Response to "The Passion of Hotel Rwanda" by Rev. Glenn Barth
Brian McLaren wrote a recent article in Leadership Journal in response to the movie Hotel Rwanda. (click here to read) In it, he is critical of Christians responding overwhelmingly to The Passion of the Christ and not at all to Hotel Rwanda. Having recently begun work with the Mission America Coalition, I knew that several of our staff were deeply involved (at the request of Mel Gibson and Icon Productions) with promotion of The Passion, so I sought their response to the article. Glenn has some fantastic insight, so after you read McLaren's article, please get a complete perspective by reading Glenn's response below!
Dear Friends at Leadership,

Below is a response to Brian McLaren’s recent article, “The Passion of Hotel Rwanda.” As National Facilitators for the Mission America Coalition, Rev. Jarvis Ward and I activated our volunteer network to hold “Passion Summits” in over 100 locations to mobilize Christians in America to see Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” and use it as an evangelistic opportunity. Through these summits, over 13,000 pastors and ministry leaders in cities and communities across our nation came together in the six weeks prior to the film’s release to make plans for collaborative outreach that included theater rental, extensive prayer for the impact of the film, approaching theater managers to have the film shown in local theaters, invitational evangelism, and the distribution of resources related to the film.

Thanks for this stimulating article. It is unfortunate that the distributors of Hotel Rwanda did not learn how to market to Christians after seeing the success of The Passion of the Christ, if the church is their target market. Perhaps those who wish to reach this market segment will learn to think outside the box of mainstream marketing strategies as Icon Productions did with The Passion.

In Christ,

Rev. Glenn Barth
National Facilitator For City/Community Ministries
Mission America Coalition

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Recently a friend sent me a link to the article by Brian McLaren, "The Passion of Hotel Rwanda" in Leadership and asked me for an evaluation of his argument. McLaren is such a thoughtful, articulate writer. I often find his work provocative in the best sense. This article clearly reflects Brian's recent consciousness raising experience in Burundi contrasted with the seemingly self-centered Evangelical American Church which was easily mobilized in support of Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ. He wonders why the church was not mobilized in a similar way to view Hotel Rwanda.

I, too, am disappointed that American Evangelicals were not mobilized to see this film. While I have not seen Hotel Rwanda, I plan to see it this weekend. My friend and mentor, Dr. Arthur Rouner, does healing retreats for the grieving and estranged survivors of the genocide in the Great Lakes region of East Africa and for refugees from Rwanda and Burundi currently living in Nairobi, Kenya (www.pilgrimcenter.org). There is no doubt that Christians need to be more aware of this tragedy and the roles, both intentional and unintentional that Christians have played. McLaren is right in calling for repentance, but repentance is not the same as "re-thinking" an issue of social justice. Repentance is charting a new course and sailing full sail in that new Godward direction.

Brian takes his condemnation of the promotion of one film vs. another into the realm of the polemic to make a point. However, he blurs important distinctions and fails to realize why Christians were mobilized for one film and not the other.

The Christian community in our nation promoted The Passion of The Christ and not Hotel Rwanda for several reasons. The first is that Mel Gibson asked. He came to Evangelical leaders and previewed his film for Christian leaders in many settings in the four months prior to release and asked for prayer and for assistance to get the Christian community across the nation out to see the film. Second, he offered Christian resource providers the opportunity to produce materials themed with the Passion of The Christ (Bibles, Bible Studies, Sermons, Bulletin Jackets, Tracts, Inserts, T-Shirts, etc.). Third, the film was made about a basic tenet of doctrine; an historical depiction of the arrest, trial and crucifixion of Christ. It was done in such a way that it honored the Biblical texts and the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church with representations of the 12 Stations of the Cross. This meant that virtually all of the American Church, both Protestant and Roman Catholic could embrace this story. Fourth, the church saw this as an opportunity for evangelism and many were willing to invite their friends to see and discuss this film.

As far as I am aware, the makers and distributors for Hotel Rwanda never asked American Evangelicals to get behind their film. It was never previewed by leaders in the church. It was released in the open marketplace and many never heard of the film until it had been playing in their market for some time. Second, the makers of this film did not engage resource providers with the opportunity to develop Bible Studies or sermons around their film's subject matter. Third, Hotel Rwanda deals with the working out of our faith and as such it is a courageous story of true discipleship. Similar films would be Schindler's List, and The Hiding Place (1975 -- Billy Graham Motion Pictures), which is the story of the Ten Boom family and their hiding of Jews from the Nazis in WWII. These films were well-attended. The latter had great attendance largely because of promotion through the church and it had an evangelistic message at the close of the film. Thus, Hotel Rwanda did not seem to have the easily identifiable handles for the Evangelical and Roman Catholic Church of America to grasp hold of.

Is movie attendance a sign that American Christians do not care about their neighbors in Africa? I don't think we can say that this sign alone would tell us that. The American Church seems to be responding well to the victims of the recent tsunami affecting Indonesia and Thailand. The tsunami was a disaster that became a media event because it was sudden and caught on film. It is unlike the Aids Pandemic or the genocide in the Great Lakes region of East Africa, which has not and does not lend itself to media coverage quite as easily. However, Evangelical Church leaders like Rick Warren and leaders of World Vision are currently working diligently to mobilize aid and prayer from the American Church to combat the Aids Pandemic in Africa and to care for the Aids Orphans. The concern in the Evangelical Community in our nation has caused President Bush to greatly expand the foreign aid offered to these nations as well.

Through Mission America, Jarvis Ward and I have assisted the Hope Network (info@thehopenetwork.net) which is working in cities with networks of Christian leaders to greatly expand the adoption of Aids Orphans through local churches. We have also worked with Brian Considine to establish the Global Aids Prayer Partnership (www.praytoendaids.com).

I'm glad that Brian McLaren is more aware of the problem of genocide in Rwanda and Burundi. However, I think he may be too hard on the American Church for not attending the film, Hotel Rwanda and then judging from this that the Evangelical Church does not care.

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Rev. Glenn Barth works for the City/Community Ministries of the Mission America Coalition. Visit www.cityreaching.com for more info on their work, or contact Glenn directly by clicking here.