Mike Rimmer spoke to some of the people behind the new feature film JESUS PEOPLE

Haven't we all? So they're making a movie and the movie is for a general audience not for a Christian audience. As I've been hearing about the film, it's been interesting picking up on rumours about it. My favourite is that the writers and directors are actually anti-Christian and what they've created is deliberately designed to undermine Christianity. Isn't Jesus People having a bit of a pop at Christianity and the Church? Sigamoney is almost bouncing up and down in his chair in response, "I would LOVE to answer that question!" he laughs. "I think that's probably one of the funniest rumours that I've ever heard! Because truthfully all three of us have grown up in the Church. We're not denying that fact. My brother-in-law is a pastor. I've worked as a youth pastor like three years ago. We have a strong affection and love towards the Church and for what we believe it should be. That being said, as far as we know, there are problems within the American Church and there's problems within the Church as a whole."

He continues, "When we started writing this project one of the movies that I loved, that I want to model it after - and if you didn't notice it by my name I'm Indian! - I loved the movie Monsoon Wedding. And what the movie Monsoon Wedding did for me as an Indian is that it exposed everything kind of that we had wrong within our culture but then everything that was also beautiful at the same time. And that's what we wanted to do with this movie for Christianity, okay? Being able to kind of say, okay, I don't like the fact that we don't know what to do with this issue but we act like we do, like as far as, 'We're not willing to talk about this even though everybody knows about it.' But yet within that there's some genuinely sincere people wrapped around an amazingly beautiful message, so we're not gonna touch that. But for that message to shine through we have to be able to expose those things that are true about ourselves that the rest of the world knows. But we're unwilling to reconcile or put ourselves out there because we think that we're tearing down Christ by tearing down a Christian or the sub-culture, when in reality I think we're giving Christ a bad name.

"By recognising that, okay, we can be flawed Christians, we can be a flawed Church; by recognising that we actually, I think, lift up Christ higher because we're saying, okay, even through all of these things God is still patient with us. Even through all of these things we still believe that there is grace and that we are just as flawed as the rest of the world that we're trying to preach to. That's I think how we come into this project and there was no point where we thought, okay, we're gonna pull down organised religion!"

Sigamoney is on a roll now, "At the end of the day, as many faults as I love to find with the American Church and organised religion, the moment you pull it down something else is just going to be created that's going to become the next thing that's flawed. So we definitely don't say that we have the answers, definitely not theologically, but we do realise what some of the problems are that need to be discussed and hopefully there are men and women far wiser then us; they can start discussing these things we think need to be addressed."

One element of the film which troubled me was that it felt as though the makers were washing the Church's dirty laundry in public. By exposing the weaknesses, they are only reinforcing people's notions of what is bad about Christianity, particularly to a non-Christian audience, and therefore they ARE working against the cause of Christ. Naumann responds, "If it's dirty laundry it's dirty laundry. I mean we're not trying to tear down the Church, we ARE the Church. For me, it empowers my faith because I can do that. I don't have to hide the dirty laundry. I think that salvation and what Christ did stands alone, we don't have to sugar coat it or cover up our champions of the faith if they've made mistakes. It is empowering that we don't have to hide. Certainly when I read the script the first time I laughed hard, and I read it a second time to make sure I SHOULD be laughing! And there was nothing; there was nothing that was tearing down theology, we made sure of that, because we're NOT trying to change that, we're NOT trying to preach and we're NOT trying to tear down Jesus. I love Jesus. It's just a story about these characters. If we have to hide behind it then I think that there's something wrong with the faith of Christianity. If someone's own Christianity is damaged by there being 'flaws' within Christianity then they DO have something that they need to work on. There IS something wrong with that.

"And I get that we are speaking for Christians in that sense because if someone watches this in the theatre next to somebody and they say, 'Yeah, that's what I thought about Christians,' we're kind of speaking for them in a way. But I think that we're speaking what's true because we're not going after theology, it's just people that are Christians, not Christianity, and that's the difference."

Ewald jumps in, "Theologically I probably just come from the perspective, I believe that Christ supernaturally draws people unto himself through the Holy Spirit and I don't believe that I can personally block that work or my film or my writing, I don't believe I have that power to undo what God wants to do in people's lives. I don't think I did that with this movie and I don't think I was attempting to do that. I personally love airing dirty laundry! I think Christians are the last people in human society to do that to themselves because they're so protective of this personal faith. I think that we feel it as Christians so personally that it's such a touchy subject. But I love it! I love it when Chris Rock addresses the issues of the African-American community, that's why he's my favourite African-American comedian, because he is not trying to put positive spin on the faults within the black community in America. I applaud that. That's why he and Dave Chappelle are my favourite comedians in that area because they're not afraid to go there. They're not forever trying to spin their community because clearly there's still so much prejudice going on in the world and I just love that they're willing to take that on. So those are the people that I admire as a comedy writer, that I look up to, and I'm a BIG fan of airing dirty laundry! Big fan! I don't think it does any damage, but that's just me."

So, is there a redemptive message in this film because I kept on waiting for the film to turn a corner towards the end and it didn't do that for me. Ewald disagrees, "For me it does. I mean Ty is the type of Christian I want to be. I love the guy! He falls into this and in the end he is shooting a documentary on social justice and highlighting a Christian artist named Flynn Adam, highlighting what he's doing within the world to bring about actual social change. So I personally wrote a character that I aspire to be. Pastor Jerry, to me he's a little bumbling. My experiences growing up as the son of a pastor, I had my dad trying to reach me through various ways like that. I mean I wasn't even allowed to listen to Sandi Patty, frankly I was so conservative. I can't even tell you! So the whole concept of a father trying to reach his son; we wanted to sort of knock pastors in America right now being so obsessed with Bono. There's just this obsession with Bono! So I mean those are the flaws of Pastor Jerry. Pastor Jerry corrects a man who accuses Gloria of being a sinner and explains that we're all sinners. Pastor Jerry to me is a pastor whose church I would go to. I don't think any pastor is above that. I know that there are pastors who are even more in touch and more current than Pastor Jerry but he's a casual guy. The actor who played him is a strong Christian who actually happens to go to my church and it was very important in that particular role, although I would say two thirds of our cast are non-Christians, it was very important that the man playing the pastor and the woman playing the pastor's wife were actual Christians because they would know how far to play the line between silliness and some of his little foibles, and theological incorrectness. My main note to Joel McCrary, who played Pastor Jerry, and Jason's main note as director was: he's got to be a man whose church you'd go to. You can't disrespect him theologically."

Has Ewald's father seen the movie? "Yes he has," Ewald states. "My father was actually an investor in the film. My dad is so excited about this being a conversation piece for the different ministries he's in. He's already breaking up what scenes he wants to show. I keep telling him, 'Dad, you're not allowed to take unlicensed clips even if you're an investor!' But he's ready to show this. He's ready to show this to crowds. He can't wait to do the radio station scene where we make a point about how Christians spread gossip and call it prayer, you know, a prayer request when really all it is, is flat out gossip. It's just as bad as any of the other Ten Commandments. Definitely the first time he saw it he was like, 'Woah!' He just keeps ruminating on it and at this point he wants a copy of it and I won't give my own father a copy of it!"

In the UK, it's unlikely that the Jesus People film will get more than a DVD release. Some of my Christian friends at the showing in Nashville that others found the film amusing even if I didn't. Perhaps that's got more to do with my type of sense of humour than it has about the spiritual content of the film. One thing is for sure, I wouldn't want to play Cross My Heart on my radio show!