Edward McNulty

Edward McNulty is the editor and film reviewer at Visual Parables. After more than 40 years of publishing film reviews, study guides, and books (14), he has led art and film workshops nationwide and in Canada.

His body of work explores the connections between faith and popular culture – about 2,400 of his reviews, many of them social justice issue films, are available free at visualparables.org.

Even before he became a Presbyterian pastor he almost got fired from his position of youth director when, a couple of weeks after hearing Dr. King speak, he answered the call to picket a grocery store largely patronized by African Americans but which would not hire Blacks.

He was a volunteer in the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project where he met and talked with Fannie Lou Hamer and has been active in anti racism projects up to the present.

Remembering Edward McNulty

Edward McNulty, film reviewer and “Movies That Matter” discussion leader for Ending Racism USA, died unexpectedly at his home on September 16, 2024.

McNulty was a Presbyterian pastor and the nationally known editor and film reviewer at Visual Parables. His work explores the connections between faith, film, and popular culture.

In addition to over 2,400 movie reviews, he is the author of many books, including "Faith and Films" (Presbyterian Publishing, 2007), "Jesus Christ: Movie Star" (Read the Spirit, 2015), and the free booklet "Engaging Matthew 25 Through Film: Dismantling Structural Racism" (Presbyterian Mission Agency, 2021), designed for church members to explore structural racism through five engaging films.

McNulty had a strong commitment to social justice. Before he became a pastor, he almost got fired from his position as youth director when, after hearing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak, he answered the call to picket a grocery store which would not hire Black people, although the store was largely patronized by African Americans.

He was a volunteer in the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. In August 2024, he wrote a series of articles about his experiences, including "A look back at Freedom Summer" and "At the 60th Anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project, the truth still matters."

An obituary and photo gallery, compiled by his daughter Rebecca McNulty, is published on the Read the Spirit website.

McNulty's voice, insights, and perspective will be greatly missed.