a talk with them, as well.
Merchant travels to Portland where, taking a cue from Donald Miller’s popular book Blue Like Jazz, he sets up a confession booth for people. As in Miller’s book, this confession booth isn’t for people to confess their sins to Merchant, but for Merchant to confess the sins of Christianity to them. The people Dan apologizes to aren’t reveling college students (as in Miller’s book); they’re attendees of Pride Northwest, Portland’s gay pride festival.
In addition, Merchant participates in Night Strike—another event in Portland where Christians serve the city’s homeless population in an all-night service project. He also makes a trek to an adult film convention to hang out with the guys from xxxchurch.com, a Christian ministry aiming to reach porn stars with the love of Christ, and to hurricane-ravaged Mississippi to speak with Christian relief workers in the aftermath of Katrina, plus much more.
In perhaps one of the most telling portions of the film, Merchant organizes a game show styled after “Family Feud” called “Culture War.” Teams made up of “heathens,” that is non-Christian media personnel labeled “secular progressives” or “agnostic scholars,” are pitted against teams made up of conservative evangelical Christians labeled “religious conservatives” and “young believers.” Cultural questions are posed to both sides with the “heathen” teams winning dominating victories in each round. This simple game led to one of the most insightful revelations in the film: the non-Christians easily could predict what Christians thought and would say about a particular issue, but not vice-versa. Indeed, the Christians were so out of touch with contemporary culture they had trouble relating to the “heathens.” Also interesting is that after the game show ended, each team retreated to the green room where they hung out conversing with one another for more than an hour. Both groups came to realize that even though they strongly disagreed with the other, they could still have a civil conversation and even enjoy it. One of the Christian participants commented with surprise: “I actually liked talking to them!”
For all its goodness, Lord, Save Us does have a glaring weakness in this critic’s opinion: Merchant mentions “The Gospel of Love” several times, but he never gets around to sharing what that gospel is. In fact, if one ignorant of the core doctrines of Christianity were to watch this movie, they likely would walk away thinking the gospel is equivalent to doing nice things for others, such as donating to charity (considering Merchant spends much time highlighting the good works of Rick Warren, U2’s Bono and several other philanthropists). The wrath of God against sin, justification by faith, substitutionary atonement, salvation in Christ alone, the reality of hell—none of these topics are touched on or even hinted at in this film.
Also, the final line of the movie could leave some believing Merchant is a universalist. Merchant says at the close of the film, “Sometimes I feel like a river trying to make its way back to the sea. And though the journey is long, I know the sea refuses no river because I belong to the sea, and I believe you do, too.” It almost sounds like he’s saying, “You’re OK no matter what; we’ll all be together with God someday simply because we’re human. What religion you are or aren’t doesn’t matter—blah blah blah—truth is relative.” Just to be clear, I’m fairly positive Merchant does not believe this, so why he would choose to end his movie with this vague quote is baffling.
Christian theology does teach that all people belong to God, but Merchant’s final line leaves out a key biblical truth: We’ll initially make our way back to God to be judged by Him. According to Scripture, polluted “rivers” uncleansed by Jesus will be in trouble of eternal proportions.
The strengths of this film do, however, outweigh the weaknesses; and as mentioned earlier in this review, Merchant’s aim for this movie is to spur discussion, not to provide an in-depth theological education to viewers. (Perhaps this is what ensuing conversations could lead to). This movie will be enjoyed by anyone interested in religious discussion, Christian or not, but especially will be healthy for evangelicals who value argumentation over dialogue.
Lord, Save Us from Your Followers is available on DVD for $24.99. Resources for groups are available at the official movie Web site at LordSaveUsTheMovie.com.
