Living Word Lutheran Church, 3700 S. Mason Road in Katy, will show the film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, at 7:00 p.m. August 14.
After the film, Pastor Emmanuel Jackson will hold a moderated discussion time about the film and his experiences.
Jackson, a native of Liberia, Africa, is also a survivor of the First Civil War that went on from 1989 to 1996. Jackson and his family were forced from their home in Liberia, and walked every day until they reached the Ivory Coast where they spent years living as refugees.
The Jackson family made the trip to the United States through the help of Catholic Charities and first settled in Nebraska in 2001. He went to college and Lutheran seminary in Chicago, and a year ago accepted the call as associate pastor at Living Word.
Pray the Devil Back to Hell is a movie about a small band of Liberian women who came together in the midst of Liberia’s Second Civil War and took on the violent warlords and corrupt Charles Taylor regime. They won a long-awaited peace for their country by demanding an end to the fighting. They were armed only with white T-shirts and the courage of their convictions.
Their peaceful demonstrations culminated in the exile of Charles Taylor and the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female head of state. It also marked the vanguard of a new wave of women taking control of their political destiny around the world.
The film reconstructs what the women accomplished through interviews, archival footage and images of contemporary Liberia. In one scene, the women barricaded the site of stalled peace talks in Ghana, and announced they would not move until a deal was done. Faced with eviction, they invoked the most powerful weapon in their arsenal — threatening to remove their clothes. It worked. Talks continued and Taylor was finally exiled.
Pray the Devil Back to Hell is directed by Gini Reticker, an Academy Award-nominated documentary director and producer. Abigail Disney is the producer and the filmmaker and who is also co-founder and co-president of the Daphne Foundation, which makes grants to organizations working with low-income communities in New York City.
This is a free event and child care will be available. No reservations are required, but the film is not recommended for children under age 13. For more information, please call the church office at 281-392-2300. Information about the film