news
Interesting decision. What do you think?
FYI - The movie (IMDb listing) is based on a book about a Memphis family who adopted a teen who later played for Ole Miss. Leigh Anne Tuohy, the real life mom, spoke in Tupelo three years ago as part of the United Way campaign kickoff.
--
From The Hollywood Reporter (full text):
"The Blind Side" was removed from the shelves of one of the nation’s leading Christian retail chains after a pastor complained of profanity and a racial slur used in the film, and the decision has sparked debate within the community.
Even though the Oscar-winning movie has been off the shelves at LifeWay Christian Stores for more than a month, writers are still weighing in, and more often than not they are ridiculing the decision.
On Friday, for example, televangelist Rod Parsley wrote that LifeWay was sending an “ominous” and “unbiblical message” that Christians “must be sheltered from the world’s realities.”
The 165 LifeWay stores are operated by LifeWay Christian Resources, a non-profit entity that had been criticized for more than a year by Rodney Baker, a Florida pastor who objected to some of the language in the PG 13-rated "Blind Side."
As the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting approached last month, where the SBC was set to make The Rev. Fred Luter the first black president in its history, Baker pressed for a resolution that “expresses dissatisfaction with 'The Blind Side' and any product that contains explicit profanity, God’s name in vain, and racial slur.”
LifeWay, which had resisted complaints by Baker in the past, decided to defuse the issue by yanking the movie from its store shelves. While vague in the statement it emailed to The Hollywood Reporter, it seemed that LifeWay was mostly motivated by the negative depiction of some of the black characters in "Blind Side," as well the single use of a racial slur.
“After selling the movie for nearly two years, LifeWay decided last month to stop carrying it because of the likelihood it would be the focus of debate and division at our annual denominational meeting,” LifeWay said. “We were electing the Southern Baptist Convention’s first African-American president and did not want to distract from that historic moment.”
---
Click here to read the opinion piece from Christian magazine Relevant about LifeWay's decision.