Every famous movie director can be identified by a specific style of film making. “The Chosen” [i]tv/movie series director Dallas Jenkins style is turning a well-worn biblical story inside out to find a fresh and entertaining perspective even the most ardent bible quoting Christians may not have known. While “The Chosen” launched Jenkins into fame and fortune, “The Chosen” wasn’t Jenkins’ dream film project. His dream project was to turn a book he read to his kids by Barbra Anderson when they were little into a movie.[ii] That book became a major motion picture in 2024 called “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” [iii] [iv] directed of course by Jenkins.
The story is about a town’s famous nativity pageant performed
annually by the children who attend the local church. Suddenly a tragedy strikes the community a
few weeks before the important 75th annual pageant. Pageant director
Mrs. Armstrong breaks her legs! (insert your own show-biz puns/jokes) Young protagonist
Beth’s mother Grace boldly steps in to direct the pageant even though Grace has
not directed any plays before.
Unfortunately for both Beth and her mom Grace the town’s notorious kid bullies-the
Herdman family, who smoke, steal, swear,
lie, cause fiery mayhem, probably the last kids on earth you would imagine portraying
the holy family and other assorted holy nativity players take over the church’s
famous kid starring Christmas play threatening to destroy a time honored
tradition. I would say “The Best
Christmas Pageant Ever” is similar in style to “A Christmas Story”[v]
with a slightly more important message. Unlike
Ralphie and his selfish desire for a Red Ryder Carbine-action 200-shot range
model BB gun, Beth learns the true meaning of Christmas when she realizes, as
her mom Grace explains. “Jesus was born for the Herdmans as much as He was for
us.”[vi]
Here are some of the fresh perspectives that Jenkins gives this
Christian Christmas tale. The Herdmans did not attend church and only showed up
for the pageant tryouts because the pageant committee was handing out free
snacks to the kids. Since the wild Herdmans
are unaware of this paramount Christian fact, they proceed to ask lots of annoying
questions about The Nativity much to the dismay of Beth, Grace, and everyone
else. The Herdmans wondered why baby Jesus
was laid to rest in an animal trough.
Why did two of the three kings give baby Jesus perfume? Why wasn’t king
Herod killed for trying to kill baby Jesus? The Herdmans even convince Beth to
take them to the library so they could do further research on The Nativity
story because they truly want to know more about this tale most Christians take
for granted. Moreover, most of the
Christian women who comprise the church’s auxiliary group, responsible for
making the costumes for the pageant and should know the golden rule by heart,
are grown-up mean girls who now as grown-up mean moms still pester poor Grace
about the fact that she is allowing dirty, practically orphaned, cigar smoking,
vile young Immogene Herdman to be the embodiment of the Immaculate Conception. (Although
I doubt that Protestant church accepts that specific Catholic Marian doctrine[vii]).
In this movie Jenkins’ Christian women are as bad as the Herdmans, just in
different ways.
Furthermore, Jenkins takes the time to view this annual Christmas
production through antagonist Immogene Herdman’s eyes. This particular Protestant
Church has an image of the Madonna and Child on one of its walls. In young
Immogene’s eyes the Madonna wall mural reminds her of the glamourous movie
posters with glamorously lit up movie heroines she often views as she sneaks
into the town’s local movie theater.
Immogene Herdman knows she is a dirty, practically orphaned, cigar
smoking, vile young tweenager, but she’s longing to be someone else. She wants to be that glamourous well-loved
icon that is the Virgin Mary without understanding what made the Virgin Mother
of God so beloved the world over. Grace let’s Immogene know the Virgin Mary is
tougher than the soft light mural portrays her to be. Remember, the Virgin Mary
was willing to let herself be stoned to death for being an unwed teen-aged mother[viii],
rushed over from Nazareth while pregnant to assist her cousin Elizabeth with
her pregnancy in the Judean hill country, [ix]and
was ok with making a journey in her 9th month of pregnancy from
Nazareth to Bethlehem to give birth in a barn because Mary understood that is
what God was asking her to do at that moment.
If that softly lit Virgin Mary icon would have talked directly to Immogene
Herdman; she too would have echoed Grace’s phrase of how her son Jesus came for
the villains as much as He came for the godly heroes of this world. Maybe even
more so the villains than the godly heroes.
I began writing this blogpost at the start of 2026. As the
reaction of the tragic shooting death of Renee Good[x]
by ICE officer Jonathan Ross continues to play out and now the killing of Alex
Pretti, 2026 will be as divided as it was in 2025.[xi][xii][xiii]
[xiv]
The truth is ICE shouldn’t be gassing students [xv][xvi] [xvii]
or just randomly grab anyone who looks
illegal[xviii]
so people like Rene Good and Alex Pretti
didn’t feel the need to place themselves in harm’s way to stop an action that
clearly isn’t good. It is also hard to
remember that those ICE agents are still children of God, they are being paid
to do a task that our government is believing to be a necessary task, and we
must reluctantly give them respect and space to do their jobs while protesting
their greater use on local streets. We have this need to be tribal and only go
with those who are like “Us” who adopt our ways as the only correct ways. Don’t
get me wrong, there are correct ways that I believe in as a
Catholic/Christian. They just don’t neatly
align with your standard MAGA /Woke world point of view. [xix]
I mentioned in my Charlie Kirk post last
year how social media likes to hype the “Them” vs. “Us” mentality because it
generates clicks, likes and sales of some bro-man protein powder or
environmentally friendly hair care product. The hardest part for any Christian
I would say is to recognize that Jesus wants EVERYONE to be saved even if it’s
a disgusting “Them” that we with some sense of moral superiority look down
upon. In fact, I’m grateful for Jenkins’
other major project “The Chosen” for reminding me that Jesus had both a former
Roman tax collector [xx]
as well as a former anti-Roman terrorist[xxi]
among His 12 apostles to drive home this important piece of Christian theology
of loving your enemies.[xxii]
In Minneapolis, as in much of the rest of the country, I
know the public is horrified by ICE and their techniques for border enforcement
in predominantly democratically led cities/states who chose to give sanctuary
to these undocumented immigrants who have no legal right to be here. I know it’s instinctive to be vindictive and
vitriolic towards those ICE agents who are violating human rights of ordinary
people. I’m sure there are plenty of
people in those blue cities/states who would like President Trump[xxiii] [xxiv]
to burn in Hell for his anti-immigration policies. While part of me praises the blue
cities/states welcoming the stranger with open arms, I am not eager to laud
those same blue cities/states when it comes to their denial of a fundamental
right to life for the unborn baby.
Governor J.B. Pritzker has committed a far greater crime against
humanity by allowing the murder of 72,143[xxv]
unborn babies in the state of Illinois in 2023 through legalized abortion. I and numerous pro-lifers may want Governor
Pritzker to burn in Hell for something far more morally abhorrent than the
340,000 illegal aliens the Trump administration has deported in 2025. [xxvi] Jesus, however, wants us to both love
President Trump and Governor Pritzker and wants them both to be saved to join
Him in His heavenly kingdom. We need pray for them and for the conversions of
both their hearts and souls along with state legislators, state and US Senators
and congressional men and women to address the underlying reasons for the
influx of illegal immigration and the reasons why some women feel murdering
their unborn babies is their only option.
We also, as in the prayer of St.
Francis of Assisi, must learn to sow love where there is hatred.[xxvii] It is only through sowing the seeds of love
that we can truly help Christ’s mission for all of us to be saved.
Speaking of sowing, in the Gospel of Mathew there is a
parable of The Wheat and The Weeds.[xxviii] The parable tells the tale of a landowner who
was a victim of sabotage. An enemy of
his planted poison darnel aka false wheat you shouldn’t grind up and bake into
your favorite French baguette lest you die from the equivalent of a drunken
hangover while remaining 100% sober[xxix]. The
problem was in ancient times people couldn’t tell the difference between the
stalk of death and the plant of life until right before the harvest when the
spikey grains began to show. In the
parable the landowner decided to let the weeds grow alongside the wheat to
ensure that every stalk of wheat could grow up and produce the delicious endosperm[xxx]
to sell to Betty Crocker, the Pilsbury dough boy, The St. Louis Bread Company,
etc. and the darn darnels would be cast into an incinerator at harvesttime. Jesus goes on to explain that this is what the
angels will do with the souls of all of us at the end of time. This parable may illustrate why God allows
evil to persists. The moral is to ensure
we do not become some self-righteous jerk when dealing with people we see as
“Evil” and decide to handle things on our own instead of letting God handle it.
For you see, even if we label someone
an evil jerk there may still be some good or good things they do.
Lately instead of creating my own posts I’ve been forwarding
Robert Reich’s[xxxi]
Inequity Media posts where he has labeled Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg a 21st
century robber baron of the new Gilded Age.[xxxii]
However, where am I finding Robert
Reich’s criticism of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook failure to fact
check? Why on Robert Reich’s Facebook page of course. Facebook clearly can be a tool for promoting
good ideas as well as bad ones. Zuckerberg only caring about how the algorithm
will ensure those who may be inclined to buy the bro-man protein powder or the
environmentally friendly shampoo see those ads pop up on their Facebook feed could
a good thing. If Zuckerberg began to edit an individual’s Facebook post it could
become a slippery slope of what one should deem worthy of censorship if Facebook
chooses to go down that path. (Read my October 3rd, 2025, blog post
where towards the end I cite some truths people may not want to hear.) Even Hitler gave Germany the Autobahn[xxxiii]
[xxxiv],
so that was good, I guess. Trust me the
ability to go 100 mph/169.63 kph in Germany does not even begin to offset the extreme
horror of 6 million dead Jewish people from the Holocaust by a micron,[xxxv]
but it proves even the worst person in world history could do something good
occasionally.
In fact, I’m more worried about Eziekiel 18:21-24[xxxvi]
as it relates to my salvation than anyone else’s. I remember one of the deacons
gave a homily at my local church about the story of The Wheat and The Weeds. My local deacon reminded us in the
congregation there are plenty of times we act more like weeds than the Bread of
Life us Catholics consume every time we attend mass and partake of the
Eucharist. And yes, I fear I am more
like poison darnel than a stalk of hard red spring[xxxvii].
Here's one recent example. I just
learned about an old friend of mine, whom I hadn’t spoken with in about 10-15
years, passed away. Why did we stop
speaking with each other? I failed to do
the hard work of even trying to redeem him. My friend was addicted to
drugs. He stole things to get drugs. He
lied to his friends about his drug use. Eventually he ended up in jail for
trying to sell drugs although tragically I feel the large quantity of illegal
drugs the police busted him with was for his own personal enjoyment. Off drugs
my friend was always willing to lend you a hand especially if you had car
problems. He was kind to everyone and
every animal he met, when of course not on drugs. I knew him well enough to know the drugs he
took were trying to suppress a horrible memory from his childhood. This memory shaped him into the man or
monster he became depending upon what moment of sobriety, or lack thereof, you
encountered him. He was homeless and
died from a drug overdose. I know most people, including me, wrote him off as a
junkie and who cares if he killed himself or not.
Yet I am a Catholic and I was supposed to care about him and
his needs because it’s tied to my own salvation. I failed to provide my friend
with food when he was hungry, and I failed to visit him in prison per Mathew 25
vs 31-46[xxxviii] [xxxix]
Worse, I am a Catholic Lector at mass, a word which also gave rise to the word
lecturer[xl]. So, I’m up there reading the bible verses
telling the rest of the Catholic congregation how they are supposed to feed the
hungry and clothe the naked and I’m failing to live up to those words! I’m a
dreaded hypocrite that Jesus loathes and is almost eager to condemn to Hell. [xli] My hypocrisy
even goes further as I’m reaching over to my Red and Green M&M
dispenser[xlii]
that I’ve filled with holiday red & green M&M’s to stuff in my face
after I went on in my Valentine/Ash Wednesday February 14th, 2024
blogpost [xliii]
how Mars uses child labor in Ghana to harvest those cacao beans. Sloth and gluttony, two of the seven deadly
sins, are my constant companions and I’m not even trying to overcome those
temptations! [xliv] Sometimes, when I sin, particularly in front
of some of my less than religious/pious friends, they joke about the fun we’ll
all be having when we get together in Hell.
In those moments I am tempted to grab them by their shirt collar, shake
them vigorously and shout at them “YOU JUST DON’T GET IT!!!”
Satan is against fun!
Satan is against love! Satan is against pleasure, and joy, and
friendship/fellowship. Satan wants all
of us to be miserable for all eternity with him, and he’ll be the only one
getting some bit of pleasure at our eternal fiery physical and spiritual
torture! God loves us enough to have His
son Jesus suffer and die for all of us to allow all of us into Heaven, but we
must prove to be obedient sons and daughters by following God’s commands of love
to get into Heaven to everyone, even to our enemies. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen,[xlv]
famous 50’s & 60’s TV Catholic Evangelist (the Bishop Robert Barron for the
greatest/boomer generation) said we will be surprised because we are going to
see several people in Heaven whom we never expected to be there. Some of the people we expected to see in
Heavan, “those nice people,” may not be there at all. The third surprise will be the greatest of
all when he is there. This is where I
think my less than religious/pious friends may make it into Heaven and maybe I
won’t. I think it’s because I feel God
may judge me by a different standard. I’m not a horrible prodigal child that
God will welcome with open arms once that son or daughter comes to their senses
and returns to the Father. No, as the
“Good” daughter who is supposed to stay by her Heavenly Father’s side I’m
worried Heavenly Daddy will hate me for sneaking a kid goat away to make bowls
of birria[xlvi]
for my buddies and me while still claiming I am a “Good” daughter. Maybe it’s because I have felt I belonged to
one of “Them” or viewed myself as a horrific “Them” that I’ve developed a
strong sense of empathy towards my fellow human beings when they are acting
mean and nasty to me or someone I care about. I am quicker to forgive their
trespasses in the hopes that maybe God will hopefully forgive my trespasses
against whoever views me as a “Them” for whatever reason just as quickly and
help me to change & repent as well.
Let’s examine the most famous non-biblical Christmas story,
Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol”[xlvii]
to illustrate Jesus’ universal salvation point. Perhaps the reason why this
143-year-old tale has been retold all these years is because we enjoy the
ghosts frightening a miserly miserable Ebeneezer Scrooge towards repentance. Ebenezer Scrooge is a bit of an outlier in
Dickens’ pantheon of famous characters.
Scrooge isn’t the typical downtrodden hero trying to make his or her way
in a world that inspired Communist Manifesto philosopher Karl Marx [xlviii]
to write about the impending war between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat[xlix]. Scrooge would be the type of character that
we would be rooting for the Artful Dodger to pick his pocket or hope that
Madame Defarge was busy knitting his name onto a scarf while waiting for him to
be beheaded at the guillotine in one of Dickens’ other novels. Dickens, however, wrote “A Christmas Carol”
to his audience, primarily the new captains of industry and finance, who needed
to be reminded of the Christian part of Christmas. [l] In Scrooge’s character arc we see the
somewhat justifiable origins of his hatred for Christmas (left alone in
boarding school during Christmas break, met and then broke up with his fiancée
shortly before Christmas, his partner and probably only friend in the world
died on Christmas Eve), how even a vile person like him can still be liked and
even loved at the present Christmas moment(Scrooge’s nephew Fred[li]
expressing empathy for the man Scrooge is, Emily and Bob Cratchit’s toast of
Scrooge’s meager generosity towards them[lii])
and how in the end he can’t take his wealth to the grave but he can use his
wealth in the present to build the relationships that will matter in the
hereafter Christ opened up for us beginning at Christmas. We too become as giddy as school kids and as
light as feathers as we rejoice in Scrooge’s salvation from himself. This is how God wants us to view all
villains, as those who need His redemption that only He can give. When we
encounter someone who feels like a villain we should do as Fred and Bob Cratcht
did. We should still wish them well and
pray for their conversion even if there appears to be no hope of redemption of
their souls at the present moment.
As I realize the length of this blogpost, I just want to
wrap it up by wrapping around back to how sometimes some of the vilest people
on earth not only deserve salvation, once salvation is open to them they often
become better vessels of the grace of that salvation than if someone had been
perfect and godly from the beginning. As
a lector I am often reading from one of Saint Paul’s 27 epistles that can be
found in the New Testament[liii] According to the Acts of the Apostles when
Saint Paul was known as Saul, he actively persecuted Christians until Jesus
told him to stop persecuting him. I love Saint Augustine’s [liv]
Confessions where he
goes on in his auto-hagiography, how he didn’t deserve the saintly halo in the
beginning. John Newton’s life as a
slaver in the 18th century British Navy lead to the greatest
Christian hymn to be put on paper “Amazing Grace”[lv]
and his becoming an abolitionist. In Jenkins “The Best Christmas Ever Pageant”
movie the Herdmans experience a literal come to Jesus moment as they show up
most of that Christian congregation when Leroy, Claude and Ollie Herdman as the
three kings give baby Jesus what they deem is their most precious gift (watch
the film to find out what it is) which is what we should be presenting to Jesus
at Christmas and each and every day. (minor FYI, that scene with the Leroy,
Claude, and Ollie Herdman as the 3 kings is hilarious and touching because what
the Herdman kids give to baby Jesus is something that someone from the house
and lineage of King David might not appreciate). Immogene is also changed by her participation
in this nativity pageant and too learns to give up her bullying ways. And this, is what God wants us all to know,
because in the end we are all sinners and all villains in someone else’s story,
but so precious in God’s eyes that He is longing for all of us to become part
of His Story.
[iv] https://www.amazon.com/Best-Christmas-Pageant-Ever/dp/0064402754/ref=sr_1_2?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.wLC-5HfYjOaFbMXy2zIyXvmzt_mf-F-iy1DeZu0Ro57k91KBRIgQzQ8-vFoKACoMQI5ezSwP
[x] https://apnews.com/article/ice-shooting-minneapolis-victim-renee-good-d95e86716eec328a288866108acf78eb
[xviii]
https://www.propublica.org/article/immigration-dhs-american-citizens-arrested-detained-against-will
[xix] Call this a separate editors’ note. Yes I have heard that people who are here
illegally are breaking the law and we shouldn’t interfere with ICE’s
enforcement of the Law. However, I feel
we need to change our current immigration laws and the best way to do this is
to petition your local congressman/congresswoman to change those laws to make
sure that the dignity and humanity of immigrants are protected and to ensure
only the worst of the worst get’s an ICE smackdown.
[xxv] https://www.bing.com/search?q=How+many+abortions+are+performed+in+the+state+of+Illinois%3F&form=QBLH&sp=-1&ghc=1&lq=0&pq=how+many+abortions+are+performed+in+the
and Abortion
Reporting: Illinois (2023) - Lozier Institute
[xxxii]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2kW5K-KhvA and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmq7QqqY4vo&t=55s
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC0vKzRmPos
[xxxvi]
But if the wicked man turns away from all the sins he’s committed, if he keeps
all of my statutes, and does what is right and just he shall surely live, he
shall not die. None of the crimes he committed shall be remembered against him. Do I derive any pleasure from the death of
the wicked? Says the Lord God, Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his
evil ways that he may live? And if the
virtuous man turns from the path to do evil, the same kind of abominable things
the wicked man does, can he do this and still live? None of his virtuous deeds shall be
remembered because he has broken faith and committed sin; because of this he
shall die.
[xliii]
Candy company Mars uses
cocoa harvested by kids in Ghana, CBS News investigation finds - YouTube
[xlvii]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAuGbJsA830
and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol
