I've Got a Date With "Machine Gun Preacher"

Starring Gerard Butler (you remember him from 300 don't you? I do.).

Directed by Marc Forster (who directed Monster's Ball and The Kite Runner).

I'd seen those two items and gotten interested because those aren't two names I usually associate with faith-based movies (and let's face it ... those are the only sort that I am invited to ... not that there's anything wrong with that).

Dipping into the plot pushed the interest higher.

Then I read Hell Burns' review and got intensely interested. (Much more at the link.)

Sounds like a badass film, doesn’t it? Only the irresistible (and accurate) title is badass. Otherwise, this is a story about a badass guy (NOT portrayed as attractive or without consequences) who becomes a goodass and begins saving children in Sudan from becoming child-soldiers in the vicious LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army)—and worse.

Sam Childers (a thoroughly winning and Sam-Childers-approved Gerard Butler) was a violent drug dealer and biker in hillbilly Pennsylvania in his younger life. He got saved, became a Reverend and went to the Sudan to do volunteer construction work. But in Africa, he saw way more than he bargained for and wound up taking up arms to save children and innocent villagers from kidnapping, maiming, atrocities and slaughter.

One of the things that interested me about Sister Helena Burns' review (or maybe it was the letter to Sam Childers which she includes) is that the movie helped her gain an appreciation that "there is a vocation/call to be a warrior for just causes." As my brother is long-time warrior for our country, I have long been grateful for that vocation. It is nice to see that this movie helps foster that appreciation.

Finally, last night they had the screening sign-up info ready and I'm scheduled to see this interesting looking film next Monday. Sam Childers, whose story it is, is supposed to be there and I hear that they're seeing if they can work it out so that Gerard Butler is there.