Faith Films

So since we watched some pretty great faith-based films, some like Prince of Egypt I have seen before and it was great to revisit them, while others like The Apostle have really peaked my interest and I will definitely be checking them out. After watching quality faith films, it got me thinking: If these films get it right then why do so many Christian filmmakers get it wrong. So I’m going to give a few of my thoughts on why.

The first problem is that with the mentality of many Christians creating media or art is, as I heard someone once put it, “with Christians, it’s not enough for the media to just be Christian, it has to be Christian enough.” For many Christian filmmakers, they feel the need to make sure their films are always shouting the gospel message as much as they can, because if it is in any way even slightly difficult to see or takes anything more than 30 seconds of thought, then that means they are not doing their job right. While I understand this train of thought, as Christians are called to proclaim the gospel clearly and make disciplines, the problem is that the art of subtlety becomes lost. These filmmakers often forget that a subtle message or theme is often a more effective way of getting people to deeply rethink how they view the world. As a result, many Christian films come off as in-your-face preachy, insulting the audience’s intelligence and only driving people away instead of bringing them to God.

Another thing is that there is often an Us vs. Them mentality in these films. They often treat Christians as completely good and non-Christians as completely bad. While, yes, as Christians we are supposed to be separate in how we live from the ways of the world, that doesn’t mean we should treat non-believers as the ultimate enemy. The thing is, all of us, every single person in the world, are sinners and in need of a saving relationship with Christ. If anything, all of humanity is the bad guy because we’ve all sinned and rebelled against God, and the only good guy is God because he is the only one that is completely righteous. So instead of alienating people by telling them they are the bad guys and they need come and join the good guys, the Christians, what Christian filmmakers really need to be doing is getting all people (both Christians and non-Christians) thinking about their lives and the fact that they cannot fix themselves, and point them in the direction of God (while not forcing it upon them) because he is the only one who can truly fix people’s lives and save them.