Faith on the Blind Side<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the beginning there was "Big Tony" Henderson, whose dying mother urged him to pull his son Steven from a public school on the bad side of Memphis and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/11\/faith-on-the-blind-side\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faith on the Blind Side\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the beginning there was "Big Tony" Henderson, whose dying mother urged him to pull his son Steven from a public school on the bad side of Memphis and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/11\/faith-on-the-blind-side\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-11-30T09:18:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/11\/faith-on-the-blind-side\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/11\/faith-on-the-blind-side\/\",\"name\":\"Faith on the Blind Side\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-11-30T09:18:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-11-30T09:18:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"In the beginning there was \\\"Big Tony\\\" Henderson, whose dying mother urged him to pull his son Steven from a public school on the bad side of Memphis and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/11\/faith-on-the-blind-side\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/11\/faith-on-the-blind-side\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/11\/faith-on-the-blind-side\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Faith on the Blind Side\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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{"id":1749,"date":"2009-11-30T05:18:33","date_gmt":"2009-11-30T09:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tmatt.net\/?p=1749"},"modified":"2009-11-30T05:18:33","modified_gmt":"2009-11-30T09:18:33","slug":"faith-on-the-blind-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/11\/faith-on-the-blind-side\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith on the Blind Side"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

But there was one big complication. Steven didn\u2019t want to abandon his buddy Michael Oher (pronounced \u201cOar\u201d), a street kid who slept on their floor most nights. \u201cBig Mike\u201d was afraid to return to the bleak foster homes he knew after police tore him away from his mother, her crack pipe and her 13 children.<\/p>\n

So Henderson took both boys to Briarcrest Christian School on the rich side of town, hoping for scholarships that would make a grandmother\u2019s dream come true. School officials were impressed by Steven\u2019s grades. Coaches were impressed that Oher was 6-foot-4, weighed 340 pounds, could dunk a basketball and looked like God\u2019s gift to quarterbacks who needed a left tackle to guard their \u201cblind side.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rest is a long story, one that weaves together themes of race, sports, money and education. But a key player in the real-life version of \u201cThe Blind Side\u201d<\/a> stressed that this is also a story about faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re convinced that faith guided and controlled this whole thing,\u201d said Leigh Anne Tuohy<\/a>, the steel-magnolia matriarch of the rich, white, evangelical family that finally embraced Oher as a son, after providing food, shelter and clothing. \u201cWe absolutely believe that none of this was a fluke. \u2026 This was God-driven from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n

Author Michael Lewis didn\u2019t hide that faith element while writing \u201c The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game<\/a>,\u201d a bestseller that mixed Oher\u2019s story with information about how the left-tackle position evolved into a crucial, and lucrative, slot in any National Football League offense. Then writer-director John Lee Hancock included religious details about the family in the new movie, while avoiding heavy-handed sermons. \u201cThe Blind Side\u201d grossed $34 million at the box office on its opening weekend, while scoring a rare A-plus CinemaScore audience rating.<\/p>\n

On screen, the Tuohys attend plenty of sporting events. After all, Sean was a University of Mississippi hoops star and Leigh Ann was an Ole Miss cheerleader. Their daughter Collins is both a cheerleader and volleyball star, again at Ole Miss, and their young son, Sean Jr., seems to have inherited his father\u2019s gifts as a tireless sports entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

The movie does skip the ritual when everyone heads to Grace Evangelical Church, a growing congregation the family helped start. Oher began attending soon after the wet winter night when the family first spotted the shivering giant in shorts and a floppy shirt, walking back to the shelter of the warm Briarcrest gymnasium.<\/p>\n

Leigh Anne Tuohy said that \u201cfrom day one,\u201d Oher was the first person ready to go on Sunday mornings. Church was part of everyday life, like homework, piano lessons and trips to sports events and practices.<\/p>\n

The key is that expressions of faith were a natural part of this true story, said actress Sandra Bullock, who plays Leigh Anne. No one was faking anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis family, they were themselves for no other benefit other than because they wanted to reach out, lend a hand, and had no idea that they would get a son in return,\u201d she told reporters, after a press screening of \u201cThe Blind Side.\u201d Bullock said that, while making the movie, she regained a little \u201cfaith in those who say they represent a faith. \u2026 I\u2019ve finally met people that walk the walk.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Tuohy stressed that she can now see God\u2019s work in the events that changed Oher\u2019s life, and their family, that doesn\u2019t mean the details were clear at the time. <\/p>\n

The family had reached out to others before, but not to the same degree. Now, it\u2019s impossible not to think about how many other talented, gifted children are, literally, on the run in America\u2019s cities, she said. What is the family supposed to do now? What should Oher do, now that he plays for the NFL\u2019s Baltimore Ravens?<\/p>\n

After one of her Southern chuckles that Bullock had to master to play her on screen, Tuohy said that it\u2019s hard to talk about the future when she is still trying to understand the wild changes that have changed her family forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cA miracle is what this is,\u201d she said. \u201cChildbirth is easier to explain than all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"