The New York Times > Movies > Movie Review | 'With God on Our Side': Forget Mom

and Apple Pie, It's All You-Know-Who

10/7/11 11:58 PM

January 19, 2005

MOVIE REVIEW | 'WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE'

Forget Mom and Apple Pie, It's All You-Know-Who

By STEPHEN HOLDEN

ur turbulent political climate is so clogged with the instant hysteria demanded by the chattering class to
keep its voice in shouting condition that a sedate documentary examining the long-term weather
patterns is a welcome respite from the noise. "With God on Our Side: George W. Bush and the Rise of
Religious Right" contemplates the climatic changes over the last 45 years, during which evangelical
Christianity has moved steadily from the margins of politics into Congress and the White House.
This dispassionate British documentary, which opens today in New York, is an updated distillation of a 1996
mini-series shown on PBS with 60 percent new material. It carries the story forward six more years through
Mr. Bush's election as president in 2000 and through the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and their political
aftermath. The narration by Cliff Robertson from the original film has been scrapped. The most prominent
voices belong to conservative evangelical leaders like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed.
Mr. Falwell's infamous post-9/11 speech, in which he blames the American Civil Liberties Union,
abortionists, feminists, gays, lesbians and People for the American Way for "helping this to happen," is the
most intemperate outburst in an otherwise calm film. Directed by Calvin Skaggs and David Van Taylor,
"With God on Our Side" begins with analyses of the implications of Mr. Bush's frequent use of the words
"good" and "evil" and how his religious faith involves a moral absolutism. It includes no smoking guns or
behind-the-scenes revelations. It could not be described as pro-evangelical, but the religious conservative
rhetoric remains unchallenged.
The Rev. Billy Graham, who was befriended by Richard M. Nixon and later, more enthusiastically, by
Ronald Reagan, is remembered as the first solid bridge between an evangelical constituency and the political
process, and the Supreme Court's 1962 ban on school prayer as the first major issue to become an evangelical
rallying point.
President Nixon's summoning of the "the great silent majority" of Americans established the outlines of a
voting bloc that was later refined into the Moral Majority under Mr. Falwell and into the Christian Coalition
under Mr. Robertson and Mr. Reed. At one point in the film, Mr. Reed boasts of registering 8.5 million new
evangelical voters in five years. The film makes clear that the mainstream media were embarrassingly slow to
recognize the religious right's political clout.
Paradoxically, its rise was temporarily stymied by a fellow evangelical, Jimmy Carter, whose presidency was
initially welcomed but whose support of the Equal Rights Amendment and a woman's right to an abortion
delivered conservative Christians a bitter blow.
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The New York Times > Movies > Movie Review | 'With God on Our Side': Forget Mom and Apple Pie, It's All You-Know-Who

10/7/11 11:58 PM

The evangelical leaders acknowledge in interviews that overeagerness led to several setbacks, including the
defeat of a Congressional bill that would have restored voluntary school prayer. After Mr. Robertson's
surprisingly strong showing as a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988, the sexual and
financial peccadilloes of the evangelical preachers Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart tarnished the movement.
As the film approaches the present, the story become increasingly sketchy. We hear too much about Mr.
Bush's religious conversion and too many assertions by evangelical leaders and by friends that he's "the real
deal" when it comes to faith. Yet, by calmly putting all the pieces in a row, "With God on Our Side" shows
how we came to have a president who believes, in the words of one commentator, that "he and his country
have a special relationship with God."
'With God on Our Side: George W. Bush and the Rise of the Religious Right'
Opens today in Manhattan.
Directed by Calvin Skaggs and David Van Taylor; directors of photography, Brett Wiley, Deb Lewis and
Steve Schecter; edited by Cindy Kaplan Rooney and Jay Freund; produced by Ali Pomeroy, Mr. Skaggs and
Mr. Van Taylor; released by Lumiere Productions. At the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East Third Street,
at Avenue A, East Village. Running time: 100 minutes. This film is not rated.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

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