Actor Dean Cain says his new movie "Paul's Promise" is a history lesson with a timeless message about racism and redemption.
In an interview on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," Cain, who plays a fire department captain in the true story of Paul Holderfield, a bigoted firefighter-turned-pastor who started one of the first integrated churches in the South, said, "Racism itself is something that is taught."
"No one has ever been born racist. It's a it's a learned behavior and that's what happens in this case," Cain said.
"Paul's best friend growing up is Jimmy Lipkin," who is Black, Cain said. "As little kids, they're best friends … as he gets older, he becomes a firefighter … and then because of all these social situations and the racism that was taught to him, he can't accept his friend, and he turns his back on him."
According to Cain, the story is "about redemption and about how this guy makes a promise to his mother that he will go to church, and it changes his life. ... He went the exact opposite way from a drinker and a bad husband to a wonderful husband and someone who helps others."
The theme resonated for Cain, he said.
"I was born right after that, 1966," he said. "It's hard to put a modern lens on things. In fact, if you if you go back then and if you jump forward to now, you'd think the things that we're fighting over are probably insane. It probably would seem ridiculous. You would never see that as something that could possibly happened."
Cain said that in his Twitter biography, he uses one of the most famous quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. to emphasize the timelessness of the movie's message.
"He has a dream that one day, we'll just judge someone on their character, not on the basis of race," Cain said. "Unfortunately, that's become far too common these days."
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