D-List Celebrities Join So-called Impeachment Task Force

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Since 2016, a left-wing organization called “The Democratic Coalition” has been working against President Trump’s efforts to put the country back on a prosperous track.

The bitterly partisan group initially had as its primary goal, according to its website, “making sure that Donald Trump never became President.”

After the monumental failure, the group expanded its scope of attack to include “Republican elected officials and candidates who support him [Trump],” and its strategic approach to include the use of “aggressive digital and traditional advertising, grassroots action, in-depth opposition research, and a nationwide rapid-response team.”

It additionally created an app promoting boycotts along with an anti-Trump hashtag and artists’ movement.

The group recently announced the latest way in which it would try to hinder the president’s endeavors for the country.

The Democrat Coalition’s present plan relates to the so-called impeachment inquiry that is being spearheaded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Adam Schiff.

The group has put together a team of spotlight-seeking celebrities with the supposed purpose of educating the public on the necessity for President Trump to be investigated for his suitability to continue serving in office.

In reality, the far-left organization’s current effort may be part of a much broader plan to ultimately undermine the 2020 elections and shift the outcome in the Democratic Party’s favor.

The Democratic Coalition has infused its official-sounding Impeachment Task Force with vociferous leftist activists, including Alyssa Milano, Debra Messing, Tom Arnold, George Takei, Rosie O’Donnell, and Ron Perlman. The Hollywood celebrities plan to team up in order to ostensibly hold President Trump “accountable.”

The Democratic Coalition’s co-founder Scott Dworkin told Newsweek that the celebrity component of the group’s task force will handle rapid responses to the president during the inquiry process.

The task force’s purported action plan is “to spread hashtags to streamline impeachment information, combat disinformation and reach out to Congress through letters and phone calls.”

Celebrities will reportedly engage in video conferences and conference calls with the goal of amplifying the message to a sufficient level to be able to compete with the president on Twitter.

Dworkin shared with Newsweek that, in addition to the celebrity presence, the task force will have “1,000 other members” to fill the social media with responses to the president’s posts.

The Hollywood messaging will be in the form of hashtags, keywords, and what has become the entertainment industry’s trademark style, profanity laced rants.

The celebrities named by Dworkin have all had tweets that are riddled with rage exhibiting an irrational hatred for the president and for the millions of people who support him.

Dworkin and his cohorts have apparently forgotten that a slew of celebrities were unleashed to support the candidacy of 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, including Bruce Springsteen, Robert De Niro, Lady Gaga, Jon Bon Jovi, Meryl Streep, Beyoncé, Jay Z, Katy Perry, Demi Lovato, and Miley Cyrus.

A salient and delightful reminder, Hillary still lost.

Clint Eastwood’s Latest Film Tells Richard Jewell’s Tragic Story

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Like so many of the characters he portrays on the big screen, the Clint Eastwood of real life is an unapologetic iconoclast who refuses to conform to the politically correct ideology of Hollywood.

In deciding on the location for his latest film, Clint chose the state of Georgia, ignoring the many calls by celebrity peers to boycott the state because of its passage of life affirming “heartbeat” legislation. The legislative measure prohibits abortions after a baby’s heartbeat can be detected.

Alyssa Milano, Milla Jovovich, and Busy Philipps, among others, have spoken out against the bill. Major studios that film in Georgia, including Netflix, Disney, and AMC, have indicated that they may move their productions out of the state.

Clint refused to buy into it. His latest cinematic project, “The Ballad of Richard Jewell,” was filmed in Georgia because that happens to be where the real life events that are portrayed in the movie took place.

Jewell’s story is a case study in ethics from which today’s media could learn a great deal. During the summer Olympics in July of 1996, security guard Jewell was an actual whistleblower who alerted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that a backpack, which was in the vicinity, contained a pipe bomb.

As a result of Jewell’s warning, numerous attendees were able to escape the impending explosion. Before the blast occurred, Jewell was able to assist law enforcement in getting many folks out of harm’s way. Sadly, the detonation of the bomb did take one person’s life and injure 111 others.

Initially, news reports portrayed Jewell in heroic terms, but the accolades would be short-lived. Three days after the tragic incident, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a piece titled “FBI Suspects Hero Guard May Have Planted Bomb.”

The article characterized Jewell as an individual who fit “the profile of a lone bomber.”

CNN reported on details from the Journal-Constitution article, and numerous news outlets followed suit. So-called experts described Jewell as someone who possessed the requisite psychological makeup to have perpetrated the heinous act.

The hero became the prime suspect. At a press conference called by her son’s lawyers, his mother, Barbara Jewell, pleaded with then-President Clinton to intervene and exonerate her son.

“My son has no life . . . He is a prisoner in my home,’’ the Journal-Constitution quoted the mother as saying, before she broke down in tears.

The Clinton White House refused to comment, and then-Attorney General Janet Reno refused to exonerate Jewell. He was not charged with a crime, yet his reputation was in tatters. Two victims of the bombing filed civil lawsuits against him. Finally, 90 days after the bombing, authorities cleared him. The actual bomber, Eric Rudolph, later confessed to the crime.

Following his exoneration, Jewell filed several defamation lawsuits against media outlets, which he claimed had reported in a manner that had severely harmed his reputation.

L. Lin Wood, the lead lawyer in all of Jewell’s libel cases, is the same attorney who is now representing Nick Sandmann of the Covington Catholic High School.

Of particular interest to places where journalism is taught is the case against NBC News. The lawsuit centers around the following statement, which was made by then-anchor Tom Brokaw while he was on the air: “The speculation is that the FBI is close to making the case. They probably have enough to arrest him [Jewell] right now, probably enough to prosecute him, but you always want to have enough to convict him as well. There are still some holes in this case.”

As is common in media lawsuits, NBC stood by its story; however, the network agreed to settle the matter for $500,000.

Additionally, both the New York Post and CNN settled with Jewell for undisclosed amounts.

Up until his death in 2007 (at a mere 44 years of age), Jewell was known to have regularly placed a rose at Centennial Olympic Park. He laid the flower at the site where Alice Hawthorne, the sole fatality, lost her life.

Reportedly, Jewell could never get over what an irresponsible and reckless media did to his personal reputation and his life.

The story line of the film is made to order for Eastwood’s filmmaking style. Paul Walter Hauser portrays Jewell, Sam Rockwell plays Jewell’s lawyer, and actors Kathy Bates, Olivia Wilde, and Jon Hamm are included in the cast.

After seeing an early edit of the movie, Warner Bros. was impressed enough to schedule the release date of “The Ballad of Richard Jewell” for December 13, with optimum timing for potential award nominations for the Oscar-winning director’s latest work.

As the final version of Clint’s film will hopefully underscore, it is the saddest of commentaries that 1996’s wrongheaded and biased media will be said to have had more integrity than today’s media can lay claim to.

The Agenda behind the ‘Climate Strikes’

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Climate strikes were recently staged around the globe in an effort to bring attention to the supposed emergency state of what was once called “weather.”

Leftists are expert at manufacturing scary crises. To this end, they have managed to re-frame “weather” by giving it a number of anxiety-inducing names over the past few decades. Prior to settling on their latest iteration, they bandied about frightening sounding phrases such as “global cooling” and “global warming,” among others.

Similar to the unsavory designs that came before it, the latest weather-related scheme is as flimsy as a plastic straw.

In a quest to amass power, insure compliance, manipulate minds, and fuel negative emotions, liberals have landed on a single moniker that is broad enough to stick to whatever weather circumstances may arise. Full and complete control over the lives of target subjects is the end goal.

Unfortunately, many of our young people have fully embraced the climate change propaganda, as have the expected tried-and-true liberals.

Much like the “March for Our Lives,” a youth-led event that took place prior to the 2018 elections and focused on firearms, the whole notion of a climate strike looks more and more like a subtle means of ginning up enthusiasm and participation for the upcoming 2020 elections, all to the benefit of the left.

The recent climate protest, which involved millions of students skipping school and taking to the streets, was said to be inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

Thunberg was reportedly so stirred by the teen activists at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, who had organized the aforementioned March for Our Lives, she decided to boycott school until the 2018 Swedish election.

The year in which Democrats launched what they referred to as the “blue wave” was the same year that the left utilized the anti-gun movement to mobilize younger voters. That was the year 2018.

It was also the same year that climate justice group Zero Hour initiated a climate protest march globally for young people. Additionally, a political action organization, Sunrise Movement, began demanding that mid-term candidates take a “No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge.”

The Sunrise Movement is part of the reason why the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are spouting such extreme positions. The group was influential in getting squad members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota elected.

In an article titled “Too Young to Vote? Get Your Parents to Vote for You,” the Sierra Club website pushes the idea of young people cajoling away the vote of their parents and grandparents by using apocalyptic fear as a motivator. The subtitle of the Sierra Club piece is “Young climate activists in Europe and the U.S. work to sway elections.”

Similar to Thunberg, 10-year-old Lilly Platt prompted a school climate change strike in the Netherlands, during the lead up to the 2019 European Parliament elections.

Platt, along with other activists, came up with the idea of having young people request that adult relatives and acquaintances “gift” them their votes. Platt’s grandfather Jim allowed Lilly to “have” his vote, and the two recorded what became a viral video, which urged others to emulate the action of the grandfather and granddaughter. After Lilly “voted” via her grandfather, she posted on her Twitter account the suggestion that young activist colleagues in the U.S. should generate a “climate coup” during the 2020 presidential election.

Hollywood and the media have been pushing ideological views and doomsday scenarios on our children for decades. Young people have been programmed to accept the notion that in order to save the planet, industrialized nations must transfer wealth to developing nations and forego the Western standard of living.

The current mass protests appear to be timed to activate a portion of the voting base with which the left has struggled for years, the youth vote. Despite the use of Hollywood celebrity encouragement and extensive targeted advertising, the voting turnout of young people has historically come in at disappointing levels.

In an effort to increase their numbers, liberal politicians and media figures have advocated giving children under the age of 18 the ability to vote. Andrew Yang, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, has backed a voting age of 16, and a majority of Democratic representatives have supported a bill in the House that proposes a voting age of sixteen.

For radical weather activists, the enlisting of fear as a means of influencing the public is nothing new. They have specialized in dire predictions for decades, including the following:

As catalogued by the Competitive Enterprise Institute during the 1960s, famine and a new Ice Age were imminent.

In the 1970s, water and food rationing and the potential end of all life loomed on the horizon as a result of Ozone depletion.

The 1980s delivered acid rain threats and rising sea levels that were certain to destroy nations by the year 2000.

As the 21st century began, the public was told that there would famine by the year 2012 and that the Arctic would be ice-free by 2018.

Of course, not a single apocalyptic prediction has materialized. Still, the same media that are ready and willing to report every gloomy detail regarding future doom utterly fail to follow up on the accuracy of earlier faulty dire predictions.

The Impending Flow of Vape Related Lawsuits

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In the 1980s a host of lawsuits emerged, which alleged cigarette manufacturers knew their products were addictive and caused lung cancer, but failed to warn consumers about the inherent dangers.

History may be in the process of repeating itself, this time amid a controversy that surrounds a modernized smoking-related device.

Several plaintiffs have already filed lawsuits against the largest e-cigarette corporate target, alleging that the company’s products create medical problems for consumers and additionally create addiction issues, particularly for teen users.

Like so many others before him, one Chicago teenager recently sued an e-cigarette company as well as a retailer over his own e-cigarette usage.

In papers filed by young user Adam Hergenreder, manufacturer Juul Labs Inc. is named as a defendant, along with a Waukegan gas station that allegedly sold products illegally to the teen. In Hergenreder’s state (Illinois), tobacco products are only allowed to be sold to those who are 21 years of age or older.

Juul is the leading manufacturer of e-cigarette devices and e-liquid flavors. It controls nearly three-quarters of the American vape market, which is a massive market in and of itself, and the company’s value is said to be in the tens of billions of dollars range.

After having difficulty breathing and experiencing tremors, among other symptoms, Hergenreder was hospitalized with severe lung damage. The young man claims he started his vape activity at age 16 to “fit in” with his friends. He also claims he was unaware that the e-cigarettes contained nicotine. Believing that the products were safe, Hergenreder engaged in vaping multiple times a day.

Juul is alleged in the lawsuit to have used deceptive marketing tactics, which targeted adolescents. It is further alleged that use of its product ultimately created a serious and dangerous addiction for the individual partaking, because of the amount of concentrated nicotine and other harmful substances that are purportedly contained in the product.

Juul has had a significant online and social media presence, which it has used in its advertising campaign to make e-cigarettes appear trendy and hip, thereby appealing to young people.

In a January 2019 study, researchers at Stanford University analyzed Juul’s marketing approach, including its website, social media platforms, hashtags, and campaign emails. Researchers found that Juul’s advertising imagery in its first six months on the market was manifestly youth oriented. Results indicated that the product’s presence on Instagram created online communities of young people who would post videos of vape related activity.

Hergenreder’s case is part of a response to a growing health concern related to the vape merchandiser. The states of Illinois and Indiana have both had individuals lose their lives as a result of vape related illnesses. The Centers for Disease Control indicates that it has received reports of six deaths and over 450 possible cases of e-cigarette related lung illnesses.

Consequently, in addition to civil lawsuits, Juul is facing mounting scrutiny by local, state, and federal officials, much like the tobacco companies experienced in the 1980s and 1990s. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York recently banned flavored e-cigarettes. And from the Oval Office, President Trump told reporters that he was planning to take action after a sixth person recently died from a vape related lung illness.

Noting the seriousness of the issue, President Trump indicated that “some very strong rules and regulations” were forthcoming.

Shortly thereafter, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar announced a plan to ban flavored e-cigarettes at least until a formal review had been conducted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Juul has responded with a statement that it has an “aggressive action plan to combat underage use.” The company stated that it is seeking to “preserve the opportunity to eliminate combustible cigarettes, the deadliest legal consumer product known to man.”

Juul shut down its Facebook and Instagram accounts as of last fall in response to complaints, and has also pulled flavored products from brick-and-mortar retail locations.

The FDA has been unable thus far to identify a single source as the cause of e-cigarette related illnesses; however, theories suggest that illnesses may be related to vitamin E acetate (found in THC) or the combined effects of nicotine, flavorings, and solvents.

Although Juul claims in advertising that its products are a healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes, for teenagers e-cigarettes appear to be a gateway product to conventional cigarettes. A 2015 study at the University of California, San Francisco, and a 2017 Canadian study at the University of Waterloo both found that teenage vape users were more likely than their non-using counterparts to begin smoking traditional cigarettes after having experienced the sustained use of e-cigarettes.

In the 1980s tobacco companies defended against lawsuits, many times successfully, by asserting that smokers knowingly assumed the risks when they began smoking, including the risk of cancer.

In the 1990s, after documents were leaked that showed tobacco companies were aware of the addictive nature of tobacco, plaintiffs began to be successful in obtaining favorable verdicts and settlements.

Still, it remains to be seen whether the e-cigarette industry will be treated in the same manner as the tobacco industry, or perhaps even more harshly.

Bernie Sanders Turns into Bernie Sanger

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It was an eerie telling moment for Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.

During CNN’s recent 7-hour climate change commercial, Sanders made it clear in a response to a question that if he’s the one who snags a White House seat in 2020, he will support the funding of population control measures in poverty stricken countries, measures that include the performing of abortions.

An audience member at the televised CNN event asked Sanders the following: “Human population growth has more than doubled in the past 50 years. The planet cannot sustain this growth. I realize this is a poisonous topic for politicians, but it’s crucial to face. Empowering women and educating everyone on the need to curb population growth seems a reasonable campaign to enact. Would you be courageous enough to discuss this issue and make it a key feature of a plan to address climate catastrophe?”

Sanders responded by saying, “[T]he answer has everything to do with the fact that women — in the United States of America, by the way — have a right to control their own bodies and make reproductive decisions. And the Mexico City agreement, which denies American aid to those organizations around the world that allow women to have abortions or even get involved in birth control, to me is totally absurd.”

In the above portion of his answer, Sanders appears to equate abortion with any other birth control option that is available. This stands in stark contrast to the way in which many Americans, millions of life-affirming people in other countries, and advocates of the Mexico City policy, among others, view the ending of the life of a pre-born human being.

Sanders continued with another line of ethically challenged reasoning in his response, saying, “So I think especially in poor countries around the world, where women do not necessarily want to have large numbers of babies and where they can have the opportunity through birth control to limit the number of kids they have — something I very, very strongly support.”

Essentially, after re-labeling abortion as just another birth control method, Sanders talked about reducing the number of poor people that exist, so that we can ostensibly save the planet.

The thought of promoting population control measures for a people, whether it be your own or another nation’s, is repugnant. But Sanders’ remarks reveal something even more egregious, something that should be deeply disturbing to anyone who cares about equality, God-given rights, and self-determination.

Residents of all nations, be they rich or poor, developed or still in the process, have the right to determine their own destinies, and inextricably bound to this premise is a fundamental freedom to procreate, to be the vehicle through which new life can enter this world, to enjoy all the promise that it holds here and, as many believe, on into eternity.

I believe Sanders is an aberration, as was Margaret Sanger, a like-minded figure from the past, who was very much in support of controlling certain demographics of the world’s population. Sanger was the founder of a parent organization that would eventually come to be known as Planned Parenthood.

Population reduction as a means to an end was also embraced by Sanger, a real-life purveyor of eugenics-based policies. In her 1932 speech titled “My Way to Peace,” Sanger advocated compulsory sterilization for those whom she determined to be undesirable.

“The first step would be to control the intake and output on … mental defectives …,” Sanger said.

“The second step would be to take an inventory of … illiterates, paupers, unemployables … classify them in special departments under government medical protection and segregate them on farms and open spaces.”

According to Sanger, those who were placed in government camps would be freed only if they underwent sterilization.

In an earlier 1921 speech, “The Morality of Birth Control,” Sanger spoke of the “irresponsible and reckless people” whose religious scruples “prevent their exercising control over their numbers.”

She added, “There is no doubt in the minds of all thinking people that the procreation of this group should be stopped.”

The dictates of the central planning of population to which Sanders and Sanger adhere ultimately require coercive force.

As Sanger stated, “Possibly drastic and Spartan methods may be forced upon society if it continues complacently to encourage the chance and chaotic breeding that has resulted from our stupidly cruel sentimentalism.”

Sanger’s goal was to supposedly create a world in which poverty and illness cease to exist. Sander’s goal is to supposedly rescue the planet from the ravages of man-made climate change. In both sinister proposals, neither goals nor outcomes are what they appear to be.

Kanye West’s Music Gets Born Again

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Kanye West’s latest career move may come as a shock to some. To others, it offers a blessing.

Rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, and fashion designer—these are just a few of the titles to which Kanye lays claim across a wide ranging career.

In his music journey, he oftentimes ventured out onto stylistic change territory. But his upcoming release, which was recently revealed to the public in a sneak preview on Instagram, courtesy of his reality show star wife, Kim Kardashian, Kanye appears to grab hold of his faith to share with the world.

A Bible, which is opened to the book of Psalms, appears in a photo that Kim posted. Adjacent to the Good Book is a list of songs written in a notebook. At the top of the page is the album title “Jesus Is King,” with the names of tunes listed immediately below. The songs have Christian-themed titles that include “Garden,” “Selah,” “God Is,” “Baptized,” “Hands On,” “Sunday,” and “Sweet Jesus.”

Words and phrases, which appear to be lyric ideas written on a notepad with the phrase “He will defend,” are seen immediately above the words “kingdom,” “lion,” and “fire.” At the bottom of the page the date September 27th appears, indicating the album’s release date.

Just to make sure her Instagram followers received the explicit message that Kanye is close to dropping a Christian album, Kim captioned her post with a praying hands emoji that followed the release date.

Christians have wondered about Kanye’s faith over the years, especially due to his use of the nickname “Yeezus.” He has utilized Christian themes in his music as far back as 2004, with a tune titled “Jesus Walks.” After the success of the song, he was quoted by the New York Times as saying, “I will say that I’m spiritual. I have accepted Jesus as my Savior. And I will say that I fall short every day.”

In 2014 Kanye referred to himself as a Christian during one of his concerts, and again in a January 2019 Twitter post.

Kim was actually educated in Christian schools of both the Presbyterian and Roman Catholic denominations. “We don’t share it much, but we’re really religious,” she told Vogue.

“We start our day with a group chat with a Bible verse from my mom, and everyone chimes in on the meaning of it. We are very Christian—and our work ethic and our discipline comes from so many years at Catholic school,” Kim shared.

Kim’s father, Robert Kardashian, was Christian Armenian. In April 2015, Kim and Kanye traveled to the Armenian Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem to have their daughter North baptized in the Armenian Apostolic Church at the Cathedral of St. James.

Kanye’s statements about his faith have become more explicit, giving testimony and signaling a willingness to share his Christianity. Nicki Minaj recently said on an Apple Music radio broadcast that Kanye had told her he has, in Christian terms, been “born again,” revealing to his female rap colleague that he had turned his life in a different direction.

“Sometimes in the music business, we think that other artists don’t believe in God or aren’t spiritual as we are…because I was just with Kanye, and he told me he’s a born-again Christian now,” Minaj said.

Kanye revealed to Minaj that his religious point of view fundamentally changed after a crisis in his life back in 2016. He discussed in the most recent issue of Forbes magazine the ordeal in which hospitalization required him to cancel his tour. The subject of the rapper’s faith was a prominent part of the magazine interview.

After being asked how he managed to come out of that challenging period in which he had been diagnosed as having bipolar disorder, Kanye explained that he had made it through by “being in service to Christ,” conducting himself in what he referred to as “radical obedience.”

Religious conviction also played a role in the growth of Kanye’s Athletic Shoe entity, Yeezy sneakers. A few years ago he was $53 million in debt and in need of finances to fund his innovative ideas. His shoe concern is expected to take in $1.5 billion in annual sales this year, according to Forbes, with Kanye owning 100% of the business.

“I’m just blessed through the grace of God to go from tweeting at Mark Zuckerberg,” Kanye said. He was referring to having asked the Facebook founder for $1 billion in investment funding.

This year Kanye initiated what he calls “Sunday Service” meetings, which are weekly gatherings for family and celebrity friends to fellowship and sing Christian-themed music together.

Kanye’s gatherings have looked and sounded more and more like church services. In fact, Kanye and Kim arranged for the cleric who conducted their wedding, Pastor Rich Wilkerson Jr., to preach a sermon there.

“I had the idea of making a church before but I really was sketching it out. Then in 2019, I was like I’m not letting a Sunday go by without making this,” West said on the season finale of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”

With a new Christian album and what, in essence, is a church, Kanye may have taken on the mantle of rap minister of the gospel.

May the world be blessed by the born again West.

‘Overcomer’ Lights Up the Box Office

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Executives at Sony Pictures and its faith-based unit Affirm are no doubt elated over the box-office performance of the big-screen release “Overcomer.”

Alex and Stephen Kendrick’s most recent film opened in 1,700 theaters this past weekend and brought in a higher than expected $8.2 million, the third largest opening for a movie from the faith-based filmmaker brothers.

The film secured a third place slot in the weekend box-office line-up, just behind the major studio releases “Angel Has Fallen” and “Good Boys.”

Surprisingly, “Overcomer” took in more than $3 million on its first day, with its best box-office showings being in theaters located in the Midwest and the South.

It is the Kendrick brothers’ sixth movie outing, and all of their films have been solidly in the faith-based genre. The current film’s opening numbers are actually higher than those of “Fireproof,” the movie in which the Kendrick brothers partnered with Kirk Cameron.

“Fireproof” ultimately garnered $33 million in total box-office revenue. If “Overcomer” is able to come close to reaching this figure, the profit margin will be enormous since the production cost is reportedly a modest $5 million.

“Overcomer” brings a tear-inducing tale to the big-screen, not only because there is a poignancy that underlies a portion of the story line, but also because the Kendricks have become adept at creating through their filmmaking artistry scenes that convey the universal emotions experienced on the journey from despair to hope, waywardness to redemption, and isolation to love.

High school basketball coach John Harrison, played by Alex Kendrick, is forced to deal with the loss of his team, but Principal Olivia Brooks, played by Priscilla C. Shirer, gives him a new assignment, albeit a less desirable one, that of coach of the cross-country team.

Harrison soon discovers that the cross-country “team” consists of a mere single member, a young girl named Hannah, portrayed by Aryn Wright-Thompson, who among other challenges in her life also suffers from asthma.

In getting to know Hannah, viewers come to find out that she had been told that her father, having succumbed to drug addiction years ago, left her in the care of her grandmother. Hannah has since grown to be an introverted person, yet one who has a compulsion to steal what doesn’t belong to her.

In her mind, Hannah believes that her father is dead. In reality, however, the man she will come to know as her dad lies in a hospital bed, stricken with diabetes and complete visual impairment. Coach Harrison acts as the bridge to the healing of this relationship and so much more. In ways unexpected and uplifting, a miraculous new life is in store for Hannah.

The film critic community has unfortunately panned the movie, as is often the case with faith-based fare. The movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes shows “Overcomer” with a paltry 38% rating. Critics predictably slammed the film, calling it “religious propagandizing,” “churchy,” and an “extended sermon.”

Another movie review aggregator Metacritic gave the film a rating of 17 out of 100, which according to the site indicates “overwhelming dislike.”

Interestingly, moviegoers have a distinctly different take. Those who viewed the film gave it a rare highest rating of “A+.” On average, two films a year earn the coveted A+ CinemaScore rating. Alex Kendrick is now the second director in history to have had three different films merit the score, the other director being Rob Reiner.

One remarkable back story to this film is worth noting. Not uncommon for believers who seek careers in the entertainment business, actor Cameron Arnett, who plays Hannah’s father, had to walk away from Hollywood in order to eventually be led back to a career in faith-based films.

Arnett was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and has starred in some high-profile television series including “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Meet the Browns.”

Arnett’s plans were fundamentally altered, though, when just prior to signing a contract, he was asked if he would be willing to appear in a project while partially clothed.

“Hollywood told me that in order for you to be an actor, you have to do partial body nudity, and I had to choose career or Christ,” Arnett said in a Facebook Live interview with Miami pastor Diego Calderon. “And I chose Christ, but when I did, I lost everything.”

Arnett found himself alone, as in his words, “Agents left. Everybody left. Friends left. I was left behind by the world and by everything that I had.”

Years later he decided to try acting again, this time choosing projects that reflect his deeply held beliefs, all of which culminated in an injection of new life into his career.

Arnett’s path led him to portray an essential character in “Overcomer” and graced him with the opportunity to be a contributor to the film’s success.

Looking out on the Hollywood horizon, the hope is that more stories of miracles that embody truth and light await a thirsting audience.