Lord Save Us from Your Followers

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I was recently invited to fly to Hollywood to be on a panel to view the premiere of a new documentary film titled Lord, Save Us From Your Followers. Here is my quick take on this movie.

While it seeks to call Christians on the carpet for their failure to follow Christ, it has a redeeming quality that ironically shows the unique ability of Christianity to be self-critical and self-correcting. Think about it. Because Christianity has confidence in an immutable standard of rightness and wrongness—an absolute moral compass, if you will—it has the unique ability to step back and look at itself critically and ”repent,” ”reform,” and ”revive.”

I have to admit I was saddened by yet another documentary loaded with caricatures of thoughtless, red-faced, angry people claiming to be Christians, but I also found myself strangely amused by the obvious: The indignation that this movie seeks to kindle in the heart and mind of the viewer would have no meaning whatsoever if there is no righteousness to contextualize it and to serve as its fuel.

Thus, with a bit of a backhanded compliment, Lord, Save Us From Your Followers and all other similar criticisms of Christianity affirm the very thing they apparently seek to refute. Christianity is real. It is permanent and it is true. Christianity stands alone as a worldview capable of selfless repentance, self-effacing reformation, and self-correcting revival. Without the self-evident truth found in the Logos, without Christ, we have nothing left but subjective opinions to serve as a basis for being offended by Christians (or anyone else for that matter). For without a Savior bigger than self, indignation is meaningless and survival-of-the-fittest is the only thing left that can win at the end of the day.