I’ve not thought much about this before, because I think I’ve only seen one “Christian” movie. It was by the Billy Graham Association, shown on an old projector in a church basement and I don’t even remember the name of it. The storywas forgettable (obviously) and seeing “Christian” movies isn’t something that makes sense to me.
There is a good article by Dallas Jenkins in Big Hollywood about why Christian movies are so bad. He is referring basically to the US market, and raises some points
Published 9 months, 1 week ago 11 comments1. The Christian community abandoned Hollywood a few decades ago. Until 1968, the Catholic Church had a direct influence on what Hollywood produced with the “Production Code.” After the code was abandoned and movies became more risque, American Christians became disenfranchised with Hollywood. Over time, the distance between Hollywood and the church became greater, especially as many artists made movies that mocked or attacked the church or its traditions. Instead of trying to influence Hollywood by becoming a part of it, Christians avoided it and told their children to do the same. The only time that Hollywood heard from Christians was when boycotts occurred.
2. Even though Christians didn’t want to see evil Hollywood films or listen to evil secular music, they still wanted to see movies and listen to music like everyone else. So what were they to do if the acceptable choices from Hollywood were so few and far between? They created a Christian entertainment subculture, where Christian movies and music were made by Christians, for Christians. Christian bookstores exploded, as families could feel safe shopping in an environment where the only entertainment available was Christian-based. Now Christians had no need to communicate to Hollywood what they wanted because they could get it from Christian media providers, and the relationship between Hollywood and the Christian community became even more distant. Combine the cynicism of Christians towards Hollywood with the annoyance or ignorance of Hollywood towards Christians, and you’ve got the perfect divorce.
3. In “Christian film,” you’ve got a genre defined entirely by its message. There is nothing else like this in entertainment, other than perhaps “gay films,” but because there are so many more gay people in Hollywood than Christians, gay characters show up in mainstream films more than Christian characters do, thereby reducing the need or desire for films devoted exclusively to a gay theme. This has not happened with Christianity in film, so the “Christian film” sub-genre remains alive and growing.
11 Responses to “Why Christian movies are so bad”
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I loved the plastercine animation Davey and Goliath when I was young. It was about a boy and his dog and good Christian moral values. I now have graduated to Morel Orel on the Comedy Network in Canada.
Interesting thoughts there. I’ve had several discussions with other musicians before on essentially the same observation as the third point – that “Christian music” is unusual in how the genre is being defined exclusively by the message.
I wonder what the implications of these comments are for the potential of religious movies being produced by the mainstream companies. I remember a couple years ago that some of the big companies were considering putting in faith-related divisions. Don’t know whether anything came out of that.
Incidentally, if you’re looking for bad Christian movies, I’ve watched the Left Behind series (three so far). There’s six hours you’ll never forget.
If I recall correctly the Billy Graham film starred Pat Boon and was called: “The Cross and the Switchblade”.
At the time I was managing a small movie theatre and it was what was called a ‘four wall deal’. The Graham organization rented the theatre and collected the admission. I kept the popcorn receipts.
I have a problem with the whole concept of “Christian” entertainment. It strikes me that it’s not enough that the theme and content of a film/television drama/song has a message that at its core advances what might be considered themes and ideals found in Christian faiths, especially if the production team and cast might consist of many people who are not necessarily “Christian” but are Jewish, United, Catholic, Methodist, Agnostic, Buddhist, etc. Disney and their holdings (Touchstone, ABC) have been producing content that is FAR from anti-Christian for decades. Songs like Cat Steven’s “Morning Has Broken” have been produced before a multi-billion dollar Christian entertainment universe was ever a twinkle in some Christian pastor’s eye.
The problem isn’t the Christian inspired content, it’s the insularity of the group of people that produces that content and insist on it being the driving force behind their product. Even when the Hayes Code was in place and Hollywood was making what the author considers more Christian friendly fare (“Ben Hur” and “The Ten Commandments” come to mind as does “The Sound of Music” and “What a Wonderful Life”), audiences including devout Christians were not spending time figuring out whether actors and directors had publicly acknowledged Jesus as their lord and saviour.
The creators “Christian” credentials seem of critical importance in the Christian entertainment industry. The Jesus credential is the driving force, more than talent or quality content. The bottom line is that that industry was not developed to provide artistic expression that would jive with their beliefs but to expand methods for getting God/Jesus’ message out to the masses.
You only have to read the testimonies of people who have left extreme fundamentalist Christian sects to see how much impact the Christian entertainment industry had on their lives. They only listened to Christian radio, looking for guidance and re-affirmation in Christian songs, and read Christian bookstore selections of reading material to further their relationship with God and Jesus.
The bottom line is that when such entertainment products are driven by such a definitive goal, it borders on propaganda.
I certainly can’t speak with any intelligence on this issue, which is why I appreciated what Dallas Jenkins had to say.
It is an interesting subject, I worked six months in Christian TV, can’t stand Christian radio and have seen one Christian movie.
His final point hit me – these kids are being raised not to develop their God given talents, being discouraged from doing so.
I’d rather have a root canal than watch Left Behind.:^)
These people are in a society closed in on itself.
Put it another way. If they only consumed
white bread, how would I describe Chelsea cake
and would they have the courage to try?
Nice comments, guys. Thanks for posting this…
Interesting you bring up Left Behind, because my Dad wrote the books the movie was based on! We actually formed our own movie company because we could tell the movies weren’t going to be very good.
I agree with most of the comments here–the whole notion of “Christian” entertainment has gotten pretty screwy. In and of itself, it’s not all bad, but it’s become so.
That said, I need to make a living, so I’m currently in post production on a Christian film. I’m going to write an article soon on Big Hollywood that will talk about it. The theme of the piece will basically be, “I’ve said they’re bad, now let me try making one and put money where my mouth is.” Stay tuned…
“Combine the cynicism of Christians towards Hollywood with the annoyance or ignorance of Hollywood towards Christians, and you’ve got the perfect divorce.”
But isn’t a state of divorce between Christianity and Hollywood exactly the way it should be? In James 4:4 it says, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?” If Hollywood doesn’t like Christians that is a good sign because Jesus said,”The world will hate you because of me.” (Matt. 10:22)
It’s a popular idea that Christians are called to “influence” the world, but this is biblically incorrect. Believers are called to be witnesses and to preach the gospel, it’s not quite the same thing at all. Influencing is a slippery slope towards compromise, and it misses the mark. I vote for separation of church and Hollywood!
I would like to add that there are actually a few Christian films that are not bad – I realize that they are few and far between, but I believe there are some good ones that exist. I recommend “To End All Wars”, “Mercy Streets” and “Final Solution” as examples.
Hello,
In reply to comment #8 by Therese I would like to respectfully disagree. I am currently a Media Studies major at Wheaton College and feel called to the Media industry.
My disagreement is simply that if we continued this line of thought to its logical end we would end up with a church completely separate from our culture and this, I believe, is a bad thing.
Upon separation from a culture the Church has a tendency to create its own subculture. Case and point > Christian film. The Christian film industry has been making films by Christians, for Christians and in the process have left Hollywood to do its own thing. There is so much creativity there. So much God given talent. Imagine if Christians used this to influence the culture at large in a positive direction? Christian media is divorced and therefore is not competitive, not applicable, and not realistic to a secular audience. Every time a person falls on their knees and a God ray from heaven falls on them Hollywood cringes and screams “HALLMARK SPECIAL!” and goes about its business ignoring Christian film’s feeble attempts at creative storytelling.
I believe this concepts is being taken slightly out of context. Friendship with the world is hatred toward God but within the context of “being in the world” AS WELL AS “of it”.
Jesus really focused upon the morally destitute in his ministry. He was and is a friend of the world. I thinks that’s why he came to save it. The difference is when the adulterous was laying at Jesus’ feet he said “Go and sin no more”. He loved her, he was being a friend of sorts but he was not letting her remain the same. He was calling her to a higher standard.
Christian film is not calling Hollywood to a higher standard.
How can we influence them if our films… to put it quite bluntly and pardon my French… SUCK??? I do not vote separation between church and hollywood because we cannot change what we do not acknowledge. If we are called to be “in the world” and not “of it” how can we divorce ourselves from the world?
I suppose we can’t forget Hollywood is not some monster. It has human beings within that God loves just as much as Billy Graham and if we aren’t there to love them who will be?