The God Movie - Interview Misrepresentation?
Posted on: December 30, 2006 - 7:24pm
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The God Movie - Interview Misrepresentation?
I've just finished watching The God Who Wasn't There, my momento for damning myself to hell in The Blasphemy Challenge. Overall it was very good, but one thing at the end caused me to pause.
The Christian educator, Dr. Ronald Sipus, ends the interview claiming that Brian had misrepresented his true reason for being there, and Brian seems to dither in explaining himself. What's the story here?
Did Sipus read too much favour into what was a very general request? Or did Sipus have a valid point?
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I wondered about that too.
If it was a general request like, "I'm making a movie about religion. I'd like to talk to you about my experiences at the school and the education of children." Then the guy just read too many good intentions into it. Entirely possible.
But if Flemming said it was a "pro-religion" position movie, well, that's misrepresentation. Who really knows? Not me. What matters to me is the fact that the guy really WAS teaching those kids that and got defensive. Whether Flemming told him specifics or not.
You got it. Flemming represented himself honestly, and the principal let his assumptions misrepresent reality... how typical.
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That's what I assumed happened. If you ask something in the right way neutrally, people will project THEIR emotions into the statement. I guess in Mr. Principal's brain "religion = good", and after all, "what kind of person who attended OUR school would make a movie portraying religion in a negative light?"
*shakes head*
And then he tries to get out of it by saying Flemming lied. Hah! That makes it EVEN WORSE!
Here's a little fun analogy:
Me: Come to the kitchen it's dinner time
My son: (knowing his favorite food is Pizza) Ok, here I come
Me: alright here's your soup.
My son: This is dishonest what you just did, you weren't true about your intentions, you see what happened here, you lied.
Me: No I didn't I said it was dinnertime
My son: (hands back the plate) No, I'm not having this, I wanted Pizza. Turn off the camera.
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Good analogy. When I watched the movie, that principal struck me as a pompous ass.
He's a living defense against the argument that atheists should leave Christians alone because Christianity isn't harming them.
Shame on me for assuming, but I did assume that Brian gave a very open-ended reason for the interview and that Sipus (I guess that was his name) blew a gasket when he learned his religion was being criticized. The reason I assumed is I know the mindset of principals and teachers at Christian schools because I attended one most of my life. They are arrogant and assume that everything about what they do is positive, even if it is vile.
So if I engaged in the act of assumption like the Christian nutjobs I have known, let me know so I can try to do better next time.
On edit: my assumption was correct. I hope it doesn't make me arrogant.
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If I recall correctly, we talked about this with Brian in our very first show, and like Sapient said, Brian was honest.
Could you view it as "ambush journalism"? Yeah, you could probably make such a case. So what? They talked about the subject Brian said they were going to talk about, Sipus simply assumed they would be talking about something more favorable to his side of things.
Look at it this way, we're he to flat out tell Sipus he were coming to talk about the theory Jesus never existed do you think he'd have gotten an honest reaction or have gotten the interview at all? Sipus could have asked questions about the nature and intention of the interview, AFAIK, he did not.
Besides, were God actually on the side of Sipus and Village Christian, that interview would have been very different
I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world. - Richard Dawkins
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