We're at a point in our culture where everything requires choosing a polarized extreme. There are few opportunities to meet in the middle. You're either against killing babies or for protecting a woman's right to choose. A biological male can change in a female locker room before competing against women, or a woman is simply an adult human female. Even a straightforward report from concerned citizens missing a few pets creates instant division that distorts reality into specific narratives–along with a few amazing song parodies.
Depending on your perspective, the chasm between opposing views can feel as vast as the universe itself.
You can't even go to the movies anymore to watch a far-right podcaster dismantle the entire Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) industry using common sense, basic questions, sound logic, and crafty disguises without being drawn into a partisan argument. Or just being labeled all-out racist.
Then again, maybe that's not so surprising.
It's in this cultural decay and muck that Am I Racist?–a new documentary from The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh–enters the conversation, and not a moment too soon.
I have to admit I was excited walking into Walsh's new documentary. After the success of What Is A Woman?, which effectively challenged the transgender movement with a basic four-word question, I was intrigued to see how he would handle the DEI movement.
The result was one of the funniest experiences I've had at the theater in a long time. The film is hilarious, but not in the ways you might expect. Yes, many of the key moments–well-documented and reported–come at the expense of others. But it's what they say, not what Matt says or does, that turns a normally cringe-worthy moment into something genuinely laugh-out-loud.
Like his first documentary, Walsh excels at letting the argument unfold naturally. The situations are unfiltered, raw, and honest. What remains is often empty, ridiculous, and, at times, incoherent.
As I watched, my heart sank at the realization that the enemy is hard at work in so many dark corners of our culture. Division, hate, guilt, and greed are all present at the heart of the DEI industry. You hear it in the words of the educators, see it in the furrowed brows of the "experts," and feel it in the souls of the students, leading them to a hollowed-out existence.
They want it to feel like love, unity, and acceptance. But how cunning the enemy is, always dressing up in finery to cover the decay beneath.
In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, Walsh has an exchange about race and skin color with a blue-collar worker in the inner city. This man refuses to see skin color as a barrier to humanity, and when offered literature that Walsh had been using as research, he simply says, "I don't want those words in my heart." He points to the Bible as the only book he reads and says, "love" is the only path forward.
"It can't be that simple," Walsh wonders aloud.
But it is.
You know that. I know that. Walsh knows that.
In a perfect world, that would be the movie in about 30 seconds. You hate white people? Love them. You hate Black people? Love them. You hate yourself? Love yourself.
This isn't hard.
But the enemy knows the answer too, hence a 101 minute documentary exploring all the creative ways he is keeping us divided, confused, hurt, oppressed, victimized, morally conflicted, ashamed, and overflowing with guilt and regret.
As Christians, we're called to measure our actions and posture by the fruit we produce. Philippians 4:7 gives us that list: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The classrooms, online courses, conversations, news reports, and meetings featured in this film surrounding DEI were completely absent of these fruits.
What more do we need to know?
There's a reason the mechanic in the middle of the film had the right answer. If you want to read more about "love," look to 1 Corinthians 13 in the only book he's allowing in his heart, where Paul describes love as the most enduring and supreme quality. Right up there with faith and hope, but Paul says love is "the greatest."
Yes, Matt. As you already know, it really is that simple.
Thanks (again) for the journey.
Kevin McNeese started NRT in 2002 and has worked in the industry since 1999 in one form or another. He has been a fan of Christian music since 1991.
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