Dallas Jenkins says that when he receives unfair criticism, “There’s a few things that I try to do that I think follow biblical principles in general.” The first is that if someone posts a lie on their own social media page, the director is not going to go to that page and engage with the post. “What you say is never going to be enough anyway,” he said, explaining he would rather engage in a space where people care about his explanation.
Dallas Jenkins: “I don’t worry about misperception or misunderstandings.”
The second principle Jenkins follows is that he attempts not to get into an argument. It is unlikely that someone who has publicly made a false claim is going to retract it after discussing the point further with him. “Also,” he said, “I don’t worry about misperception or misunderstandings. I worry about how things are.” To worry about people misunderstanding what he says would be “crippling.” In fact, worrying about every possible way that someone could misunderstand how he created “The Chosen,” said Jenkins, would leave no room for nuance, art, or figures of speech.
“Here’s the most important thing,” said the director. “I really don’t care about avoiding criticism or trying to gain praise.” Several years ago, God brought him to a place where he stopped caring about pleasing other people. When he had thoughts driven by a “fear of man,” he learned to replace them with passages from the Bible. “It became a little bit of a superpower,” said Jenkins. His focus became more about pleasing God instead of other people, and he has not made any decision regarding “The Chosen” in order to avoid criticism or gain praise from others.
Yet because “there have been enough people who have been confused” by Jesus’ line in the trailer for Season 3, Jenkins addressed it again. “Of course I’m not quoting from The Book of Mormon,” he said. “I’ve never read the book of Mormon.” He stands by the controversial line and pointed out that even famed preacher Charles Spurgeon said, “Christ is the law incarnate.” The director observed that no one has publicly pointed out that Jesus’ line sounded like Spurgeon’s quote. “But here’s the spoiler,” said Jenkins. “I wasn’t taking from either of them. It’s not that revolutionary of a concept.”
Those who read and give input on Jenkins’ scripts include pastors, his wife, accountability partners, a messianic rabbi and an evangelical scholar. Said the director, “We take this stuff very, very seriously, and any time Jesus is speaking, we want to make sure that we reflect the character of Jesus in the gospels.” Jenkins’ team has already explored any reasons why any lines could be problematic, and the experts who gave input on the scripts had no issue with the particular line in question.
