Truth Rising, a new film being released this Friday, says the Western world faces a critical “civilizational moment.” The only hope for avoiding decline and starting renewal is Christians “with the clarity of a full Christian worldview” who are “boldly choosing courage over fear” by standing up against LGBTQ ideology and other threats to human value.
Presented by Focus on the Family and the Colson Center, and featuring Os Guinness, the free film claims it “isn’t just a documentary — it’s a call to action at a critical time in our culture … as faith, identity and morality are being redefined.”
Focus, a 48-year-old mass media ministry, has long claimed the U.S. was founded as a Cristian nation. Truth Rising makes similar origin claims of Western civilization but says the West’s spiritual foundations are now threatened by attacks on human dignity as created in the image of God.
The film has been screened for sympathetic reviewers. World hailed the film as a “call to renewal” while critiquing its style: “too-slow academic pace, unfurling ideas too high on the ladder of abstraction.”
But World says the pace picks up once the action moves from Os Guinness in Europe to the U.S. and the Colson Center’s John Stonestreet, shown driving a Chevy pickup through back roads.
Stonestreet says the film seeks to answer the question Francis Schaeffer asked in his book and film from the 1970s: “How should we then live?” The answer comes from five Christians with “remarkable courage” who are presented as models for what’s needed in this moment.
Four of the “Five Courageous Christians” are known for their opposition to LGBTQ rights:
- Jack Phillips is the Colorado baker who refused to make cakes for same-sex weddings, a decision upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in “one of the most consequential First Amendment wins of our lifetime.”
- Chloe Cole as a young girl underwent gender transition procedures to become male, then detransitioned and joined the campaign against trans rights led by Focus and its partner organizations. Her story is unique and rare.
- Seth Dillon and The Babylon Bee refused to refer to transgender people by their chosen names, leading to the Bee’s being banned by Twitter. The ban was reversed after Elon Musk bought Twitter and halted most content moderation.
- Katy Faust says, “The church must reclaim its historic role as the world’s foremost protector of children” by battling pre-Christian, pagan practices such as abortion and transgender treatments, which she calls “chemical castration.”
The fifth model Christian in Truth Rising is Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was an atheist who opposed Islam and fought for the rights of women before converting to Christianity. She is married to Scottish-American historian Niall Ferguson, who also is featured in the film.
“These five stories of courage” show “that God is at work through his people as much today as he was on Mount Carmel through Elijah,” Focus says in publicity. “We are not alone. We’ve been called to this time and place.”
Jim Daly
Focus President Jim Daly told World the film shows how right belief — theological orthodoxy — can lead to right action, or orthopraxy.
Truth Rising is “built around the undeniable historical truth that our civilization was built on Judeo-Christian principles (and) how those principles, exercised in the public sphere, are critical to the thriving of the civilization and all of us who live in it,” Daly said.
The film claims the West faces “three paths”: Revival (a reattachment and a recommitment to evangelical Christian ideals), revolution (“a completely different set of ideals, and not all of them good”) or decline.
The Colson Center, formerly the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, is housed on Focus’ campus. The $7 million ministry was founded in 1991 by Charles Colson, President Richard Nixon’s “hatchet man” and “evil genius” who was imprisoned for Watergate-related crimes. He converted to Christianity after reading C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, was released in 1975, and the next year founded Prison Fellowship.
Truth Rising is not Focus’ first “truth” film. The Truth Project is a 14-hour “biblical worldview” video series and curriculum released in 2006. The series examines science, theology, anthropology, history, sociology, labor relations and American exceptionalism through the lens of “a cosmic battle between two competing worldviews: Christianity and atheistic naturalism.”
“Here on these shores, and here alone, people with a strong Christian worldview have been afforded an unparalleled opportunity to create from scratch what they considered an ideal system of government,” says the series.
In February, Focus promoted Truth Rising at a London gathering of the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, which seeks to dismantle the European Commission and the European Court of Justice.
As BNG reported in March, U.S. groups behind Project 2025, the blueprint for President Donald Trump to “dismantle the administrative state” in the U.S., are working to shake up Europe, too.
“Focus on the Family and the Colson Center share the same commitment as ARC 2025 to address the issues facing Western civilization,” said Focus’ film promotion website.
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