"In Films, Evangelicals are noticed as
taking a new approach to dealing with pop culture"
Byron Spradlin, president
of Artists in Christian Testimony Int'l.
December 26, 2005
I’m convinced
more than ever before that film is probably one of the most powerful
“values-laden” art forms impacting Metro-culture today throughout the
world. Therefore, Christians can’t ignore film. And, as the following
New York Times article points out, Christians are taking some new action
in trying to more rightly “engage” culture in ways that might keep the
“salt & light” of biblical perspective on the table.
Artists in Christian Testimony Int'l has a few of its staff
involved in Film in several ways. But we need more of them.
I’m
clearly convinced the Church can do more to get ‘integrated real
Christians’ involved in film, starting with getting thousands of our Jr.
and Sr. High kids involved in shooting mini-DV documentaries of their
church’s youth group activities. These students can learn to tell their
stories through the film medium … with clear attempts to grid those
stories through a biblical perspective. Maybe then, over the next
twenty years, we’ll see more integrated Christians, operating out of a
substantive biblical worldview, functioning in the elite film community,
as well as moving into non-typical but innovative missionary efforts
throughout the film centers of world [India, New Zealand, France, the UK
and other places].
Concerning the following article, let it challenge you to at least do
two things: 1) stay more current—and thinking-praying in the
process—about the films that are coming out; and 2) look to increase
conversation from a biblical worldview about these films, especially
with Christian students, since students are the ones who are marinating
themselves in this genre. They need to be increasingly challenged to
interactively relate the Bible’s perspective on life and living with the
“perspectives” [attitudes, values & belief systems] they are presented
[and in the process are embracing] through the movies they are watching.
“The
spiritual man makes judgments about all things, … ‘For who has known the
mind of the Lord that he may instruct HIM?’ But we have the mind
of Christ’ ” (NIV Emphasis mine.)
The following
article is from the NY Times Dec. 26, 2005
By JOHN LELAND
Like other
reviewers of "Brokeback Mountain," Steven Isaac was impressed by the
quality of the filmmaking. But for Mr. Isaac, who reviews movies for the
conservative Christian organization Focus on the Family, the movie,
about a love affair between two male ranch hands, posed other critical
challenges. "When Ang Lee brings his considerable talents to a film that
promotes homosexuality, which I believe personally hurts our culture,
you get a movie that sells its message more effectively than one by
someone less talented," Mr. Isaac said in a telephone interview. In a
review that acknowledged the film's virtues, published on the Focus on
the Family Web site
pluggedinonline.com, he objected that it portrayed the
characters' tribulations as consequences of an intolerant society rather
than of "the destructiveness of acting on homosexual temptations."
"Brokeback
Mountain" has received overwhelming acclaim from mainstream critics, but
elicited a different reaction from conservative Christian media:
respectful and often laudatory, but finding biblical fault with the
film's content.
As the Office
for Film and Broadcasting of the United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops put it, "While the actions of Jack and Ennis" - the film's
cowboy lovers - "cannot be endorsed, the universal themes of love and
loss ring true." The office originally rated the movie "L," for limited,
signaling that it was suitable for adults who can evaluate it from a
Catholic moral perspective. But it changed the rating to "O," for
offensive, so readers would not think the movie's treatment of
homosexuality was "an acceptable Catholic moral position, which it is
not," said Msgr. Francis Maniscalco, director of communications for the
bishops' conference.
This critical
ambivalence represents a change in the way conservative Christians
engage popular culture, said Robert Johnston, a professor of theology
and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary, an evangelical institution,
in Pasadena, Calif. Until recently, he said, Christian groups would have
ignored a sexually explicit movie like "Brokeback Mountain" except to
protest it.
"Ten years
ago, conservatives would say 'Schindler's List' should not be shown
because of its nudity," said Professor Johnston, adding that he had not
yet seen "Brokeback Mountain." "But just as in the wider culture,
evangelicals as a group are becoming more sophisticated in their
interaction with popular culture. There's been a recognition within the
evangelical community that movies have become a primary means, perhaps
the primary means, of telling our culture's stories. For this reason,
evangelicals have become much more open to good stories, artfully told,
but they also want stories whose values they can affirm or understand."
Reflecting
this new approach, Christian media have increased their cultural
coverage and influence lately. The mainstream evangelical magazine
Christianity Today last year started
Christianitytodaymovies.com
to coincide with the release of
Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ." The site gets 125,000 visitors a
month.
HollywoodJesus.com, which has not yet reviewed "Brokeback
Mountain," gets one million visitors a month, said its founder, David
Bruce, a former Protestant minister who has also worked in television
and publishing. Focus on the Family, which started reviewing movies in
1990, gets 800,000 monthly visitors to
pluggedinonline.com, and 50,000 see the magazine in print, a
spokeswoman said.
Like their
secular counterparts, Christian critics are diverse in their judgments.
Most laud the semi-allegorical "Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the
Witch and the Wardrobe," based on the spiritually infused novels by C.
S. Lewis, as well as tales of salvation like "The Shawshank Redemption,"
"The Last Samurai" or the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, which many
pastors cite in sermons. But many also praise wholesome fluff like
"Serenity" or serious fare like "2001: A Space Odyssey," which appears
on the Vatican's 1995 list of 45 great films for its blend of "science
fiction and metaphysical poetry."
At Decent
Films Guide (decentfilms.com)
an independent Roman Catholic site that gave "Brokeback Mountain" three
and a half stars for "artistic-entertainment value" and an "F" for
"overall recommendability," Steven D. Greydanus praises the latest Harry
Potter movie. The more conservative “MovieGuide”, which runs on
syndicated television, radio and online at
movieguide.org,
warns, "Protect your children from the evil occult power of Harry
Potter."
The
willingness to engage controversial movies does not always sit well with
readers. Mark Moring, managing editor of
Christianitytodaymovies.com, said many of his readers
thought the magazine should ignore movies with objectionable sexual or
moral content. Last year, the site favorably reviewed "Vera Drake,"
about a British woman who secretly helps terminate unwanted pregnancies,
saying that it "portrays immoral behavior and leaves us to make up our
minds about the film." While Mr. Moring said many readers objected to a
Christian publication endorsing a movie that showed abortion in a
positive light, the site named "Vera Drake" as one of the Top 10 movies
of 2004, a list headed by "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." ("The
Passion of the Christ" did not make the list, but was named one of the
year's Ten Most Redeeming Films.)
With "Brokeback
Mountain," Mr. Moring said, "My first inclination was, hey, this would
be an easy one to ignore. It's such a hot button issue for our readers.
But if our mission statement is to help Christian moviegoers make
discerning choices, the only way we can do that is to review movies that
some might be uncomfortable with."
Still, he
advised the reviewer, Lisa Ann Cockrel, to be careful about appearing to
endorse homosexuality. And he appended an editor's note to her generally
positive review: "As for the 3-star rating, that is only in reference to
the quality of the filmmaking, the acting, the cinematography, etc. It
is not a 'recommendation' to see the film, nor is it a rating of the
'moral acceptability' of the subject matter."
At
movieguide.org,
a Web site dedicated to "redeeming the values of the mass media
according to biblical principles," the movie merited no such critical
somersaults. In the words of the reviewer, Tom Snyder, it is "too long
and at times twisted, laughable, frustrating, sadomasochistic, plotless
and boring." The organization, which has been reviewing movies since
1985, rated the film "abhorrent," a designation it shares with "Syriana,"
"Rent" and "Breakfast on Pluto." "I think it has a pernicious effect on
society," said Mr. Snyder, who has a doctorate in film studies from
Northwestern University. "Hollywood projects a leftist homosexual
agenda, which goes along with radical feminism, and a misunderstanding
of what Christianity teaches."
So far the
religious reaction to "Brokeback Mountain" has been limited to the
review pages. In a season where some Christian organizations are
decrying a "war on Christmas," and the American Family Association
threatened to boycott of the Ford Motor Company because it advertises in
gay magazines, there has been little organized outcry around "Brokeback
Mountain." This too represents a growing sophistication in the way
conservative Christian groups engage the popular culture, said Stuart
Shepard, managing editor of Focus on the Family's daily e-mail news
updates, which go out to 115,000 subscribers. "We're not going to go out
and protest it because it would probably play into the marketing plans
of the producers," he said. "They'd say, the Christian right is opposed
to this movie, so you really, really, really want to see it."
He pointed to
the 1988 protests of "The Last Temptation of Christ" over its depiction
of a sexual Jesus, as well as Focus on the Family's more recent
criticisms of the cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants," both of which
resulted in lots of publicity but little practical gains, he said. "We
learned from 'Last Temptation of Christ' that if it wasn't for the
protest, the film wouldn't be remembered today," Mr. Shepard said. "Our
expectation is 'Brokeback Mountain' won't do as well in the heartland,
but protest would bump that up."