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.

Twisting Jesus

Christians, out of everyone, should know that invoking the name of Jesus is a lightning rod for controversy. Some claim that He was a good man who was, after His death, deified by weak people. Others, like myself, believe that He was and is the Son of God. In today's politically charged culture most parts of the political spectrum would be happy to claim Jesus as one of their own. Here in Huntington a billboard on 3rd Avenue boldy proclaims "Democrats are Christians, Too!!" And many democrats are Christians. Republicans certainly have no monopoly on Christian belief.

Involving Jesus in political debates often involves the twisting of what Jesus actually believed. In the context of the debate about homosexuality, for instance, many whose sympathies lie with the gay rights movement point to Jesus' progressive attitudes. For instance, they will often say that they are more in line with the spirit of Jesus' actions because He lambasted the religious hypocrites (i.e. conservatives) and elevated the status of women. He was loving and caring toward the outcasts of society. This plainly distorts Jesus' message.

Jesus did indeed elevate the status of women, and He did criticize religious hypocrites, but He also did a number of things many "progressive" people would dislike. For instance, He spoke a great deal about the reality of hell. No single person in the New Testament spoke more on Hell than Jesus. Also, Jesus was a religious exclusivist. He did not think that sincerely believing in a way to heaven other than Himself could secure anyone's salvation. Also, people must keep in mind that when Jesus spent time with the "outcasts of society" He did so in order to bring them to repentance. In other words, He wanted them to leave behind the very things that made them "outcasts." That paints a different picture than many more liberal people would want us to believe.

Please do not think that by this short essay I mean to indicate that conservatives are perfectly in line with Jesus' teachings. I think this is false as well. What I think we should do is, rather than trying to co-opt Jesus for our political agendas, we should strive to understand what He was saying in His own context. He was a faithful Jew who believed firmly in what we now call the Old Testament and His so-called "progressive" convictions grew out of that, not a general desire for a more tolerant society. In the same way, we as Christians must hold our culture up to the Bible and reject all that does not fit with what it says. Be ruthless!! I have heard it said and believe that the church is most effective when it is least like the culture.