Rhetoric Race and Religion
Premiering at the Woodstock Film Festival (and in Spain) on Oct. 4th American Jesus documents the strange relationship between faith, materialism, politics and personal spiritual passions in what is a uniquely American inner life. American Jesus asks how dynamic and loving faith may coexist with the darker side of cynical empire building and magical thinking. In asking this question, with a level of intuitive intelligence I’ve never seen before in a film on religion, American Jesus shows us how the best and worst coexists in big time American religion. The movie shows us the paradoxically improbable combination of idealism and crass grasping for riches and striving for power. This combination of the venal and the sublime is what American religion is. And this matters because we impact the rest of the world as the world’s only superpower. What we believe translates into global, often violent, action.
There is something extraordinarily dangerous and ugly at the heart of American life: literalistic religion. There is something extraordinarily beautiful and enlightening at the heart of American life: literalistic religion. Now there is a movie that explores this paradox: what’s uniquely best about America — religious freedom — is also our continuous downfall.
I’m an author and commentator not a journalist. So it’s not often I get the pleasure of stumbling on what’s called a “scoop.” This time I’m beating the rest of the media to a big story. My scoop is to introduce a movie to you. American Jesus is an important documentary that will redefine how the world looks at America and how we Americans look at ourselves. I only know about this movie because I’m in it. So last week I had the privilege of seeing an advance screening.
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