Evangelicals: Alone and Exiled in Hollywood

Her story is the stuff Hollywood films are made of.

She is a severely disabled woman with an inspiring story and the singer of a sweet song entitled "Alone and Yet Not Alone," a piece about the person who stood by her side and helped with her struggles. The song was recently nominated for an Academy Award.

The singer is Joni Earekson Tada, who was left a quadriplegic at age 17 after a diving accident crippled her for life. She can't even use her hands. But despite her disability, she became an artist, an author, and a speaker. A strong and powerful advocate for the disabled, she has inspired millions.

But for the Hollywood elite, there is a big catch to Joni's story.

She is a devout evangelical Christian, and the person she is singing about is God. Those two facts evidently have been enough to put her and her song on the Academy's Black List.

Of course, that's not how the Academy puts it. It's all a matter of scrupulously following ethics, you see.

According to The Huffington Post, "[t]he song had come under fire after it was revealed that Bruce Broughton, the composer, was a former Governor himself and former head of the Academy's music branch. According to a report posted by Deadline.com's awards columnist Pete Hammond after the Oscar nominations were announced in January, Broughton 'started making phone calls to colleagues urging them to consider the song' when filling out their Oscar ballots.

I am just appalled by Hollywood's cynical, insulting rejection of Christians and anything associated with them.

? The grounds for the revocation of the song nomination are nonsense. Everybody publicizes their product, usually to the tune of millions of dollars' worth of publicity. This guy sent an e-mail to 70 people in his own personal email address book saying nothing more than "give it a listen," and he's hit with a ton of bricks and pounded out of the competition.

I'd hope the Academy would be shamed enough to reverse their stance.

Joni is indeed a wonderful child of God who is very evangelical and has been used for His glory through her accident all those decades ago. She was gracious when she got the nomination and more gracious when it was pulled away. That is what the Christian life is about. Not getting and winning the award, but grace through Him when the world rejects His truth seen in you.

Why should we be surprised that the world turns it back on the truth of Jesus Christ and His humble vessels? The servant is not better than the Master.

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