The Armor of Light is a short documentary, under ninety minutes long, that follows a pro-life protestor, Rob Schenk, who has decided to take a controversial stance in his community-to preach that Jesus and guns are antithetical and pro-life Christians should be *gasp* fighting to stop gun violence. He is shocked, SHOCKED, that the people whom he protested with could kill people with guns, including doctors who provide abortions.
I was brought up fundamentalist, which means not questioning pro-life ideology for a long period and taking those who openly profess adhering to that ideology at face value as sincere and good. I am also a woman and black so it was not long before I realized the severe limitations of that ideology when applied in the real world outside of a womb. Basically all life is precious, but once you are out of the womb, eating, having a place to live, being healthy and preserving that life is not anyone’s problem but the individual with men bearing little responsibility while wanting to claim the privileges of patriarchy and women never winning whether a stay at home wife who relies on the promise of patriarchy or violates her traditional role when those promises are not kept. I am not saying that there are not some people who can make the traditional model work for them, but it is not as easy, financially plausible or satisfying for those who try. My position has always been God’s: no guys does not mean no money, women, get yours-your property (Numbers 36), make money, be a Proverbs woman. I am not even touching on the unreasonable psychological and financial burden of traditional roles on men.
I intellectually understand that The Armor of Light is trying to depart from the customary, liberal preach to the choir documentary and genuinely appeal to a more conservative demographic by using someone who is considered one of them so the film can persuade those viewers to side with gun control advocates and not look at it as a liberal agenda. Bless their heart. The filmmakers do not understand that if Schenk even strays from the party line an iota, nothing that came before matters, and he will be fired from whiteness, Christianity, Tea Party Republicanism, maleness. He has now been led astray, is not a true believer and will be used as a cautionary tale for others so they do not consider making any deviation from the straight and narrow. So this documentary will fail regardless of quality.
The Armor of Light will also fail because viewers like me or unlike me who have never held a conservative opinion. We will not see Schenk as the automatically credible and sincere person who changed his mind when presented with different facts whom the filmmakers obviously depict him to be. Only God knows a man’s heart, but I still watched this documentary looking for all the signs that he was shady. It is not sketchy to want to provide for your family, but I did notice when Schenk verbalized his concern that he could lose money if he got tarnished with the Scarlet L for liberal. How much of his ministry’s funds are actually allocated to saving baby lives or being able to sit in an echo chamber with his friends at Olive Garden and have an office? If the film had interrogated the overall sincerity of his ministry, I would view Schenk less skeptically as a compelling, relatable protagonist instead of a guy in the limelight if the film had done the work of vetting him, but it was not the primary goal or it never occurred to them to question him. If it is the latter, I find it inherently frustrating.
The Armor of Light is a bit lazy in connecting the dots with the evidence that it presents. I like that they touched on a connection between Black Lives Matter, gun violence and Schenk’s ministry’s new focus, but instead of the film tackling a textured and complex relationship that Christianity and race play in the US, the film treats black victims of gun violence as the Magical Negro who encourage Schenk on his difficult journey of peer pressure and mean boys. I am not calling Lucy McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis, who is now a Congresswoman, a Magical Negro. I do have to give the documentary points for choosing McBath as the relatable, every person victim of gun violence instead of someone who would appeal to the demographic that they are trying to reach, but it is also possible that it is less a choice than a happy accident since Schenk and McBath are actually depicted as talking to each other, which is a point in his favor, although I have no idea the depth of their interaction outside of the documentary. Still the idea that she exists to provide moral support to Schenk, and not vice versa considering that he is a minister, AND SHE IS THE ONE WHO ACTUALLY IS IN PAIN AND LOST SOMEONE, is somewhat galling.
I do not believe that The Armor of Light actually intended to make these connections because it seems to think that Schenk is representative of Christians, and McBath is the same kind of Christian, which I would not assume. The film and Schenk explore how Christians used to vote Democrat then switched to Republican when Reagan became President without exploring the historical role that the Republican and Democrat parties played since the Civil War. #NotallChristians. Black Christians usually vote Democrat and often are derided and dismissed as not being Christian for their differing political opinions. The 2016 Presidential election only magnified that existing divide. When it comes to deeply exploring the issues, it is not the documentary’s goal, but by bandying about political and racial generalizations that are not true, it undercuts the foundation of all its arguments.
Ultimately I agree with The Armor of Light and Schenk’s overall opinions regarding gun control, but I did before I started watching this documentary. The film sets out to convert and ends up being a preach to the choir documentary after all. I actually think that the documentary is most effective at simply comparing and contrasting the quality of Jesus followers by placing gun control proponents and Second Amendment adherents from the pro-life community side by side just by showing them interact. You really can know someone by their fruit. Lucifer was an Angel of Light and was famous in the Garden for twisting God’s words to suit his purposes. “A man who doesn’t protect his wife and kids is an infidel.” The actual quote, and one of my favorites that I have made the foundation for my legal career is from 1 Timothy 5:8, “But is any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.” Provide and protect are very different words. Pro life has never been about providing and maintaining life, but protecting it then letting it die on the vine.
The Armor of Light has noble goals, but probably is a waste of time if you already agree with gun control. It is available for free on Amazon Prime.