I know how they feel

Film captures suicides on Golden Gate Bridge / Angry officials say moviemaker misled them

I know exactly how they feel. This has happened to me a couple of times. The most recent one was a couple of Britts who really suckered me. They spent months planning on coming to the US to do a documentary on Christians who believe in pre-tribulational rapture (think Left Behind).

Being naturally skeptical about these sorts of things, I held them off for some time. Then they informed me they would be in the area anyway to interview Tim LaHaye while he was visiting in Spartanburg. I gave in.

They presented themselves as producing a serious series of documentaries on people of various relgious beliefs. They would do a segment on a Hindi family and others around the world. Of course, they were on a limited budget (as they all claim to be) and it would be great if we could put them up for the two days they would be here.

Well, once we commit we roll out the red carpet. We also opened our hearts to these guys and really took them in and gave them nearly all the access they requested. Even after they were gone I had folks here asking about them.

These guys were really nice and covered themselves quite well. The longer they were here the less suspicious I became. Bad move.

Elliott Gerner called up to one week before the TV series was aired. He was asking for permission to use some music. He assured me he would be in contact afterwards to send me a copy of the program. Well, as soon as the program aired, Elliott lost my email address and phone number.

My first sign that something was wrong was when I got an email from someone in the UK asking, "What's up with this?" Turns out this program was not a serious look at religion but a "mockumentary" by two guys wishing to make fun of something they did not understand - and did not really care to understand. You know you are in trouble when you read the title: Putting the Fun in Fundamental: Beam Me Up Jesus.

Oh, well, what is new? They will just go in the same file as my good buddy Al Franken.