February (Web-only) 2006 News & Miscellaneous Movies & TV

ARTICLE TOOLS

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See also today's opposing view, "'The Wrong End of the Spear' | Is Christian passion for purity blinding them to their missionary impulse?"

I have been waiting for a national Christian leader to comment on "End of the Spear" and the casting of Chad Allen in the lead role. Their voices are strangely silent. After all of their build up, that we finally have a movie of our own, they seem to be frozen in indecision or mired in accepting silly arguments for Chad's inclusion.

My deceased wife, Beth Youderian, was Roger Youderian's daughter. Roger was one of those men who died on "Palm Beach" in 1956, at the end of a spear.

Beth and I were strong supporters of the work Mart and Steve have been doing. Beth would have been appalled at this decision and I feel betrayed.

I'm sure Chad is a nice guy, but he wasn't the man for this role. Making the "story the star" and using the best secular means to tell it, sounds like "the end justifies the means." Would the Christian community be ok with doing the "Billy Graham Story" with an atheist pedophile because he had the best audition? Would Franklin Graham, James Dobson, Falwell and the rest, sit silent and just say that it's the story that's important? And why not have secular professionals perform your church music if it enhances the worship of God? If we cannot respond to this firmly, but in love, this is a sad day for the Christian church in the US. This film and it's making have become a parable for the weakness of the American church. How dare we wonder why our divorce and "lives adrift" counts look just like the secular world. We talk one thing, and live something else.

What bothers me is that the story of what happened on the beach wasn't just one man's story. There were five men and ...