Opinion
By Movieguide
05-15-24
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
BAD FAITH is a propaganda documentary from the Religious Left, written and directed by a small-time movie producer who happens to be a film and television professor at a Catholic college in Los Angeles. The movie accuses Evangelical Christian conservatives and Republican Christians, from the 1980s to the present day, of waging a racist war against “American Democracy.” The movie uses leftist, progressive pundits, professors, authors, journalists, and activists to make its claims. One of the leftist activists, a reverend, accuses Republican, Christian conservatives of deliberately trying to hurt “poor people” and “sick” people, to give tax breaks to the rich.
BAD FAITH uses falsehoods and misquotes to slander Christian and political conservatives, including top Republican candidates who won the White House. Republican leaders in Congress also come under attack, including Congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert, and Republican Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul. BAD FAITH also defends the Marxist, progressive and secular wings of the Democrat Party and their supporters in the media, education, business, and government. BAD FAITH is a highly partisan piece of political propaganda.
CONTENT:
(RoRoRo, PCPCPC, AbAbAb, SoSoSo, FRFRFR, RHRHRH, HoHo, L, V, M):
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:
Very strong Romantic, Anti-Christian, politically correct, socialist, pro-abortion worldview promoting a false social gospel uses lots of fake revisionist history to slander Evangelical Christian, pro-life conservatives who support Republican candidates such as President Ronald Reagan, and others, plus some pro-LGBT elements;
Foul Language:
Three obscenities includes one “f” word and one “s” word;
Violence:
Images from the riot at the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, plus some newsreel footage of protestors being sprayed by water hoses during the 1960s civil rights movement, but no footage from the 2020 left-wing riots and looting that killed more than 50 people and caused billions of dollars in destruction (and no footage of similar riots in the 1960s);
Sex:
No sex;
Nudity:
No nudity;
Alcohol Use:
No alcohol use;
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:
No smoking or drugs; and,
Miscellaneous Immorality:
Document is guilty of special pleading, distorting empirical facts to slanderously link modern conservatives with the KKK and Southern segregationists of the 1950s and 1960s, who were almost all Southern Democrats.
MORE DETAIL:
BAD FAITH is a propaganda documentary from progressive ideologues and Christian socialists, that accuses Evangelical Christian conservatives and Republican Christians of waging war against “American democracy” and against the Marxist, progressive and secular wings of the Democrat Party and their supporters in the media, education, business, and government. Using leftist, progressive pundits, professors, authors, and activists, BAD FAITH takes some quotes from leading Christian and political conservatives out of context to slander and falsely accuse past and current Christian and conservative supporters of President Donald Trump and other political leaders like Presidents Reagan and George W. Bush, Republican Congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert, and Republican Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul.
The movie’s duplicitous goal is to label, falsely, Evangelical Christian pastors and activists from the 1980s through today. It accuses the Council of National Policy, an umbrella, networking group of Christian and Republican conservative activists and donors, of being the authoritarian, autocratic organizer of “Christian Nationalism”, although many are not Christian! The movie claims they are the ones behind famous Republican conservative candidates who’ve gained national prominence since the 1980s. Of course, President Trump and his supporters, including all the people at the Washington, DC rally on January 6, are the huge culprits in the eyes of the movie and its main director and writer. Naturally, the movie leaves out Trump’s specific instructions on Jan. 6 to protest “peacefully.”
Even worse, BAD FAITH links Republicans and their Christian, conservative supporters to the KKK in the 1920s and to segregationists like Governor George Wallace of the 1950s and 60s, who were almost all Southern Democrats. The movie also promotes the big government socialist policies popular among leading Democrats, including Presidents Obama and Biden, and their extremist activist supporters, such as the heretical black socialist activist, the Rev. William J. Barber II. Republican conservative activist Paul Weyrich, one of the founders of the CNP, is seen as the leading evil schemer behind “Christian Nationalism.” The movie links CNP to such groups as Tea Party Patriots and Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA, a Christian, conservative educational group, even though these two groups are independent of the CNP.
BAD FAITH is a bad, abhorrent piece of progressive propaganda.
First, the movie claims that a group of Christians, labeled “Christian Nationalists” by the movie, have aligned themselves with the conservative movement in the Republican Party and are engaged on waging a political war on “American democracy.” However, the movie never defines the words “American democracy.” Basically, the movie’s argument here comes down to the claim that conservative policies undermine American democracy but totalitarian, progressive, leftist policies defend democracy. Of course, most historians, Republicans and conservatives would disagree. Also, people who understand history and Marxism realize that it is Democrats, progressives and leftists who are trying to undermine America’s system of government.
Second, the movie falsely accuses Christian conservatives of being autocratic, authoritarian racists who want white supremacy and are only interested in power. Ironically, and laughingly, the movie unintentionally actually reveals that religious socialists like the Rev. William J. Barber II are guilty of doing the very same thing, but from the other side! Barber is a socialist flamethrower who loves to hurl wild, slanderous accusations against Republicans and conservatives. Several times during the movie, he claims that Republicans and conservatives are racists who overtly want to hurt poor people and sick people and give tax breaks only to the rich. In reality, however, the tax cuts and regulatory cuts passed by President Trump during his first term resulted in the lowest unemployment since President Clinton’s term, a significant increase in average annual income, and a 13% drop in the average tax liability for the middle class. In contrast to that last number, people with income of more than $1 million only saw a 5.8% tax cut. Meanwhile, the big government policies of President Biden saw an inflation increase from only 1.4% under Trump to more than 9%, coupled with a decrease in average income.
Third, the movie only really interviews one supposed Christian Nationalist, the Rev. Ken Peters, the pastor of a small church, and he sounds much less radical and more reasonable than all the other clips that the movie’s filmmakers dredge up. They don’t really question this man and don’t let any other Evangelical Christian Republicans or conservatives answer their objections. If CNP is so clearly evil, why not interview publicly a spokesman from that very diverse group? Of course, as regular listeners to Conservative Talk Radio know, these Democrat Party, socialist extremists, activists, authors, and pundits regularly refuse to be interviewed by conservative talk show hosts. If you can’t stand the heat, folks, get out of the kitchen. MOVIEGUIDE® knows of only one truly famous Marxist, socialist author who ever agreed to an hour-long interview on Conservative Talk Radio, and that was when the late Marxist historian, Howard Zinn, agreed to discuss his views with conservative author Dennis Prager on Prager’s radio show.
Fourth, the movie makes several significant factual errors. For example, it says Paul Weyrich, the Republican conservative activist, founded the Council for National Policy in 1981, but Weyrich was only one of several founders. Other founders included Tim LaHaye, author of LEFT BEHIND and minister, conservative politician and activist Howard Phillips, and oil company executive Nelson Bunker Hunt. Also, the movie claims that Protestant Christians didn’t become anti-abortion until the late 1970s, years after the Supreme Court’s infamous 1973 ruling legalizing abortion. This claim originates from a book, also titled BAD FAITH, by Dartmouth professor and pro-abortion sympathizer Randall Balmer. This claim is false. First, Protestant Christians led the way in the 1800s to codify laws outlawing abortion. Their efforts led to a widespread national opposition to abortion in the United States. Furthermore, opposition to the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision actually started right away. Long before Jerry Fallwell formed the Moral Majority in 1979, Protestant theologian Harold O.J. Brown, an editor at CHRISTIANITY TODAY wrote against it, on Feb. 16, 1973. Also, Protestant theologian Francis Schaeffer started arguing against abortion, and it was his moral opposition to abortion and that of United States Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop, that convinced Baptist pastor Jerry Falwell and other Christian conservatives to make it a primary sociopolitical issue.
Finally, there are only a few conservatives who call themselves “Christian Nationalists.” It’s mainly a pejorative term that Democrats, progressives, leftists, and their fellow-travelers in the mass media use to slander their political opponents.
It should be noted that the movie’s main director, who’s a film and television professor for Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles, once worked with French Marxist filmmaker Jean-luc Godard, according to the professor’s university bio.
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Link to Movieguide: BAD FAITH: CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM’S UNHOLY WAR ON AMERICAN DEMOCRACY – Movieguide | Movie Reviews for Families
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida
