After reading Kate Bowler’s candid report of suffering through her cancer in “Everything Happens for a Reason,” I was struck that she and other religious commentators have criticized the gospel of prosperity inherent in the philosophy that if you do good, prosperity will ensue, and bad happens for a reason.
Writer/director Adamma Ebo and her identical sister producer, Adanne, give the biting satirical take on that gospel in her film “Honk for Jesus. Save your Soul,” based on Southern Baptist Atlanta megachurch pastor Eddie Long, accused of homosexual activity with young men and losing all for it. The film crew Pastor Lee-Curtiss Childs (Stanley K. Brown) and First-Lady Trinitie Childs (Regina Hall) have recruited to document their comeback to their ministry, Wander to Greater Paths (MAGA, anyone?), is surrogate for our peering audience. Even The first lady sees the crew as “fly-on-the wall” types. Everybody’s watching.
If you’re looking for answers as to what made Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggart run, “Honk for Jesus. Save your Soul” may not be the mockumentary to provide a thorough explanation, but it shows in numerous ways that profligate materialism can’t be what Jesus hoped as a reward for adhering to his humble teachings.
The movie inaccurately bills itself as a comedy because even quiet laughs, often stimulated by visual ironies, are hard to come by. Yet, as Christopher Guest’s dog shows and Rob Reiner’s rock band proved, the mockumentary is an effective way of showing the folly that comes with fame and prosperity.
Maybe it’s because the greed and selfishness of the principals in Honk for Jesus have been played in public, for real, by numerous famous preaching couples. When Trinitie dons a white face to promote the resurrection of their ministry, not only has the heavily-made up Tammy Faye Baker eclipsed Trinitie’s flamboyance, but also the take on disgraced minstrel entertainment is painfully pointed. However, that the church shenanigans are comic and showbiz-like is obvious. Satire without laughs is still effective.
Visually Honk for Jesus is just as sumptuous as the couple’s lust for clothing rich and gawdy – lemonade, lime green suits and snakeskin heels and shoes, to cite only a couple of examples from the sacred closets. Pastor Childs gives thanks for being “blessed with some beautiful Prada.” Their golden thrones are an apt metaphor for their regal pretensions. Their worship house, Wander to Greater Paths (MAGA, anyone?) is resplendent for medieval-like potentates, whom the congregation supports with boundless money, to a point.
The satire is in these visual gags and the apparent belief in meriting their worldly possessions for having followed Jesus. As such they are exemplifying the pernicious “prosperity” doctrine.
The heart of their downfall is the homosexual escapades of Pastor Childs made public and requiring the couple to offer settlement to the young men and to work hard to get their congregation back. First-lady Childs, not unlike Tammy Faye, seems initially naïve about the prosperity—witness as she purchases a more-than $3K hat for Easter Sunday, the targeted day of their resurrection comeback.
Waiting for the Childs’ fall is the far more approachable and seemingly more benign couple, Keon and Shakura Sumptor (Conphidance and Nicole Beharie), former parishioners but not without some edges of prosperity about them as well. Beharie is particularly effective as an innocent with prosperity potential.
The black Jesus statuette and street-side sign-twirling are recurring motifs to remind us of the many roads to redemption. At its best, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. is a cautionary tale about the irreconcilable mix of the material and the spiritual.
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.
Director: Adamma Ebo (C.R.E.A.M & Butter)
Screenplay: Ebo
Cast: Regina Hall (Me Time), Sterling K. Brown (Black Panther)
Run Time: 1h 42m
Rating: R
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take out of WCBE 90.5 FM. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com
