CINDERELLA ALWAYS FINDS HER FELLA

We may as well be honest: Christian fiction and Christian movies are boring, predictable, preachy, simplistic, and cliche-ridden. I'll bet that when you bought your ticket to see "Fireproof," you knew the ending. It was like seeing the sermon title in the bulletin last Sunday; once you saw it, you knew the end from the beginning of the sermon. (Sermon titles normally give the sermon away.) The only suspense was in how long it would take the pastor to finish.

The predictable element is that the main character will become a Christian. The simplistic element is that, once he does, all, everything in his life (especially his marriage) will go well, very well, even exceptional. The rest of his life will be a non-stop happily ever after. Once he's "born again," "walks the aisle," "prays," "invites Jesus into his heart," and "makes God his co-pilot" (the cliches), his struggles are over, washed away like pollen in a spring shower.

The preachy, stilted dialogue makes Pollyanna look a curmudgeon. When a Christian enters the drama, he's all wise, all knowing, kind, and a benevolent sweet saint. He speaks in Saccharine; his tones are stained glass; he's conquered all his problems and hasn't battled them since his one-and-done victory. He never shows a flash of anger, never sins or thinks a bad thought. The unbeliever to whom he witnesses is always "gloriously saved" (another cliche) by the end of the movie.

THOSE ORANGE BOOKS

Back in the day, they stocked my church library with biographies for kids about famous Christians. They had orange covers and one other thing--in the boyhood of the famous Christian, the book never related anything wrong, any personal difficulty, any character flaw, any struggle the young ward may have had. No. He was perfect all the time, every time.

I know why I quit reading them; they weren't real life. The "biography" was fiction disguised as non-fiction. The reader would almost expect the young lad to encounter water and walk on it. Our hero overcame everything. I was too young to know what was wrong with the "orange book biographies," but after a while I lost interest. They bored me, but I didn't know why.

CINDERELLA FINDS HER FELLA

I'm told that in Christian fiction for young females, the typical heroine pines and prays for a mate and when finally she stands at the altar of holy matrimony, her life is perfect; marriage has solved all her problems. Our Christian Cinderella lives happily ever after. The glass slipper has done its work. It's all so formulaic, so predictable, so cliche, and so boring.

BUT IT GOES DEEPER THAN THAT

There's a deeper problem with all of this Christian fiction--the greatest fiction of them all. It promotes the mindset that if we can just get 51% of the American people to see "The Passion of the Christ," we can save the nation. If we can just get people to see "Fireproof," we could save all marriages. If we could just get 51% of the people into the stadium to hear Billy Graham, we'd deliver America from its moral cesspool. If we can only get 51% of American men to attend Promise Keepers or a Bill Gothard Seminar or the latest fad conclave, all will be well. If we can just get that Christian candidate into the White House for four years, we'll "take this country back," we'll "capture America for Christ." (More cliches)

THE POINT WE'VE COME TO

We want to show the world that we've got our own stuff too, just like the world. We've got our own actors, our own movies, our own books, our own newscasts, our own magazines, our own Yellow Pages, our own art, our own jewelry, our own plumbers, our own rap music. We're trying to show the world that our stuff is as good as their stuff.

And therein is the problem. Fads blow through the Christian world, just as they do the world. These fads constantly let us down because none of those things fulfill the promises they make to us. We leave the seminars, the theaters, we put down the books and then go out to live our lives in a fallen world, a world, which, because of the fall, just won't "work." Yet the movies and the books make it all sound so simple.

And therein lies the biggest problem of them all--all this Christian stuff becomes our latest Baal that replaces Christ with methods, techniques, and schemes. 
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Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, the author of Truthspeak and his new book, The Gospel of Grace and Truth: A Theology of Grace from the Gospel of John," both available on Amazon.com. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing to Dr. Halsey at michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

Comments may be addressed to michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net.

If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.

Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM at the above address. You'll be glad you did.

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org

Also:

Biblical Ministries, Inc.
C/O Dr. Richard Grubbs
P. O. Box 64582
Lubbock, TX 79464-4582