My Moment as a Movie Mini-Star
By Congressman Mark Souder
April 28, 2008
This column was first published by the KPC Media Group in the News-Sun (Noble & LaGrange Counties), the Evening Star (DeKalb County), and the Herald-Republican (Steuben County).
Two weekends ago the movie “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” debuted at major movie theatres all over the country. In our region it is playing at Carmike, Coldwater and Jefferson Pointe in Fort Wayne and Encore in Elkhart. You may be stunned to see me briefly (three times, but who’s counting?) at the movie’s beginning.
The movie has been covered heavily on Fox News and by Rush Limbaugh and other fair and balanced media, as well as by some more conventional ones.
It tackles a serious subject: the liberal censorship of alternative theories of the earth’s creation (specifically, intelligent design). Liberals often talk about free debate, but the documentary clearly shows that in this case they won’t allow it.
For this column, I thought I’d share a few behind-the-scenes moments with you, rather than focus on its serious content with which, obviously, I largely agree.
The key person behind the debate is a man (also in the movie) with area ties named Bruce Chapman, President of the Discovery Institute, who has toiled away for years trying to force a national debate on intelligent design.
We have worked together on numerous projects, especially after I became outraged by a persecution case at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History that he brought to our attention.
At the time, I was chairman of a subcommittee whose jurisdiction included oversight of the Smithsonian Institution, and we were able to force the museum to release e-mails clearly showing harassment of a scientist named Dr. Richard Sternberg who dared challenge the liberal party line on evolution.
The documents our investigation obtained resulted in a subcommittee staff report that was written mostly by Erika Heikkila (then my legislative director), who was working with Marc Wheat, my subcommittee staff director.
The movie starts with Smithsonian officials being confronted by my subcommittee’s report (a copy of which is available here), and their resulting panic and reactions. Interspersed are some of my comments.
Ben Stein is the face of this movie. His deadpan style in the film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” translated into TV game show “Win Ben Stein’s Money” and other assorted showbiz gigs. For many years, Ben Stein has also written a column for The American Spectator, a monthly conservative magazine.
Still, his emergence as someone leading a head-on challenge to the liberal bias on how the world was created is rather stunning.
So, when Martin Green on my staff received a call asking for an interview with me for this project, we were a little skeptical. It’s not like they were offering a big contract (my pay was minimal, actually zero). And it was unlikely to be a stepping stone to a future movie or TV career (Hollywood still hasn’t called). But, after establishing that their goals seemed noble, we agreed.
We’re happy we did.
Being in a movie—first run, at major movie houses—is a new thing for me. But I seriously doubt that there is much of a market for slightly overweight, aging, accountant-looking country boys. If there is, perhaps I’ll get another call.
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