When it comes to this year’s slate of motion pictures being nominated for Academy Awards, Sight & Sound’s latest theatrical release, A GREAT AWAKENING, won’t be among them – but it should be.
Cue all the Christian movie mockers and sophisticates dismissing such a suggestion.
But just ahead of America’s 250th birthday, “A Great Awakening” retells the often overlooked and undertold story of just how instrumental Christianity was in the founding of the United States. The two-hour plus film focuses on the unique friendship between the English preacher George Whitefield and the famed inventor and publisher Benjamin Franklin.
As a fiery evangelist who was pushed out of pulpits in England for his dynamism that the stuffy Church of England found too disruptive, Whitefield was eager to find someone willing to help him share the Good News. In the mid 1700s, who better than a printer and publisher with the reach and record of Franklin?
A deist, witty cynic, and civic-minded problem solver, Ben Franklin didn’t share Reverend Whitefield’s enthusiasm for evangelism – but he very much liked to make money. So, the preacher drew the crowds by the thousands and the publisher promoted and printed what he said and what he promised – specifically eternity for those who repented of their sins and turned their lives over to Jesus Christ.
During one scene, Benjamin Franklin remarks, “Our friendship is a strange one, Mr. Whitefield. You seek to save my soul, and I seek only to print your words.”
Joshua Enck, who serves as president of Sight & Sound, a faith-based-half-century old production company committed to entertaining with a purpose, the movie isn’t a documentary but a declaration.
“What this film really depicts is the biblical definition of liberty,” Enck recently reflected. “On the Liberty Bell, it says, ‘Proclaim liberty throughout all the land and to all the inhabitants thereof.’ I want that liberty to ring out over this nation once again in the hearts of men and women.”
Sight & Sound, best known for their sweeping and highly produced large-scale stage shows, have delivered on that ambitious and noble goal.
Consider the tagline of the film: “Before the revolution, there was a revelation.”
The “revelation” was the Reverend Whitefield helping remind Franklin and other American founders that “Blood will be shed for the liberty you’re talking about, but blood was already shed on the cross for the liberty of all humanity.”
Being 250 years removed from 1776, it’s easy to let the details and specifics of the nation’s founding fade into obscurity, especially how the fledgling country almost didn’t make it past the strong ideological differences expressed at the Constitutional Convention.
As we learn in “A Great Awakening,” it was Rev. Whitefield who, first gently, and then more emphatically, began to challenge Franklin’s spiritual indifference. Convicted, it was Ben Franklin who urged members at the convention to begin the day in prayer. And it was only afterwards that the logjam began to finally lessen – and the United States Constitution came to be.
Released in early April, “A Great Awakening” is still in theaters. It would make for an inspirational, educational, and entertaining family outing. To consider and determine whether or not it would be suitable for your children, you might read our Plugged Inteam’s thorough and detailed review.
We end with six memorable quotes from the film:
Rev. George Whitefield on his strategy of evangelism:
• “The whole world is my parish.”
• “If you will not come to the church, the church must come to you.”
• “You must be willing to preach, pray, or die.”
On how to develop courage and boldness:
• “A man who is right with God need not fear the face of any man.”
On what to say to people who are hurting:
• “The Lord who I serve sees you.”
On why the Christian should not fear death:
• “We are immortal until our work on earth is done.”
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