Never underestimate the power of love — and the mind-blowing kindness of a by-the-book preacher — to lead a man to salvation. At least, that’s the message of “Burden,” the third recent movie (after last year’s “Best of Enemies” and “Skin” a few months later) to feature a Klan member being coaxed into the light.

This time, the movie’s flawed hero is the real-life Mike Burden (Garrett Hedlund), an uneducated repo man in small-town South Carolina. The year is 1996, and Mike and his brothers-in-hate have repurposed a crumbling movie theater as the Redneck Shop and K.K.K. Museum, complete with Confederate flag. Outside, the Reverend David Kennedy (an affecting Forest Whitaker) and his flock are staging peaceful protests against the opening of this abomination. They don’t know that Mike will soon mount a roof and train his sniper rifle on the Reverend’s head.