Save Blue Like Jazz

Susan Isaacs October 4th, 2010

I can point to several authors who influenced my Christian faith: CS Lewis, NT Wright, Henri Nouwen and Walter Wangerin Jr., to name a few. There are fewer authors that influenced me as a writer. But I can only think of two authors who influenced me as a writer of faith: Anne Lamott and Donald Miller. Specifically their books Traveling Mercies and Blue Like Jazz.

By 2004, my spiritual and professional life had hit the skids. The only job I could get was working at a church office. (God sure has a sense of humor). It wasn't a bad job, actually. My bosses were cool, and my pastor let me come into his office at lunchtime and vent my frustrations and doubt. He'd nod and say, "Yeah, I know what you mean." He loaned me several books that encouraged my faith. Not happy titles, mind you: Dark Night Of the Soul by St John of the Cross, Shattered Dreams by Larry Crabb, and A Grace Disguised by Jerry Sittser. The latter title sounds positive, but it's written by a man whose wife, mother and daughter were killed by a drunk driver. The book is amazing. Read it.

But it wasn't my pastor who told me about Blue Like Jazz. It was this random artsy guy who stopped in to visit the seminary intern working at the office. You know these young artsy guys. They dabble in creative pursuits. They have their whole lives ahead of them and think the answers to all their questions will be Yes and Amen. "Get back to me in ten years," I want to tell them.

So this artsy guy was sitting across from my desk, raving about some über hip writer who had defined faith for his generation. "Blue Like Jazz," he said and tapped on my desk. That's all he said: "Blue Like Jazz. Read it." And then he and the seminary intern went off to smoke cigars.

Two weeks later our pastor brought in an entire box of Blue Like Jazz and gave me a copy. It was like he was daring me to read it. I took it home, ready to pick it apart with my cynical, artistically mature eye. I didn't want some young hipster dilettante telling me what my life was like.

Then I read the intro. I had to admit his analogy was creative: God was like jazz because neither resolved. He had a way with words. I read the first couple of chapters and had to admit he made some great points. When he said that going to a big church "was like going to church at the Gap" I laughed out loud. When he wrote about the confessional booth, I cried. Blue Like Jazz was better than Random Artsy Guy had said. It was terrific, and Don Miller became my hero.

When I sat down to write my own book, I thought of Blue Like Jazz and Traveling Mercies. Those books gave me permission to write honestly, and provided a yardstick with which to measure my own work.

Six years have passed. I've had the privilege to meet Don and get to know him. I got to tour with him last fall. (God really does have a sense of humor). Don and Steve Taylor have been trying to make a movie based on the book. I read the screenplay, and it's great. But they've run into problems with financing.

And after two years they have given up. So, how come this insanely popular book can't get made into a low budget movie? Basically, the guys who have the money to make the movie aren't from the same generation as those who'll go see the movie. The money guys probably like going to church at the Gap. They don't cuss or smoke (at least, not in public). The movie has a teensy bit of cussing and smoking, and they can't get around that. Now in Hollywood, old guys fund young-guy films all the time. Who do you think funded Superbad? Not Michael Cera's friends. But in faith-based filmmaking, they can't bridge the gap.

On September 16, Don announced on his blog that the movie was being shelved. In Hollywood they say it "went away," because no one likes to say "over." But the film was over.

Or was it? Two crazy young guys got an idea: get the kids who love the book to come up with the $125,000 still needed to make the movie. It was like Michael Cera's friends decided to pass the hat.

Here's their video.

I know what you're thinking: "Why should I donate a buck? I'm an old white guy. I don't drink, smoke, or cuss; and I like wearing Dockers to church." Well I'm an old white lady. I don't drink or smoke. I go to an old musty church with incense and choir robes. But here's why we should: If we are going to show how Jesus matters to the next generation, we need to speak that generation's language. Young twenty-something hipsters might not go to my church, and they won't respond to the things I responded to. But they're going to respond to Jesus and to the way faith is presented in the Blue Like Jazz movie, because it's written for them.

Do you have a son or a daughter who's not responding to your faith? If you could make Jesus come alive to him or her, would you spend ten bucks to do it?

Then do it.

I'm that random artsy guy tapping on your desk.
Blue Like Jazz. Fund it.

SaveBlueLikeJazz.com

Susan Isaacs is a writer, actor, and comedienne with TV and film credits including Planes Trains & Automobiles, Scrooged, Seinfeld, The Drew Carey Show, My Name Is Earl and more. She is an alumnus of The Groundlings Sunday Company and the author of Angry Conversations With God: A Snarky But Authentic Spiritual Memoir.

Click here to listen to Susan's most recent appearance on SBE.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 4th, 2010 at 8:50 am and is filed under Angry Conversations with God, Anne Lamott, Blue Like Jazz, Christianity, Church, Culture, Donald Miller, Religion and Spirituality, Susan Isaacs, SusanIsaacs.net, Traveling Mercies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.