October 29, 2015

Film Review: The Armor of Light


The Armor of Light

FORK FILMS

Rattled by a mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard in 2013, the Reverend Rob Schenck begins to question whether it’s possible to be both anti-abortion and pro-gun. In her arresting documentary, The Armor of Light, filmmaker Abigail Disney (Walt’s grandniece) trails Schenck on a journey of self-reflection to shooting ranges, a National Rifle Association convention, and small-town church halls. At one gathering, Schenck is left speechless after Lucia McBath, whose son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed at a Florida gas station, proclaims, “We’ve replaced God with guns as our protector.” Moments like this form a moving portrait of a conservative preacher newly at odds with his compatriots.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

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