Would You Like Poison With Your Popcorn?

There are an estimated 30 million evangelical and fundamentalist Christians in the U.S., and Hollywood -- mired in a prolonged slump at the box office -- is making a concerted effort to mollify and attract that audience.

So reads an e-mail I received from NewsMax.com. Generally I delete my NewsMax e-mails as soon as I get them (and no, I have no idea why I haven't cancelled my subscription yet), but when the subject line reads "Hollywood Finds Jesus" it grabs my attention. Apparently, as evidenced by the above quote, "finding Jesus" consists of a Christian-friendly marketing strategy.

I've read the e-mail a number of times now, and it seems we are supposed to take this as an encouraging sign. The e-mail notes that 'Actor Peter Sarsgaard said that while shooting the Disney thriller "Flightplan," he was told to strike the word "Jesus" from his dialogue; the directors didn't want him to "take the Lord's name in vain."' I hope the reader will forgive me if I am less than enthusiastic about such changes.

Now, I know what you might be thinking. "Wow, Josh, you're being pretty negative. Sure, it's not a mass conversion we're talking about, but this is a step in the right direction, right?" I'm going to say, "yes and no." It is certainly good that movies are being changed to come closer to Christian morality. I like that movies are being made with some decent standards in mind. The problem is, these changes are only cosmetic. The same faulty, anti-Christian worldview will come through in these movies, and that is more insidious than any bit of foul language. We must not think that surface level tinkering will make these movies "safe." There is real danger that we will be ingesting poison with our popcorn.

The e-mail also states:

Marc Shmuger, vice chairman of Universal Pictures, said the Christian audience is "a well-formed community, it's identifiable, it has very specific tastes and preferences and is therefore a group that can be located and directly marketed to."

According to Mr. Shmuger, we are now seen as a valuable target audience. I am not against watching movies, but you must know that when marketing is directed at you, it is an attempt at manipulation. They don't just want to satisfy the appetite you already have, they want to create new ones so that they can fill those as well. Our satisfaction must come from Christ, not from any form of entertainment. So enjoy your movies this summer and beyond, but please, as good Christian apologists, keep your mind engaged and look beyond the surface at the theme the movie conveys. Analyze it in the light of Scripture. Only then will you be able to sort the popcorn from the poison.