Preach to the choir: To convince people that are already convinced; to make one’s case primarily to one’s supporters (preach 傳道,傳教, choir 唱詩班) 白費唇舌

Examples: 1) Honestly, you’re preaching to the choir, but I just don’t have enough money now to donate.

2) Don’t waste your time telling us about the problem. That’s preaching to the choir.

(KYW Newsradio, 2018/9/21)

Former President Barack Obama brought his “Get out the Vote” message to Philadelphia on Friday with a rally on behalf of a dozen Democrats running for offices from governor to state legislature.

Obama hoped to reach an audience beyond the enthusiastic crowd at the Dell Music Center.

Philadelphia has always been a friendly place for the former president, and even he acknowledged he was preaching to the choir, but his goal was to make sure they vote in this mid-term election.

“Because it’s a non-presidential election, there is a tendency for casual voters to sit out,” Obama told the crowd…”This time it really is different. This time the stakes really are higher.”

前美國總統歐巴馬前往費城站台催票，希望選民出來投下一票給十幾個競選州長或州議員的民主黨員。歐巴馬希望他的影響力能夠及於全國民眾，而非僅限於他演講的戴爾音樂廳。不過費城一向對歐巴馬十分友善，就連歐巴馬自己也承認他其實不需要多說，但是他的目標是敦促所有選民去投票。

(Vanify Fair, 2018/11/26)

Though the film’s message is ultimately uplifting and timely, its execution—a movie made by mostly white filmmakers without input from Shirley’s family—has drawn criticism. Don Shirley’s own niece Carol Shirley Kimble has disowned the project as “a depiction of a white man’s version of a Black man’s life,” adding, “My uncle was an incredibly proud man and an incredibly accomplished man, as are the majority of people in my family. And to depict him as less than, and to depict him and take away from him and make the story about a hero of a white man for this incredibly accomplished black man is insulting at best.” (….)

Director Peter Farrelly said, ”I’m sure there will be some criticism that [the film] is not authentic because it’s not dark enough. But that’s not my style. We didn’t want to preach to the choir.”

雖然電影[幸福綠皮書]傳達的訊息十分正面並且也切合時代，它在拍攝過程中沒有取得片中主角Don Shirley家人任何意見，仍然遭致批評。Shirley的姪女就直接拒絕接受這部電影，說它只是描寫[白人眼裡的黑人生活。] 她也強調她的叔叔是自尊心極強並且極有成就的人，她們家族裡大部分人都如此。所以在電影中把他降格，把另一個白人捧成英雄，怎麼樣都是一種侮辱。

該電影的導演法瑞利也承認一定會有些人批評他，電影的描述不真實因為它不夠黑暗。但那不是我的風格，我們也不想多費唇舌(講大家已經知道的事)。

Photos: abcnews, Vanity Fair

Sound: ICRT podcast