The Duggars, Hillsong, and all the documentaries

What I do in my spare time

I’ve honestly lost track of the number of documentaries I’ve given interviews for this past year. Six maybe? Seven? Eight? It feels like at least a dozen.

As you may have seen, two of the biggest released this week. Amazon’s Shiny Happy People premiered last night, and it’s already getting a huge amount of attention:

This comes on the heels of Hulu’s The Secret’s of Hillsong:

In addition to these two, I’ve given interviews for documentary projects on Christian nationalism and contemporary politics and on evangelical celebrities and sex abuse. These should be releasing over the next few months.

A few days back, I was talking to a colleague who was excited to watch the Duggar documentary. Somehow it came out that they assumed I got paid for these appearances. I laughed. I don’t actually get paid for any of this. Quite the opposite.

Each filming involves a significant commitment on my part, usually involving at least three days (two for travel to fly out to location and back, and one day for filming), in addition to the prep calls over Zoom, making travel arrangments, and any additional research needed on my part to make sure that everything I say is accurate.

Truth be told, my heart sinks every time a new request comes my way. My first step is always to recommend other scholars who might be a better fit but who haven’t been in the limelight. Producers are polite and pretend to be grateful for the suggestions but usually they don’t budge. If I’m lucky, the film team offers to come to Grand Rapids to film. This makes it much less of a burden on my family (less time away) but adds the burden on me to scout out locations and help coordinate local arrangements. My church has graciously opened their doors on more than one occasion and my colleagues at Calvin have been good sports, for which I’m grateful. Sometimes we end up filming in my own home. This is one of those things that seems like a good idea until you try it. (I live in a modest 1 1/2 bath ranch that looks…fine. Until it needs to star in a feature documentary and then suddenly the hand-me-down kitchen table and scuffed up walls and place-holder curtains all suddenly seem…less than fine.)

In general, agreeing to film a documentary is exhausting and, frankly, fairly high risk. Sometimes I’ve filmed for up to 8 hours and I have no idea which few sentences will be used, how they will be framed, or how the project itself will take shape. There is a lot of trust involved. Plus, I’m a writer at heart and much prefer to remain behind the scenes and not be on camera.

All of which to say, when I explained to my colleague how this all worked they were shocked. If there’s no money in this (any effect on book sales is generally negligible), Why on earth do you do it?

I don’t really have a good answer apart from the fact that I do these documentaries for the same reason I wrote Jesus and John Wayne to begin with. And the reason why most of us scholars do our work. It isn’t for the money, as any scholar will attest. It certainly isn’t because we hope to someday see our faces on camera. (For most of us, that’s more nightmare than dream.) It’s because we care about what we research. We spend a lot of time trying to get things right. And when the opportunity presents itself, we think it’s probably a good idea to get it in the hands of people who could most benefit from it. The truth is, no matter how many books you write or sell, there is a limit to how far books can reach. Films open up entirely new audiences.

(One of my “co-stars” in the Duggar documentary is Alex Harris, Josh Harris’s younger brother. When the trailer released, he put out a thread explaining why he participated. Although I’m an observer and not a participant, it mirrored in some ways my own thinking.)

At some point soon I plan to make time to watch both of these, but that’s hard to do when the weather is gorgeous and when none of my family members have any interest in watching documentaries about evangelicals. (I know, right?!) But I’m already grateful to see comments from many who have—from people who have lived in these worlds, who find validation in knowing they are not alone, and who now have a better understanding of the wider context that makes sense of their own stories.

One more thing: Last month marked my Substack’s one-year anniversary! I’ve loved this space and am grateful to all who have subscribed—we’re over 10,000 now, which is a little hard to wrap my head around. (When I write and post things here I still picture sending it out to a few dozen people or so.) A special thank you to those of you who have supported my work as paid subscribers despite the fact that it hasn’t really come with many special perks. You all are amazing, and I’ve been thinking about a more personal way to say thanks. Here’s my idea: let’s do a Zoom meetup, no formal agenda but I’m thinking AMA could be fun. (For those of you who aren’t perenially online, that’s Ask Me Anything.) So, paid subscribers, stay tuned…before long I’ll send a time, date, and link!