Angel Studios and Far-Right Christian Nationalists Turn Beloved Pacifist Into MAGA Role Model
Have you ever heard of the cast of a movie denouncing a film they appeared in?
A “heads up” on a budding controversy that’s not really filtered its way into mainstream news outlets here in the US just yet, but might be showing up on your newsfeed.
You might remember Angel Studios. It’s the evangelical focused movie “studio” that uses deceptive four-walling and ticket-sale practices to release crappy “inspirational” films that pop up in cineplexes all over the place. Their big hit about a year ago was “Sound of Freedom”, a supposedly “true” biopic about a guy that fights sex trafficking, and spilled over into mainstream interest. That film turned out to be a pack of lies, promoting dangerous Q-Anon sex trafficking theories.
Angel Studios is back with another biopic, this time with a film promoting Christian Nationalism by appropriating and misusing the legacy of one of the most beloved and revered figures in the Lutheran faith, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
“Bonhoeffer”, billed with the tagline “Pastor. Spy. Assassin”, is a film that looks at the story of the famous anti-Nazi dissident theologian. It opens November 22, four-walled in a theater near you by Angel Studios.
Flying under the radar over the past year or so have been several protests against ultra-right wing radio hosts and extremist Christian leaders around Donald Trump that have been comparing Trump to Bonhoeffer. There have been denunciations from Bonhoeffer scholars and religious figures for their distortion of the man’s life and philosophy.
“In a recent interview on Flashpoint, a Christian television talk show on the Victory network, both Metaxas — author of a bestselling biography of Bonhoeffer — and the show’s host called the current election a “Bonhoeffer moment” and urged Christians to rise up and oppose evil.
That evil, in Metaxas’ eyes, is the Democrats, who, he has argued, stole the 2020 election and whom he often compares to Nazis. For him, if Democrats win the next election, it could mean the end of America as we know it. Metaxas has argued and has claimed in the past that Trump is God’s chosen candidate and that those who oppose him oppose God. …
A group of Bonhoeffer scholars — and the theologian’s descendants — have had enough. In a statement issued Friday (Oct. 18) members of the International Bonhoeffer Society called on Metaxas and others to stop comparing the current election to the rise of the Nazis. The statement, in particular, called out Metaxas for social media posts featuring a gun and a Bible and his support of Jan. 6 rioters.” - (Source: Religion News)
The Angel Studios biopic, again using the tagline “Pastor. Spy. Assassin.”, along with advertising and trailers showing the theologian holding a gun, appears to be trying to portray Bonhoeffer as a kind of Christian Nationalist soldier.
The actual Bonhoeffer, who was outspoken against the Nazis and their persecution of Jews, was accused of being involved in a plot to execute Hitler and was executed by the Nazi regime. In reality, he was involved with the German resistance as an organizer and courier. He was a committed Christian pacifist.
The approach would be somewhat akin to turning Mahatma Ghandi into a gun-toting MAGA revolutionary or a biopic that depicts Martin Luther King, Jr as a Trump-loving Rambo, out for righteous justice.
In a religion that doesn’t have saints, Bonhoeffer is as close as you can get to a revered figure as you can get among Lutherans. Many people of faith, or the general public, unfamiliar with the theologian’s life and writing, might be drawn in to seeing this Angel Studios production, with its compelling advertising showing a man of faith rising up against the Nazis.
The film and misuse of Bonhoeffer’s life and legacy has been denounced, not only by the Bonhoeffer family and the International Bonhoeffer Society, but by the actors who appeared in the film.
Have you ever heard of the cast of a movie denouncing a film they appeared in?
The controversy over the film has received considerable press in Germany, but not so much here in the US.
Angel Studios seems to be aiming for another “Sound of Freedom” hit here, buoyed by a misleading advertising campaign to get mainstream audiences in to see their movie. Box office success of the movie will just bolster the efforts of Trump and his ultra-right wing violent Christian Nationalist followers to claim Bonhoeffer as their own.
Similar to their promotion for the Q-Anon lie-fest, “Sound of Freedom”, Angel Studios has been seeding viral “astroturf” campaigns to drum up interest in the movie on social media and sites like reedit, and among violent right-wing Christian Nationalists.
And, of course, they’re using the same “four walling” and deceptive ticket-sales strategy, which inflates box office numbers through group and mass ticket sales as “giveaways” to audiences that don’t actually show up to see the movie, to dupe moviegoers into thinking it’s just another biopic booked by your local theater and that it has “genuine” buzz among audiences.
I’ll be clear here and say that I’ve not seen the film. Even if it is truthful, to a greater or lesser extent, the use of Bonhoeffer to promote Christian Nationalism in advertising and promotion should be enough to disturb any mainstream Christian. At the very least, being aware of this controversy and steering friends and family clear of it can help sink it at the box office. And box office is what Angel Studios is looking for here, not only for the money, but to promote their Christian Nationalist viewpoint.