Below you'll find quotes from Dallas Jenkins, a man who is highly esteemed and trusted for his presentation of the gospel through the mini-series The Chosen, a show that is influencing millions of people around the globe. I encourage you to read these first 5 quotes (with check marks) in which Jenkins explains how he surrendered his personal goals to God, quit doing things to be "cool,", and realized he was called by God to give the world an unabashedly faith-filled, explicitly Christian message in his filmmaking.
✔ Jenkins says he has truly surrendered himself to doing what is most honoring to God:
When one of his movies failed prior to The Chosen, Jenkins says, “I truly surrendered. Instead of trying to make another big movie, I figured I’m going to do what I feel is best, what is most honoring to God and to my wife and people I care about. I’ll make anything.” (source 2024)
✔ He explains that in 2005 God told him to quit trying to be so cool and quit apologizing for explicitly Christian content, being unashamed to create unabashedly faith-filled presentations:
“At one point during those years—about 2005 or so—I experienced one of the probably five times in my life when I most clearly felt the Lord speak to me. I was thinking through my career aspirations, and I remember the Lord laying it powerfully on my heart that the church deserves good stuff too. The takeaway was clear. I thought, Why are you trying so hard to be cool, trying so hard to almost apologize for explicitly Christian content, and trying to avoid doing it? The problem isn’t that there’s no Christian content, it’s that it’s just not very watchable. Why don’t you try to make good stuff but quit trying to shy away from the explicitness of the message? I told my wife that I was feeling called out to be more unabashedly faith-filled in my storytelling. She was kind of embarrassed by that idea, and so was I. But that’s where I shifted.” (source 2023) underlining mine
✔ Jenkins believes God has called him to do something never done before for the sake of the gospel, perhaps the greatest mission in modern church history:
Jenkins says God told him that The Chosen “will be the definitive portrayal of My people and this is what people are going to think of around the world when they think of My people.” (source 2021)
✔ He also believes The Chosen has more Christian content than most movies throughout history:
The Chosen has “probably one of the most Christian content[s] in history,” (source 2023)
✔ Jenkins doesn't want his flaws or his past struggles with pornography to affect The Chosen:
“I’m a flawed guy and I don’t want my own flaws to get in the way,” he says. “I used to struggle with pornography. I make inappropriate jokes on the set. My wife always says, ‘Your mouth’s going to bring you down at some point.’ I don’t want to trip on a land mine.” (source 2024)
Please compare these statements with the statements below, and feel free to read the sources linked to each one. I have tried my best to present these quotes in context.
Please note how often ungodly and pornographic entertainment impacts Jenkins views of how The Chosen should be presented. Please note the number of times he does something because he thinks it's "cool."
Please note his contradictions saying he is called to produce something clearly and explicitly faith-filled and his description of The Chosen as simply an historical drama.
Please note his weak stand regarding gay pride and his strong stand affirming Mormonism.
Explicitly Faith-filled or "Cool" ?
When challenged for creating a new "I Am" statement for Christ, a statement that contradicts numerous Scriptures, Jenkins said:
“It’s a cool line. So either way, it’s in the show because I believe it’s a really great line and I believe that it’s also theologically plausible.” He went on to say that about 99% of the people who heard the line “went crazy and loved it.” (source 2022) underlining mine
Please note that the word cool is highlighted in other Jenkin's quotes below.
See Why Scripture Refutes The Chosen "I Am the Law of Moses" Statement.
Strongly influenced by ungodly secular TV and movies, especially R-rated examples
Influenced by The Wire:
Jenkins talks about jogging on his treadmill and “bingeing” on HBO’s The Wire. This mini-series inspired him to make The Chosen jump between different sociopolitical points of view while focusing mainly on supporting players. “I thought, ‘Man, this could be so cool. Whoever does this is going to look really smart.'” (source 2024) underlining mine
Note: The Wire is an R-Rated mini-series that includes sex, violence, nudity, profanity, and drug use. In one of the shows, the characters use the F-word 38 times in 3 minutes. (source)
Comparing Moses to a mafia leader.
Jenkins hopes to make a mini-series about Moses and he said, “Moses was like a reluctant Tony Soprano. He was the head of the largest family and didn’t want to be.” (source 2024)
Note: Tony Soprano is a fictional character in the HBO crime drama The Sopranos, a member of the Italian-American Mafia. According to 10 Best R-Rated TV Shows of All Time, “The Sopranos only works so well because of its R-rated subject matter.” The Wire is also on this list of 10 R-Rated shows.
Comparing Noah's life to a PG-13 comedy.
Jenkins hopes to make a mini-series about Noah, and he said, “The story of Noah is basically Parenthood on a boat.” (source 2024)
Note: I'm not sure if Jenkins was comparing the story of Noah to the PG-13 comedy movie called Parenthood which contains sex scenes, a stripper, pornography use, etc. (source) or the mini-series which includes crude humor and sex scenes between married people and unmarried teens (source).
Feeling The Chosen's upcoming portrayal of Christ's crucifixion will have an impact similar to the death of Glenn in The Walking Dead:
“That was abnormally upsetting for audiences not just because of what happened, but because by then you cared so much about the person,” Jenkins says. (source 2024)
Note: The Walking Dead is a mini-series with mild nudity and gay and heterosexual sex scenes. (source)
Jenkins found it challenging to make Jesus a mini-series character:
“I know this sounds bad, but Jesus doesn’t actually make for a good main character. He doesn’t learn anything. He doesn’t grow. He doesn’t struggle.” (source 2024)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest changed the direction of Jenkin's life:
“When I saw One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, that’s when the direction of my life changed. Well, at the time I was a big sports freak and wanted to be a sports broadcaster. And we got to the scene in Cuckoo’s Nest where Jack Nicholson is denied the opportunity to watch the World Series, so he broadcasts a fake game just to get himself and the other inmates excited. The scene was so moving. It was so powerful. I was completely overwhelmed. I wanted to tell stories that move people like that one moved me. So that was the beginning of me asking, ‘Wait a minute. How come there’s nothing like that that actually comes from a faith perspective?’ There had been like one movie every five years that would come out that churches would watch. Movies like The Hiding Place or a Billy Graham movie or things like that. But I remember they were never nearly as good as ‘the good stuff.’ So, I thought, Boy, that would be really cool if you could make stuff that was that good but also came from a perspective of faith or telling my story or telling Christian stories of some kind.” (source 2023)
Note: One Flew Over the Cuckco's Nest is a 1970's movie featuring some nudity and crude sexual references (source). The Hiding Place shares the true story of Corrie Ten Boom's sacrificial faith in rescuing Jews from the Nazis and spending time in a concentration camp. It is definitely intense in subject matter, but tastefully done and powerfully faith-filled.
Jenkins admires Pulp Fiction:
“A big part of my journey was to watch great movies and seek to learn. I remember seeing Pulp Fiction for the first time and walking out of the theater with my mouth wide open, thinking, Wow, there are no rules. That’s unquestionably a masterpiece. I even found spiritual truths in the film of darkness and light.” (source 2023)
Note: Pulp fiction is an R-Rated movie featuring strong graphic violence, drug use, and some sexuality. It has some vague spiritual underpinnings. (source)
Sharing quotes from heretics
In 2019, 2 years into The Chosen, Jenkins shared a quote on Facebook from Richard Rohr saying, "From Richard Rohr... not sure that this is universally true, but it's rocking my world." (source). Rohr is a panentheist. “He denies original sin, the atonement, the exclusivity of Christianity, and he has an unorthodox understanding of heaven and hell, and the literal second coming of Christ.” (source)
A sexual sin that damages people's hearts and souls.
Even though he sets the rules for The Chosen set, he refuses to prohibit the display of symbols that mock God's commands. He believes that's only relevant for churches.
“We don’t have a political or religious litmus test for who we hire. We don’t police individual workspaces or social media. If this issue bothers you, that’s fine. But that’s not something for us to be concerned with or try to change. We are not a church.” (source 2024)
See The Chosen: Gay Pride Compromise or God's Word is More Important than Pancakes.
Jenkins specifically chose a gay-affirming band to write the music for The Chosen:
Jenkins said he “was going to have a hard time imagining doing the show without Dan Haseltine,” the lead singer of Jars of Clay (source 2020). Haseltine is known for coming out in support of gay marriage in 2014 (3 years before the debut of The Chosen), and he continues to openly support gay pride (source).
Haseltine is an ex-vangelical admirer of Richard Rohr. (source). He appreciates The Chosen and describes the portrayal of Jesus in the mini-series this way: “He's extending a lot of grace. He has his own flaws in a human way....He's very relatable and is gracious....A lot of us have been force-fed a version of Jesus that only cares about our behaviors. And every episode the story pushes back on that...Your behavior is not actually what matters. It is the inner workings of your heart and your soul that will matter… there's no shame, There's no condemnation.” (source)
It is interesting that one of the frequent remarks of Chosen fans is how attractive it makes Jesus to the unsaved and those who never read their Bibles. Without valid proof, they claim it is bringing thousands and even millions to the Lord and causing many to read their Bibles. I'm sure it has done good in that area. But how many people has it misled? Why is The Chosen pleasing to Haseltine, a man who has rejected biblical faith? See what the real Jesus said about his popularity: Why Following Christ Will Never Make Us Popular and A Very Popular and Very False View of Jesus.
See Wilderness Wanderers for more information on ex-vangelical beliefs.
or “Historical Drama” ?
In 2021, Jenkins said God called him to make the “definitive portrayal of God's people” for the world. In this 2024 interview, he said The Chosen has no evangelistic purposes.
“I’m not ashamed that I’m an evangelical,” Jenkins says. “I’m not ashamed that it’s a show about Jesus. But we really do believe that the show can be watched by anybody, and we just don’t want people turning it off before they watch it because of a label. I’m not trying to, through the art, convert anybody or preach anything. It’s a historical drama.” (source 2024)
Jenkins enjoys aligning with secular film makers:
“I used to dream of being in meetings with the people who work for the people I’m meeting with now. It’s fun to sit in a room with some of the most powerful people in Hollywood, who say, ‘We’d love to work with you.’” (source 2024)
Jenkins says The Chosen is not a Christian production:
Jenkins is not comfortable having The Chosen called a “Christian production” and he wants people to know that The Chosen has no statement of faith and they don’t have corporate prayer on set. (source 2023)
Not willing to take a stand against gay pride but willing to take a stand for Mormon heresy
Jenkins has Mormons involved in key positions in the production of The Chosen and he's publicly insisted that his practicing Mormon friends worship the same Jesus Christians worship:
“One of the top three most fascinating and beautiful things about this project has been my growing brotherhood and sisterhood with people of the LDS community that I never would have known otherwise and learning so much about your faith tradition and realizing, gosh, for all the stuff that maybe we don’t see eye to eye, that all happened, that’s all based on stuff that happened after Jesus was here. The stories of Jesus we do agree on, and we love the same Jesus. That’s not something that you often hear…I’ll sink or swim on that statement…I don’t mind being called a blasphemer…” (source 2020)
When challenged, Jenkins has clarified that not all Mormons or all evangelicals are saved, but he affirms that his practicing Mormon friends worship the same Jesus he worships.
Note: There are many ways that Mormons disagree with the biblical explanation of Jesus. For example, they don't believe in the Trinity, nor do they think Jesus is God (source). Assuring Mormons of their salvation denies clear Scriptural truths and leads many astray.
I cannot believe how often I have heard Jenkin's involvement with Mormons defended by professing Christians. In truth, Jenkins proves exactly what Scripture teaches. We're told not to align with non-Christians because they influence our faith, cause us to compromise, and cause us to lose our discernment. That is exactly what happened to Jenkins. It was after he started working with Mormons that he changed his view about their salvation.
Conclusion
Our greatest loyalty should be to God's Word.
The Chosen is an extremely professional presentation. But it contains a great many misleading elements, some of which directly contradict God's Word. A little error mixed with truth has always been more effective in misleading people than more obvious forms of deception.
To read about some of these errors, see Are You Willing to Address Scriptural Errors in The Chosen?
My
greatest concern is not The Chosen. My greatest concern is the
willingness of Christians to accept and defend the errors in The Chosen script and contradictions in the statements of Dallas Jenkins.
When you watch The Chosen, you are trusting Jenkins to give you an accurate view of God and His people. Would you trust a pastor or Bible study teacher who holds the views Jenkins expresses in the quotes above?
If you say that The Chosen is having an incredible effect on the faith of millions and in the next breath explain that it's only a mini-series and doesn't need to be accurate, you are making the same kind of contradictory, compromised, confusing statements that Jenkins makes above.
If a show is drawing millions to God, it's extremely important that it's accurate. Otherwise, it's drawing millions to another Jesus and another gospel.
Paul speaks to those who defend errors in The Chosen and in the statements of Dallas Jenkins:
"If someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough...Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness." See 2 Corinthians 11
A good resource: False Jesus of The Chosen.
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