The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum End of the Spear

Jenny Parker made these comments:

...Questions and concerns have been raised over the fact that an actor playing the dual role of a slain evangelical Christian missionary and his son in the fact-based film End of the Spear is an openly homosexual "gay rights" activist. Television, stage and film actor Chad Allen came out publicly as a homosexual in a 2001 issue of the gay publication The Advocate and has since been outspoken on a number of homosexual issues, including taking part in a Larry King Live forum on same-sex marriage -- all of which leaves some Evangelicals surprised at his selection to play a dual role as two Christian characters in End of the Spear. The theatrical film is based on the true stories of five missionaries who were killed by members of the Waodani tribe in Ecuador's Amazon region and of Steve Saint, son of one of the murdered Christians, who eventually returned to that area and befriended the Waodani people. Allen portrays both Saint and his father in the movie, while Saint himself cooperated with the production, has a bit part, and even served as a stunt pilot. According to an article by Linda Rapp on the "gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer" culture website "glbtq.com," Allen himself voiced concerns that the Saint family might object to having a homosexual man play their family members in the film. However, to his surprise the actor learned that Steve Saint himself had approved of his casting after seeing a 2003 article in The Advocate, in which Allen talked about the importance of doing good works and serving others. In the glbtq.com article, Allen was quoted as pointing out that Saint had said the things the actor talked about in the Advocate were the very things for which he had fought his entire life, and it would be wrong not to ask Allen to play the part. A poster to an Internet Movie Database discussion board, a person who claims to have been involved with the production, said Allen became a good friend of the Saint family and once commented that "he got more acceptance and love from the Christian movie people than he's had anywhere, even in his own family." Jenni Parker