What to do When You Put Your Foot in Your Mouth

Last week on this tour promoting the film, I put my foot in my mouth. Somebody asked why I'd not seen the most recent Christian film and I answered because I wasn't a "jack ass." Though it got a laugh from the audience, it was a dumb thing to say for several reasons. The first is it wasn't a sophisticated answer to the question, the second is that it was offensive, and the third is because I actually hadn't seen the film.

As a writer, I've often been tempted to disassociate from some forms of Christian literature. Fortunately, my faith tradition has hundreds if not thousands of literary figures I'm proud to be associated with, but within popular culture we are best known for a very few. Some of these books are cheesy, self-help kinds of books. Sort of message-of-the-moment books.

I shouldn't worry about any of that, but I do. I care about what people think about me. Chalk it up to the fall of man.

Now that we are releasing a Christian film, the most frequent question we get asked by the press is about why we would want to enter into a genre that is so critically panned. My comment the other day went too far in distancing myself from that genre. To be sure, their camp has done the same thing. Steve will be releasing a statement soon about this. Nevertheless, when you stick your foot in your mouth, you must admit guilt.

I'll start by apologizing. There's a small sub culture within evangelicalism who likes those movies. I hate the fact that the entirety of evangelicalism is artistically represented in the theater by these films, but nevertheless, some people like them. They have a right to like those movies, and whether they or good or not is subjective. Not only this, I have plenty of friends who I admire who like these movies, and I've heard the people who make these movies are good storytellers. Not only this, but making movies is hard, and these guys get it done again and again. It was disrespectful of me to disrespect them.

This won't be the last time I put my foot in my mouth. I don't like it when people speak through press releases. I can't connect with those people. I want to know what somebody really thinks and feels. I prefer the true answer to the right answer. So this will happen again. Hopefully, though, it will happen less and I'll use more wisdom.

When I put my foot in my mouth, though, I've got a little checklist I go through. Here it is in case you need it:

1. Move fast. Don't let anything get out of hand.

2. Admit guilt.

3. Explain the circumstances without making excuses.

4. Apologize if somebody was wrongfully offended.

5. Learn from the mistake and get better without becoming a politician.

6. Thank people for their kindness and forgiveness.

7. Get back to work.

 

Thanks for the grace.

 

Best,

 

Don

 

What to do When You Put Your Foot in Your Mouth is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog