Whitlock: Michael Oher and critics of ‘The Blind Side’ want to sack a biblical worldview

The attack on “The Blind Side” is yet another assault on biblical values disguised as racial justice.

The 2009 Oscar-nominated movie depicting the relationship between a black homeless teenager, future NFL player Michael Oher, and a wealthy white couple, Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, celebrates Christian sacrifice.

The Tuohys are middle-aged, ultra-rich college graduates who disrupt their lives by welcoming a 6'4", 300-pound football star into their home. Oher is an elite athlete whose neglected childhood renders him academically, socially, and emotionally unprepared to take advantage of his physical gifts.

With two kids of their own, including a teenage daughter, the Tuohys move Oher into their home, seek legal guardianship of him, and treat him as an adopted son. Leigh Anne Tuohy ignores her friends who question the sanity of allowing an 18-year-old, unraised teenage boy into her home alongside her daughter. The Tuohys sacrifice energy and time with their own kids to make room for a child with a boatload of needs and untreated trauma.

The movie softly explores the theme expressed in Luke 12:48: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

The highest form of human action is sacrifice. We see that in the life and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Hollywood movies used to constantly follow that narrative arc.

We now live in an era in which popular culture is openly hostile to biblical values. There are rewards for rewriting history and dismantling symbols that support a biblical worldview.

Those rewards are why so many people are comfortable believing that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy secretly exploited Michael Oher and that “The Blind Side” is a harmful “white savior trope.”

Oher’s petition and allegations that the Tuohys tricked him into a conservatorship so that they could micromanage his finances and profit from his unique story and athleticism make absolutely zero sense.

When did the Tuohys realize their involvement with Oher would lead to a blockbuster movie? When he moved into their home, his academic record was so poor that no Division I college would touch him. Was Sean Tuohy, a former basketball player, such a keen football scout that he instantly recognized that Oher would be a first-round NFL pick?

The allegations against the Tuohys are woke revisionist history. According to attorneys for the Tuohys, Michael Oher has spent the last year or two attempting to blackmail the Tuohys for $15 million, the money he believes he’s owed from the success of “The Blind Side.” A lawyer for the Tuohys released a statement explaining that Oher has repeatedly tried to shake them down for cash.

That makes far more sense than the reverse. The Tuohys have been wealthy for many years. They owned a suite of fast-food franchises and sold them for more than $200 million. Oher earned $30 million over the course of his eight-year NFL career. A large percentage of former NFL players go broke shortly after their careers end. When you get rich in your 20s, long before you know what to do with money, it’s not surprising that the money disappears after your forced retirement.

Michael Oher reflects the larger American society. He views the world through a secular lens. He believes the writers of “The Blind Side” made a tragic mistake building the story around biblical sacrifice. He and his supporters think “The Blind Side” is solely about Michael Oher. It shouldn’t celebrate sacrifice. It should focus on Oher’s perseverance and overcoming adversity.

That’s not a bad story. But it’s not as powerful as sacrifice. Nor is it as accurate. The young human body is constructed to persevere, endure, and overcome. Humans abuse themselves in their youth. We eat and drink the wrong things. We stay up too late and sleep too little. We cut corners and ignore good advice. We excel despite our flaws.

Sacrifice for the betterment of our fellow man is rare and magnificent. Again, it’s the highest form of human action. Man is incapable of making the kind of on-the-cross sacrifice that Jesus did. But when we mimic Him in tiny ways, that’s a story worth telling and retelling.

Michael Oher hates “The Blind Side” because he believes it didn’t benefit him enough. It enhanced the reputation of the Tuohys more than it enhanced Oher’s. According to Sean Tuohy, he has tried to share his family’s small financial profit from the movie with Oher. Oher has refused to accept the money. The amount is too small, I guess.

Corporate media outlets have advanced the idea that the Tuohys made $6 million off “The Blind Side.” Sean Tuohy has argued the number is grossly exaggerated. Who knows? I don’t think we should care.

The argument over money is just a symptom of the problem.

The problem is the attack on biblical values and the use of racial justice to undermine Christianity.

There’s a crisis within black America around the destruction of family. Too many black children grow up neglected and unloved like Michael Oher. This trauma is most acute among black boys. Christians recognize this pervasive problem because their worldview preaches the importance of the nuclear family.

The attack on “The Blind Side” and the Tuohys is a warning to white Christians to avoid trying to help the next Michael Oher. Here’s the message: Do not be a white savior. Do not in any way try to mimic the behavior of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The tyrannical and corrupt U.S. government owns black people and is their lord and savior. Government social workers, monthly welfare checks, and state-controlled foster homes will provide for current and future Michael Ohers. The Tuohys are evil bigots. Hollywood should never have celebrated their sacrifice.

“Racial justice” is a lie concocted by atheists, sold to black believers to justify racial idolatry, and a tool to detach all of us from a biblical worldview. Man color-coded justice. Adopting man’s color-coded worldview guarantees increased injustice.