The Loud Talker

Monumental is directed by Kurt Cameron, most people probably remember him for his role in the 1980′s show “Growing Pains.” He is a rare bird in Hollywood in that he openly preaches his Christian faith.

The movie begins with Cameron speaking of his personal struggle with our current national situation: massive debt, the economy, unemployment, people feeling frustrated about their future. However, he does not bring politics into his message at all and our political parties or leaders are never mentioned. Cameron talks about conversations he has had, how some people quote economic statistics to illustrate how bad things are, while others refer to scriptures and suggest that we are approaching the end of days. Cameron stresses that he does not want people to think that our future is bad or our of our control. Monumental was born out of Cameron’s desire to learn more about our beginnings as a nation in order to figure out how to secure its future. This 90-minute documentary takes viewers on a journey that starts in England.

London is the first of several cities that the film visits. The first topic is a discussion about the Puritans and their struggles to freely practice their faith under Queen Elizabeth and then King James. As the printing press led to distribution of the bible, rulers did not want their subjects to have access or to get any ideas other than those generated by royalty. Soldiers would find underground churches and printing presses and destroy them. A group of people we call Puritans worshiped  four years in secret, the danger and stress elf them to the decision to leave England to truly be free. They chose Holland as their destination,  but getting there proved to be very difficult. After much struggle, stress and separation 150 families under the religious leadership of John Robinson ended up in Leiden, Holland.

Cameron then travels to Leiden himself to learn more. Puritan life was hard, not being members of trade guilds meant that work was difficult to find. After 12 years the Puritans decided to try their luck in the new world, but in order to make the trip they first had to head back to England. The year was 1620.

Have you heard of the pilgrim ship Speed Well? I had not until this movie. It turns out that due to the number of pilgrims (150 families) two ships were hired to bring the pilgrims to the New World. The Mayflower and the Speed Well left together. but the latter suffered structural damage early and had to return to England bringing this journey to an end for half of the families.

Cameron returned to America to pick up the story at the Mayflower replica in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The trip across the Atlantic was supposed to take three weeks, it ended up taking eight weeks. Conditions were horrible, none of us alive today could probably tolerate the sickness, filth and trauma these people endured in order to be free to pray as they wanted. Keep in mind that they were not the only settlers heading to the New World. Businessmen from many countries were racing to take advantage of the resources available and many were greedy and violent. It is important to note that while business interests from many nations often led to negative consequences, the pilgrims traveled as families with the intent of living peacefully. They were not the violent white oppressors that many people today perceive thanks to inaccurate teaching.

At this point Cameron reflects on the strength and determination of the pilgrims and how they planted the seeds that grew into America. He wonders how the beliefs of the founding fathers compared to the Pilgrim forefathers. Were they the atheist, deist and non-religious men that built our nation with no connection to faith as a guiding principle, as generations have been taught for decades? Or, was there a connection with the Puritan past? Cameron then wishes aloud for a blueprint of how to rebuild our nation. His Plymouth history expert tells him that the answer is just a half-mile away in a public park.

Up until now I will admit that I thought the movie was interesting, but was moving along a little slowly. However, this walk through our historical timeline was a necessary foundation for the new information we were about to receive. I have to say that once the monument was introduced and discussed in great detail I was hooked.

The National Monument to the Forefathers does indeed specify the foundational elements needed to ensure a strong future. It is referred to as a “matrix of liberty,” below are some of the basics.

By far the largest figure is at the top of the statue and represents Faith. Faith is the most important trait expressed by the forefathers. A specific faith is not mentioned, just the concept. She rests on top of four pillars:

• Morality: This statue has no eyes because she is looking internally. She is holding the ten commandments in her left hand and the scroll of revelation in her right (the Bible).
• Law: The principles of God’s law are related into civil law. Civil law id in the left hand, the right hand is extended to deal Mercy and Justice.
• Education: The third pillar is represented by a woman sitting in victory. The word Youth is carved on one side of the education pillar and portrayed as a mother training a child. The other side of this portion shows Wisdom represented by an older man pointing to the bible and the ten commandments, plus a globe to represent how the world works from a biblical perspective.
• Liberty: The fourth pillar is represented by a strong warrior, the result of obeying the previous pillars. His left hand holds broken chains formerly attached to his legs. A lion claw is on his right shoulder, it is part of the lion skin draped over him, he has slain the lion which represents the tyranny of the king. His foot is on the head of the lion to symbolize his victory over tyranny.

This statue is impressive, my summary above does not do this scene justice. But it does show that religion was indeed a key element of the building of our nation. Cameron decides to learn more about why faith is being removed from our society and our schools, so he goes to Texas to meet with David Barton, a constitutional scholar and history expert that owns the largest collection in the country of original documents from our founding fathers. Barton’s comments about the first bibles printed in English in America and the farcical and sourceless college book “The Godless Constitution” are at the same time eye opening and maddening. He backs up his assertions with facts that will stun most people due to an overall lack in our country of accurate historical knowledge thanks to the willful altering of history by our schools and colleges. To prove this point Cameron visits Harvard University to validate some historical facts and shows more intentional destruction of faith in our culture.

The movie ends with a personal message from Cameron delivered in his own back yard. I will share with you a quote from him that is not a spoiler, but is a call to action: “The path to a better future does not begin in the White House. It begins in your house.” Cameron is telling us that we need to act like the pilgrims and the founding fathers by returning to the values that they practiced. Go see the movie while you can, it is a low-budget production with limited advertising dollars. During our 4:50pm Sunday afternoon showing there were 16 people in the audience. Please spread the word, this film deserves plenty of attention.