Words From the Filmmakers of...Seeing Red

Feature Article

Trying to Remember Who I was Before

Today is the day of our website launch for Seeing Red. Yet, as I sit here adding the last bits of content, making final edits… I feel a bit of panic.

I'm launching a site with my co-producer who is now an evangelical Christian. And as a secular Jew who has just spent many months with conservative Christians, I've grown comfortable with religious speak. So here's the fear: if we let loose now, if we write as the people we are today, if we speak freely about faith… will we scare away our secular audience?

I'm trying- and failing- to remember who I was before this project and how I would have reacted to a site, a film, and a presentation like ours. You might ask- why do you care Leah? Why not pitch your film to all those who will come, and don't worry about who stays away?

I care because the secular liberal audience is one I think we need to reach… If there's one thing I've learned through these years of filming, it's that the Democrats don't have a clue when it comes to religion. We're led and supported by too many people who think religion has no place in the public sphere… it should be no more than a piece of jewelry, a watch, that a politician can let flash on his wrist, like a biblical verse… used as a form of branding. I've met too many Washington liberals who still think they know, or can ignore religious America…but, they can't.

My hope is that these secular liberals will arrive at our site… see the film, and take a moment to talk to people in the heart of the red states about their religion and how they perceive the world.

If they don't begin talking-I'm sure the liberals will continue to lose.

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