'The Chosen' creator Dallas Jenkins gets emotional while sharing Gospel with Jordan Peterson
Dallas Jenkins, creator of the hit series "The Chosen," recently became emotional while sharing the Gospel with psychologist and bestselling author Jordan Peterson during an episode of "The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast."
During their conversation, Peterson, 62, critiqued religious films, arguing that they often fail when they become overly propagandistic.
"Religious films can be propagandistic just like political films, and then they fail. They're not interesting," he said.
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"I think not only do they not serve the religious purpose, then I think they harm it because it's the hijacking of the quest in art to push forward a message that's predetermined; it's not an exploration," Peterson added. "There's not even any faith in it. There's no risk in a way."
In contrast, Peterson said he appreciates "The Chosen," which he watches with his wife, Tammy.
"I was watching it with my wife and she had undergone quite a profound religious transformation not too long before we started watching 'The Chosen,'" Peterson told Jenkins. "I was watching her watch it and seeing her response. The first response I had [watching 'The Chosen'] was relief. The relief was, 'Oh, I can watch this,' because I'm very sensitive to propagandistic intent; I don't like it at all. Even a bit of it is a turnoff for me."
Peterson described "The Chosen" as "interesting independently" of his "religious convictions or lack thereof."
"Part of the problem with propagandistic religious entertainment is that it's often low quality, and you're supposed to pretend that doesn't matter," Peterson added.
But if it's about God, it needs to be of the "highest possible quality," the We Who Wrestle with God author said.
In response, Jenkins said he considers it to be his job as the show's writer "to take Jesus down from stained glass windows … in the formality of religion that sometimes can distance ourselves from Jesus, from a pure relationship with God."
"To remove the religiosity of how we oftentimes see God and we see Him in paintings or stained glass windows," Jenkins said, "and then even when we sometimes watch movies, it still feels like a stained glass window. He's very formal and distant and pious and not funny or not interesting or not charismatic."
"So my show is designed to bring Jesus down from the stained glass window or from the statue and remind you that He's a human being in addition to His divinity."
Near the end of the interview, Jenkins shared the Gospel with Peterson.
"Jesus knows our hearts, [and] he wants a—" Jenkins said, pausing with emotion, "A relationship with you specifically. … So whether He's healing you, calling you to follow Him, or rebuking you, it's not based on a paint-by-numbers, one-size-fits-all — He knows what's in your heart."
"The Chosen," now in its fifth season, grossed more than $31 million at the box office despite being available for free on its own streaming app. The next season of the series is slated for release in April 2025.
This year, Jenkins, along with his newly formed 5&2 Studios, announced they are leveraging the momentum of the series to create a broader storytelling universe, including a three-season series centered on the life of Moses.
Earlier this year, the showrunner said his focus is on telling stories that prioritize human connection and authenticity.
"From the beginning. I just thought, 'I'm following, I'm just trying to listen,'" he said when asked about the success of "The Chosen." "It doesn't surprise me that the show is successful because God can do anything. It wouldn't surprise me if the show didn't do anything, because I don't think about the results. So now that I see it, I don't take it for granted, I appreciate it, it never stops meaning something to me … but the impact matters most."
While Peterson often discusses Christian theology, biblical stories and the moral and cultural significance of Christianity, he has described himself as agnostic. He has acknowledged the Bible's foundational role in shaping Western values, morality and concepts of good and evil. However, he has also voiced concerns about modern religious institutions.
In a September interview with The Christian Post, Peterson warned that the embrace of identity politics by some churches is a dangerous shift away from the core teachings of Christianity and poses a threat to the integrity of the faith, particularly for younger generations who might be more vulnerable to cultural trends.
But even conservative Evangelical churches are not immune to problems, Peterson said.
"There's no shortage of bad actors as well in the Christian community of the sort that the atheists tend to object to," he said. "The fundamental problem with religious enterprise is that it can be captured by the psychopathic narcissists, and that's what you see in the Gospel story. Christ is persecuted most intensely by the Pharisees, the scribes and the lawyers. […] The Pharisees are religious hypocrites who use religion for their own self-aggrandizement. That's a real danger in the religious enterprise, and especially the more Evangelical forms of Christianity have been prone to being overrun by self-serving charlatans. That's a problem."
Peterson advised Christians to be grounded in skepticism — not of faith itself, but of those who would misuse it. "By their fruits, you will know them," he said, stressing that the Scripture verse is useful when determining whether religious leaders are genuinely committed to the faith or merely using it for their own purposes.
"You have to pay attention to the fact that not everybody who says 'Lord, Lord' is going to enter the Kingdom of Heaven," he said.
