I’ve never been a Christian, but I would propose an additional reason, not dissimilar to the second: in music and film genres that are already suspect, veering off-message for even a moment – even just to develop the characters as people or suchlike – makes it secular, and if it’s not of God, it’s of the Devil. If the Devil literally exists as an actual sentient and malevolent individual, who is trying to get people to abandon God, by trickery if need be, it would be just like him to wrap up his message in something superficially Godly.
At least, that’s my hypothesis for why Christian rock is so heavy-handed, but I think it can apply to movies.
I think part of the issue is that a lot of “Christian media” is actually “low-budget” media. If quality work is there, it makes a difference.
I may mock Evanescence as a pretentious Xtian-goth band, but they were very successful, and had some catchy stuff; and the same goes for a lot of “country” music that’s rooted in cultural Christianity without trying to be “worship” or use Xtianity as a gimmick.
At the church I used to attend, they had a Sunday School class - primarily aimed at high schoolers but it drew a lot of adults also - called “Film School.” Usually each movie was view over two or three one-hour classes. The first week, the teacher would give a short introduction to the movie - the historical context (if it was a historical movie), the themes to watch for, any interesting production notes, etc. The rest of week 1 and 2 (and 3 if necessary) was used to watch the movie, and then there was discussion afterwards about the themes of the movie and particularly, how the message(s) in the movie relate to (or conflict with) the Gospel message.
Sometimes the movies contained overtly religious themes - Ben Hur, Luther, The Mission, Beckett. More often, they were not overt but dealt with issues such as good vs. evil, sacrifice, and forgiveness (they watched a lot of superhero movies and other recent or classic blockbusters).
What I appreciated is that they explored “secular” media and examined it from a Christian perspective. They would compare/contrast it with the gospel message. It accomplished several things for these high school students:
It taught them to engage with the culture, not insulate themselves from it.
It taught them to think critically about the media they consume
It taught them to think critically about their own faith, what they believe and what it means and how it relates to the world.
Are Tyler Perry films included in this Christian movie genre? Because they should be, but they’re not necessarily the same level of shittiness as a Kirk Cameron movie (not saying they’re high art, either :))
Amazing Grace is recent, good, and could plausibly qualify as a Christian movie. (I have no idea whether the filmmakers set out to convey a religious message, but it is certainly a positive portrayal of a protagonist who is an evangelical Christian, and whose political activism is deeply rooted in his faith.)
Of course, it’s set in the late 18th century, and the political cause in question is campaigning against the slave trade. Ah, for the days when evangelical Christian politics meant being a wild-eyed left-wing social justice warrior…
I regard “Christian” as used in these sorts of works, be it “Christian movies,” “Christian books,” or “Christian music,” almost as a sort of genre term. It doesn’t strictly mean “having to do with Christianity,” so much as “created to appeal to a particular audience segment”–in this case, a very specific strain of Evangelical Christianity. Like any genre, it has its conventions. The conventions of this sort of Christian entertainment tend to be things like an avoidance of even the mildest of coarse language, absolutely no non-marital sex, foregrounding of the Christian message above all other considerations, and things like that.
It’s ironic, in a way. As Simplicio points out, some of the greatest art and literature in the world has religious themes. I’m reminded of a class I took in college on Theology in Literature–about, as you may have guessed from the name, the use of religious themes in literary works. We did not read these sort of “Christian books” in that class.
We read things like Kazantzakis’s Last Temptation of Christ, Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Illyich, Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, C.S. Lewis’s Perelandra, and the “Grand Inquisitor” section of Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov. All of them, in one way or another, novels about Christianity. None of them liable to be found in your average Christian bookstore–with the possible exception of C.S. Lewis. Likewise, go to the Christian music section of your local music store. You are unlikely to find things like Bach’s St. Matthew Passion or Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.
By the same token, there are any number of fine movies with Christian themes–movies as diverse as The Blind Side, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Mission, Chariots of Fire, and Life of Brian. But that’s not what people tend to mean when they speak of “Christian movies.” I suppose, in its way, this sort of genre labeling is useful for its target audience. On the other hand, it does seem to shut out a lot of really good work that doesn’t fit into its rather narrow strictures.
Awhile back I saw a video review of Sting: A Moment of Truth, a Christian biopic about the pro wrestler Sting and his becoming a born-again in the '90s, that elucidated a big problem with Christian cinema. In real life, Sting’s personal life was a mess before he found religion - he was doing drugs, sleeping around, and his wife had left him due to those and other problems. The movie, however, shows you none of this - Sting is portrayed as a straightedge, stand-up guy even before his conversion, and while they mention his wife leaving him, it happens via off-camera narration of a dear John letter in which she still describes him as a good man and a perfect father.
The reviewers write it up to the apparent belief in Christian media that portraying an activity is the same thing as endorsing it - you can’t show pre-conversion Sting doing drugs and enjoying himself at the time, even if he later repudiates that lifestyle, because merely acknowledging it implies that doing drugs is OK and fun. They compare this to the backlash against media like D&D, which is evil simply because it portrays demons and black magic, or to Harry Potter, which is evil simply because it depicts a world where ‘witches’ exist.
In the end, this sanitizing effect neuters the movie and ends up being counterproductive to its message - the non-Christian watching isn’t going to understand why Sting needed to be saved because it seems like his life was just fine without God in it, and to the Christian who’s watching there’s no conflict and no suspense because he doesn’t have anything to struggle with on his path to salvation.
When I was a teenager back in the 70s I was a big fan of the rock band Kansas. It wasn’t until years later, listening to their music as an adult, that I realized they were a “Christian” rock band, in that a lot of their music had a spiritual theme, but they didn’t beat you over the head with it.
Hell, for that matter, Black Sabbath is a Christian band if you stop to pay attention to the lyrics, especially in songs like “After Forever” and “Lord of This World”.
I don’t really think it’s being low-budget that’s the problem. I don’t have much experience with “Christian” movies, but I suspect that what Simplicio said in Post #8 above is right on target.
Nice handwave, but a lot of mainstream movies aren’t dreck. Can you name some movies made by Christian production companies and aimed for Christian audiences that aren’t dreck?
Some people believe that this is the greatest thrash metal album, period. Sadly, a few years later, the singer had a complete mental breakdown and among other things renounced his faith.
It’s called “Human Sacrifice” and the band is called Vengeance Rising. I had it on cassette when I was in college, and was blasting it one day when my roommate was out and she was quite shocked to walk in and hear me listening to something like this.
In the early 1990s, I was a big fan of a power trio called King’s X that never achieved the success they deserved. Their lyrics were also spiritual without being overtly Christian.
Their albums were pulled from many Christian bookstores when the singer revealed that he is gay. :rolleyes:
Like others have said, it depends on what you mean by “Christian movies”. There are some meant solely for evangelism, and those almost always suck. But there are also movies made by Christians to showcase Christian themes in some way and there are some gems in that basket. I particularly love The Tree of Life by Terrance Malik.
Musically (since we have gone there), once again as for non-evangelism purposed music, the work of Sufjan Stevens is quite good.
