Q & A T.D. JAKES

By Rebecca Winters

Bishop T.D. Jakes financed and stars in Woman, Thou Art Loosed, a film inspired by his best-selling self-help novel of the same name.

Is cinema the next frontier of evangelism? It can be. The Gospel is not about standing and saying "Come to me." It's about going where they are, and the world is at the theater.

What does Woman, Thou Art Loosed mean? It's a direct quote from Luke 13. It's really about being free from the past, about forgiveness.

What is the message of the film? That freedom is a personal choice that often turns on the axle of forgiveness.

Is the R rating a problem? I would have rated it PG. The film does deal with serious issues. It's similar to Mel Gibson's dilemma with The Passion [of the Christ]. There's no way to glamorize an execution on a Cross. If you're going to broach a subject like child abuse, which is in this film, you can't turn that into Kool-Aid and Oreo cookies.

Will you market this in the grass-roots way that Gibson did The Passion? In [the African-American] community, we've always marketed like that--through churches and beauty shops.

Would you act again? Definitely. I'd like positive roles--a caretaker, a counselor, a physician. I don't think I would make a good monster.