Focus Denounces Anti-Christian HBO Film

Focus Denounces Anti-Christian HBO Film

Alexandra Pelosi Documentary Tries to Make Evangelicals Look 'Kooky or Scary'

COLORADO SPRINGS, Co., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Focus on the Family today denounced a new film by documentarian Alexandra Pelosi as "yet another hit piece" aimed at marginalizing evangelical Christians.

Pelosi's movie, Friends of God, premiered Thursday on HBO. It documents Christians Pelosi met over the course of two years crisscrossing the country - - and the distinct focus is on believers engaged in activities she can mock, from professional wrestling to classic car competitions to a drive-thru church.

"Ms. Pelosi describes her film as a lighthearted and nonjudgmental look at evangelical life in America. It is anything but," said Gary Schneeberger, Focus on the Family's senior media director. "Her camera comes with crosshairs -- and her sights are fixed on Christians. This is yet another hit piece created by big media to paint men and women of faith as kooky or scary -- or, best of all from the left's perspective, both."

Pelosi makes little attempt, for instance, to hide her disdain for a mother of 10 who home-schools her children -- a woman who explains how she walked away from her ambition to be a lawyer after getting married. Most people she knows would consider being home all day with 10 kids torture, Pelosi tells the woman -- and for good measure makes fun of her appearance by comparing her wedding photo (Pelosi says she looks like Barbie in it) to what she looks like today.

"Ms. Pelosi obviously thinks being a wife and mother not only hamstrings a woman from pursuing a fulfilling career, but that it also steals her good looks," Schneeberger said.

Others who appear before Pelosi's camera are shot in exaggerated close- ups, from low angles, so as to distort their features.

"The message here is, 'There's something not quite right with these people,'" Schneeberger noted. "She feigns just enough interest in her subjects to get them to open up, and then makes sure she presents them in the most unflattering light possible.

"If I had to guess, I'd say she's a graduate of the Michael Moore School of Documentary-Making."

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Source: Focus on the Family

CONTACT: Nima Reza of Focus on the Family, +1-719-548-4570,
culturalissues@family.org

Web site: http://www.family.org/

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