Christianity Today asks rather than tells

Last week I got a heads-up from Mart Green that Christianity Today had interviewed him, Steve Saint, and Chad Allen re: the controversy surrounding “End of the Spear.” Mart said they seemed to be honestly seeking the truth of the situation and not out to push an agenda. He told me that the article slated to be in the next issue would be posted on the website by Friday. Sure enough, you can read the whole thing here. It seems they indeed even-handedly reported information directly from the sources. It’s too bad other Christians don’t seem to comprehend Matthew 18. For your convenience, I quote a chunk of the article below:

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"This is one of the most extraordinary stories of love and forgiveness that I've ever known," Allen said. "But I also realized the incredible responsibility of playing these two men, especially as I learned more about how important Nate Saint and Steve Saint are to people around the world. I really felt the weight of that."

Allen didn't meet Steve Saint until about three months after he was hired, when shooting began in January 2004 in Panama. When they finally met, Allen says he told Saint, "If you don't want me to do this movie, because I respect you and your family so much and I respect this story so much, I will walk away from this—contract or no contract, even if that means I'm liable for breaking the contract."

But Saint had already decided to keep Allen on board. He said he had been praying about it, and that God clearly revealed the answer in a dream.

In the dream, Saint says he was "being chased by a mob of Christians who were angry with me for having desecrated 'their story.' The answer to their hostility was easy: Just ask Chad to remove himself. But as quickly as this thought came to me, I found myself standing before God. His look was not as compassionate as I had expected. God said, 'Steve, you of all people should know that I love all of my children. With regard to Chad Allen, I went to great lengths to orchestrate an opportunity for him to see what it would be like for him to walk the trail that I marked for him. Why did you mess with my plans for him?'

"I was fully awake by the end of this sleepy mind play. I knew that there would be a price to pay for any position I would take on this issue, regardless of the fact that I had not wanted to be involved. I knew one thing for sure: I would rather face the anger and even hatred of people who feel I have let them down, than to take any chance of having to stand before my Savior and have to answer for messing up his plans for Chad."
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Reference what I wrote previously about “Risk.” Maybe someday you will be put in the position of having to make such a difficult call. When the day comes, may God help you to have the courage of Steve Saint and Mart Green.