Why Christians Don't Like Christian Movies

In this week’s edition of Entertainment Weekly, Josh Rottenberg contributed the article “Movies, Money and God” that examines the tumultuous relationship between Hollywood and Christianity. Besides being a very enjoyable read that did a great job of walking the very thin line between the two sides, it also got me thinking: “Why don’t Christians (and non-Christians, too, for that matter) like Christian movies?”

Before “The Passion of the Christ” Christianity seemed to be nothing more than a proverbial thorn in the side of Hollywood; an entity that seemed to do nothing but protest and hinder their creative flow. Then “The Passion” happened and $370 million later Hollywood was singing a new tune. As Jerry B. Jenkins (co-author of the “Left Behind” series) said in Rottenberg’s article “Hollywood started calling, saying ‘what have you got? Anything Christian?’” Hollywood had a new meal ticket in Christianity – more specifically the Church – and wanted to capitalize on it ASAP. Fox movie studios developed a new studio for films of faith (cleverly called “Fox Faith”), other studios began greenlighting films with Christian themes or elements of faith and churches began being inundated with resources and invitations from Hollywood to screen their new movies hoping these churches would sign on and endorse the films (much like they did for “Passion”).

So, what’s the problem? To date only “The Passion” and the two “Chronicles of Narnia” movies have had much financial success (though “Prince Caspian” did not fair as well as its predecessor). “Fireproof” did well considering it only cost $1 million to make (it made $33 million in theaters – and I have no idea how much it’s made from its spinoff books or on DVD). Other hopeful films, however, have bombed (or at least brought in far less than was anticipated): “The Nativity” ($36 million), “Evan Almighty” ($100 million), “Amazing Grace” ($32 million) and a slew of straight-to-DVD titles. Why has there been very little success to date with Hollywood’s new found religious zeal (or zeal for religious people)? Why are Christians (myself included) not lining up in droves to see all these faith films?

There are several reasons:

1. Probably the biggest reason: the production, writing, stories, etc. are bland, poorly done and uninteresting. It is sort of the same thing for the comic book industry. It’s not that comic book fans do not want to see their favorite heroes brought to the big screen, but they don’t want to see their favorite comics turned into cheese. “Iron Man,” “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight” proved that comic book movies can be critically applauded and major box office draws. The same thing went for “The Passion” in that Mel Gibson told the story that changed the history of the world creatively, respectfully, artistically and (most importantly) accurately.
2. Hollywood’s love affair with Christianity is disingenuous. Many of the studios have very little to no interest in the subject matter being offered – they simply want more money.
3. Christians (especially pastors like me) feel used by Hollywood. It’s almost as if they want us to be their spiritual, cinematic pimps to push films that are, often times, terrible simply because they have some element of faith in it.
4. The believability of those associated with the film play a role in how well it is received. If the cast, crew or production company only seems to be concerned with the art of the story and/or do not seem to believe in the Truth of the story they are telling, Christian audiences typically do not respond well. After all, the stories they are telling are not myths or fables – they are real events that reveal the Truth of God; if the people telling the story do not know that or believe that story it seems unlikely they will be able to tell it well. “The Nativity” is probably one of the best examples of this. Besides the fact that the movie was based off of home Christmas decoration and not the Bible (the “nativity” scene in the end NEVER happened!) there were several issues with the believability of its cast, production crew and company: (1) the director Catherine Hardwicke’s first big splash in Hollywood was with the controversial, stomach churning story “Thirteen” that tells the graphic story of a teenage girl’s fall into the world of sex, drugs, alcohol and self-mutilation. (2) 16 year old star Keisha Castle-Hughes (Mary in the movie) ended up pregnant two months before the release of the film. (3) the production company that released this film is the one behind such hits as “Wedding Crashers,” “Harold and Kumar,” “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” and “Freddy vs. Jason.”
5. Many Christian or faith films lack substance (those that have Christian themes, not the Bible story movies like “The Passion”). Instead of producing a film that holds true to loving God first and then loving neighbor, many faith films seem to be more Oprah-esque than Biblical. One noteworthy example is “Evan Almighty”: all it was was a bumper sticker told in an hour and a half movie (“Act of Random Kindness” – A.R.K.). It completely misrepresented the story of the Ark and misspoke God’s redemptive message. Instead of telling the Ark Narrative correctly it reduced it to a stupid catchphrase and made it pure cheese.

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