Adamma Ebo, second from left, and her sister Adanne, second from right, co-directors of "Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul," with, from left, cast member Sterling K. Brown, producer Jordan Peele and cast member Regina Hall at the premiere of the film (Photo courtesy of AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

“Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul” is a satire about the glam, scandal, and hypocrisy present in Black megachurches. While the movie definitely garners some laughs, it also offers a surprisingly searing commentary of the religious Black community.

After a scandal causes their church to close temporarily, fallen megachurch Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown) and his first lady Trinitie Childs (Regina Hall) work together to mount a comeback strong enough to call back the thousands that once formed their congregation.

The film was written and directed by Adamma Ebo and produced by her twin sister Adanna Ebo, both of whom had a strong religious upbringing in Atlanta, Georgia, where the movie is set.

Personally, as someone who grew up in a Black church in north Atlanta, some parts of the movie were comforting, yet simultaneously a little too real. I appreciate how the film draws attention to the main reasons why people are leaving the church. The Pew Research Center found that young adults around the world are more likely to be religiously unaffiliated.

The first relevant theme explored in “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul” is the prevalence of sexual abuse in the Black church, and the church in general.

In the movie, Wandering Paths Baptist Church closed because Pastor Childs is accused of sexual misconduct with young men in his congregation. The story is loosely inspired by Atlanta mega-church pastor Eddie Long, who fell out favor after he was accused of sexually coercing four young male congregants. Throughout the film, Trinitie and Pastor Childs must grapple with mounting their comeback while trying to settle with the victims.

When it comes to religion and sexual abuse, many people instantly think of the Catholic church, which has been rife with scandal for decades. In 2019, California passed Assembly Bill 218, which allows plaintiffs to file civil suits for childhood sexual abuse, no matter how long ago the alleged events took place, in a 3-year window from 2020 to 2022.

A group of Catholic bishops asked the U.S. Supreme Court to declare the bill unconstitutional, in light of hundreds of lawsuits. The Supreme Court denied the bishops’ petition on June 21, 2022.

“Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul” also comments on homophobia in the Black community.

On the outside, Trinitite and Pastor Childs have a picture perfect Christian marriage. As the film progresses, the audience must wonder if there’s more beneath the surface. In the beginning of the movie, Pastor Childs vehemently preaches against gay people. Yet later his sexuality is questioned as he struggles to be intimate with his wife and is forced to face one of his victims.

Adamma and Adanne have experienced anti-gay preaching in their own church. In an interview with NPR, Adanne reflected that “it just didn’t make sense to [her] that people choosing to love who they love and literally minding their business and not hurting anybody, why that automatically made them go to hell”.

The relationship between religion and homophobia in the Black community has been studied extensively. While many people believe that conversative religious values are the reason why homophobia is so present in the Black community, Dr. Timothy E. Lewis found otherwise in his study titled “African American Gatekeepers or the Black Church?: Using Modified Grounded Theory to Explore the Debate on Black Homophobia.”

Instead of religious leaders being the source of conflict, Dr. Lewis found that, “there are gatekeepers of Blackness who sustain anti-gay notions, as they see nonheterosexual acceptance as oppositional to Blackness.”

Lewis also found that one group of said “gatekeepers” is Black matriarchs, who, “don’t necessarily have disdain for gay and lesbian persons but seek to protect Black masculinity, a concept they see in direct opposition to gay and lesbian support.”

The second gatekeeper is Black figures with substantial influence. Dr. Lewis writes that “these gatekeepers perpetuate anti-gayness in misguided attempts to protect Black people and culture.”

Watching “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul” left me with a lingering question: Why is the church so obsessed with a revival? To me, the Black church is choked by the idea of a revival. In the film, Trinitie and Pastor Childs spend so much time and energy trying to mount the biggest revival that their church has ever seen.

It reminded me of my own church. The Sunday before I moved back to USC, I went to a revival meeting that my church was holding after service. The goal of the meeting was for my pastor to figure out how to make young people enjoy going to church again. There was only one other college student in the room.

I told him that the church needed to have candid discussions about the same issues explored in the film, that turn people away from church today: abuse that gets swept under the rug, ultra-contraconservative mindset, and grandiose spending.

I explained that what can’t continue to happen is that when a congregant shares their belief and their point of view, they are squashed down by a Bible verse, which is usually what happens. There must be room for questioning and disagreement.

It’s time to let go of the need for a revival. To me, a revival implies that all changes are temporary. The revival lasts just long enough for the church to sustain itself for a year or so, then another revival comes along after that.

Instead of a revival, the church needs to implement permanent, structural changes that have the buy-in from different stakeholder groups within the church. With collaboration, open-mindedness, and a willingness to accept the ways of the 21st century, the church can have a happy and faithful congregation that they don’t need to wrestle into a revival each year.

“Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul” encourages the audience to question institutions that they take part of. I advise people everywhere to take a critical look at how they engage in religion, marriage, and family. You may be surprised at what you find.

“Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul” was released in theaters on Sept. 2 and is available to stream on Peacock.

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