Latest / Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews / René Echevarria on The Faithful and Seeing Genesis Through Women's Eyes

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René Echevarria on The Faithful and Seeing Genesis Through Women's Eyes · Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews

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  Speaker 1: Life audio.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, Renee, thanks for joining me. I good a beer,
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  Speaker 2: Renee at Tiveria. I'm child for pronouncing that showrunner and
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  Speaker 2: a writer for the new fought series, The Faithful Women
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  Speaker 2: of the Bible premieres Sundays, March twenty second and runs
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  Speaker 2: through Easter. Renee, I've read that this was sort of
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  Speaker 2: a passion project for you.
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  Speaker 3: Why, well, you know about I don't know, seven eight
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  Speaker 3: years ago, I just decided that what I wanted to
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  Speaker 3: do next. You know, I've been blessed with a career,
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  Speaker 3: you know, getting paid to tell stories, you know, which
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  Speaker 3: is something I never take for granted. But some years ago,
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  Speaker 3: when my kids were a certain age, I guess, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I decided that I wanted my next project to be
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  Speaker 3: something God hontering, you know, and something I could something
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  Speaker 3: I could share with my church community. I've I done
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  Speaker 3: stuff that I probably couldn't do, I couldn't share. I've
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  Speaker 3: even had, you know, So so yeah.
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  Speaker 1: It was.
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  Speaker 3: It absolutely is a passion project. I have to pitch
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  Speaker 3: myself every now and then that it's premiering in a
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  Speaker 3: couple of days.
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  Speaker 2: This focus is specifically on the prominent women of Genesis.
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  Speaker 2: Some years may be unfamiliar with the stories of Sarah Hagar, Rebecca, Leah, Rachel.
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  Speaker 2: What what surprised you or maybe inspired you most as
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  Speaker 2: you were visited those accounts. And I guess I'm asking
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  Speaker 2: this because sometimes when we read scripture, we see things
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  Speaker 2: in there that we didn't see previously. You know, these
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  Speaker 2: are familiar stories, but sometimes.
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  Speaker 1: Our eyes are just opened all of a sudden.
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  Speaker 2: What what kind of inspired you and surprised you about
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  Speaker 2: some of those characters.
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know my partner on this project, Krol Mendelssohn,
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  Speaker 3: you know who's a wonderful writer and a powerhouse producer.
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  Speaker 3: You know who ran THETI franchise for many years as
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  Speaker 3: head writer and executive producer. You know, it was it
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  Speaker 3: was her inspiration to tell these stories from the you know,
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  Speaker 3: the women of the Bible. And as you just said it,
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  Speaker 3: you know, it opened up. It was such such a lens,
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  Speaker 3: It opened up such a different lens industry cripture. I'll
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  Speaker 3: give you a quick example. I remember my first draft
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  Speaker 3: and I gave Carol the script and you know I
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  Speaker 3: had it Abraham, Abraham's encounter with God, you know the
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  Speaker 3: call of Abraham and then he's out there and God's
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  Speaker 3: talking to him, and I thought, I did a terrific job.
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  Speaker 3: And she said, you know, it's nice. It's not that
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  Speaker 3: it doesn't work, but what would it be what would
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  Speaker 3: have been like from Sarah's point of view? And we
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  Speaker 3: were kicking it around, and you know, we've you know,
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  Speaker 3: and we realized, well, she woke up one night and
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  Speaker 3: he wasn't in bed next to her, you know, and
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  Speaker 3: she went out to find him and finds him out
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  Speaker 3: in a field in a state she's never seen him in,
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  Speaker 3: you know. And that's the scene that's in the picture
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  Speaker 3: now because it's a complete you know, we didn't want
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  Speaker 3: the audience to experience something that Sarah didn't experience, you
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  Speaker 3: know what I mean. So it became from her point
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  Speaker 3: of view, it's like, Okay, this man that she loves,
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  Speaker 3: says he spoke to God, doesn't didn't see him, doesn't
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  Speaker 3: know his name, but each old he commanded didn't believe,
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  Speaker 3: you know. So it becomes it's just a different perspective,
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  Speaker 3: you know, And and and that, and you know, that's
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  Speaker 3: just one example. And that opened, as you say, opened
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  Speaker 3: my eyes to looking at scripture in a different way.
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  Speaker 2: Most modern Bible movies and TV series used creative license.
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  Speaker 2: This does to how do you how do you know
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  Speaker 2: the line between creative license and the fidelity to scripture of.
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  Speaker 1: What's the what's the process there?
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  Speaker 3: And how do you know the process? Uh, the process
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  Speaker 3: for me was always you know, if if we weren't
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  Speaker 3: going to tell every beat of the story of Genesis
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  Speaker 3: of the Matriarchs, let's say, you know, there were things
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  Speaker 3: we didn't we chose not to focus on. But if
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  Speaker 3: we did, if we did do a scene, called it
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  Speaker 3: a scene from Genesis, then we felt incumbent to it
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  Speaker 3: as as Genesis describes it, including dialogue, as you know,
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  Speaker 3: as much as possible. And then there's you know, the silences.
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  Speaker 3: You know, scripture can be Its silences are powerful, you know,
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  Speaker 3: and and and and bridging those silences and connecting you know,
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  Speaker 3: what's the emotional story here? How do we get from
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  Speaker 3: here to there?
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  Speaker 1: That?
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  Speaker 3: You know, that's where the reading between the lines, that's
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  Speaker 3: where the creative that's where we took creative license only
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  Speaker 3: in you know, scenes that are not in scripture, but
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  Speaker 3: that couldn't help us understand you know, who these people are.
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  Speaker 2: I think I've heard you guys explain it that if
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  Speaker 2: it's a scripture. That's what we stick to. But you know,
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  Speaker 2: in terms of what we call the space between the texts, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: the verses, that's kind of where you have a little
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  Speaker 2: little license to kind of imagine there.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you know, the the the rabbis you know,
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  Speaker 3: who have studied these texts, you know, for thousands of
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  Speaker 3: years called it mid rash, you know, and and it's
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  Speaker 3: an effort to never, never contradict scripture, but seek to
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  Speaker 3: perhaps amplify and speculate. And there's you know, they would
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  Speaker 3: they would have commentaries on commentaries on commentaries, and you
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  Speaker 3: know our are one of our advisors. We had two
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  Speaker 3: advisors on the show. One was a Christian theologianal one
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  Speaker 3: was a Jewish rabbi, scholar, preaches at a university. She's
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  Speaker 3: the one who's helpous. So you do know what you're
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  Speaker 3: doing here. You know, this is a long tradition. It's
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  Speaker 3: called midrash, you know, which was passib Yeah, and.
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  Speaker 2: You had experts at religious experts and theologians kind of
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  Speaker 2: guiding you there and kind of giving you some some boundaries,
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  Speaker 2: I guess, and give me some feedback and gains that's
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  Speaker 2: the word I'm looking for.
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  Speaker 4: There.
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  Speaker 2: You previously said that the success of The Chosen kind
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  Speaker 2: of opened the door for not only you guys, but
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  Speaker 2: everything that we're seeing right now from your perspective, how
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  Speaker 2: much did the series The Chosen change the way studios
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  Speaker 2: view Bible based projects. What did The Chosen do to
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  Speaker 2: help you and others in I.
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  Speaker 3: Mean, it is an extraordinary story that you know, because
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  Speaker 3: it started up, as you know, outside of the studio system,
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  Speaker 3: with this untried business model, this this crowdfunding play it forward,
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  Speaker 3: pay it forward, and you know, it's it's success. And
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  Speaker 3: I think I think the follow up success of House
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  Speaker 3: of David is is important, you know. I mean, if
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  Speaker 3: you look at history, you know, when the Passion of
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  Speaker 3: the Christ became such a phenomenon, studios said, oh, well,
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  Speaker 3: you know, maybe there's an audience here, but one one
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  Speaker 3: or two misspires let's call them, or things that didn't
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  Speaker 3: you know, uh, perform on that level, and they the
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  Speaker 3: bubbles sort of burst, you know. But I think it's
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  Speaker 3: a confluence of the of the success of The Chosen
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  Speaker 3: and and and and as of David, and also the
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  Speaker 3: maturation of the streaming business model. And you know that,
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  Speaker 3: you know, even we ended up on Fox, you know,
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  Speaker 3: a broadcast model. But I think it these two events
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  Speaker 3: somehow there's a ven diagram that intersects, and that's the
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  Speaker 3: sweet spot. And it's remarkable. I mean, there was a
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  Speaker 3: time when I was coming up in this business, you know,
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  Speaker 3: when it was doctors, lawyers, and cops, and that that
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  Speaker 3: was all it was on TV, you know, the occasional
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  Speaker 3: you know, odds saying like, you know, my first job
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  Speaker 3: on Star Trek, you know, but mostly doctors, lawyers and cups.
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  Speaker 3: And streaming sort of broke that open and suddenly you
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  Speaker 3: could start telling different types of stories.
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  Speaker 1: It's okay.
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  Speaker 2: So I was gonna I've been trying to figure out
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  Speaker 2: why there's so much faith content now there. And there
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  Speaker 2: was a decade or two ago, and as you kind
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  Speaker 2: of implied a minute ago, two decades ago.
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  Speaker 1: We did have something like this. It didn't it didn't
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  Speaker 1: last very long.
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  Speaker 2: Right after the Passion of the Christ, there was this
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  Speaker 2: faith moment and there was a couple of I guess
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  Speaker 2: movies that didn't I guess didn't make the money that
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  Speaker 2: they wanted it to make because the audience didn't embrace it.
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  Speaker 2: But do you think streaming is what has really helped
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  Speaker 2: kind of I guess lead to more faith content or
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  Speaker 2: is it something else? Well, it's you know, I do
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  Speaker 2: think in the sense that the other great thing is
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  Speaker 2: is sort of long form Bible story telling. You know
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  Speaker 2: we're used to or there you know, there were there
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  Speaker 2: used to be a tradition of Bible epics, you know,
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  Speaker 2: in the in the in the forties and fifties and sixties,
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  Speaker 2: even you know, big budget you know, and cramming a
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  Speaker 2: lot of story in a doo two hours. I think
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  Speaker 2: what the Chosen showed us is that letting scripture breathe,
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  Speaker 2: you know, in the storytelling breathe, not rushing through it,
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  Speaker 2: you know, getting to the highlights. You know, audiences are
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  Speaker 2: are you know, and the focus I think the focus
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  Speaker 2: on you know that the people you know, Jesus encountered
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  Speaker 2: the Chosen, the people that that Yeah, it just met
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  Speaker 2: the moment, you know. I guess there's you know, there's
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  Speaker 2: certainly a hunger out there for this and yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I think it's the simple things to severaling is coming together,
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  Speaker 2: like you said, the hunger there. As we close here,
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  Speaker 2: tell me about your own faith journey. Did you how
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  Speaker 2: did you come to faith? Did you grow up in
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  Speaker 2: the church, you.
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  Speaker 3: Know, I grew up in the church, but I I
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  Speaker 3: I strayed for many years and you know, pursued my
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  Speaker 3: care and how to you know, had a very secular
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  Speaker 3: worldview for.
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  Speaker 1: A long time.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I lost my mom twenty years ago, you know,
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  Speaker 3: quite young, she was quite young, and I found myself
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  Speaker 3: drawn back to church. Then I felt like she was
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  Speaker 3: city with me. You know, it was it was very comforting.
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  Speaker 3: And then having kids, and you know, I mean about
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  Speaker 3: about when my.
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  Speaker 1: Kids were born.
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  Speaker 3: My you know, my wife and I were baptized in
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  Speaker 3: the Pacific Ocean and you know, in the off off
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  Speaker 3: the coast of Malibu, and you know, we we go
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  Speaker 3: to a little church and you know, in our town.
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  Speaker 3: And uh, I'm going to have a little premiere tomorrow
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  Speaker 3: night for my for my church family. And it's just
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  Speaker 3: such a blessing too, you know, to be able to
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  Speaker 3: just dive into scripture and hopefully it'll be something that
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  Speaker 3: people respond to and and maybe give them a fresh perspective.
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  Speaker 3: There'll be those who these are old stories, but maybe
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  Speaker 3: they'll get a new perspective. And there'll be those who
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  Speaker 3: beetterre new and are unfamiliar.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, my.
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  Speaker 3: Hope, my prayers and God will do a work in
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  Speaker 3: people's charts.
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  Speaker 2: five star review.
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  Speaker 4: That's how we help more people just like you find
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: the show. A big thanks to the team at life
• 10:22
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  Speaker 4: you go to lifeaudio dot com, you will find dozens
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  Speaker 1: See you next time.