Film, in a pickle, turns to Larry Ross
By SAM HODGES
The Dallas Morning News
Friday, February 10, 2006

DALLAS: A team of evangelical Christians ended up casting a gay activist to star in End of the Spear, their film about slain missionaries.

How that happened has taken some explaining, especially to conservative Christians. And helping the film team do that has been Dallas-based public relations expert Larry Ross.

Mr. Ross, an evangelical Christian whose company specializes in working with and for faith-based groups, said the filmmakers didn't learn that Chad Allen is gay until after they cast him.

Though the leaders of Oklahoma-based Every Tribe Entertainment disapprove of homosexuality, they chose to keep Mr. Allen in End of the Spear, Mr. Ross said.

"It was very much a considered ministry decision to demonstrate the love of Christ and to be consistent with the message of the film, which is about forgiveness," Mr. Ross added.

The movie, currently playing around the country, stars Mr. Allen as Nate Saint, a missionary slain with four colleagues by Ecuador's Waodani Indians in 1956. Mr. Allen also plays Saint's son Steve, who as a grown man visited the tribe offering forgiveness and reconciliation, and formed a friendship with one of the killers.

Though some evangelical leaders, including the Rev. Jerry Falwell, have endorsed the movie, others have criticized the filmmakers for casting Mr. Allen.

Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., called that decision "very reckless." He said Mr. Allen, an outspoken advocate for gay rights, had hardly made a secret of his sexual orientation.

"Given the publicity of Chad Allen's activism and the intensity of his mission to normalize homosexuality ... it is hard, if not impossible, to suspend belief and see him as a missionary martyr for the Gospel," Dr. Mohler wrote on his Web site.

Mr. Ross said his company, A. Larry Ross Communications, wasn't the main P.R. company for the film, but was hired "at the eleventh hour" to help spread the word among Christian publications. Melany Ethridge of his staff contacted various such publications, encouraging them to publicize and review the film, but also giving them details on the controversy with Mr. Allen.

"They needed to know everything," she said, adding that only about 10 percent objected enough to his casting to refuse to support the film.

Every Tribe Entertainment and the Ross firm worked together, Mr. Ross said, in providing answers to questions about the film for an article in Christianity Today, the influential evangelical magazine. In the article, Steve Saint discussed how he ultimately came to support retaining Mr. Allen.

Mr. Ross said he himself had a strong interest in End of the Spear because his late brother, Steve Ross, was a missionary pilot inspired as a boy by the book Jungle Pilot, about Nate Saint's work in Ecuador.

End of the Spear debuted Jan. 20 to mixed reviews. In its first weekend, it finished eighth among films in domestic box office receipts, falling to 21st by last weekend. Ticket sales so far have exceeded $10 million.

Mr. Ross' company is one of the world's leading public relations firms representing Christian interests. It has been part of the P.R. team for several films, including Mel Gibson's 2004 blockbuster The Passion of the Christ.

The firm has done work for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Promise Keepers and the North American Mission board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Local clients include Dallas Theological Seminary and Gospel for Asia.