Still at the movies

I realize part of the mania for The Sound of Freedom is that the central figure is a member; that effect will not necessarily carry through with other "faith-based" films. 

There is another one I have seen some ads for, and I would like to explore that for a minute.

After all, my problem with The Sound of Freedom is not that Tim Ballard is a member of the church, but that it is an emotionally manipulative transparent cash grab based on lies. 

https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-sound-of-distraction-sound-of-hype.html

I do wonder if the increased scrutiny of the movie is part of what led to Ballard leaving Operation Underground Railroad. If the organization starts doing better work, that's great, but it won't stop Ballard from fundraising or from being him.

Regardless, for any movie that is supposed to encourage faith, (while I might have some reasonable concerns about quality) I am only going to be against that if it is doing so falsely or harmfully. 

If your values are professedly Christian but not in harmony with the words and action of Jesus Christ, then that is a problem, and one that really gets to me.

You can imagine my concern when I saw advertising for The Blind, a movie sharing the love story of Phil and Kay Robertson of Duck Dynasty.

I admit that I don't know a lot about the Robertson family. I remember once a photo going around of what they looked like before the show, when at least the sons were all clean-shaven and wearing polo shirts. Okay, they used to be more preppie, fine; that's not a big deal to me.

Unfortunately, with increasing fame comes increasing opportunities to share your opinion. I still didn't hear that much from father Phil Robertson, but what I did hear was pretty appalling.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/phil-robertson-black-people_n_4473474

Referring to the time before the Civil Rights era:

“I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person," Robertson is quoted in GQ. "Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field.... They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!... Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”

Wrong, but honestly wrong in a way that I have heard from multiple white people, including some who are LDS.

On the age women should be married:

https://www.cnn.com/2013/12/31/showbiz/duck-dynasty-phil-robertson-comments/index.html

“Look, you wait ‘til they get to be 20 years old, the only picking that’s going to take place is your pocket. You got to marry these girls when they are about 15 or 16. They’ll pick your ducks.” 

He advises the boys to check with the girls' parents first, but not any agency for the girl; not if you want her to be working for you instead of you working for her.

Robertson himself has followed this advice, marrying 16 year old Kay when he was 20 (though apparently a year after the birth of their first child).

Godly.

Anyway, the first ad I saw seemed to imply that it was Kay's love that saved him; others make that less clear. They do show her as a pillar of strength as he yells at her, threatens her, and kicks her out of the trailer toting four little children. 

Maybe the 20 year old was not quite ready for marriage either.

I am not saying that most members want that for their daughters. Also, a big part of their problem appears to have been alcohol, and members might feel safe from that.

However, I am less sanguine that we would not hear a watered down version of that quote, where you do need to be married young, and that is good and right, and not think about the problems that can come with that. 

There is a big part of conservative culture focusing on the importance of women being subservient, not having their own careers and thoughts and feelings, and proudly caring for their homes and children. Getting a teenager married off to an older, domineering man before she has had a chance to come into her own works well for the domineering man, but it's not great for the girls.

And we have two many girls who were at least able to get a term in at BYU and they still know that.

Families are important, and focusing too much on temporal careers is not good for anyone.

It is easy to ignore the privilege in who even gets that option, but my primary concern is how many women have ended up with men who do not respect them, who do not care about what is difficult for them, and who are content to serve without being served. 

I am concerned about the women who will tolerate emotional and even physical abuse and feel that is the way it should be, taking inspiration from another woman whose husband eventually got better.

It's easy to hear a bit of something and think it sounds right without thinking deeper. Both articles about Robertson mention his homophobia, which did get him briefly suspended. There are church members that will agree with that, even though he is talking in a way that the leaders don't.

And it goes along with racism and sexism.

It always done.

There are some really hateful thoughts that are really popular when they are separated by just a degree from that hatefulness, but the hate is still infectious and it grows.

We need to be really careful about that.