(Digital Editor's Note: Several members of American Family Studios contributed to this article which was published first in the commemorative March 2024 print edition of The Stand.)
Years before the passing of Don Wildmon, American Family Studios (AFS), the film production ministry of AFA, began work on what is now known as Culture Warrior – a 120-minute documentary about the life and legacy of AFA’s founder. Below, the film’s director, M.D. Perkins, gives an in-depth look at the film that is set to release later this year.
American Family Studios: How did the documentary project first come about?
Michael Perkins: In early 2018, I had a conversation with several AFA staff members about compiling old photos of Brother Don to publicly share whenever the Lord called him home. Thankfully, Don still had many years with us at that point – but this meeting led to the idea that there should be a feature-length documentary exploring Don’s life and work. AFA leadership agreed. That is how the Culture Warrior documentary was born.
AFS: What are some major events that the documentary covers?
MP: Culture Warrior covers some of Don’s early life – his childhood in rural Mississippi, his marriage to Lynda, and his pastoral ministry. However, the major focus of the documentary begins on a winter night in December 1976 – the night when Don sat down to watch television with his family and became angry at the moral decline on display in network TV’s programming. This burden was recognized as a call from the Lord to leave the pastoral ministry and begin National Federation for Decency (NFD).
Some other major events we discuss are NFD’s network TV monitoring program, key boycotts such as 7-Eleven and Disney, the protest against The Last Temptation of Christ, the controversy surrounding the National Endowment for the Arts, and some of the lawsuits that came from these battles. We also show how faithfulness to God’s Word and His call on Don’s life was the central purpose – not merely an attempt to “win” the culture war.
AFS: Did you know Don personally?
MP: I grew up in Tupelo in the 1990s and apparently lived right down the road from him as a kid, but I only had the opportunity to speak with Don on a handful of occasions. I began working at AFA in 2014, after he had started to come to the office less frequently. With this project, his declining health meant he was not in good enough shape to discuss any of this research with me. So I spent hundreds of hours speaking with his friends, family, and ministry partners, reading his columns and books, listening to his talks, and piecing together the details of AFA’s history.
It’s funny – for someone I’ve barely spent any personal time with, I now know him better than many people in my own family!
AFS: What was unique about Don’s response to the decline of society?
MP: Don was a doer – not a talker. But he was also incredibly practical and had a very commonsense approach to things. Don didn’t just hold a personal conviction but would call others to join him. And then he would write up a press release that would be sent to all the newspapers explaining what he was doing.
That last piece is what made him really stand out. Through that media coverage, he would get the issue in front of many, put pressure on those he was trying to persuade, and would enlist like-minded people to join him in the fight. Of course, this also caused those who disagreed or had a vested interest in the status quo to get angry and to focus their hostility on him.
His thick skin is unique too. Few Christians are willing to open themselves up to that kind of ridicule, scorn, and threats. Don endured it and, sometimes, was motivated by it – because he knew if the right people were angry at him, it was proof he was having an impact.
Critics would often try to claim that Don was an attention-seeker. The truth is, Don really didn’t like the spotlight, but he knew the power of the spotlight. He said on many occasions he would happily go do something else if the Lord released him from the call.
AFS: Why the title Culture Warrior?
MP: As we considered Don and his work, it was hard to land on a single phrase that encompassed his purpose. He did so many things and built so much. Faithfulness is a concept that was always central to his ministry, but it is also an abstract concept. Don was more matter-of-fact than that. We began to think more concretely.
AFS: What did Don do to be faithful?
MP: Don was a Christian who contended with the defining cultural forces of popular entertainment, advertising, corporate business, journalism, art, law, and politics. He was not afraid to be in the fight. That sentiment is one that may make some people uncomfortable, but it is one, I think, many Christians need to hear today.
AFS: What is something about Don’s activism that particularly stands out to you?
MP: One thing I understand better now than I did before Culture Warrior is the value of public witness. In the 1980s, for example, pornographic magazines were often placed on the magazine racks at grocery stores, drug stores, and gas stations. Christians would come to Don concerned about it. His counsel was always, first, to call the store manager and complain before they vowed never to shop there again. He found that oftentimes, the managers wanted to remove the magazines but needed to receive a complaint before they could do so.
If you quietly left the store and never came back, what good was that? Personal convictions held in secret gave no opportunity for public Christian witness or for a business to change its course. Christ is honored by the former, and everyone benefits from the latter. Consider this: Playboy and Penthouse magazines are not regularly available at the checkout counters at grocery stores nowadays. That is the fruit of direct action taken by Christians several decades ago. As bad as things are now, how much worse would things be without the public witness of Christians?
AFS: What do you hope viewers will take away from Culture Warrior?
MP: Don accomplished so much in his lifetime, and AFA has had so many different areas of focus that it is incredible to think it all sprang from one man. His work exposed the anti-Christian bias of the media, the immoral commitments of Hollywood, the moral decadence of American society, and the apathy of the Christian church. It is fascinating to see the various eras of Don’s life and how his focus connects to the core values of AFA today. He really was uniquely gifted and anointed for a certain calling.
But more than simply appreciating or revering Brother Don, I hope that viewers will recognize that Christians are always in danger of settling in and getting too comfortable. This world is not our home, but that doesn’t mean that we just wait it out until we go home to Jesus.
God has called us to bear witness to Him in this present evil age. He has called us to be faithful. The results of that faithfulness are in God’s hands. That’s what Don’s life symbolizes, and that’s the message that I hope viewers of the documentary will take with them.
