The December 2012 issue of Christianity Today Magazine has reviewed “People of Faith: Christianity in America.” This is a documentary I produced for the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College. The six episode series was released by Vision Video and explores the history of Christianity in America.
Pretty fair and balanced review – might make the creators squirm here and there, but one particular critique is, I think, well-founded: after 5 nicely-documented, authorities-validated, segments in which history is reported, analyzed, and very-lightly evaluated, the 6th one suddenly and with no apparent warrant, branches out into “should” language.
That always bothers me, has become a trademark of what used to be “objective” news broadcasts, and was lamented last week on TV in a wonderful one hour dialogue at Harvard between Ted Koppel and Marvin Kalb, two veterans and “rivals/friends” from the glory days of news broadcasting where, as Koppel sincerely reported, “not even my wife knows who I vote for.”
The 6 volume video series suggests effectively enough what lessons might be learned from American church history. It does a good enough job at that to obviate the necessity of coming out at the end with a sort of sermonizing “what shall we do now?” kind of conclusion.
Otherwise, the series is great, and should re-awaken slumbering American church interest in the historical trajectories that have brought us to where we are now and to the controversies and discussions we have today.
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